Case Study: Rautaruukki achieves uniform, higher-quality coatings and increased throughput with COMSOL Multiphysics

Rautaruukki - Customer Case Study

Rautaruukki (Rautaruukki Oyj), a global metals supplier, needed to eliminate coating defects (overheating, boiling, yellowing), increase throughput and reduce waste in its color-coating line for roofing sheet metal. To address the complex heat-transfer and phase-change behavior of multilayer painted strips, Rautaruukki turned to Comsol and used COMSOL Multiphysics to model the oven drying process and establish optimal process settings.

Using COMSOL Multiphysics, Rautaruukki’s team built a 3D model and a MATLAB user interface that pulls ~43 material inputs from a central database and computes temperature profiles every 0.1–0.2 seconds down to micrometer layers. The Comsol-based solution identifies critical stoving parameters (maximum heating rate, Biot number, temperature differentials), standardizes settings across shifts, shortens changeovers, increases production throughput, and yields energy savings and more consistent, high-quality coatings; Rautaruukki is now evaluating full automation and direct integration with production machinery.

Rautaruukki

Mika Judin

Rautaruukki