greentec steel via pneumatic tube

We’re really stepping up the pressure for greentec steel. Take, for example, the kilometers long pneumatic tube system at our Linz site. It connects the sintering plant, blast furnaces, steelworks, and foundry to the process laboratory. To ensure our product quality, we’re modernizing this part of our nervous system and adapting it to the current requirements of our emission-reducing process route.

Constant monitoring of processes and their results is the be-all and end-all of our product quality. To ensure that samples of feedstock, pig iron, and steel reach the lab quickly, our pneumatic tube system connects the plants to the testing lab.

In the lab, the samples are processed fully automatically and tested for their chemical composition. The analysis results are transmitted electronically back to the senders within a few minutes.

Our pneumatic tube lines range in length from 300 to just under 2,000 meters. Accordingly, the delivery cartridges are in transit for between 25 and 180 seconds. The aluminum cartridges containing the samples, which are approximately 35 mm in diameter, are loaded at the pneumatic tube’s sending stations and transported via compressed air through switches and passage detectors to the laboratory station. Empty cartridges return via the same route. Pneumatic tube systems—sometimes underestimated as outdated—remain the most practical means of transporting material samples, including for greentec steel. They transport not only samples of pig iron, HBI, sinter, and foundry products, but also slag, sinter, and blast furnace dust samples.

Dafür winden sich unsere Rohrpoststrecken durch das gesamte Gelände in einer Höhe von fünf bis 25 m über dem Hüttenflur. Sie begleiten aktiv die Entwicklung von greentec steel, z. B. mit der Anbindung des Elektrolichtbogenofens, der HBI-Versorgung und der Sekundär­metallurgie 5. Eine neue Linienführung sichert dann den schnellen Transport der Proben für die zeitkritische Prozessanalyse.