Carbon Anode & Rod Quality Management System

Theme: Quality Improvement

Expected Pilot Duration: 3 Months

Challenge Summary

Quality management system for Carbon Anode & Rod for identification and tracking at Stamping unit.

Challenge Scenario

The consumption of carbon anodes influences the process in primary aluminum production and contributes to maximum operational cost incurred. Therefore, one prerequisite for efficient smelter operation is to ensure consistent supply of high quality anodes.

Tracking, monitoring and prediction of the anode quality are major factors that determine efficient operational performance. Currently, there is no tracking system for the Anode and Rod associated with the anode and the data on anode parameters- vibration duration, weight, density, pitch content, type of carbon raw materials, etc are non-traceable too. Additionally, rejection of low quality anode is conducted manually based on anode weight, cracking over anode and surface uniformity.

The rejection amount is 8.2% (GAP rejection 5%, Bakeoven 3%, Rodding 0.2%) per month. 2200 anodes are rejected out of 28000 anodes utilized/taken for the smelting process.

The manual inspection of anode leading to batching of low quality anode among good quality ones, impacts the smelter performance. With ARTS solution in place, process optimization, quality improvement and man-hour savings are the desired outcomes.

Profile of the end users

Operation Team

Responsible for running the system in an optimized way by checking all critical parameters including site Safety condition.

Maintenance Team

Responsible for monitoring all the design parameters during maintenance activity and completion of job within time-period with Zero LTI/ FTI

Solution Requirements

Tracking of Anode & Rod in real time.

Analyze & predict the anode quality to reduce the cost of operations.

Dashboard visualization for Rejection & Production batch, Quality assurance/check, number of damaged anodes.

To monitor rejection before batch or lot allocation of anode production. Mixing parameters for preparation of anode to be traced back to PLC.

Ability of the solution to ensure that the following quality parameters are taken into consideration:

Anode Weight

Vibrating duration

Anode height

Calculated green apparent density

Production data for the paste plant operation such as pitch content, mixer power, dry aggregate recipe, type of carbon raw materials

Installation/Integration: Solution should be easily integrable with the existing systems, without any major modifications.

Data Interface and connectivity: Industry standard security licenses should be available for solutions.

Security: Industry standard security licenses should be available for solutions.

Cost of the Existing Technology: Stamping unit Dot code system employed for anode quality verification is expensive

Expected Outcomes

1. Quantified Metrics & Outcomes:

Operational KPIs/Metrics	Current Value	Expected Target Value
Electric resistivity of anode.	58.07	56.50
Reduction of the rejected Anode Quantity	2200 rejections out of 28000 per month	Reduction by 20% or Reduce 440 rejections per month

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