One of the leading Enterprise Artificial Intelligence® providers, Noodle.ai and SMS digital, the digitalization experts of SMS group today launched MPV (Mechanical Properties Variability), the first joint AI-driven application for the steel industry following the announcement of their partnership in June 2019.
As steel industry margins continue to shrink, one promising way for manufacturers to increase profitability is to pursue more advanced, high-strength steel production for applications such as automotive and electrical. However, production of these advanced steel grades requires much tighter control of the overall production process, which is impacted by numerous parameters across the mill.
The MPV application utilizes artificial intelligence and machine learning to create a unique 'sense, predict, and recommend' framework that addresses challenges associated with the variability of mechanical properties in steel production. Mechanical properties include things such as yield strength, tensile strength, and elongation. The application senses patterns within mill data to fully understand the drivers of mechanical property variability. It then predicts when increased variability will occur and recommends the optimal input parameters, or PDI (Process Data Inputs) settings, required to optimize target mechanical properties such as yield strength, tensile strength, and elongation.
As a result, the MPV application can help steel manufacturers achieve cost savings three ways: by reducing mechanical properties variability, reducing alloy costs due to better variability control, and minimizing out-of-spec production, which are sold as secondary grades or scrapped. One steel manufacturer using MPV is anticipating savings two million US dollars per year.
