Modern production of heavy plates for construction applications - controlling production processes and quality

Modern steel and pressure vessel construction requires heavy plates with tailored properties. In addition to satisfying quality standards, delivery on schedule is an important requirement for building projects. To show how these demands on actual deployment of plates are realized, this paper discusses methods for optimum production planning and production control where the focus is upon improving the flow of work, thus gradually eliminating unevenness across the system to realize the demands. Owing to the complexity of the heavy plate production process, computer-based modelling of material flow processes is presented as a suitable tool. In addition, important aspects of quality assurance and quality control during the production of high-performance plates are summarized. The quality characteristics of the plates are suitable surface quality, flatness, dimensional accuracy und mechanical and technological properties. How these features are controlled during the production of heavy plates is presented systematically.