Bhilai Steel Plant (BSP), the flagship entity of the Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL), surpassed its own national record by registering highest-ever converter lining life at 12,325 blows in a converter at its Steel Melting Shop-II.
Earlier, the plant had recorded 11,036 blows; the highest-ever since the plant started operation. A company spokesperson said that in yet another national benchmark in techno-economics of production, BSP's Converter 'C' in its Steel Melting Shop II recorded 12,325 heats in converter lining life before it was taken down for re-lining on 1st December 2010.
"The achievement is a reflection of the technological and operational discipline and maintenance practices in the Plant," BSP Managing Director V K Arora told Business Standard.
It is also a significant achievement with regard to cost control measures in an integrated steel plant, he said, urging the SMS II collective to take adequate measures so as to prolong the campaign life of the other Converters in operation.
The BSP holds the national record for top blown converters with its Converter B having recorded a lining life of 11,036 heats before being put down for re-lining. The plant recorded its highest ever average converter lining life of 7882 heats in 2009-10, surpassing the previous best figures of 6428 in 2008-09 and 6068 heats in 2007-08.
The average converter lining life in BSP is the best among all the entities of the SAIL.
The Converter 'C' was taken up for relining of bricks on April 16, 2009 after the last campaign and was put into operation after re-lining on April 23, 2009.
The Converter has since been in operation with the same set of refractory brick lining on the inside of the Converter vessel. The total volume of crude steel produced by the convertor since then is around 1.49 million tonnes, the spokesperson said.