In June, Schad completed a large re-conditioning project on a reheat furnace at an Ohio integrated steel mill. The project was a challenge in that it had an ambitious schedule, required contributions from multiple trades, and involved work in various areas of the furnace. As a result, the project required a great deal of communication as well as a vast set of skills in order to complete.
The project team had 16 days to perform a complete skid rail replacement, pre-heat zone standpipe replacement, removal and replacement of refractory materials associated with the skid rails, recuperator wall, pre-heat burner wall, the leading edge of the hearth, and the charge wall.
“The Schad bricklayers had to demonstrate a very dynamic skill set in order to complete this work,” said Schad site manager Rich Hull. “The guys installed gunite, shotcrete, plastic, pre-cast shapes, ceramic anchors, and metallic anchors,” he continued.
The overall project plan was revised several times as dates and work activities shifts. Schad had to work with the project team to make plans to keep the project on schedule and get the furnace lit on-time. As is often expected in the refractory trade, Schad is the last contractor to have access to the work area and often becomes the critical path. At one-point, during the outage, Schad ran two combination shot-crete pumps continuously for two shifts in order to install the required material. “Using our two pumps we were able to shoot over 160,000 pounds of material in about two and a half hours,” remarked Hull.
With a lot of hard work from the entire project team, the furnace dry-out was started 12 hours ahead of schedule. “We really appreciate the effort from everybody involved. The customer and the work are demanding and it took a great commitment to see this project through,” said project manager, Matt Kuderik. “We’re looking forward to working with everybody on the next one.”
If you’re interested in how Schad can add value to your next furnace outage, reach out to us today!