Per: Marcelo MOREIRA Furst Gonçalves (Usiminas), Leonardo José Silva de Oliveira (USIMINAS), Isaias Dionísio Valbusa (USIMINAS)
Abstract:
The Inductive Vacuum Melting Furnace is one of the main equipment used in the development of new steel alloys by the Usiminas Research and Development Center. Over the years, updates have been made to various components, one of the main modifications being the replacement of the inverter power panel. Despite this update, the entire fusion control system, vacuum generation, operational procedure remained in manual operation mode and restricted to a few operators due to its complexity. This work aims to present the development of a complete equipment control system that covers the melting stages according to the operating procedure, monitoring of process variables, identification of alarms and recording of actions performed by the operator throughout the process of fusion. For this, the development of hardware and control software was carried out, which provided greater ease in the operation of the equipment. With this, the operator focuses mainly on the composition of the metallic alloys to be produced, leaving the operational part to the new control system.