Mark E. Coleman
Operators within the metals industry are always striving to optimise the performance of their production
facilities, in an effort to meet the demand of the industry and reduce their costs in order to
generate sustainable economic benefit and maintain positions as leaders in their markets. Solutions
providers seek to use their knowledge, expertise and technologies to transform production processes,
from their experience in the ferrous and non-ferrous metals industries to deliver transforming
materials handling and process control solutions.
Industrial production processes require an accurate, stable and consistent feed of raw materials to
function efficiently. Generally, the more accurate and consistent the raw material feed, the more
stable the process reaction, often with a corresponding increase in efficiency and throughput and
improved metal quality. A stable process can also reduce the loading on downstream equipment.
From mine to refinery, environmentally supportive and sustainable solutions have enabled materials
to be charged, inventory to be controlled and processes to be transformed. This paper will discuss
and highlight with examples the ways in which solutions improve performance, delivering tight
temperature and metal control, improved environmental and operational performance and reduced
labour requirements redefining processes.
Solutions screening, wet transfer, transport, fuelling, dry transfer, improving furnaces: Bath, Blast,
Shaft, TSL, QSL, PS Converter, Anode, and Fumers, EAF/SAF, Plasma. Weighing solutions delivering
robust inventory and improving operator optimization.
In today’s challenging economic environment the systems used for every stage of production from
mine to market are important. Process environments demand high availability and long-term reliability.
Improved environmental performance, tighter control enables the producer to improve economic
performance and optimize manpower. This paper discusses some of the solutions delivered
showing the truth of Schenck Process Solutions claim that ‘we make processes work’.