The blowing in process of Bhilai Steel Plant’s Blast Furnace No 6 (BF 6) that had been taken down for Category I Capital Repair on April 6 was begun in the presence of SS Mohanty, Director technical, SAIl, S Chandrasekaran, CEO, Bhilai Steel Plant, YK Degan, Executive director (works), other executive directors and senior officials of the Plant.
The capital repair of the furnace that has a capacity to produce around 2,250 tonnes of hot metal per day was carried out in record time of 115 days, ahead of the planned repair period of 128 days, a statement of the plant informed here on Friday.The capital repair of BF 6 in Bhilai has been one of its kind in several ways, according to BF experts.
“Using a mechanised machine inside of the furnace shell to clean the hearth area of jammed coke, slag and metal after the furnace was put down for capital repair has been another process adopted for the first time in any SAIl plant,” the statement added.This was done upon suggestion and guidance of S Chandrasekaran, CEO who had observed the need for using mechanised machine during capital repair of another furnace carried out last year.
BF 6 is equipped with coal dust injection (CDI) facility. The replacement of cantilever coolers with more effective plate coolers would facilitate obtaining higher CDI rate, a techno-economic parameter of furnace operations. Higher CDI rate would result in reduced cost of hot metal production.