Maintenance in

steel industry
Kelly Berg, Maintenance & Operations
Tomas Berglund, Key Account Manager Toolox
Oxelösund mill
►Employees: 2,100
►First ironworks in Oxelösund, built 1914–1917,
was for the manufacture of pig iron.
►Products: Hardox® wear plate, Strenx®
Performance steel, Armox® protection plate and
Toolox® engineering and tool steel
►Production: 900 ktons of slabs and 550 ktons of
rolled plate per year.
►Two of Sweden’s three blast furnaces are in
Oxelösund which produces more than 5,000
tons of pig iron per day.
Maintenance budget
►Yearly Maintenance budget
− Steel and wear parts are the largest part of the
maintenance budget
►Additional CAPEX budget for improvement
projects
►3 and 5 year maintenance plans
− Audit of the equipment/mill
− Large components will be replaced and become
investments due to scale of project
Maintenance department: >20 % of Oxelösund employees

>20 % of the employees in SSAB

Oxelösund work with maintenance

440

1660
Roles and responsibilities of maintenance
organization
►8 strategic technicians responsible for:
− Budget
− Strategic and long term planning
− Production availability
− Maintenance improvements

►50 operative technicians

− Preparing and planning of work orders
− Personnel
− Corrective and preventative maintenance 24/7

►350 Maintenance operatives

− SSAB maintenance staff / suppliers / contractors
Maintenance
OPEX = maintenance department CAPEX = engineering department

Corrective Preventive Maintenance Investment

maintenance maintenance improvement improvement projects

Breakdowns Condition control Improvements in Improvements in function

 Need to act  Visual/sound…. production availability but  Higher productivity 
immediately not improving function More tons produced/h
 Measurements
Equipment taken out of  Faster component  Increase product quality
Scheduled component
production changes: changes  Shorter  Less claims, better
stops prize
 Can wait shorter time  Cleaning, grease, oil,
change component  Longer component  Increased safety  Safer
service life  fewer working environment
stops

Operative technicians Operative technicians Strategic technicians Engineering department

Strategic technicians
Production managers
Types of maintenance jobs

External SSAB Maintenance External

+
External resources
SSAB Maintenance
specialists by operators
Maintenance process

DEFINE AND PLAN EXECUTE FOLLOW UP AND ANALYZE

►Plan spare part inventory (SAT) ►Perform maintenance ►Analyze wear part service life
►Set maintenance plan ►Perform inspection ►Generate improvements
− Job planning
− Spare parts

►Suppler interaction (OT) ►Suppler interaction (OT)

►Suppler interaction (OT)
− Weekly work order meetings − Analyze wear part service life
− Quote on jobs
− Execute on jobs
− Review jobsite
− Safety
− Improvement suggestions
Yearly outage
►Entire mill stops for 2–4 weeks
− Nearly all investments are executed at yearly outage
− 20% of yearly total in maintenance

►Roughly 1,000 people participate

− All maintenance personnel, project managers, mechanical design
engineers + operators (approx. 500)
− 500 people from external suppliers

►Large scale planning with heavy focus on safety:

− Traffic, hot works, PPE, lockout/tagout
− Includes written instructions, schedules and daily planning meetings
Yearly outage
5. Execution of 1. Start-up planning for outage
maintenance stop (12 months before)

100 % of all
purchases are
done (2 months
before the stop)

75% of all 2. Prioritization

purchases are
done (3 months
before the stop)

4. Detailed planning Parts are being

procured
3. Rough plan
Large quantities of steel consumed in a steel mill
►150 tons (excluding stainless steel and ceramics)

− 80 tons of Toolox®
• Hot areas with wear e.g. coking plant
• When a lot of milling is required
• Form stability

− 50 tons of Hardox®
• Wear in areas <200°C

− 5 tons of Overlay, with time converted to Duroxite™

• Pipes and complex shapes
• Fume applications with erosion due to small particles
Applications – Coking plant
Pressure pole – Coking plant
►Environment: heat and abrasion
►New material: Toolox 44
►Replaced material: Hardox 450
►Benefit: Increased service life
from 2 to 9 months
Exit chute – Coking plant
►Toolox 33 replaced ceramics
►Benefit: Reduced breakage and lower cost of material
Rail wagons – Coking plant
►Material used in wagons: Toolox 44
►Material used in boggies: Toolox 44
Production flow chart
Liner plates in vibrating feeder – Blast furnace
►Material: Hardox 450, 10 mm
Floor plate in chain transporter of injection coal
►Material: Hardox 500, 8mm
►Service life : 1.6 Mtons
Tower inlet – Blast furnace
►Material: Toolox 44
►Quantity: 16 tons of liner plates
Iron ore pellet chute – Test just finalized

Hardox 600 0.09 mm /

15mm RIB 10,000 tons

Hardox 600
15 mm 0.3–0.5 mm /
10,000 tons

Duroxite 100 0.07 mm /

6+6mm 10,000 tons
Applications
Heat protection – LD converter
►Toolox 33
►Main benefit: Form stability in heat
Slag bucket – Ovako mill
“The Toolox Bucket” at Ovako
►Benefit: Form stability in heat and service life
Part Steel grade Thickness
Teeth TOOLOX 44 160 mm
Cutting edge TOOLOX 44 80 mm
Bucket Shell STRENX 700 20 mm
Side sheets TOOLOX 44 20 mm
Side cutters TOOLOX 44 40/80 mm
Floor reinforcement TOOLOX 44 40 mm
Beams – Continuous caster
►Corrosive environment
►Corr-I-Dur® treated Toolox 33
Hammers in deburrer – steel mill
►Material: Hardox 600
►Replaced material: Forged hammers
►Requirements: Axis had to be changed to 1000 N/mm2
Applications
Sliding plate - Rolling mill
►Environment: Corrosive and pressure
►Corr-I-Dur® treated Toolox 44
►Main benefit: Handles the pressure (form stability)
Shrink fit on rolling mill driving sleeve
►Material: Toolox 33
Flying Shearer – Rolling mill
►Material: Toolox 44
Chain wheel – Cooling beds in rolling mill
►Material: Toolox 33
►Bolted due to limited thickness
Applications
Bearing house – Leveler after quenching
►Material: Toolox 33
Traverse wheel - Shot blasting and painting shop
►Material: Toolox 44
►Replaced material: C45
Hydraulic components – Testing house
Capex projects – Engineering department
►Usually turnkey projects (all during yearly outage)
►Opportunity to deliver parts to the equipment suppliers
►Talk to project managers and mechanical design engineers in engineering
department
New shot blast cabin completely in Hardox 500 Crane beams completely in Strenx
Questions