Sintering department

In this department Mr. Baloch gives us valuable info. about the sintering plant controlled
by PLC which works as an interface between the DCS and weighing system.

Sinter is a material used in IMD(Iron Making Department) for the extraction of iron from
m iron ore. It consist of
1. Dolomite
2. Manganese
3. Limestone
4. Moisture

The correct quantity of these materials is very important for pure making of sinter so that
it can help in extracting more and more iron and to increase production. So this plant is
mostly done automation based for that purpose. Normally 2400-2500 ton material is
present in the stock and daily 2-3 times the bin is filled which supplies the Weighing
hopper. There load cells are connected and by the help of control system the material is
inserted.

The automation system consist of the main 3 pillars

1. DCS System
2. Weighing System
3. PLC System

DCS (Digital Control System)

Here this DCS system is for the SIEMENS S5 PLC. Nowadays HMI(Human Machine
Interface is used for interfacing with PLC as in the IMD Depart. This system is used to
give input to the plc so that it gives the signal to the weighing system which material to
put and in which quantity. It displays the status of the whole sintering plant and the
quantity of material present as well as the status of the correct amount of material used.
The quantity of moisture required by the material before heating etc. This system works
as a computerized manager which is watching and ordering all the actions of the plant.
Since in the making of the ore limited quantity of material is used according to demand
so this system orders or give signal to the Weighing system to supply that quantity of
material. And after that required quantity is supplied then orders the plc to stop that
action. Not only it performs this action but also it monitors all the operations and
procedures required in the formation of sinter. And wherever the fault occurs then alerts
the management to perform action.

Weighing System.
Here in sintering Depart the Weighing System is of a German company SCHENCK and
is used here for giving correct and accurate amount of input of the materials used in the
preparation of sinter. This weighing system is purely based on automation and therefore it
helps in getting more productions than done by labor force. This weighing system is
PID(Proportional Integrator and Differentiator) controlled through controller. It takes
input from PLC through DCS that which material to be entered by the Weighing Hopper
and then with the help of PID controller opens the face of the hopper till the required
quantity is achieved. After achieving the required set point, the controller then sends the
feed back signal to the DCS system which orders the PLC to switch off the hopper. Also
after filling if the level of material gets below the set point then gives the signal to the
DCS System to refill the hopper. Here this is not done by automation but manually. There
are 24 weighing system in this plant and connected in groups of 12 and in one group it is
divided in 3 feeders each so as to monitor easily its working, operation and maintenance.
Then the group controller then performs communication of all the 24 weighing systems
with the PLC and DCS.
The weighing system has the following electronic cards connected.
1. System Card
This works here as the CPU. Its programming is done by SCHENCK and
it is for every feeder in each group. Here the programming is PID
controlled so in short it works as a PID controller.

2. I/O Card
Here this card receives input from the PLC through switching and then
perform the above action of supplying the material. Here just switching
done by PLC and output is given in the form of material dropped by the
hopper and after the set point is achieved and material reqd. is inserted
then the PID controller gives the feedback back to the DCS to stop the
action.

PID Controller:
The PID controller works on the basis of set point that if the controller achieves the reqd.
set point then it gives the feedback signal to perform action. Here this controller is used
to control the weighing system, for how much time to turn the hopper on and when the
level of the material in the hopper gets below the set point then to turn on the alarm to
refill the hopper

PLC(Programmable Logic Control).

PLC System here is the backbone of this Sintering plant and is the sole responsible for
controlling the plant through automation. Here SIEMENS S5 PLC is used having CPU
945 of series 115u. It consist of
1. 1 Power Supply
2. 1 CPU Module
3. 1 Communication Module (DCS)
4. 2 Communication Module (Weighing System)
5. Master-slave Interface cards
6. I/O Cards

The CPU Module here has the PLC programming with is done in STL (Statement
List) which is done in DOS mode having programming in coding but not in block format.
If any error occur in this programming or fault occur then the DCS system detects where
is the fault and by having flags in the PLC programming, the fault in the programming is
reached and fault removed.

Communication with DCS is done by the DCS Comm. Module and this module
receives all the orders of performing the required switching action.

Comm. With Weighing system is done by the Weighing system comm.. module.
Through this module the orders of DCS of entering the material is conveyed to W.S and it
perform the action required by DCS through switching of 220V Relay. It involves
opening and closing of hopper mouth.

Not only it perform the above tasks of inserting material but also it is used to run
motors according to different time intervals in the plant. For this purpose the master plc is
not placed in the main plant but slave plc are connected which are connected to the
master plc. Interface cards can only be placed in the master plc and slave programming is
also done in the same. 1 Interface cards can control 2 slaves. The many slaves are
connected in plant for more and more automation the more these cards are connected.
Also there is another master connected in the plant beside the DCS system which conveys
this message to the master connected in the Weighing System to perform that task. Both
these are connected through the comm. Module.

A total of 750 I/O Cards which are performing switching action are connected in
the plant. In 1 I/O Card 32 I/O Slots are present in 1 Master and 8 I/O are present in 1
slave. These are responsible to run the whole plant not stop 24 hours. Redundant or
backup PLC is also used as a backup or as inverter to work if master fails.

PLC Advantage.
1. It saves time
2. It reduces man power.
3. It increases production
4. Faults are reduced in operation with them