Upgrade Instruction Manual

© 2006 PCT Engineered Systems LLC. All Rights Reserved
Three Stand Hot Mill Upgrade
The Application
A large aluminum manufacturer was struggling to
maintain the obsolete control equipment on their only
hot mill. The mill, which normally produces over a
million pounds of aluminum per day, experienced two
weeks of down-time during the summer of 1996
because of breakdowns related to this equipment. A
new control system was needed to provide
dependable operation and minimal disruption to
production during installation.
The PCT Solution
PCT Engineered Systems was asked to design,
program, assemble and install a new system for
control of the mill drives, winders and shear, as well
as providing an interface to the Mannesmann
Demag MARAS gauge control system being
installed. The PCT control system utilized new
digital control boards connected to the existing mill
drive SCR’s thereby leaving the high current
components (SCR stacks, bus work and
overcurrent protection) in place.
The control system’s design and the fact that new
standard Reliance parts are easily reordered
instead of having to be custom built, greatly reduced the cost of the new equipment and allowed
more efficient maintenance of the equipment.
PCT scheduled on-site project work around the customer’s scheduled shutdowns to reduce the
impact on production. The entire upgrade was completed during two separate two-week outages.