SIMETAL VAIQ is a comprehensive software solution for automated quality control in steel refining and casting. It is part of a family of products covering quality control from steel making to rolling and processing.
Quality assessment result
Quality is one of the decisive factors for successful and competitive steel production. Defined quality assurance procedures must be applied. The large amount of production data and quality data to be processed requires dedicated automation systems which support the quality assurance personnel in fulfilling their tasks. Automated quality assurance systems should be able to provide the operators with the best and up-to-date production practice information, automatically assess the quality of products, provide comprehensive process documentation and support the advance of metallurgical know-how.
Based on operational, metallurgical and automation know-how, Siemens VAI has developed a computer-aided quality control system, SIMETAL VAIQ, which is in successful operation in many steel shops worldwide. SIMETAL VAIQ determines the necessary process set-up for quality-relevant process parameters, tracks the actual process parameters during production, predicts the steel quality in ladle as well as the quality of the cast products and automatically determines the subsequent product disposition. The functionality of SIMETAL VAIQ is widely configurable by the end-user. Therefore software modifications are no longer needed to adapt model behavior. This is due to a flexible, rule-based component that allows for off-line tuning and simulation prior to release into the production system.
SIMETAL VAIQ consists of three modules. The production system module provides on-line quality supervision and control during steelmaking, refining and casting. The knowledge base module is a tool for metallurgists and process engineers to enter know-how for production and quality prediction into the computer. The discovery system module facilitates metallurgical evaluations based on detailed process and inspection data.
Recent enhancements
- ability to continuously predict the quality of the liquid steel in ladle during the steel refining process
- expert rule based reaction to changing production situations during steel refining and casting to reach the target quality