Wuhan Iron & Steel Co Ltd has engaged Siemens to bring the process control technology in its hot rolling mill no 2 up to the state of the art.

The process control system will be upgraded to Simatic PCS7 version V7, the associated computer architecture will also be modernized and a new operating system installed. The existing plant configuration will be largely retained. The upgrade concept allows for the upgrade of the process control system to be carried out within a period of ten days in Summer 2012.

Wisco hot rolling mill no 2 at Wuhan, in the Hubei Province was brought into operation in 2003. It is equipped with a Siemens automation solution based on the Siroll HM plant concept. So far a Simatic PCS7 V5.2 has been used for the control system, while the system software has run on Windows NT computers. The rolling mill has a capacity of about 4.5 million tonnes per annum. It produces hot strip ranging in width from 700mm to 2130 millimeters and in thickness between 1.6 and 25.4 millimeters.

Wisco decided to completely modernize the process control system in order to keep pace with the rapid development of PC hardware and to be able to take advantage of the latest Simatic PCS7 functions and the Siroll components in use. This will be done by upgrading the control system to Simatic PSC7 version V7. In future, Windows XP will be the operating system on the client PCs, and the visualization and development servers will run under Windows 2003 Server. Once the control system has been upgraded, it will be easier to integrate new automation components, plant specific applications and technological control systems.