At no other place in the steel mill is process reliability as important as at the blast and arc furnaces. For once it is commissioned, a blast furnace is used around the clock over the course of years – hardly possible without continuous water cooling and replenishment.

And just as critical to the process: absolutely reliable immunity to magnetic fields, safe inflow and outflow of gas when producing pig iron in the blast furnace, exact positioning of the electrodes in the arc furnace as well as controlling the conveying equipment. These are reasons enough to focus on every single detail.

Balluff solutions take over control functions at critical positions: our pressure sensors reliably measure water and air pressure. Magnetostrictive linear position sensors or inductive standard sensors monitor flap opening for controlling air intake and exhaust in the blast furnace. And in the electric arc furnace weld-spatter-resistant and magnetic field-immune inductive sensors check the precise position of the electrodes before they are properly gripped, assisted by color sensors.

Application examples