Supporting the Industrial Transition from Conventional to Sustainable Steels through Data Driven Operation Support

The European iron and steel industry is committed to global climate goals, aiming to reduce CO2 emissions from production by at least 50% compared to 1990 levels by 2030, achieving carbon neutrality (zero net emissions) by 2050, while keeping 330.000 direct jobs and 150 Mt/year of steel production in Europe [1]. One way to achieve this is through the transition from the conventional Blast Furnace (BF) / Basic Oxygen Furnace (BOF) route for steel making to an Electric Arc Furnace (EAF) route combined with an increased scrap contents in the produced steel grades. With an increased scrap contents there is a potential for a higher occurrence of in-coil material parameter variation. Today, process windows for sheet metal forming operations are determined during the home line try-out where a small series of blanks, often from a single coil, is used not accounting for large variations in incoming material.