• As part of its GREENSTEEL sustainability strategy, LIBERTY Galati is introducing systems for monitoring and cyber-managing of the production processes
• Preparation for modernization by automation of the rolling equipment
• Implementing digital solutions for interacting with LIBERTY Galati’s customers and employees

LIBERTY Galati, the largest steel producer of integrated steel in Romania, has launched a series of projects to digitize and automate processes, ensuring the cyber monitoring and management of steel production, as well as improving the interaction with customers and employees. These projects, developed by LIBERTY’s teams of specialists with the support of prestigious suppliers, support the global GREENSTEEL strategy of the LIBERTY Steel Group, in the center of which lies LIBERTY Galati.

Paramjit Kahlon, CEO of LIBERTY Steel Group Primary Steel & Mining, stated: “Our group wants to transform LIBERTY Galati into a company of the future through improved sustainability, digitalization and upskilling. We aim to become sustainable and carbon neutral by 2030, but this means not only implementing projects to improve the carbon footprint but also the fundamental modernization of our processes. We believe that digitalization and automation play a crucial role in transforming our company.”

LIBERTY Galati is currently running a range of important projects in all areas of activity, from cyber manufacturing management to digital interaction with employees such as:

• a system that monitors the plant’s production levels in real time over thousands of key parameters and provides an accurate and instant digital image of production processes, the technical condition of equipment, quality, volumes made – the number of indicators the system can monitor will continue to increase over the next few months;
• intelligent sensors which have been installed on fluid networks [grids] to monitor flows, air and water quality, chemical indicators, in order to proactively protect the environment and equipment;
• a project that monitors the alternative current motors, collects data, sends it to the cloud, analyses and then issues early warnings of potential malfunctions, which allows maintenance teams to avoid unplanned shutdowns.

In order to increase the efficiency and improving the quality of its products, the company will continue to modernize the Hot Strip Mill through automation and will install up, to the end of this year, equipment to assist the rolling and making the operator works easier. This project is part of a series of investments in automation equipment, such as the state-of-the-art coating pipes line for LIBERTY Tubular Products, purchased this year and the investment to reduce the energy consumption and carbon emission by controlled injecting oxygen in the hot metal production process, implemented last year. This equipment is fully automated and provides with modern safety, measurement and control systems.

Also, in order to improve the interaction with the customers and employees. Several digital applications have been launched to set employees’ goals, analyze and evaluate their achievements and provide virtual and virtual feedback. While customers are benefitting from an app which allows them to have an easier and more effective interaction with LIBERTY Galati teams as well as providing an information hub for our partners.

Aida Nechifor, General Director of LIBERTY Galati, added: “All these digitalization and automation projects are being implemented to help our teams to produce steel more effectively and more safely. This is why, on the one hand, we are implementing professional upskilling programs in order to support the teams to use the automatized equipment, and, on the other hand, we are seeking young IT specialists to use their expertise in order to support us make a difference by radical changing our industry.”

The new automation and digitalization projects are supporting the LIBERTY Steel’s global sustainability strategy GREENSTEEL which brings together the recycling of scrap, producing renewable energy as well as introducing new and revolutionary technologies to reduce the carbon emission from the primary steel production.