Editor's Note
This editor’s note highlights the key facts and market implications behind “Gwangyang Steelworks Develops ‘Quality Equipment”, with emphasis on sourcing, product fit, fabrication, logistics, or buyer impact.
Posco Gwangyang Steelworks has developed PIMS-Q (Posco Intelligent Maintenance System-Quality), a quality equipment anomaly prediction system, marking the first of its kind among all of Posco's business sites.
According to Posco Gwangyang Steelworks on the 20th, PIMS-Q, developed by the EIC Technology Department in collaboration with the Hot Rolling Department and the Quality Technology Department, is a comprehensive monitoring system capable of frequently identifying basic data on quality equipment—production facilities directly linked to product quality.
It was developed to monitor equipment and immediately identify anomalies based on various data, including temperature, flow rate, and pressure, which can affect the final quality of products such as width and thickness.
In particular, the real-time monitoring based on data enables immediate response in the event of equipment abnormalities.
Through this, it is expected to proactively prevent various defects that may occur in manufactured products and significantly improve quality.
For example, in the hot rolling process, high-pressure water is sprayed to remove iron oxide from slabs to improve surface quality; however, if the pressure of the high-pressure water is insufficient during this process, the iron oxide may not be sufficiently removed, potentially leading to quality defects. By monitoring pressure data in real-time with PIMS-Q and ensuring the constant injection of high-pressure water at an appropriate pressure, it becomes possible to prevent such quality defects.
In addition, by monitoring various basic data in real-time—such as monitoring appropriate cooling temperatures to maintain and improve the quality of hot-rolled products and monitoring equipment bearing temperatures to prevent heating defects in slabs—it has become possible to proactively block and respond to factors that could affect quality.
Previously, Gwangyang Steelworks completed the installation of PIMS-Q at all hot-rolling plants by the previous month, creating an environment where workers can remotely monitor equipment from control rooms in the operations departments.
The company plans to sequentially expand its application to other plants, including steelmaking, cold rolling, and plating, by this coming June.
Kim Tae-won, Head of the EIC Technology Department at Gwangyang Steelworks, stated, “Gwangyang Steelworks developed PIMS-Q for the first time to further strengthen POSCO’s quality competitiveness and significantly boost productivity,” adding, “We will continue technological innovation to further solidify our position as the world’s most competitive steel company.”
Source: Read the original article | Published: April 20, 2026