Achievements with the yield improvement technology in a BOF plant

The yield improvement technology concept is a new high-tech information technology (IT) concept, applied to the steel making process, which provides a tool to continually, from heat to heat in real time, successively optimise the process yield and improve the precision of aim in the alloying procedures, in practice providing considerable yield improvement. The paper covers the theoretical background of the yield improvement concept, as well as its implementation and practical experience, with remarkable economical out-come at the Vallourec-Mannesmann do Brasil, BOF plant in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. Since the implementation at the BOF in late 1998 up to midyear 2000 an improvement in total yield of 3.4 % has been recorded, with a payback on the minor investment in less than 6 months.