Automation's Profile

Automation has always been an on going process in Tata Steel Limited since its inception. Till the late eighties, however, the approach had largely been unstructured. When automation was realised as a strategic choice for the company, the Automation Division was created in 1990.The objective was to help the steel company achieve its mission to become the supplier of Worldclass goods and services by facilitating its migration to a higher technology platform and by providing comparable automation at affordable cost.

Automation Division, Tata Steel Limited is the central agency for design, development, integration and implementation of Process Automation for the steel company and is also an international supplier of high level Automation for the metal industry. It is situated in the premises of steel company at Jamshedpur.

History

The automation division was established in Tata Steel Limited as a choice of gearing for the future in the fastest possible way, to counter the inertia of size and diversity of a big Steel plant in the era of knowledge based economy, just at the onset of it. The efforts of automation in the plant were going on in the organisation all along, to keep pace with varying technology. But with the changing face of economy in the early nineties these efforts were not enough. A structured approach to the automation of steel plant was felt and hence a group dedicated to process control was formed in the then Computer Services division.

This group grew into the Automation division in May,1990 of which information technology was a part. The subsequent change in organisation design led to bifurcation in the Automation division, with Information technology services and Automation services being regarded as separate entities. Thus the automation division with its competencies set into the solution of real plant problems in real time was set up on 1st January 1992 with a total of ten professionals. During its period of existence, this division has executed a number of big and medium size projects in many areas resulting in saving of hundreds of crores of rupees for the steel plant. During this time, the team has grown from 10 to 110 professionals experts in various areas from laser, robotics, instrumentation to mathematical modeling and simulation. Currently automation division is situated in the premises of the steel plant in its state of the art Automation Development Center and also in various plant sites developing and implementing process automation systems there. The professionals from various academic backgrounds and industrial experience enrich the team and its skills. Our Strength & Infrastructure: Expertise in conceiving and implementing total automation solutions involving, instrumentation, system integration, process modeling, communication and software development with approaches incorporating concepts of fuzzy logic, artificial neural network, etc Multi-disciplinary group with about 110 bright, highly qualified and dedicated pool of engineers / scientists / professionals with wide industrial experience. Close association / interaction with premier Research and Academic Institutions like IITs, ERDC, MIT USA, etc. for collaborative research in various fields. A number of systems designed are backed by intensive research that has been tried successfully within the steel company. Well-equipped Automation Development Centre with state-of-the-art automation systems, equipment and instruments. It also houses advanced laboratories to carry out research in the fields of Lasers, Communication, Instrumentation and Electronics.

Workforce well versed in developing software on various hardware and software platforms like VAX/VMS, Alpha and SUN computers Silicon Graphics machines and PC based platforms using operating systems such as UNIX, VMS, Windows NT, etc. Expertise available in developing Database systems using ORACLE RDBMS and also web based systems.

Our Team

Automation Division, Tata Steel Limited is structured around various expertise groups as under: Process Optimisation Instrumentation & Control Communication & Networking CAD / CAM and Mathematical Modeling Operation Research System Integration Product Development Software Development Robotics & Mechanical Engineering

We have designed, developed & implemented following higher level (Process control) automation system at Jamshedpur works of Tata Steel Limited, India. Raw Material Area: Mine Scheduling System for Iron Ore Mines Global Positioning System (GPS) technology based Truck Dispatch System for Colliery Higher Level Automation (Radio based alignment & positioning and Model based Heating Control system) for Coke Oven Batteries Sector Gate Control for Sinter Operation

Iron Making Area: PC-based Level I automation of Blast Furnaces Mathematical Model based Level II automation of Blast Furnaces

Steel Making Area: Computer Aided Laboratory Management System Mathematical Model based (Level II) automation system for LD (Basic Oxygen furnace) process Radio tag based Automated Steel Ladle Tracking System Slab caster quality Parameter Tracking system On-line Grading System for Slab Caster Mould Sticker Breakout Detection system for Slab Caster Dynamic Control of Secondary spray Cooling for Slab Caster

Rolling Mills Area: Computer optimized Re-Heat Furnace (Level II) control system Crop length Optimization system for Hot Strip Mill Level - II automation of Roughing and Finishing Mills of Hot Strip Mill Camber detection system at Hot Strip Mill Automated Coil Tracking and Transport System for Cold Rolling Mill

Dispatch Area: Slab Yard Management System Coil Yard Management System

Other Products: Strip Width Measurement System Wire Rod Diameter Gauge Hot Metal Detectors Laser based velocity meter Radio Remote Control of Cranes Static Air conditioners and Air Amplifiers Computerized Conveyor Belt Design Computer aided Engineering For Power Distribution system

==================================================== ================================= Automation Division, Tata Steel Limited is the central agency for design, development, integration and implementation of Process Automation for the steel company and is also an international supplier of High Level Automation for the metal industry. It is situated in the premises of the steel company at Jamshedpur. We have expertise in conceiving and implementing total automation solutions involving, instrumentation, system integration, process modeling, communication and software development with approaches incorporating concepts of fuzzy logic, artificial neural network, etc. We are a multi-disciplinary group with about 110 bright, highly qualified and dedicated pool of engineers / scientists / professionals with wide industrial experience. Close association and interaction with premier Research and Academic Institutions like IITs, ERDC, MIT USA, etc. for collaborative research help us excel in various fields. A number of systems designed are backed by intensive research that has been tried successfully within the steel company. A well-equipped Automation Development Centre with state-of-the-art automation systems, equipment and instruments performs the core R&D activities. It also houses advanced laboratories to carry out research in the fields of Lasers, Communication, Instrumentation and Electronics. Our cross-functional workforce is well versed in developing software on various hardware and software platforms like VAX/VMS, Itanium, Alpha, SUN computers Silicon Graphics machines and PC based platforms using operating systems such as LINUX, UNIX, VMS, Windows NT, Windows 2003, etc. Expertise is also available in developing Database systems using ORACLE RDBMS and web based systems. Automation at Tata Steel Limited follows the Purdue model of Automation Hierarchy. There are different levels of Automation: Level Level Level Level Level 0: 1: 2: 3: 4: Field / Measurement Level - Dealing with sensors and transducers Process Control Level- Dealing with feedback control Process Optimisation and Supervisory Control Level Plant Control level- Dealing with Production Planning and Scheduling MIS-Management Information System at the Corporate Level.

The product and process offerings of Automation Division, Tata Steel Limited is focused in the following areas: Raw Material Area Iron Making Area Steel Making Area Rolling Mills Area Dispatch Area

Automation systems for the Raw Material Area include Mine Scheduling System, GPS based Truck dispatch system, Radio based communication, machine positioning and identification (Autospot), model based heating control system for Coke Oven Batteries The Iron making area incorporates Furnace viewing apparatus, PC based Level I automation and Mathematical model based level II automation systems. The Steel making area incorporates the Level II system for LD process, Automated Steel ladle tracking system, Slag Monitoring and Detection System, Mould Breakout Detection system (MBDS) and Computer Aided Quality Assessment for the Slab Caster (CAQA) Rolling Mills area have Reheating furnace optimization, Looper Control, Hot Metal Detectors, Vision Based Online Crop Optimisation System Opticrop, Width Gauge, Level II system for HSM, Level II automation for Roughing Mill & Finishing Mill areas of HSM and the Surface Defect Logging system in CRM We have offerings for the Dispatch area such as Slab Yard Management System, Coil Yard Management System, Rebar Mill Yard Management System, Coil Tracking Transport System and Laser Based Crane Automation systems. Automation Division, Tata Steel Limited is structured around various expertise groups as under: Process Optimisation Software Development Instrumentation & Control Communication & Networking CAD / CAM and Mathematical Modeling Operation Research System Integration Product Development Robotics & Mechanical Engineering