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Steel Industry

CMI Industry

Standard solution for the automation of stainless steel pickling lines

The company

CMI UVK GmbH, based in Montabaur, is part of the international CMI Group and has been an expert in the creation of plants in the steel industry around the world for 30 years. Around 70 employees are involved in the planning of plants for metalworking. Their wealth of experience is based on working at the customer's site. On the one hand, technicians supervise the erection and commissioning of the plants and, on the other hand, the employees of the individual branches know the respective country-specific requirements and conditions. CMI UVK GmbH plans two to three plants a year and carries out a virtual check before commissioning them.

Task and solution

In the production of steel sheets and strips, their subsequent cleaning plays an important role: After heating and hot rolling of the slabs, cold rolling follows so that sheets and strips can be rolled out millimeter-thin. Before these are wound onto coils, they must be cleaned, because impurities are produced both during storage of the steel and during hot rolling. During storage, deposits occur due to oxidation of the steel. During hot rolling, the heat as well as the pressure acting on the steel lead to deposits on the surface. The impurities in the form of metal oxides must be removed by an acid treatment known as pickling. In this process, the deposits are etched away by means of acid baths or spraying on acid. The challenge lies in the exact dosing of the acid so that the product quality is maintained on the one hand and as little energy and raw materials as possible are consumed on the other. Numerous parameters such as acid dosing and belt control must be permanently monitored - a task for reliable visualization software.

In the cooperation with CMI UVK GmbH, focus integrated functions via C and VBS scripts into the visualization software in addition to the comprehensive basic version, for example for complicated calculations and evaluations. This resulted in a new generation of pickling lines: Based on Siemens automation components, all process-relevant data of the steel is now recorded by measurement and at the same time further data is read out from a product database. From this information, software developed by focus calculates the optimum process parameters, above all the required dosing quantities of the respective acids. This ensures product quality, prevents over-pickling and reduces chemical consumption. In addition, the visualization software provides all relevant pickling values at any time by means of status overviews of the entire plant, all drives and all input values, as well as numerous detailed images. It is also possible to enter values to adjust the processes. Furthermore, WinCC supports numerous interfaces so that communication with the individual modules of a rolling mill is guaranteed. Furthermore, the SCADA system fulfills tasks for maintenance and servicing and offers functions for report generation and trend calculation. Last but not least, a worldwide uniform visualization with standardized user interface in the respective national language ensures higher planning reliability as well as faster commissioning.

Customer benefits

  • use of chemicals reduced by 20%
  • worldwide standardized operation
  • integrated maintenance management