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• As part of its plant recovery efforts, PTKS decided on a complete renewal and upgrade of the entire electrical and automation systems in its hot strip mill
• After a lengthy shutdown, the hot strip mill, fitted with the latest automation package, was successfully put into operation and produced the first sellable coil

SMS group has completed the automation system upgrade of hot strip mill no. 1 at PT Krakatau Steel (Persero), Tbk. (PTKS) in Cilegon, Indonesia, marking a significant milestone with the production of the first sellable coil. This achievement underlined PTKS’s return to the Indonesian market as a producer of hot rolled coils following a lengthy production stoppage and was therefore a particularly crucial step.

The project was initiated as a recovery plan for the drive and automation cabinets in the finishing mill. Rather than merely replacing the damaged automation parts in the finishing mill, PTKS opted for a comprehensive upgrade to next-generation automation technology throughout the entire hot strip mill. For the drive system, however, the existing DC drives used for other sections, such as the slab sizing press, roughing mill, down coiler, and other units, were retained. SMS ensured the seamless integration of the new automation system and existing DC drive technology.

At the core of this upgrade is SMS group’s state-of-the-art X-Pact^® process automation control technology, comprising a range of advanced solutions that provide enhanced control, improved diagnostic capabilities, and consistent performance. SMS level 1 and level 2 automation systems are incorporated within the powerful X-Pact^® ProBAS platform based on the X-Pact^® Embedded controllers. The innovative software architecture provides extensive connectivity and open interfaces. Additionally, SMS developed Sinamics DC drives with specialized Simotion-based drive control software, thereby ensuring that PTKS maintains high standards of production efficiency and quality.

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 and 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, stating, “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 has an annual capacity of 2.4 million tons and is capable of manufacturing a diverse range of products, including general structural steels, tubes and pipes, and automotive grades. The mill can handle thicknesses ranging from 1.8 to 25 millimeters and widths from 600 to 2,080 millimeters. This comprehensive upgrade with sophisticated technological capabilities will allow PTKS to regain its market share in the near future and re-establish the value of the robust partnership between PTKS and SMS.