New rail cars handle super hot iron at steel plants

Six torpedo-shaped container cars, each capable of carrying 335 tons of super hot molten iron, rolled off the production line at a plant in Dalian, Liaoning province, on Saturday.

Sources at Dalian Huarui Heavy Industry Group Co said the cars are part of the world's first batch of intelligent devices for moving molten metal at a steel plant from one process to another and will help reduce carbon emissions.

The cars — known as ladle cars — are designed to move hot iron via a railway-type track from the iron-smelting section of the plant to the steel-making section. Depending on the plant, that can be from 1 to 8 kilometers.

Each car is equipped with driving controls and a power supply. They operate unmanned through electronic navigation systems and can automatically and independently roll away on the tracks from the loading source when their tanks are full without waiting for tractors to pull them.

The new vehicles increase efficiency by 2.5 times, thereby saving fuel and getting the molten iron to the next production stage while it’s still as hot as possible.

The ladle cars use an efficient motor controller and a magnetic synchronous motor that are widely used in new energy vehicles. Costs are reduced by as much as 50 percent for the transport process.

Sources at the manufacturer said that China Baowu Steel Group, a top Chinese steelmaker, had ordered 20 of the cars. Fourteen more are expected to be delivered by the end of July.