Team News Riveting
Raipur, September 28
An air of celebration prevailed in the control room of SAIL-Bhilai Steel Plant’s largest blast furnace – BF 8, named Mahamaya as the ceremonial cake was cut to mark BF 8 crossing the milestone of 8 Million Tonne (MT) cumulative hot metal production since the first tapping of hot metal from the furnace took place on 3rd Feb 2018.
Members of the Blast Furnace Department collective of the Plant and Team members of BF 8 had gathered in BF 8 on 28th Sept 2021 to celebrate crossing the 8 MT cumulative production milestone. The 8 MT milestone was crossed by BF 8 during C Shift on 26th Sept 2021.
By crossing the 8 MT milestone in 1333 days, Bhilai’s BF 8 has become the fastest among furnaces of similar capacity in SAIL to do so. Rourkela Steel Plant’s furnace of similar capacity took 5.5 months more than BF 8 and IISCO Steel Plant’s furnace of similar capacity took 9.5 months more to cross 8 MT milestone in cumulative production.
Addressing the gathering in BF 8 Conference Hall, Director I/c Bhilai Steel Plant Anirban Dasgupta congratulated the members of Mahamaya Team and all supporting shops & departments for the milestone achievement. He urged the BF collective to benchmark their performances with that of some private steel plants. The need of the hour is to tighten our belts, increase PCI and increase furnace efficiency, he said. The young and knowledgeable team of BF 8 should dive deeper into literature about the latest technologies. You take care of the furnace and the furnace will take care of you, he added.
A ceremonial cake was cut in BF 8 control room in presence of V S Parashar, Ex-Chief Superintendent, Blast Furnaces, Dr. S K Issar, ED (M & HS), Rakesh, ED (Materials Mgt), Anjani Kumar, ED (Works), A K Panda, CGM I/c (F & A), S N Abidi, CGM I/c Services, Arvind Kumar, CGM I/c M & U, Tapas Dasgupta, CGM (Blast Furnaces), R R Nagare, ex-CGM, CGMs and other senior officers from various departments to celebrate the occasion.
Anjani Kumar, ED (Works) stated that they are the best team of Blast Furnaces. Make all efforts to do even better, he said. Earlier, welcoming senior officers and all others present, Tapas Dasgupta, CGM (Blast Furnaces) said our journey towards excellence shall continue. He thanked all supporting shops, departments and agencies for their support. Members of the BF collective and ED (Works) Shri Anjani Kumar donated blood on September 27, 2021 to mark the 8 MT cumulative production.
V S Parashar, Ex-Chief Superintendent, Blast Furnace who served BSP from 1962 – 1994 was the Special Guest on the occasion. He recalled the mode of functioning during his tenure and stated that he is proud to be one of the members to operate the first Bell less top furnace in the country. Showering his blessings on the BF collective to create more records in the future, he said you all have made me feel proud by achieving such great production milestones, he said.
It is worth mentioning that earlier, BF 8 had earlier become the fastest in SAIL to have crossed the previous cumulative production milestones. After the blowing in of BF 8 on 2nd Feb 2018, the first hot metal flowed out from the from the 2.8 MTPA Blast Furnace 8 on 4th Feb 2018. The graph of daily production from modern furnace with advanced automation & control systems had risen steadily since then. The furnace that has a maximum book capacity of 8400 T/day recorded its highest production of 9150 T on 19th Sept 2020. BF 8 has also recorded highest Coal Dust Injection rate in SAIL of 182 kg per tonne of hot metal.
WIRE ROD MILL CREATES NEW RECORDS
SAIL-Bhilai Steel Plant’s Wire Rod Mill has created a new day record of 1573 Tonnes on 27th Sept 2021, surpassing previous best of 1500 T set couple of days back on 25th Sept 21. The product being rolled in Wire Rod Mill is IS:7877 Grade 2 plain wire rods. This grade of product is generally used for wire mesh. The Mill had also set a new shift record of rolling 560 coils in A Shift on 25th Sept 21, surpassing the previous best of 550 coils produced in B Shift of 24th Sept 21. Director I/c Bhilai Steel Plant, Anirban Dasgupta and other senior officers visited Wire Rod Mill today and congratulated members of the WRM Team for record performances. It may be recalled that the Mill has in the recent months produced about 14,700 T of SAE 1008 grade of plain wire rods for export to Nepal.
