SSDs in embedded control: cold rolling steel in old European factories, Part 2, now with photos

Back in May, the Denali Memory Report covered an industrial application for SSDs involving a European steel mill. The SSD-based control system was designed and implemented by Christian Lequeux of CL Consulting in Belgium. Monsieur Lequeux was kind enough to send some really interesting photos and some additional explanation. He writes that the SSDs were ideal for this application because the control system sits in an electrical cabinet beside the cold-rolling mill and it’s quite hot there, especially during the summer. “Hard disks don’t like that,” he writes. Just to refresh your memory, the control system manages a welder that must attach a new steel coil to the end of another coil that’s just about to disappear into the cold-rolling equipment. The welding operation must perform a flawless weld every 12 minutes all day, every day or else there will be a break in the continuous feed of stock and production will halt until the stock can be rethreaded into the rolling mill. Sometimes, work halts for as much as 72 hours, which really hurts profitability. So there’s a real need for a reliable system that makes perfect welds each and every time. Although there’s 12 minutes or so of dead time between welds, things get really busy when it’s time to make a weld and the SSD’s speed is a real asset, according to Lequeux.

Here are some photos from the installation courtesy of Monsieur Lequeux:


Cold Rolling Steel Mill


Cold Rolling Steel Mill Electrical Cabinets


Welding Operation in Action


Welding Operation Closeup