A worker at POSCO Pohang Steelworks Blast Furnace No. 2 is monitoring the blast furnace, which is automatically controlled by the smart factory system.
[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Yeo Jong-gu] POSCO Pohang Steelworks' 'Smart Blast Furnace' is showcasing the new face of future steel plants.
Blast Furnace No. 2 at Pohang Steelworks has been operated as a smart blast furnace applying smart factory technology over five years since 2017. The smart factory technology has successfully replaced the existing operation techniques.
The internal temperature of the blast furnace, which melts iron ore to produce molten iron, rises up to 2300 degrees Celsius, making it practically impossible to visually inspect the inside of the furnace.
Previously, the blast furnace operation was manually controlled by estimating the internal conditions based on surface temperature, pressure, and gas composition, so the steelmaking process relied heavily on the experience of skilled workers.
The newly introduced smart blast furnace learns from numerous cases using real-time measured data, self-checks the furnace status, and predicts operational outcomes.
Based on this, it proactively and automatically controls operating conditions to produce molten iron with minimal quality variation. The production of molten iron, once controlled by experience and intuition, is now entrusted to data.
In 2018, an industry-academia-research smart blast furnace cooperation system was established to develop smart factory technology.
POSCO, which possesses world-class operation technology, domestic venture companies providing IoT sensors, image processing technology, and big data solutions, and local universities and research institutes developing AI algorithms all merged into the blast furnace environment.
Starting with the establishment of the industry-academia-research collaboration system, POSCO applied the smart factory infrastructure 'PosFrame'.
After pilot operations, from 2019, POSCO began smartifying all steel plants and expanded the application scope of smart factory technology to equipment, logistics, safety, and office work in 2020.
The smart introduction of Blast Furnace No. 2 at Pohang Steelworks has contributed dramatically to increased steel production and quality improvement. Production increased by 85,000 tons annually, and the defect rate decreased by 63% compared to before. The 85,000 tons corresponds to the amount needed to produce 85,000 additional mid-sized passenger cars annually.
Working conditions also improved, ensuring employees' creativity and providing more opportunities to achieve results.
Blast Furnace No. 2 at Pohang Steelworks was selected as the first 'Lighthouse Factory' in Korea by the World Economic Forum (WEF) in 2019. The smart factory technology has been expanded and is operating in Blast Furnaces No. 3 and 4.
POSCO is transferring the know-how of building smart factories gained from Pohang Steelworks Blast Furnace No. 2 to domestic companies. POSCO and the Ministry of SMEs and Startups have each invested 20 billion KRW and 10 billion KRW respectively to support smart factory technology projects.
The 'Win-Win Smart Factory Construction Support Project,' which supports small and medium enterprises wishing to build smart factories with funding from 20 million KRW up to 100 million KRW, is also underway. Consulting support for smartification capabilities enhancement is also provided. The plan is to support technology for 1,000 companies by 2023.
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