Success Story: Rebar cutting optimisation using a cloud computing environment

NCC presenting the success story

NCC Spain

Client/user profile:

A company specialized in software tools for steel cutting and bending companies (a sector in constant technological evolution and growth). The company has focused its activity on the program development of process optimization of iron for reinforced concrete.

Impact:

Steel waste reduction (which means cost savings), and personnel cost reduction.

Key points before agreeing on project:

• Data confidentiality
• IPR
• Efficient implementation
• Secured infrastructure access
• Migration to client infrastructure

Technical/scientific Challenge:

The challenge faced was to modify a software to run in a HPC-Cloud environment instead of using a local PC. The goal was to reduce the number of computing hours to minutes even for large-scale optimizations.

An additional goal was to develop a graphical user interface to guide the optimizations. The modified software would serve as a database portal to optimize functions in the Cloud and customers would be able to carry out cutting process simulations with minimal cost and effort.

Solution:

A company specialized in software tools for steel cutting and bending companies (a sector in constant technological evolution and growth). The company has focused its activity on the program development of process optimization of iron for reinforced concrete.

Benefits:

A large foundry produces 2000 tons of steel bars per month. By using high-level optimization based on the use of the Cloud, steel waste can be reduced by 2% (480 tons per year). Given that the average price of steel is 500 € per ton, this represents a saving of 240000 € per year, compared to a saving of only 60000 € per year using low level optimizations on PC. optimizations on PC. Additionally, by using high-level optimizations, there is an associated saving in personnel costs of 30000 €per year.