Industrial application of multivariate SPC to continuous caster start-up operations for breakout prevention

Breakouts are of major concern in the continuous steel-casting process, because they can lead to severe damage to equipment, significant process downtime, and potential safety consequences. Dofasco's plant experiences show that approximately 25% of breakouts occur during the caster start-up operation. This paper describes an advanced industrial application of the Multiway Principal Component Analysis (MPCA) method to monitor continuous caster start-up operations in real time and to prevent breakout occurrences and other start-up process failures. The online monitoring system has been successfully commissioned at Dofasco's No. 2 Continuous Caster. Two operational examples are included in this paper to demonstrate the improved economic performance.