Abstract
M.Ing.
Steel products can be produced by either following the blast furnace with oxygen steel making route or the electric arc steel making route. The blast furnace with oxygen route requires liquid iron to produce steel and the electric arc route requires scrap metal as a major input. This in essence implies that for the blast furnace route if no liquid iron is produced, no steel products will be produced and similarly so for the electric arc route. ArcelorMittal Vanderbijlpark Works produces its liquid iron from two furnaces namely blast furnace C and blast furnace D. However the reliability of these furnaces is in question as their daily operations are plagued with random failures of equipment and machinery. The
main consequence of these failures is the unavailability of the furnaces to produce liquid iron. This is undesirable from a business perspective due to the inherent production losses, loss of potential earnings as well as the high costs incurred to restore the furnaces back into operation.This research dissertation will focus on the operation of these blast furnaces. The fundamental success criteria for this research document will be to identify
opportunities to improve the reliable operation of these furnaces. The scope of the work will however be limited to blast furnace C and particularly at improving its charging system’s availability. The availability of the charging system can be improved by knowing what type of failures to expect and how to mitigate their effects. A starting point would then be to examine past failure data. Thus data from 2008 has been collected and
analyzed making use of statistical methods, design analysis methods and research methodologies. The results suggest that the availability of the system has a direct correlation between its reliability and maintainability. The results obtained were then subjected to a risk analysis to identify measures that could be employed to improve the charging system’s availability.