Baowu Group Bayi Steel’s intelligent hot-rolled coil warehouse

—— Achieving intelligent warehousing for steel

Bayi Steel’s hot mill now boasts China’s first intelligent, unmanned warehouse to the standard set by Industry 4.0.

Operational since May, the warehouse is capable of autonomous driving, smart warehousing and machine vision.

As a result, processes including truck outbound, walking beam offloading, warehouse pile switchover and transfer car reloading can operate without the need for workers.

The seven ‘smart’ cranes at the warehouse are also unmanned and across the warehouse, the number of manual operators required has been reduced by at least 50 per cent. The highest reduction in manpower requirements has been made in high-heat and hazardous posts.

Outbound efficiency can be improved by 50 per cent; the maximum lifting capacity has been increased by more than 10 per cent and in addition, the risk of damaging coil which can occur during lifting or transportation is greatly reduced.

CISDI’s intelligent warehousing expertise can also be seen at Zhanjiang Steel’s all-weather wharf, a rebuild and transformation project which has greatly reduced manpower requirements.

Conventional wharfs rely heavily on manual operators for machine scheduling and lifting and loading coil product onto ships. Working conditions are usually poor and fraught with safety hazards.

CISDI’s intelligent solutions to these problems - the driver-less crane, warehousing intelligent control and machine vision - enable the entire wharf to operate with 50 per cent fewer staff.

Online operation takes total control of machinery at the port and enables machinery inside the ship’s cabin to run with reduced labour.

The intelligent control desk at Bayi Steel’s hot-rolled coil warehouse

The intelligent hot mill coil warehouse at Bayi Steel now has unmanned operations, which makes it safer and more efficient

Zhanjiang Steel’s all-weather wharf is now working intelligently and autonomously