Control of Heat Treating Furnace Operation

The Japan Steel Works, LTD., Muroran Plant uses the Control and Measurement Station CX2000, UP series program controllers, and UT series digital indicating controllers for operation of its heat treating furnaces.

Deputy Manager: Mr. Hori

The Japan Steel Works (JSW), LTD., Muroran Plant is located in an industrial area looking over Muroran port in Muroran City, Hokkaido. JSW manufactures large, medium and small sized steel castings and forgings, steel plates and pipes, pressure vessels for oil refinery and petrochemical applications, wind power generation equipment, and other industrial products. The Muroran Plant has five heat treatment shops and the treatment operation is performed to large sized products for nuclear, thermal and hydraulic power generation and for parts for oil refinery/natural gas plant, and to small/medium sized products for industrial equipment. We spoke with Mr. Hori and Mr. Satoh in Heat Treatment Shop of Materials Manufacturing Department.

Mr. Hori: "Heat treatment operation has to be carried out under the exact thermal control of atmosphere temperature in the furnace and of product temperature in the furnace to satisfy our customer's requirements of quality. We think that heat treatment is very important process during product manufacturing."

That important process is carried out with several key instruments: for the furnace operation control station they use the Control and Measurement Station CX2000; for recording of atmospheric and material contact temperature, they use the µR20000 industrial chart recorder; for program control of heat treatment patterns, the UP series program controller; and for controlling temperature in each zone of the heat treatment furnaces; the UT series digital indicating controller.

Mr. Hori: "We decided to introduce the CX2000 because we can enter precise heat treatment programs through communication with a PC, and because of its large number of measurement inputs."

The CX2000 enables program control on up to 6 loops individually, allowing precise control that matches the application. Also, values measured during program pattern display and operation can be displayed simultaneously, so you can ascertain the progress of the program at a glance.

Data recorded by the CX2000 can be saved electronically to media or DAQLOGGER data logging software. Apparently they used to have to read temperature data from a chart into Excel for analysis, but now with the CX2000 they can immediately perform an analysis from the electronic data, and this saves an incredible amount of time and labor on tasks such as verifying temperature data.

The µR20000 industrial chart recorder records atmospheric and material contact temperature in the electric furnace. By using the alarm function, they can prevent errors such as temperature deviations which have a serious influence for quality.

Mr. Satoh: "When a shop worker notices an alarm, they check the heating rate, the cooling rate and abnormal plot points on the chart and prevent an accident for temperature. Yokogawa's recorder has high reliability, so we use it with confidence."

In order to verify that a completed product meets the customer's specifications, they must submit a record of the temperature results, so it is very important to have the data plotted on chart paper.

Chief Foreman: Mr. Satoh

The Muroran Plant puts comprehensive effort into energy savings, and they use the PR300 Power Monitor for monitoring energy consumption.

Mr. Satoh: "Currently our plant is focusing not only on manufacturing but also on energy savings. We monitor power consumption with the PR300, allowing us to check what combustion conditions lead to the most every savings and in what cases we lose energy, so this is very useful for energy savings."

They have also installed the PR300 at the electric furnaces for constant measurement of power consumption, and this is used to check for equipment abnormalities. Additionally they have purchased several DX2000 Paperless Recorders that they can easily carry to key locations as needed for "spot checks" of temperature.

Mr. Satoh: "We have continued to use many Yokogawa products for many years because they are highly reliable."

Customer Introduction

The Japan Steel Works, LTD., Muroran Plant: http://www.jsw.co.jp/en/

Mr. Toshihiro Hori
Mr. Seigou Satoh

Heat Treatment Shop,
Material Manufacturing Dept.