Entering Shougang Jingtang Company, a scene of real-time linkage between real and digital workshops is presented before my eyes. In the control center, on a large screen over ten meters long, more than 4000 key nodes such as raw material entry, production control, equipment operation, energy and environment, transportation and logistics, safety and fire protection are flashing and jumping, presenting various aspects of enterprise production and operation. Empowered by 5G and emerging technologies, the digitalization rate of enterprise production equipment has exceeded 89%, giving steel enterprises digital "wings" through "data acquisition" and "intelligent implementation". Empowering steel manufacturing with digital intelligence and applying 'digital twins' to modern production scenarios. On the large screen of the main control room in the steelmaking operation area of the steel rolling department, virtual molten steel keeps rolling, and the bottom of an oxygen gun in the middle simulates the smelting process, emitting dazzling white light inside the furnace; On both sides of the virtual converter, various steelmaking parameters such as converter information, flue gas information, smelting information, and auxiliary material information are constantly changing. Previously, the steelmaking process required manual observation of steelmaking mirrors on site. Now with this' digital twin 'system, we can enter the virtual converter through it, comprehensively analyze the entire steelmaking process, and the data is quite accurate Wang Dong, a steelmaking operator in the steel rolling operation department, said that information technology seems to have "opened up" the "black box" of the smelting process of up to 2000 degrees Celsius in converter production, making it visual and transparent, greatly improving production efficiency and accuracy. In the factory building of the medium and thick plate division, the fiery red steel billets slowly slide on the conveyor belt, enter the roughing mill and repeatedly "squeeze" like rolling dough, and quickly pass through the finishing mill to be rolled into shape; In the centralized control center, four screen walls form a surrounding data control field - the production status of the 3500mm production line and the 4300mm production line, where people are present and all production processes are under control. Tian Cai, Deputy Director of the Equipment Room of the Medium and Heavy Plate Division, pointed to the screen and said that in the past, the automation level of production lines was low, and production related processes relied on manual labor and experience. Nowadays, through automation upgrades, remote centralized control operations have been achieved, including automatic steel loading and unloading in heating furnaces, fully automatic steel rolling in rolling mill areas, model optimization of water cooling and straightening systems, greatly reducing labor, effectively ensuring process coordination, improving production efficiency, and making production more "easy". Empowered by emerging technologies such as 5G, digitization is shaping a new scene for the entire process of steel manufacturing in Jingtang. Yuan Tianxiang, Deputy General Manager of Shougang Jingtang Iron and Steel Joint Co., Ltd., said that in recent years, the company has carried out 173 projects related to information technology and intelligent manufacturing, and the "gold content", "novelty content" and "greenness content" of its products have been continuously improved. Behind smart steel, the application of 5G private networks is indispensable. In 2020, Shougang Jingtang constructed a 5G private network; At the end of 2023, China Mobile Hebei Company and ZTE Corporation jointly launched a 5G private network renovation project to enhance the independence of the 5G private network. According to data from the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, since the fifth anniversary of 5G commercialization, the application proportion in the top 20 coal and steel enterprises in China has reached 95% and 85% respectively. The 5G network effectively overcomes the disadvantages of inconvenient fiber laying and unstable industrial WiFi capacity, providing support for precise system control. At present, the application of 5G in steel enterprises has extended from the 'shallow water area' of individual equipment to the 'deep water area' of interconnected systems, empowering the industry to achieve cost reduction, efficiency improvement, quality upgrading, and creating conditions for sustainable benefits and the cultivation and development of new quality productivity ZTE's 5G steel industry expert Liu Guohua said. Not only in the manufacturing process, but also in the logistics transportation from material entry to finished product delivery, digital applications have been deeply integrated with steel production. For Guan Yuhang, the leader of the overhead crane team who has been working for more than 20 years, he used to sit in the cab for 8 hours without daring to drink too much water; Now, the unmanned overhead crane starts automatically, runs autonomously, and lifts designated cold-rolled coils according to information. Guan Yuhang and colleagues only need to sit in a quiet and tidy operating room, with the help of monitoring screens and control computers, to complete remote precise lifting, bidding farewell to the working environment of "climbing up and down, cold in winter and hot in summer". Liu Guohua introduced that the 52 overhead cranes of Shougang Jingtang Steelmaking Department have achieved efficient and stable operation of overhead crane business in complex wireless coverage and high-temperature and harsh working environments by introducing computing power base stations. From "5G+unmanned overhead crane", "5G+fully automatic operation of ship unloaders", "5G+unmanned stacker reclaimer", to "5G+smart logistics", currently more than 500 heavy-duty freight vehicles and non road machinery in the transportation operation area of Jingtang Company are under platform control, achieving intelligent scheduling of transportation tasks and creating economic benefits of more than 12 million yuan annually. Reducing costs, improving quality, and increasing efficiency are the driving forces behind technological progress and management innovation in manufacturing enterprises Yuan Tianxiang said that enterprises are introducing cutting-edge technologies such as 5G to further implement intelligent transformation of on-site equipment control cores, in order to cope with high-quality product manufacturing and personalized production. (New Society)