Pittsburgh-based Management Science Associates reports it supplied software for melt-shop scrap optimization and scrap loading to Algoma Steel, Sault Ste. Marie, ON.  Patrick J. Gallagher, vice president of MSA’s Metals and Advanced Manufacturing division, said these programs should help Algoma to achieve “significant cost savings in their raw-material purchases and production costs.”

MSA’s Melt Shop Scrap Optimization System offers a scrap-purchasing optimization model that determines the most cost-effective mix of raw materials needed to meet chemical, scheduling, and residual constraints. The program has “built-in sensitivity analysis” that allows Algoma to compare various scrap supplies, and demonstrates how different choices compare in terms of cost with respect to the model’s criteria.

The steelmaking scrap-charge model calculates the types and amounts of scrap needed for a charge, based on the scrap currently in the charge box and the steel grade being produced. The charge-box loading instructions that the model delivers for each heat, including the amount and types of scrap to be loaded, are relayed to a crane operator as part of the scrap-loading system.

MSA also supplied a box-tracking system for Algoma, to track scrap boxes as they are delivered for staging and loading to the melting furnace.