100 furnace control systems

March 2009 News

Mintek, South Africa’s national mineral research organisation has completed the one-hundredth installation worldwide of its FurnStar-Minstral advanced process control (APC) system for furnaces. The systems were installed at the Cia Ferro Ligas da Bahia (Ferbasa) plant in Bahia State, Brazil. Completing the installation, engineers of Mintek commissioned five Minstral APC systems, bringing the total number of installations at Ferbasa to six, on submerged-arc furnaces ranging from 18–32 MVA capacity.

Minstrals have now been installed in eight different countries, including France, Australia, Canada, and Brazil, on submerged-arc furnaces ranging in size from over 100 MVA to just 9 MVA, and producing over eight different types of alloy.

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