Reclamation and Fabrication Jobs in Pig Casting Machine of Blast Furnace Department - Visakhapatnam Steel Plant

The necessity of the study is to improve the machine reliability by doing the reclamation and fabrication jobs of equipment and structures, since the area is bound to have the heat, water and steam, the connected equipment and structures are getting damaged easily. To improve the machine hours and increase the production, there is a need to strengthen the equipment.

Some of the machines, components and its structure were identified as corroded, eroded and deformed. To repair these items, a lot of spares and time is required, but at the same time, production should not be lost. Therefore, reclamation and fabrication becomes a vital role for strengthening. The components required for reclamation are drive sprockets, chain links, rollers and pig guards. The important fabricated items are columns, floor beams, cooling headers, pipe lines and chutes, etc.

The condition of the machine parts were critically analyzed and cost benefit analysis was done to do the reclamation work. The reclamation work involved cleaning, pre heating, cutting, welding and machining. A lot of built up was done on eroded items by Arc welding method.

Selection of electrodes, method of welding and fabrication are main parts to improve the reliability of the pig casting machine and increase the production. Fabrication of the items within the specified norms through cutting, and welding of structures reduces the wastages, and saves cost. The outcome of this study is to save cost by reducing the wastage and improve the machine availability and productivity by means of reclamation and fabrication jobs.