The ArcelorMittal – Galati mill was having trouble maintaining a reducing atmosphere in their continuous galvanizing preheat furnace. An oxygen starved environment within the furnace is created by maintaining slightly fuel rich combustion at the burners. This limits oxidation of the steel sheet, improving quality as it’s heated prior to coating. Combustion air flow is monitored and, in a cascade control scheme, the gas valve is adjusted to control CO to a level of 4 to 6%.

Precise control of fan fluid couplings is critical to boiler performance, and structural integrity. This pulp mill performed an evaluation of their Recovery Boiler FD & ID fan application to determine the cause of cyclical speed fluctuations.

The SSAB facility in Axis, AL is a steel mini-mill that manufactures plate and coiled products, and it became commercial in April 2001. Major equipment in service includes a Fuchs 175-ton twin-shell electric arc furnace, twin-station ladle metallurgy furnace (LMF), slab caster, rolling mill with a reheat furnace, and plate finishing facilities. PLC controls are used in all areas.

Sunoco’s Philadelphia refinery, now owned by Philadelphia Energy Solutions, identified an opportunity to improve operating efficiencies and safety of their low-sulfur gasoline (LSG) production units.

A large aluminum reduction facility, which produces a variety of intermediate aluminum ingots and round billets, is located in the southeastern United States and has three main operating areas – Carbon Electrode Preparation, Pot Line and Aluminum Casting.

The responsiveness of an air operated actuator was tested on a Cracking Furnace ID damper. The pneumatic actuator responded inconsistently. The actuator has a full stroke speed rating of 10 seconds over 90 degree travel with 50 psi. The actual air supply pressure was 85 psi, but it took 20 seconds to open the damper, and 120 seconds to close!

One of the largest independent refiners in the U.S. experienced several costly failures on the plant’s main natural gas supply valve. This valve was modulated by a pneumatic actuator that had an internal linkage failure, causing the valve to slam closed, consequently stopping natural gas flow to the refinery.

A Maryland Waste-to-Energy (WTE) plant had been using pneumatic actuators on all of its fans for several years. There were ongoing problems associated with the control and reliability of the actuators. Since ID fans are a critical part of the combustion process, it was recommended to upgrade the ID fan actuators to Beck actuators.

The ethanol blending process is a critical part of gasoline terminal operation and has a significant impact on product quality, meeting environmental regulations and profitability. Optimizing the process is very important, but does present some control challenges.