Steel plants rarely get a long clean shutdown. Most of this work happens in a four-hour window against a plant that is otherwise running — which is why a method needing no confined-space permit, no gas testing and no rescue standby team is worth more here than anywhere else.

Where we work in your plant

Sinter hoppers and bunkers — hot, abrasive material bridged across the outlet
DRI and sponge iron hoppers — hot discharge and packed fines
Slag hoppers and pits — set and fused material no vibrator will move
Flux and additive bunkers — lime, dolomite and limestone caked with moisture
Iron ore fines bins — wet fines that bridge, particularly through the monsoon
Uptake pipes and furnace build-up — cleared from outside the shell
Blast furnace applications, including hearth work

Material detail: sinter, DRI and slag hopper cleaning.

The rest of the plant, while it is still running

Storage vessels are where most people start, but the accretions that actually cost a steel plant campaign days are further into the process. All of the following are cleared on line — the unit stays in production.

Blast furnace chokes

Accretions narrowing the throat and stack, cleared through wall sockets without banking the furnace down.

Dustcatcher & downcomer

Gas-cleaning plant packs with dust and slows the whole offtake. Both are cleared from outside the shell.

Slag pot deskulling

The skull left frozen to a slag pot after tipping. Broken out in place rather than by hand with a rod.

Coke battery & larry car

Frozen coal plugs stop a coke battery dead. Coal feeders, chutes and the larry car itself are cleared without waiting for a thaw.

Iron ore pelletising

Build-up in the preheat zone and grate kiln, taken off at temperature.

Waelz & grate kilns

Ring build-up in Waelz and Lepol grate kilns — the same technique used on cement rotary kilns, at the same clearances.

Frozen coal is a winter problem with a summer cost. A plugged coal silo or coke battery is usually attacked with a rodding port, and rodding is largely ineffective against a plug that has set. A tube through a socket clears the plug and the bridge above it in one go.

Why the method suits steel

Hoppers here are smaller than cement silos and blockages sit at the cone and outlet. That suits the Cardox CO₂ System — a tube through a wall socket breaks the blockage in milliseconds — better than a boom lowered from above. Larger bunkers still get the whipping system for wall build-up.

Everything works at temperature. Nothing cools down first, which is the difference between a job that fits your window and one that does not.

Delivered for leading Indian steel and sponge iron producers. Client names held in confidence unless agreed otherwise.

Steel & Sponge Iron Plants