Designing a casthouse for billet is a complex activity. The billet casthouse must be properly sized to optimize the metal flow, and continuously feed the homogenization shop, while bearing in mind that oversizing adds no value and is costly. To solve this problem, it is necessary to accurately analyze the operations of the casthouse in real time and this requires a discrete simulation model.
Gwenola Jaouen of Rio Tinto Alcan Smelter Technology in Voreppe Cedex, France developed an ExtendSim model containing a library that includes all the necessary equipment: conveyors, continuous and batch furnaces, and finishing stations. The model was used to design an expended casthouse which requests the management of complex product mixes and which challenges the robustness and flexibility of the installation. By combining this model with the metal flow sizing model, it was possible to validate the performance of the design and its impact on casthouse operation. This resulted in a shop designed for customer needs, at optimal cost.
Project details were presented at TMS (The Minerals, Metals and Materials Society) 2011 Annual Meeting & Exhibition in March of 2011 at the San Diego Convention Center, San Diego, California.