New technologies for the full traceability in steel process chain.

Purpose and goal

Aim of the study is to identify and test new ID marking and reading techniques to trace materials and products within the steel production chain. Four technical challenges have been defined 1) ID marking 2 ) ID reading 3) ID decoding and 4) data management where we focused technical studies on 3) decoding of ID-marked steel in Ovako´s process.

Expected results and effects

The project has highlighted the conditions for full traceability through the entire process chain, and has generated a guide for the implementation of ID technology in the steel process. This will serve as a basis decision making and implementation for steel industry. The project has identified the following priority areas 1) development algorithms for decoding 1) IT strategies within the companies 3) new ways of working to connect skills. An important effect of the project is the building of networks within for continued cooperation and future research work.

Planned approach and implementation

Three case studies at been studied at Sandvik SMT, Uddeholm and Ovako. These have resulted in a guide for common guidelines for implementation and identified priority area for development is the decoding of labeled materials. A large amount of images with ID data from Ovako´s process has therefore been trained and tested for various machine learning models in technical studies. Successful outcome has been to interconnect expertise from IT development, automation and process development, through workshops and plants visits, creating new platform further collaboration and training