Firing Up The Furnace

09 December 2009

After five and a half years of planning and two million man hours from more than 3,000 workers, the reline of BlueScope Steel's No. 5 Blast Furnace at Port Kembla steelworks is complete and 'blown in'.

BlueScope Steel has two blast furnaces, No. 5 Blast Furnace commissioned in 1972 and No. 6 in 1996. Last relined in 1991, No. 5 Blast Furnace produces approximately 2.6 million tonnes of hot metal (iron) per year.

A reline is required every 15 to 20 years to replace the protective lining on the inside of the furnace. This ensures the structural integrity of the pressure-containing furnace shell is maintained.

Meticulous project planning and detailed construction plans prepared by the BlueScope Steel project team and the construction contractors, together with a dedicated and skilled workforce, enabled the reline to be completed on time, within budget and without compromising product supply to customers.

At a cost of A$372 million, the completion of the reline now makes BlueScope Steel's No. 5 Blast Furnace a world-class asset, capable of delivering sustained productivity.

There were a number of milestones achieved during the 213 day shutdown, one of which was the re-installation of the 143 tonne top section of the dust catcher, placed with extreme precision and without incident, using a 600 tonne crawler crane.

This was not in the original plan, but necessary when engineers discovered the diffuser, a large internal component, needed to be replaced.

The XLERPLATE® steel for the 15 metre high, 10 metre diameter, 50 tonne diffuser was rolled in a single shift at the Plate Mill, then cut, shaped and welded together by ABB Fabrication. Due to transport limitations it was fabricated in two halves, and transported under police escort to a site within the plant for welding, before being connected to the top of the dust catcher.

BlueScope Steel Chief Executive Australian & New Zealand Steel Manufacturing Businesses, Noel Cornish said the No. 5 Blast Furnace is one of the company's key assets and has served us well during its 18 year campaign.

"The reline project is a comprehensive overhaul of the facility and will restore the blast furnace to peak operating condition and secure our iron making capacity for many years to come," he said.

A blast furnace reline is one of the most comprehensive and labour intensive projects undertaken by a steel mill and requires an extensive quantity of materials.

Phil Shoard, Project Director said with all the activity and everything changing on a daily basis, it was like a new construction site every day.

"A major challenge was managing the interaction of over 20 different contractors on site and 1,100 people working within close proximity to each other at any one time on various levels," he said. Over 500 cooling stoves were replaced, with 5,000 new valves installed. Over 20,000 items have been welded to the shell of the furnace, and more than 2,000 tonnes of equipment in steel work installed.

Coupled with this, 210 kilometres of electrical cable requiring 45,000 electrical connections was installed.

In addition, over 4,000 tonnes of refractories were laid by hand, which is the equivalent of over four million house bricks. Re-bricking the Hot Blast Main took 50 workers around 30 days to complete. The castable refractories were held by 35,000 anchors which had to be welded in place.

All pressure tests were successfully completed at the end of June, giving the green light to commence the final commissioning stage and preparation for blow-in.

In addition to the reline, BlueScope Steel has upgraded ancillary plant and equipment including its Sinter Plant and the Australian Steel Mill Service (ASMS) slag granulation handling facility.

One of the significant achievements of the slag facility upgrade was completing 100,000 man hours injury free. Through its Priority on Safety Program, ASMS made contributions to the Prostate Cancer Foundation, Guide Dogs New South Wales/Australian Capital Territory and Lifeline South Coast, New South Wales. Between BlueScope Steel, contracting companies and workers, over $100,000 was donated to these, and other charities.