It was urgent: The existing machine for debricking the converter in the plant was not available, and the new UNIDACHS 640 with a telescopic stroke of 4,000 mm had already been delivered, but our commissioning engineers were not allowed to enter the plant due to the pandemic situation. Nevertheless, the production in the steel plant should continue without interruption.
In this situation, we proposed a remote on-line commissioning from our Kolkata office... a premier for both our client's team and for us. Due to the many years of successful cooperation, JSW‘s management agreed without hesitation.
We chose Microsoft Teams as the platform and sent the customer all manuals and operating instructions as PDFs in advance of the video calls. As a first step, we trained the future operators online for two days, followed by the six-strong maintenance team and finally the hydraulic and electrical specialists. Not one of our colleagues where at any time in the customer's plant during this procedure.
During the initial work on the converter vessel, we accompanied and supported the operators with Whatsapp video calls.
The on-line commissioning was so successful that JSW declared the formal acceptance of the UNIDACHS immediately after the virtual commissioning had taken place.
The UNIDACHS has been working on the converter since May 2021 - the steel plant is working at full capacity.
All participants confirmed that working virtually on the screen and with the documents as PDF was much easier than they had previously anticipated.
Our TML team in India (from left to right)
S V SWAPNALATHA --> Direktor
S R SHANKAR --> Direktor
KAMAL MANDAL --> Assistant
ASHISH KUMAR --> Technical Manager
PRAVEEN KUMAR --> Accountant
B V K KISHORE --> Technical Manager
“Thanks to virtual commissioning, the new UNIDACHS started work just a few days after arriving at the plant. If we would have had to wait until we were allowed to enter the plant, it would have taken weeks or even months. Before the pandemic, we could never have imagined being able to carry out such a commissioning job in the steel mill without one of our colleagues actually being physically on site.”
ASHISH KUMAR
Technical Manager, TML India
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Florian Merfeld Phone: +49 2173 9575 206