Bethlehem Steel Hot Strip Mill Reversing Rougher and Coil Box CBT/EPSS
In this hot strip mill, pliable hot bars of steel would enter one end on a series of controlled tables. An operator would control the feed of one bar at a time into the Reversing Rougher, a large series of vertical and horizontal rollers that move the bar back and forth through the Rougher while the rollers spread the short, thick bar into an extremely long, thin sheet of steel. Once the transformation to sheet was complete, tables on the other side of the Rougher would pass it through the coil box which cooled the metal until it was then wound onto a spool at the other end of the hot strip mill, and shipped.
The Operator sat up in a control room above the process, so that the entire length of the strip mill was visible. A bank of pushbutton controls surrounded the operator seat along with a few computer controls and monitors, above which was an observation window of the mill, and above that was a bank of 15 monitors that mostly showed live video feeds from various points in the process. The operator used all of these controls and monitors to ensure each bar was processed correctly. The operator controlled the process with a combination of computer and pushbutton controls, all from the control room.
Any damage to the machine was insanely expensive, and downtime wasn’t much better, so it was a high-pressure job for one individual per shift.
The CBT portion covered the basics of operation to include components, flows, computers, operation, shutdown, and startup. As each procedure was presented, the learner practiced the steps as they were taught. So, they could select a place on a computer screen, input numbers on the keypad, and select pushbuttons.
The EPSS covered the specifics of startup, operation, shutdown, emergency procedures, maintenance, and troubleshooting.
My role as ID was to gather all research, observe the operator and document his actions, develop the design document and then build the program in Toolbook 3.0, using Photoshop to do the computer screen mockups. The program then ran on a separate computer in the control room.
