Usiminas Boilers

Boiler Control System

Altus provided the automation technology for the development of the new Boiler Control System at one of Usiminas' manufacturing plants, one of the largest companies in the Brazilian steel sector, generating savings and increased productivity for the company.

Usiminas Boiler Control System

The Boiler Control System, developed using Altus programmable controller technology, performs load balancing, protection, and rejection for Usiminas’ 45 and 130 t/hour boilers. These systems control the delivery of high-pressure, high-temperature steam to turbo-blowers and the thermoelectric plant, as well as steam to process areas such as the Plate-Mill dispatch yard. These actions support the automatic deceleration of uncoilers in the hot strip mill and the furnace discharge system in batteries 1 and 2 of Coke Plant 1.

The project also included the instrumentation of the area, where Motorola communication radios were used for Ethernet interconnection of the measurement points to the Indusoft Web Studio supervisory system.
Energy Efficiency

Energy Efficiency

The energy generation optimization achieved through this project saves Usiminas approximately US$ 450,000 per month

Accurate data

Accurate data

The embedded technology in this solution delivers highly accurate data throughout the process

Centralized information

Centralized information

The system also enhances the centralization of all data related to resource use

Online control

Online control

With a range of online diagnostics and alarms, the system enables remote monitoring, ensuring continuous oversight

Key benefits of the new system

Key benefits of the new system

The system is controlled by four Altus programmable controllers, connected via an Ethernet network with CPU and I/O module redundancy.

Supervision is carried out from a dedicated Supervisory Station, with all PLCs linked to it through Altus AL-3405 communication modules over Ethernet/TCP-IP (IEEE-802.3), as well as the optical transceivers and repeaters used in the project.

The system also features a real-time multitasking processing module, which handles communication with two single-loop controllers for precise boiler temperature control.

Application-specific features

Application-specific features

The system includes 784 digital and analog input/output points, all operating in redundancy mode, along with the process control CPUs. These operate within an Ethernet TCP/IP network using fiber optics.

Additionally, the system features remote supervision capabilities for enhanced monitoring and control.