Continuous Operating Panel
One of the constant causes of unscheduled downtime in today's Modern steel mills is water cooled components. AmeriFab, one of North America's leaders in the design and manufacture of steel mill equipment, has developed a product that will virtually eliminate lost time due to failures of these water cooled components.
Through the use of a unique three way ball valve, all the water can be diverted to the back up panel if a failure occurs. The back up panel takes over and allows the furnace operator to continue to operate without being required to turn the power off to change a panel. |
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The panel is two panels in one. The front panel is the operating panel. The back of the panel is used if and when there is damage to the pipe panel. Charter Steel was the first company in the world to utilize the benefits of the COP. In the course of a normal heat, Charter lost the operating panel and had to make use of the back up panel. Tim Zeien, Charter Steel Maintenance Manager, stated that the panel worked flawlessly. Charter Steel did not incur any unscheduled down time as a result of the panel failure. Normally Charter would have lost up to two hours and subjected maintenance personnel to a hot furnace for a panel change. | ||
This panel was in the hottest position in the Charter DC furnace and operated for five day prior to being removed during a schedule maintenance turn. There was no visible damage to the back up panel. Once the panel was removed from the furnace, a new operating panel was added. Unscheduled downtime was eliminated
