EVRAZ NTMK launches a blast furnace

EVRAZ Nizhny Tagil has completed the overhaul of blast furnace 6. The project required USD 176 million in investment and 16 months to complete. The volume of the furnace is 2200 cubic meters, its planned annual production is 2.5 million tons of pig iron. Blast furnace 6 has two pouring chambers with closed main and transport trays, automated top and bottom loading systems, shaftless air heaters and aspiration units that contain more than 34,500 filters. The total capacity of the aspiration systems serving the filling station and the feed system is 3.1 million cubic meters per hour. During the overhaul, blast furnace 6 was equipped with modern gas treatment plants; the project, along with other environmental initiatives of EVRAZ, was included in the federal project "Clean Air" within the framework of the national project "Environment". The expert system is used in blast furnace 6 to analyze and adjust production processes. Using more than 12,000 parameters, it can select optimal conditions and automatically control the melting process.

Together with Blast Furnace 7, launched in April 2018, they form the most modern and environmentally friendly steel company in Russia. With two state-of-the-art blast furnaces, EVRAZ can look forward to lower costs by reducing the frequency and duration of interim repairs and reducing coking coal consumption.

Blast furnace 5 has come to the end of its useful life and has been suspended; a decision on its further use has not yet been made.