CIVS Presents Smart Ladle at 2021 AIST Digital Transformation Forum

CIVS Research Engineer, Nicholas Walla(Nick), presented “Smart Ladle: An AI-based Tool for Optimizing Casting Temperature” at the virtual 2021 AIST Digital Transformation Forum on May 18th. Nick presented the Smart Ladle, which describes the motivation, methods, and results of developing the Smart Ladle machine learning tool for use in the steel industry to an international audience of the steel industry and machine learning professionals.  While the attendees including those from a variety of professional backgrounds, a common theme of the conference were “Industry 4.0”, which encompasses the growing use of AI, big data, digitization, and smart technologies in modern manufacturing.

Smart Ladle is an ongoing project to develop a machine-learning tool that uses industry process data to predict future behavior in the steel refining and casting processes. Originally started as part of an AIST Digital Transformation grant, the Smart Ladle has since become a continuing project as part of the Steel Manufacturing Simulation and Visualization Consortium (SMSVC) Refining Ladle project.  Working with the SMSVC industry partners, CIVS students and faculty have developed a machine learning tool to process steel production data and build correlations between various production logs and sensor measurements to enable the prediction of steel temperatures at a critical stage of the steel manufacturing process.  Implementation of the Smart Ladle is currently underway at SDI Butler Division.