Case study: Restoration of a blast furnace stoves safety automation

Iron making is one of the most impressive processes in the metal industry. The process involves the management of hundreds of tons of solid and liquid metal and of huge amounts of heat and weight in a not stoppable continuous transformation. The authors were involved in the revamping of the complete automation system of a huge blast furnace. The restoration consisted in the replacement of a vintage discrete relay based automation with a modern PLC based system and included the development of the safety system dedicated to the management of the blast furnace stoves. The aim of the paper is to describe the development process of the stoves safety system.