Recently, Design & Research Institute Co., Ltd. (DRI),USTBsuccessfully won the tender for the intelligent centralized control project of Nanjing Steel Group’s No.7 heat treatment line (general contractor: CERI Phoenix Furnace). This marks another in-depth cooperation between the two parties following the medium plate and coil heat treatment centralized control demonstration line delivered in 2021, and constitutes the fourth intelligent centralized control engineering project for heat treatment production lines delivered by DRI.

In 2021, DRI built China’s first centralized control demonstration line for medium plate heat treatment for Nanjing Steel Group, setting an industry benchmark for intelligent retrofitting. Over the past five years, the demonstration line has operated stably and efficiently, delivering remarkable digitalization-driven quality and efficiency improvements that have earned consistent recognition from enterprise management and frontline staff.

Unlike the traditional "construction first, retrofitting later" model, this intelligent centralized control project for the new No.7 heat treatment line integrates a centralized management and control system at the engineering planning stage. A unified central control room covers the full workflow from shot blasting feeding to finished product delivery and auxiliary supporting systems, enabling centralized operator duty and unified cross-site regulation. Centered on four core systems – full-domain IoT connectivity, digital management and control, intelligent equipment and scenario-based applications – the project restructures the entire production operation framework.

It fully unblocks data links across all equipment to eliminate information silos between processes, deploys dual hot-standby servers to guarantee uninterrupted production, and enables real-time visualization and full traceability of material status throughout the workflow. Upstream integration with enterprise MES, ERP and other management systems supports automatic distribution of production parameters and automatic feedback of production data; downstream, it is equipped with digital stack management, intelligent dynamic production scheduling, energy management and control, equipment operation maintenance, quality traceability and other digital modules, forming a closed-loop digital management and control system covering all production processes.

A suite of intelligent equipment will replace repetitive, high-risk manual operations: intelligent marking systems, AI plate number recognition, high-precision visual measurement and online surface inspection devices will be deployed to standardize steel plate marking, enable automatic dimensional detection and full lifecycle production traceability. This shifts quality control from post-process sampling inspection to real-time in-process prevention and control while reducing on-site labor demand.

Next, leveraging USTB’s industry-university-research resources and adhering to the philosophy of "Seeking Truth and Forging Innovation", DRI will complete project design, equipment supply, commissioning and delivery to stringent standards. It will continue to deepen its presence in the intelligent transformation track for iron and steel heat treatment lines, and support the green, low-carbon and efficient transformation of the iron and steel industry through digital and intelligent technologies.