Bluescope Steel #5 Blast Furnace Stave Exchange

K&R Fabrications was the first contracting company in Australia to change a Blast Furnace Stave over the top of the bath of molten iron and coke in January 2014.



Working closely with Bluescope Steel on exchanging ideas to complete the job in the most timely but safest way possible. the scope. K&R prepared all of the new staves as well as developed and executed some of the crew training.

The work was done over five one week shutdowns with eight staves changed in the first

shutdown and 46 staves changed in the last. K&R Fabrication had a crew of up to 224 people on the project – whilst still crewing up for key customers outside the blast furnace project.

During the August 2014 shutdown there were high winds and heavy horizontal driven rain.

The normal method of using a large mobile crane to lift staves up and down could not be used. K&R successfully implemented BlueScope’s plan to use trolleys, monorails, a winch system and the personnel lift to get the staves up and down. Client representatives made the comment that they had never before seen people continue to work as our crews did in such poor weather conditions. K&R’s Furnace Top crew continued to work in the driving rain whilst soaked to the skin for their full 12 hour shift.

The # 5 Blast Furnace Stave exchange project involved removing the worn out staves (water cooled copper blocks) from inside the hot furnace and replacing them with new ones above the bath of molten iron and coke. The job is unique in Australia and involves the staves being lowered in through the furnace top on winches and then being transferred to supporting wire ropes to allow them to swing close to their point of installation. The crews then use long gaffs poked through the furnace shell to capture small wire ropes attached to the staves. These ropes are pulled through the shell and allow the stave to be winched to position. 

Project unique characteristics include:

• High level concise radio communication was required as crews were in three different areas and couldn’t see each other but coordinated the lifting and positioning of the staves.
• Specialised training to achieve the gaffing, pushing and winching home of the staves.
• Extremely hot, humid and confined working space where the gaffing, gouging, bolting and welding activities take place.
• Subtle differences from one stave to the next which complicates the work.
• High quality welding is required because the 55mm thick shell of the furnace is a pressure vessel.
• K&R developed scale models for training and – together with BlueScope – set up a full scale t

K&R developed several major initiatives during this project including developing scale models for training and – together with BlueScope – set up a full scale training plant which used two mobile cranes, a trial stave and a full sized segment of furnace shell.

We were extremely fortunate to have a client who appreciated the significant gains from these initiatives and was happy to let us develop them. K&R assisted BlueScope with many technical changes and engineering improvements during the project. This included a strong collaborative effort to work out the best removal and installation sequences.