In the past, water-cooled grate plates, such as those disclosed in EP 0 621 449, for example, were used for a liquid-cooled grate for garbage incineration, which are assembled to form a stepped grate by being disposed such that they overlap each other in a stairs-like manner. Each grade step can be displaced forward and backward in the direction of extension of the entire grate in order to produce a stoking and transport movement for the material to be incinerated located on the grate.
These liquid-cooled grate plates are composed of steel, which is approximately 10-12 mm thick, is canted and then welded together into two half shells such that a hollow space is created, through which the coolant, such as cooling water, a suitable oil, or a coolant mixed with specific components, can flow. For the surface, Hardox steel is used, for example, because it is considerably harder than conventional steel and therefore more wear-resistant. However, Hardox steel is also temperature sensitive and becomes soft above approximately 280° C. In order to prevent hardness weakening of the Hardox steel, welding is carried out in a water bath so as to continually dissipate heat from the welding site, as the temperature of Hardox steel must remain below approximately 280° C., because Hardox steel remains hard only up to this temperature. After welding, the grate plate must be straightened because due to the welding operation it has inevitably become stressed, as during welding high temperatures are generated in local regions and large temperature gradients are generated in the plate. It is known from the prior art to provide separate wear plates in those locations of the grate plate top sides where the grate plates stacked in a cascade shape come in contact with each other and as a result of the advancement movement of which wear is produced. If necessary, they can be exchanged, so that the base body of the grate plate can still be used. The wear plates can be placed directly onto the base bodies, for example, and can be welded thereto, or can also be fastened to the base body by means of screw connections.
In the solutions mentioned here, the wear plates are placed directly on the cooled grate plates. Although macroscopically these wear plates appear to rest flush on the cooled grate plates, it has been found that the heat transfer from the wear plate to the cooled grate plate is very limited. The liquid cooling of the cooled grate plate located beneath is therefore accordingly ineffective. Since microscopically the bottom sides of the wear plates, but also the top sides of the cooled grate plates are uneven, many small air gaps develop, and microscopically the plates have only punctiform contact, or truly rest on top of each other only in small raised regions and have close contact only there, as a result of which effective heat transfer takes place only in these locations, while everywhere else the air gaps have an insulating effect.
In these designs mentioned above, the grate plate through which liquid flows forms a grate step, the top side of which is provided with wear plates. The production of such a grate plate is very labor-intensive, because the process requires a large number of waterproof weld seams in order to assemble the grate plate from sheet metal parts in a waterproof manner. In order to be able to supply primary air to the fire through the liquid-cooled grate plate, the pipe sections are welded into the interior of the grate plate and penetrate the same from the bottom to the top. Each individual pipe section must be welded very carefully into the base and cover plates of the grate plate in order to ensure the assembly is leak-proof. This welding work is very sophisticated and complex. The grate plates produced in this way are therefore prone to faulty finishing, and repairs in the event leaks are detected are difficult. The reconditioning of such grate plates is also very complex and accordingly expensive. In addition, the large number of weld seams result in deformations during finishing, which make subsequent straightening of the grate plate necessary, and this straightening operation in turn entails the risk of the grate plate developing a leak somewhere.
It is therefore the object of the present invention to create a liquid-cooled grate plate and a grate composed of such grate plates, wherein the individual grate plate is to be produced from non-temperature sensitive, inexpensive iron or steel, but yet is to offer the required wear resistance, in that it is equipped with exchangeable wear plates. This grate plate, however, is to have a fault-tolerant design comprising considerably fewer weld seams subject to water exposure and is to enable considerably more simple and cost-effective production and possible repairs than conventional designs, while remaining dimensionally stable even on overheating. At the same time, this grate plate is supposed to allow significantly improved heat transfer from the wear plate to the liquid-cooled grate plate such that the cooling action is only marginally limited, despite the added wear plate.
This object is achieved by a liquid-cooled grate plate, comprising a carrier and a drive design, a separate cooling body which can be inserted in this carrier and drive design and through which liquid can flow, and by wear plates mounted thereon. The object is further achieved by a liquid-cooled stepped grate, comprising one or more grate plates per grate step, wherein these grate steps overlap and every second one is designed to be movable, and wherein in the event of a plurality of grate plates per grate step the carrier and drive designs of adjoining grate plates located next to each other are screwed together.
The invention is described in more detail based on the drawings and the function of the invention is explained.
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Due to the high compressibility of the soft silicone foil, heat sources and heat sinks having large uneven areas and tolerances are ideally thermally bonded to each other. As a result of the excellent ability of the silicone material to adapt the shape thereof, the contact surfaces are enlarged and thermal bonding is significantly improved. The pressure to be applied in the process is low, and the very high elasticity additionally provides mechanical damping. Due to the thermal properties thereof, such soft silicone foils have so far been employed as ideal thermal solutions for use in electronic components on SMD printed circuit boards. Such soft silicone foils can significantly reduce the thermal overall contact resistance between two materials. Such soft silicone materials are available, for example, from Kunze Folien GmbH, Raiffeisenallee 12a, D-82041 Oberhaching (www.heatmangement.com) and are sold there as highly thermally conductive soft silicone foils KU-TDFD. They are available in different thicknesses: 0.5 mm, 1 mm, 2 mm and 3 mm. The thermal conductivity of this foil material is 2.5 W/mk and the foils can be used in a temperature range of −60° C. to +180° C. Therefore, use between the wear plates 32, 33 and the cooling body K of the grate plates of a garbage incineration grate is possible, since the water-cooled grate plates always remain at a temperature of less than 70° C.
For the use of the hard wear plates 32, 33 it is important that the thermal load level thereof is not exceeded. The high-temperature resistant steels used for the production of the wear plates retain the hardness thereof up to approximately 400° C. By way of cooling provided by the liquid-cooled cooling body, the operating temperature of the wear plates typically remains around 50° C. However, for this purpose sufficient heat transfer from the wear plates 32, 33 to the cooling body K must be ensured. This is enabled precisely by clamping in a soft silicone foil, as described above. The soft silicone foil 31 is placed with precise fit and congruency on the cooling body and the wear plates 32, 33 are placed thereon. They are provided with slots 45, which then come to rest in the cooling body K over the recesses 28-30 such that the primary air can flow from beneath through these lots 45 upward through the carrier carcass and these recesses 29-30. The wear plates 32, 33 are those which rest flush on the cooling body, while clamping the interposed thermally conductive foil, and are mounted by way of screw connections to the bottom side of the carcass, and also those which rest at the front of the tapered front of the cooling body and likewise are mounted to the grate plate carcass by way of screw connections, while clamping the soft silicone foil beneath. In this way, the entire top and front sides of the grate plate facing the material to be incinerated are composed of wear plates 32, 33, which are preferably made of Hardox steel.
The wear plates 32, 33 are mounted to the carrier design, which is to say the grate plate carcass. For mounting, screw connections are suited, for example. The screws are guided through the recesses 28-30 in the cooling body K. The wear plates 32, 33 are then mounted to the cooling body, while clamping the soft silicone foil 31, which has the appropriate cutouts, in that a lock nut is tightened on the bottom side of the grate plate carcass. In this way, optimal heat transfer is ensured. Experiments have shown that through the use of a soft silicone foil the heat transfer is improved up to five times over the absence of such a soft silicone foil. As an alternative to screw connections, the wear plates 32, 33 can also be fastened by rivets, or, for example, pins having countersunk heads are used, which have a cross slot in the region of the end thereof. The only thing required then is to drive a wedge laterally into this slot using a hammer. The connection can be released easily by striking a hammer against the opposite side of the wedge, which is even faster to carry out than loosening a large lock nut.
Instead of silicone foils or soft silicone foils, it is also possible to use thermally conductive foils made of a soft metal or soft metal alloys. Copper or aluminum are examples of such soft metals and additionally conduct heat very well. Such a thermally conductive foil is suited similarly for clamping between the wear plates 32, 33 and the cooling body located beneath and, due to the softness thereof, nestles against the surface structures of the wear plates and cooling body. Everything that has been described above applies analogously to equipping the side planks of a water-cooled grate. These side planks have previously also be produced from water-cooled hollow bodies.
The advantages of this grate design comprising a carrier and drive design, a separate cooling body K that is inserted therein and provided with recesses 28-30, and wear plates 32, 33 mounted thereon, with the inclusion of a soft thermally conductive foil 31, are as follows: For maintenance purposes, the individual grate plates P or grate steps no longer have to be removed and replaced, but instead only the wear plates 32, 33; 39, 41 on the grate plates P are replaced, as well as those on the laterally delimiting planks 35, 37, which therefore always remain in place. With the operating temperature thereof in the range of 50° C. to 70° C. and without mechanical wear, the grate plates P and planks made of iron last many years, or even decades. If only one wear plate 32, 33 must be replaced on a grate plate, it costs a fraction of an entire conventional hollow grate plate. In addition, exchanging a wear plate 32, 33; 39, 41 is carried out much more quickly than replacing an entire grate plate, and the associated work is foolproof. If an entire grate plate has to be replaced, the cooling circuit must be interrupted and the coolant must be drained from the plates. The individual grate plates are then lifted out of the grate with comparatively high effort, using a lifting apparatus. The replacement plates must be newly produced in a relatively complex production method. However, if only wear plates 32, 33; 39, 41 have to be replaced, the liquid-cooled grate does not even have to be drained. Only the nuts on the grate plate bottom side have to be loosened, and thereafter the wear plates 32, 33 can be lifted off the grate and exchanged. New countersunk head screws are used, and the new wear plates are again mounted to the grate plates. The same applies to the lateral liquid-cooled planks 35, 37 of the grate. Replacing the wear plates 32, 33; 39, 41 is therefore carried out several times faster than the replacement of entire grate steps, and the production of new liquid-cooled grate plates, which has been required until now, is practically completely eliminated. In addition, thanks to the inserted thermally conductive foil, the heat distribution is significantly improved. Heat is therefore dissipated everywhere uniformly from the grate surface, which is to say the wear plates, and they are largely equally hot over the entire surface thereof. Compared to conventional grate plates in the form of liquid-cooled hollow body designs, the number and arrangement of the air slots can also remain identical with these grate plates having an inserted cooling body and wear plates mounted thereon. They must simply be placed over the recesses in the cooling body. The positioning of the feed and return ports for the coolant can also remain the same. In addition, the cooling cross-sections, the weight, and the shape of the grate plates and also the fastening points for the drive can remain the same. As a result, the grate plates are suited without difficulty for retrofitting existing grate webs. The advantages of the design described here are therefore very obvious.
Experiments conducted so far have produced the following: The upper side of existing grate plates is used up after 35,000 to 45,000 operating hours down to a wall thickness of approximately 4 mm. The entire grate plate is therefore scrap and must be replaced. In contrast, in the present grate plate only the wear plates have to be replaced after this operating time. The carrier and drive design can remain the grate. The costs for replacing the wear plates are a fraction of the existing costs for the full replacement of the grate plates. As a result, these grate plates hold out the promise of a service life that is multiple times longer, while having the same weight. The surface temperature is increased by only 15° C. over the conventional design without wear plates. The operating reliability is improved with these new grate plates, since the cooling bodies on the inside are not damaged even by extreme thermal influences. There are no potential leaks because no welded-in through-pipes are present any longer for the supply of primary air. These new grate plates can be produced with dimensional compatibility using conventional grate plates and may therefore replace the latter even individually, as needed.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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1322/07 | Aug 2007 | CH | national |
PCT/CH2008/000343 | Aug 2008 | CH | national |
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
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PCT/CH08/00343 | 8/11/2008 | WO | 00 | 3/11/2010 |