SMS group has completed the automation system upgrade for the hot strip no.1 at PT Krakatau Steel (Persero), Tbk. PT Krakatau Steel (PTKS) has reached a significant milestone with the successful production of its first sellable coil at its facility in Cilegon. This achievement marks PTKS’s return to the Indonesian market as a producer of hot-rolled coils after a prolonged production stoppage. The production of the first sellable coil is seen as a promising restart for PTKS and highlights its commitment to contributing to Indonesia’s industrial growth.
The idea behind the project is said to be a recovery plan for the drive and automation cabinets in the finishing mill. PTKS opts for a complete, comprehensive upgrade to next-generation automation technology that will do more than just replacing the damaged automation parts in those finishing mills but through the entire hot strip mill. SMS ensured the seamless integration of the new automation system and existing DC drive technology.
PT Krakatau Steel (PTKS) has upgraded its facility using SMS group’s X-Pact® automation technology, featuring Level 1 and 2 systems on the X-Pact® ProBAS platform for better control, diagnostics, and performance. The system includes Sinamics DC drives and Simotion-based software, ensuring high efficiency and quality. This upgrade highlights PTKS’s commitment to cutting-edge solutions in steel production.
The scope of supply comprised technological process models such as the X-Pact® Pass Schedule Calculation (PSC®) model for the roughing and finishing stands, and the X-Pact® Cooling Section Control model for strip cooling, designed to ensure fully automatic cooling. The X-Pact® Profile, Contour and Flatness process model guarantees a stable rolling process that reliably adheres to strip thickness and flatness tolerances, enabling high-quality products to be manufactured with a wide range of properties and dimensions.
“SMS group acted like a partner in every sense, and we worked as a team. We are delighted that SMS could achieve our milestone of starting up the plant within 2024. It was a huge challenge of putting a new automation system on the existing machinery,” said Utomo Nugroho, Director of Infrastructure and Operation at PTKS.
The partnership between PTKS and SMS goes back to the 1980s, followed by the delivery of the original mill, and was further solidified when the new hot strip mill no. 2 was put into service in 2016/17.
Atanu Dey, Senior Vice President at SMS, highlighted the importance of this collaboration, opined, “The new system has all the features of a modern hot strip mill. We avoided the temptation to only do the bare necessities and get the mill up and running again. We decided to go the extra mile and give the customer a future-ready system. The cooperation between SMS and PTKS and the never-say-die attitude of the joint team was the secret recipe for success.”
The mill boasts an annual production of 2.4 million tons and is equipped to produce a wide variety of products, such as general structural steels, tubes and pipes, and automotive-grade materials. It can process thicknesses from 1.8 to 25 millimeters and widths ranging from 600 to 2,080 millimeters.
PTKS is said to be well-positioned to reclaim its market share and strengthen the long-standing partnership between PTKS and SMS, with the current upgrades.