The operator of a casting plant in an integrated smelting works in the USA realised during the nightshift that the ladle delivered by the steelworks filled with 30 tonnes of liquid steel could not be properly registered for casting due to network problems. This could have had dramatic consequences: if the smelt data had not been entered within 30 minutes, the refining process would have to be interrupted, as only the correct labelling of the produced slabs by the marking machine ensures that they can be sold.

So the operator immediately contacted the hotline at SMS Siemag AG in Düsseldorf and informed the service staff of the problem. It was all systems go: a service engineer used the support portal symmedia SP/1 to connect to the customer system and entered the missing smelt data within 10 minutes.

The casting process was able to be launched normally and 30 tonnes of steel was saved thanks to online troubleshooting