This application is based upon and claims the benefit of priority from Japanese Patent Application No. 2013-90729, filed Apr. 23, 2013; the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a metal melt circulating drive device and a main bath including the metal melt circulating drive device.
2. Background Art
Circulation and agitation of melt are essential processes to efficiently and quickly melt iron, nonferrous metal, or the like. In the past, for the circulation and agitation of melt, inert gas has been blown into the melt or the melt has been forcibly agitated by a mechanical pump. Further, there is a magnet type agitator that includes permanent magnets where magnetic lines of force are horizontally emitted and enter and which are placed next to the melt present in a container and drives the melt by rotating the permanent magnets while the magnetic lines of force emitted from the permanent magnets pass through the melt (Patent Literatures 1 and 2).
Patent Literature 1: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2011-106689
Patent Literature 2: Japanese Patent No. 4376771
However, a method of blowing inert gas has problems in that it is difficult to avoid the clogging of a blowing pipe for gas and troublesome maintenance such as replacement of the blowing pipe is required. A method using the mechanical pump has a problem in that large running cost is required. Further, the agitator disclosed in Patent Literature 1 has a problem in that the size of the device is increased and the cost of equipment is large. Furthermore, the agitator disclosed in Patent Literature 2 has problems in that melt may leak and a high level of maintenance is required. Further, in the magnet type agitator of Patent Literatures 1 and 2, a furnace body is reinforced with a stainless steel. However, there also is a problem in that the stainless steel plate generates heat.
An object of the invention is to solve these problems and to provide a metal melt circulating drive device that is more inexpensive and is easy to use.
There is provided a melt circulating drive device that is mounted on a side wall of a main bath and is driven to agitate nonferrous metal melt present in a melt storage room storing nonferrous metal melt of the main bath, the melt circulating drive device comprising:
a melt drive tank that includes a hermetically-sealed drive chamber, the drive chamber including an opening allowing the drive chamber to communicate with the melt storage room, and the melt drive tank storing melt, which flows from the opening, in the drive chamber;
a melt drive unit that is installed above the melt drive tank, and includes a permanent magnet unit that is rotated about a first up and down axis while making magnetic lines of force pass through along the up and down direction the melt present in the drive chamber of the melt drive tank, and a drive unit for the permanent magnet unit that rotates the melt, which is present in the drive chamber, about the first up and down axis by rotationally driving the permanent magnet unit; and
a partition plate that is disposed upright in the drive chamber of the melt drive tank along a direction where the drive chamber and the melt storage room communicate with each other, an outer end of the partition plate being positioned in a region of the opening, an inner end thereof being positioned in the drive chamber, a melt rotating gap being formed between the inner end and an inner surface of the drive chamber facing the inner end, the partition plate dividing the opening of the drive chamber into a first opening and a second opening positioned on both right and left sides of the partition plate, and the melt drive unite rotates the melt in order to collide with one surface of the partition plate to discharge the melt from the first opening, so as to allow external melt to be sucked into the drive chamber, in which the pressure of the melt has been reduced, from the second opening.
A melting furnace of the invention includes the melt circulating drive device and the main bath.
a) and 5(b) are a bottom view of a permanent magnet unit and a diagram illustrating magnetic lines of force generated from the permanent magnet unit.
a) to 6(d) are diagrams illustrating the function of the partition plate in the melt drive tank.
a) to 7(c) are diagrams illustrating the flow of melt, which is generated in a melt circulating drive device and a main bath by the change of the direction of a partition plate, at a certain mounting position where the melt circulating drive device is mounted on the main bath.
a) to 8(c) are diagrams illustrating the flow of melt, which is generated in a melt circulating drive device and a main bath by the change of the direction of a partition plate, at another mounting position where the melt circulating drive device is mounted on the main bath.
a) to 9(c) are diagrams illustrating the flow of melt, which is generated in a melt circulating drive device and a main bath by the change of the direction of a partition plate, at still another mounting position where the melt circulating drive device is mounted on the main bath.
When nonferrous metal, such as a conductor (conductive body), such as Al, Cu, Zn, an alloy of at least two of them, or an Mg alloy, is to be melted, the prevention of leakage of melt is most important in a job side of melting although having been briefly described above. That is, the scattering of nonferrous metal, which has been melted in a furnace (a melting furnace or a holding furnace), from an upper opening of the furnace or the leakage of the nonferrous metal from the furnace caused by the damage or breakage of the furnace should be reliably prevented. The reason for this is that the scattering or leakage of melted nonferrous metal directly affects the safety of a worker. For this reason, a method of agitating melt by directly inserting a mechanical pump into melt in a melting furnace or a holding furnace has been avoided in recent years, and a method of indirectly agitating melt without contact with the melt has been mainly used. However, since melt, which is present in the furnace, needs to be agitated through a furnace wall in that case, there has been a problem in that it is not possible to avoid the increase in the size of an agitator. For example, the device disclosed in Patent Literature 1 is also not an exception of the increase in size, and the size of the device is large since the weight of the device is also close to 10 tons.
Accordingly, according to an aspect of the invention, a structure in which a unit for driving melt is installed above a melt tank is employed to provide a device that is compact and obtains a large drive force without leakage of melt.
An embodiment of the invention will be described in detail below.
The furnace body 2 is similar to a general-purpose melting furnace. Particularly, as understood from
In more detail, in
As particularly understood from
As particularly understood from
As particularly understood from
The partition plate 8 is provided upright and is detachably mounted in the drive chamber 5A of the melt drive tank 5. Accordingly, even when the partition plate 8 is damaged with age by the high-temperature melt M, maintenance is easily performed. An outer end of the partition plate 8 is positioned in a region of the opening 5B, an inner end thereof is positioned in the drive chamber 5A, and a melt rotating gap S is formed between an inner surface of the drive chamber 5A, which faces the inner end, and the inner end. The partition plate 8 divides the opening (flow channel FC) of the drive chamber 5A into a first opening (flow channel FC1) and a second opening (flow channel FC2) that are positioned on the right and left sides of the partition plate 8. The melt which is rotated in order to collide with one surface of the plate 8 is discharged from the second opening, so as to allow external melt to be sucked into the drive chamber, in which the pressure of the melt has been reduced. Further, as particularly understood from
In more detail, the melt drive tank 5 has the following structure. That is, as particularly understood from
In more detail, the drive unit 6 includes a substantially pot lid-like support frame 6b. The support frame 6b is placed on and fixed to the upper surfaces of the four side wall 5b of the melt drive tank 5. The permanent magnet unit 6a is rotatably supported by a bearing 6c that is mounted on the central portion of the support frame 6b. An upper portion of a shaft 61 of the permanent magnet unit 6a can be driven by a drive motor 6d. The drive motor 6d is connected to an external control panel (not illustrated), and the drive of the drive motor 6d can be controlled by the external control panel. In
The detail of the permanent magnet unit 6a is illustrated in
Since the amount of the melt M circulated in the melt storage room 2A is proportional to the rotating speed of the permanent magnet unit 6a as understood from the above description, it is possible to arbitrarily adjust the required amount of circulated melt by an external power control panel. Accordingly, there is no limit when the thickness of the refractory material forming the melt drive tank 5 is set, and it is possible to arbitrarily determine the thickness of the refractory material. Therefore, it is also possible to make the refractory material thick in consideration of safety when there is a concern that the melt may leak.
It is thought that the operation of the melt circulating drive device 3 has almost been understood from the above description, but the operation of the melt circulating drive device will be described in more detail below.
a) and 6(d) are diagrams illustrating the flow of the melt M that is generated by the drive of the permanent magnet unit 6a in the drive chamber 5A of the melt circulating drive device 3.
a) illustrates a case in which the partition plate 8 is not provided. In this case, the melt M is merely rotated in the drive chamber 5A as illustrated by a broken line with the rotation of the permanent magnet unit 6a.
b) illustrates a case in which the partition plate 8 is set horizontally in the drawing. In this case, the melt M is also rotated counterclockwise with the counterclockwise rotation of the permanent magnet unit 6a, but the rotating melt M collides with the lower surface of the partition plate 8 in
c) and 6(d) illustrate cases in which the partition plate 8 are rotated slightly upward and rotated slightly downward. A counterclockwise drive force is applied to the melt M present in the drive chamber 5A in the same manner as described above even in these cases, so that discharge flows FOc and FOd and suction flows FIc and FId are generated. The outflow angles of the discharge flows FOc and FOd and the inflow angles of the suction flows FIc and FId are different from the outflow angle and the inflow angle illustrated in
It is possible to change the directions of the discharge flow FOi and the suction flow FIi by changing the direction of the partition plate 8 as illustrated in
The angle of the partition plate 8 and the rotation aspect of the melt M in the melt storage room 2A are schematically illustrated in
Further, the rotating direction of the permanent magnet unit 6a can be a clockwise direction opposite to the rotating direction in the above-mentioned case. It is possible to find out the optimum rotation of the melt M in the furnace body 2 in this way.
Furthermore, various embodiments of a mounting position where the melt circulating drive device 3 is mounted on the furnace body 2 can also be taken.
Meanwhile, as understood from
Even when “h>H” is satisfied, the melt present in the drive chamber 5A starts to be rotated by a shifting magnetic field. However, since a gap is formed between the upper surface of the melt M present in the drive chamber 5A and the lower surface of the upper lid 5d, the melt present in the drive chamber 5A causes a complicated movement. For this reason, there also is a case in which a sufficient amount of circulated melt cannot be ensured. In contrast, when “h<H” is satisfied, pressure in the drive chamber 5A is increased. Accordingly, even though there is resistance on the discharge side, it is possible to sufficiently discharge melt.
The inventor performed an experiment under the following conditions to confirm the effect of the melt circulating drive device 3 according to the embodiment of the invention.
The inner diameter φ of the drive chamber 5A: 900 mm
The power consumption of the drive motor 6d: 5.5 Kw
The height h of the melt tank: 300 mm
The partition plate 8: a neutral position of
The results of the experiment were as follows. That is, in
When these results are compared with those of devices in the related art, results comparable to 2 to 3 times of those of a mechanical pump type device, two times of those of a floor standing type agitator, 0.8 times of those of a up and down shaft type agitator, one time of those of a horizontal mounting type agitator, and 2 to 3 times of those of an electromagnetic agitator were obtained.
According to the above-mentioned embodiment of the invention, the following effects are obtained.
(1) The melt circulating drive device 3 is very compact, and a large amount of circulated melt is obtained.
(2) It is possible to very easily check the inside of the melt storage room 2A by separating the upper lid 5d and the heat insulating plate 5e.
(3) The leakage of melt to the outside from the drive chamber 5A, which is caused by scattering or the like, does not occur.
(4) Since the partition plate 8 is adapted to be replaceable, the partition plate 8 can be replaced even when the partition plate 8 is worn out. Further, the replacement of the partition plate 8 is performed in a short time due to the structure thereof.
(5) As a result, the melt circulating drive device of which a shutdown time for maintenance is a very short can be obtained.
(6) Since the drive unit 6 is adapted to be mounted on the outside of the melt drive tank 5, it is possible to very easily perform the maintenance of the drive unit 6 itself.
(7) Since the melt circulating drive device 3 and the furnace body 2 are assembled using flange connection, the assembly or disassembly of the melt circulating drive device 3 and the furnace body 2 is also can be performed in a short time.
(8) Since a stainless steel plate for reinforcement does not need to be provided in the melt circulating drive device 3, it is possible to make a design flexible without a concern about the generation of heat.
(9) Since the stainless steel plate is not needed, it is possible to suppress an energy loss to a quarter or less of an energy loss in the related art.
(10) There has been employed a structure in which the melt circulating drive device 3 is mounted on the furnace body (a melting furnace, a holding furnace, or a main bath) 2 so as to be positioned next to the furnace body 2 and the communication between the melt circulating drive device 3 and the furnace body 2 is achieved by the communication between the opening 5B of the melt drive tank 5 of the melt circulating drive device 3 and the communication port 2b1 that is formed at the side wall 2b of the furnace body 2.
In addition, according to the embodiment of the invention, the following effects can also be obtained.
Generally, melt M is likely to be attached to the inside of a channel and to grow. That is, generally, high-temperature melt M enters a vortex chamber (circulating drive chamber) from a main bath (furnace body) through an inflow channel, and the temperature of the melt M falls after the high-temperature melt M melts aluminum chips in the vortex chamber. Then, the melt M returns to the furnace body through an outflow channel. During the circulation, aluminum melt forms oxide (dross) by coming into contact with air. This dross is attached to the inner surfaces of the inflow channel and the outflow channel and grows. Accordingly, the dross narrows the flow channel and clogs the flow channel in the worst case. Each of the inflow channel and the outflow channel is narrow, and naturally has a certain length since each of the inflow channel and the outflow channel is a channel. For this reason, an inventor of the invention thinks that it is actually difficult to reliably clean the inside of the inflow channel and the outflow channel from the outside of the main bath or the vortex chamber.
In contrast, in the embodiment of the invention, as particularly understood from
In the embodiment of the invention, the discharge flow channel FC1 and the suction flow channel FC2, which allow the melt storage room 2A of the furnace body 2 and the drive chamber 5A of the melt circulating drive device 3 to communicate with each other, are formed by the division of one original large opening 5B. For this reason, it is easy to form the discharge flow channel FC1 and the suction flow channel FC2 as compared to a case in which an outflow channel and an inflow channel are formed of two small holes individually formed at the side wall 2b of the furnace body 2, and there is an advantage in that the discharge flow channel FC1 and the suction flow channel FC2 formed in this way are hardly clogged with melt. In addition, when the partition plate 8 is removed, the diameter of the opening 5B is large and the cleaning (the removal of oxide) of the opening 5B (the discharge flow channel FC1 and the suction flow channel FC2) can also be very easily performed from the outside of the main bath and the vortex chamber. That is, it is possible to very easily perform maintenance that should be necessarily performed as the device is used. The above-mentioned various advantages are peculiar to the embodiment of the invention, and are advantages that cannot be obtained from other devices available to the inventor of the invention.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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2013-090729 | Apr 2013 | JP | national |
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
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PCT/JP2014/059414 | 3/31/2014 | WO | 00 |