Balling cranes in WRP

Tata Steel's 1 million tonnes capacity Waste Recycling Plant created a new high in 2002-03 by achieving 15 months production in 12 months, and recovering metallics worth Rs 74.51 crores, including steel grade scrap of Rs 48.69 crores. The recovery rate at the Plant is 92.2%.

During last year, the Waste Recycling Plant despatched 3.748 lakh tonnes of metallics as compared to 2.878 lakh tonnes in 2001-02. Several initiatives taken by the plant yielded handsome results. These included merger of activities from Steel Melting Shop-1 through to the Waste Recycling Plant; commissioning of an additional balling crane and modernisation of its obsolete track crane; segregation of big scrap pieces from slag pit to balling pit and more efficient utilisation of the cranes; enhancement of magnetic capacity in the balling cranes to segregate scrap more effectively and quickly; an on-line production reporting system; and a modified binder screen to improve screen visibility.

Set up in 1986, and relocated in 1998 to accommodate the company's Cold Rolling Mill, the Waste Recycling Plant receives slag from LD# I, LD# II and the Blast Furnaces and recovers iron from it, such that near zero iron is allowed to go out of the Steel Works as waste. The WRP is an important player in the company's effort to conserve natural resources and optimise their use in the manufacturing process.

Slag from LD# I, LD# II and the Blast Furnace comes to the WRP where it is processed separately to recover iron of the required chemistry to suit the customer's requirement. Slag with high amounts of iron -big jam -received at the pit is segregate it as per size and quality before being processed.

Work in progress at WRP

WRP has also been working at reducing the processing cost per tonne of metallics recovered. From Rs 566 per  tonne of metallics recovered in 1998 -99, it has brought costs down to Rs 437 per tonne in 2002 -03. This is because of higher recovery and lower diesel and lubricant consumption. The percentage yield of metallics in two years has gone up from 24.7% in 2000 -01 to 32.2% in 2002 -03.
 

Wealth from Waste is what the WRP believes in and it has several  improvement initiatives including Quality Improvement Projects, TOP , SAP, LAN, AQUIP and CIP in place to improve its I performance further.