Recently, the integrated centralized control and management system project for the steelmaking processes of Lianyungang YaXin Steel (hereinafter referred to as “YaXin Steel”), undertaken on an EPC basis by Nanjing Electric Company, has successfully passed final acceptance. This achievement vividly demonstrates Nanjing Electric Company’s accelerated strategic deployment in the steel industry and represents a latest breakthrough in the field of steel intelligentization.
The project covers an integrated/long-process route with scrap charging, featuring one mixer, two converters, one Ladle Furnace, and three continuous casting machines within the plant. In June 2024, the project completed the transformation of basic automation and overall networking in the steelmaking workshop. By October, the offline development of Level 2 and Level 3 systems was finalized, followed by comprehensive online testing and tuning focused on informatization, digitalization, and intelligentization. The project was handed over to the owner for operation and maintenance in January 2025. After nearly four months of usage, feedback, evaluation, and iterative upgrades by various owner departments including information, production, equipment, utilities, management, and dispatch, the project has now been fully accepted.
The project integrates complete PDCA-based intelligent control and management functional modules such as “planning and scheduling, production execution, quality management, and composition analysis and optimization.” Project Manager Wang Liping and Software System Lead Hong Yujie led the team in leveraging advanced technologies including the Internet of Things, big data, and cloud computing to consolidate previously dispersed operational positions and multiple Level 1 subsystems into a unified centralized control platform. This has formed an intelligent neural center covering the entire production chain from “hot metal processing → converter → LF refining → continuous casting.” As a result, operators can now monitor process flows, equipment status, and raw material consumption in real time via a central large screen, enabling interconnected operations among previously isolated processes. This has significantly improved production efficiency and greatly reduced the labor intensity of production personnel.
On the steelmaking control platform, an intelligent management and control system has been established, making the production operation management of the steelmaking plant fully transparent. From production scheduling onward, the system is supported by comprehensive, gap-free data coverage, integrating operations across steelmaking, continuous casting, dedusting, water systems, and feeding units, thereby laying a foundation for smart management.
The successful acceptance of this project marks the realization of centralized operation and intelligent management across the entire steelmaking production process, from order release and production execution to product delivery. It signifies that YaXin Steel’s steelmaking plant has entered a new phase of smart manufacturing. This not only meets the specific needs of YaXin Steel’s digital transformation and lays the groundwork for its digital factory, but also provides replicable experience for small and medium-sized steel enterprises to advance digital transformation in a cost-effective and high-quality manner.
To address modeling challenges, Hong Yujie together with process experts from the Steel Division including Gao Yulai, Tang Xuesong, and Wu Bowei, conducted collaborative research leveraging Jiangsu Provincial Foundation projects and MCC Huatian’s corporate-level R&D initiatives. By integrating theory with practice and validating theories through application, they developed proprietary algorithms such as an intelligent ingredient assistance model for steelmaking, a lance position control assistance model, and an endpoint carbon/temperature prediction assistance model. These provide new cost-saving and efficiency-enhancing methods for YaXin’s converter steelmaking process.
While ensuring the efficient operation of the smart management system, the YaXin Steel centralized control project deeply incorporates green and low-carbon development concepts. By establishing functional modules such as “public auxiliary systems - water pump monitoring” and “energy media - external energy network monitoring,” it enables real-time systematic analysis of full-scale energy consumption data (water, electricity, gas, steam) including production water, demineralized water, nitrogen, and argon. This lays a foundation for carbon emission accounting at the workshop process level.
