The customer
Corus was acquired by India’s Tata Steel for $12bn (£6bn) in 2007, and at the time of writing, Tata Steel UK is Europe’s second largest steel producer. The plant supplies steel for construction, car manufacturing, packaging and mechanical engineering across the globe.
Tata Steel Strip Products UK, Port Talbot Works is an integrated steel production plant in Port Talbot, South Wales, and is capable of producing nearly 5 million metric tons of steel slab per annum. The majority of the slab is rolled on-site at Port Talbot and at the Newport Llanwern site to make a variety of steel strip products. The remainder is processed at other Tata Steel plants or sold in slab form.
Additions to Port Talbot Works include the continuous annealing processing line in 1998, caster 3 in 2005 and heavy-end developments from 2003-2006. Today, 3600 employees produce some 4.7 million metric tons of steel a year, roll about 3 million of it themselves and send the rest to Llanwern to roll.
ABB solution
The existing flatness measurement and automation control system were upgraded with the latest hardware to prolog the life of the mill including replacement of the existing Stressometer 4.0 to the newer 7.0 to provide optimal flatness performance and the state-of-the-art control system gives substantially improved variation during elongation.
Cooperation
The upgrade project was completed successfully due to the very close cooperation between ABB and Tata Steel Strip Products UK at Port Talbot Works. “There was good cooperation between the parties, ABB and Tata Steel UK, Port Talbot Works, with each party accommodating each others requirements,” says Carl Banfield, Area Electrical Engineer, Tata Steel Strip Products UK, at Port Talbot Works. “The perception from Tata is that ABB enjoyed working with the Tata engineers involved in the project. The Tata engineers certainly enjoyed working alongside ABB.”