Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works : MMK expands use of VR technology for employee safety training

Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works (MMK) has launched a staff training complex for performing hazardous production operations that is based on virtual reality (VR) technologies. The interior of four production facilities, along with the noise levels at those facilities, have been completely re-created in a digital environment, which also simulates possible emergency situations. Laser scanning was used to model production workshops and their equipment to create a fully immersive effect.

Training programmes were developed for MMK's central power plant and its electric steelmaking, oxygen converter and coke shops. Personnel from the central power station will use one of the VR simulators to practise their response in the event of a rupture of the blast-furnace gas pipeline. The second simulator is aimed at fine-tuning coke pushing and quenching operations in the coke shop. The third simulator focuses on a situation where liquid metal escapes from a furnace in the electric steelmaking shop. And the fourth VR trainer simulates continuous casting breakout accidents in the oxygen converter shop.

The new simulators, located at MMK's Safety School training centre, enable employees to both undergo training and to pass safety exams. As part of the training module, shop employees receive hints when undergoing VR simulations of dangerous production operations. In the exam module, employees are asked to act based on their knowledge of the official instructions for emergency containment and response at the production site in question.

Given the different ways individuals experience virtual reality, the programme developers came up with two options for using the simulators: either with a VR headset and controllers, or through a computer application with the use of a mouse and keyboard.

The use of VR simulators to train employees on emergency response skills ensures better assimilation of the material and, as a result, reduces the risk of workplace injuries.