TISCO is the world’s largest stainless steel producer and a market leader in stainless, special steels and high-grade carbon steels. TISCO is a fully integrated producer, with mines, processing plants and service centers throughout China, and Shanxi’s largest employer with revenues of 200 billion RMB.
Among the most modern steel producers in the world, TISCO has invested heavily in production, processing and environmental technology in the last decade.
After the start-up of its first modern stainless steel Annealing & Pickling Line (APL), TISCO realized that a method for rapid and accurate analysis of the pickling process was necessary to eliminate production concerns. After installation of two additional APLs, problems of high acid usage, the ever-growing environmental impact and the need to improve productivity and surface quality became apparent.
Since 1999, Scanacon has supplied the SA70 Acid Manager to all seven stainless steel flat rolled product APLs at Taiyuan Works. Additionally, at Taiyuan, TISCO also has purchased the SA70 for its wire, heavy plate and extruded tubular products pickling lines, and its central laboratory. At Tianjin and Linfeng Works, Scanacon has supplied the SA70 for the existing APLs, and SA70s to two new Hot Rolled Annealing & Pickling Lines (HAPL) and Direct Roll Anneal & Pickling Lines (DRAPL) at Taiyuan Works commissioned in 2013. In all, Scanacon has supplied 14 SA70s to TISCO.
In addition to acid analyzers, Scanacon has supplied five complete acid management systems to TISCO consisting of acid recovery and filtration systems to TISCO’s CAPLs, HAPL and Combi-APL and four additional systems were later supplied for the four new APLs commissioned in 2013. In total, more than 14,000 Liters/hr of pickling acid filtration and recovery capacity is currently operational at TISCO, with an additional 10,000 Liters/hr installed in 2013.
Since 1999, Scanacon’s SA70 has been an important production tool for TISCO’s line operators and Quality Assurance staff. With future APLs increasing in speed, capacity and TISCO’s need to manage the finishing of multiple, high value steel grades, the requirement of the SA70 to monitor the pickling line chemistry becomes increasingly important.
All supplied acid recovery and filtration systems have exceeded the guaranteed figures, resulting in total acid savings of 35–40 percent for HF and 45–50 percent for HNO3. In addition to total acid savings, Scanacon's systems have maintained consistent process concentrations in the pickling tanks and continuously removed sludge, which improves productivity in the lines. Finally, reduced acid consumption results in reduced environmental impact and less hazardous work for the employees.
Due to past successes and ever-growing co-operation between Scanacon and TISCO for 13 years, we expect that there will be many more projects in the years to come.
Scanacon has supplied multiple complete acid management solutions to TISCO including:
"Scanacon is a reliable and innovative company with a good service organization. We bought our first analyzer from them in 1999 and we have kept buying analyzers and recovery systems ever since."
- TISCO APL Manager
