Patent Application
20210048250
The present invention relates to a sander for delivering sand to a metal melting furnace and more specifically to a sander that swivels in and out of sanding position and a sander that swivels in and out of sanding position in coordination with a slag plunger.
In metal melting furnaces, such as electric arc furnaces, molten metal may be tapped out through a tap hole or nozzle. The tap hole is filled with a refractory sand or sand-like material to first hold the molten metal in and then release it cleanly and quickly to facilitate molten metal flow. The repetitive metal melting and tapping process is known as tap to tap and the tap hole must be filled with sand after each tap. Sand may be dispensed directly from a bulk storage sand reservoir usually located near the furnace, for example, on a roof above the furnace, or on the floor. The sand dispensing process takes time and also causes heat loss from the furnace. Time may be lost dispensing increments of sand to properly fill a tap hole. A significant amount of sand may be wasted if sand is dispensed, unguided, into the furnace to accumulate adjacent but outside of the tap hole. An operator may inspect the tap hole to determine whether additional sand is required to properly fill the tap hole, or a camera may be used to visually inspect the tap hole during the sand filling cycle. There may be delays as an operator waits for a clear view of the tap hole, as dust settles after an incremental fill, to see whether additional sand must be dispensed to properly fill the tap hole. Alternatively, a tap hole may be filled with sand when there's still a layer of metal on top in which case the sand must sink into the tap hole and a visual inspection is not possible.
The sand may be guided with a chimney hole. U.S. Pat. No. 9,052,144 (“Kephart”), describes the use of a chimney hole as an unrestricted opening to fill sand into a tap hole in a steel making furnace with a remotely controlled plunger to clear metal flash and other formations which may plug or obstruct an access port. A remotely controlled plunger is preferable to an operator manually clearing an obstruction and being exposed to risk of injury while working in close proximity to a high temperature furnace. Kephart describes in
When a sand dispensing system is used, it needs to be put into position for sand dispersing, and the steps for dispensing sand are time consuming. It is desirable to have a sand dispensing system to deliver sand and clear slag that gets into position quickly to work effectively and efficiently to minimize down time and minimize wasting sand.
In an embodiment of the invention there is a swiveling sander for delivering sand through a hole in a metal melting furnace comprising a sand dispenser connected by a rotating arm to a platform capable of rotating which platform is connected to a rotating cylinder, wherein the sand dispenser moves in a horizontal arc from a home position to a sanding position over the hole for delivering sand and back again to a home position by the activation of the rotating cylinder. The horizontal arc may be from 0 degrees to 180 degrees, and may be substantially 90 degrees.
In a further embodiment of the invention, there is a swiveling sander with slag plunger for delivering sand through a hole in a metal melting furnace and clearing any slag comprising:
The horizontal arc may be from 0 degrees to 180 degrees and may be 90 degrees. The vertical arc may be from 70 to 110 degrees.
In a further embodiment of the invention there is a method of dispensing sand through a hole in a metal melting furnace and clearing any slag using a swiveling sander with slag plunger comprising:
These and other aspects of the present invention will be apparent from the brief description of the drawings and the following detailed description in which:
In an embodiment of the invention there is a Swiveling Sander with a sand dispenser which swivels to deliver sand into a tap hole in a metal melting furnace. The arc of the lateral swiveling motion can be adjusted depending on the position of the sander relative to the opening in the furnace above the tap hole, for example, 45, 90, 120, 180 or 210 degrees. In the embodiment shown in the figures the swiveling motion is about 90 degrees.
In an embodiment of the invention there is a swiveling sander for delivering sand through a hole in a metal melting furnace comprising a sand dispenser connected by a rotating arm to a platform capable of rotating which platform is connected to a rotating cylinder, wherein the sand dispenser moves in a horizontal arc from a home position to a sanding position over the hole for delivering sand and back again to a home position by the activation of the rotating cylinder.
The horizontal arc may be from 0 degrees to 180 degrees, and may be substantially 90 degrees. In a further embodiment of the invention, there is a swiveling sander with slag plunger for delivering sand through a hole in a metal melting furnace and clearing any slag comprising:
The horizontal arc may be from 0 degrees to 180 degrees and may be 90 degrees. The vertical arc may be from 70 to 110 degrees.
In a further embodiment of the invention there is a method of dispensing sand through a hole in a metal melting furnace and clearing any slag using a swiveling sander with slag plunger comprising:
In the Swiveling Sander with Slag Plunger 10 of the present invention there is a Swiveling Sander 20 which swivels from a home position into a sanding position in order to add sand to a metal melting furnace at the same time as a Slag Plunger 30 moves out of the way. The Swiveling Sander 20 then swivels back to home position while the Slag Plunger 30 moves back to home position to clear any build up of slag. The working components of the Swiveling Sander 20 are preferably in boxes to keep sand from interfering.
A Swiveling Sander with Slag Plunger 10 is shown in home position in an embodiment of the invention at
In this embodiment the Swiveling Sander 20 is resting on a base plate 45 which is resting on base plate pads 50. A Sander Rotating Cylinder 90 resting on a Base 40 is used to swivel the Swiveling Sander 20. In
The home position shown in
In this embodiment, in operation the Dispenser 195 swivels about 90 degrees when the Sander Rotating Cylinder 90 rotates the Swivel Platform 205 which moves the Rotating Arm 200. The swivel movement could be varied particularly depending on the location of the Swiveling Sander 20, for example, it could follow an arc from 0 to 180 degrees. At the same time as the Swiveling Sander is moving, the Plunger Housing Cylinder 180 retracts to pull the Plunger Arm 130 up and expose a Sump Panel Door Opening 191 in the Panel Door 230 as seen in
After releasing the sand, the Dispenser Gate 100 closes and the Sander Rotating Cylinder 90 turns the other way to return the Swiveling Sander 20 to the home position. The Plunger Housing Cylinder 180 also returns the Plunger Housing 150 back over the Sump Panel Door Opening 191.
In addition, a Plunger Cylinder 140 pushes the Plunger Head 220 through the Sump Panel Door Opening 191 to push through any slug build up and then the Plunger Head 220 returns to home position.
The Swiveling Sander with Slag Plunger 10 of the present invention may be installed with existing furnaces or with new installations and it will be understood that the scale of the Swiveling Sander with Slag Plunger 10 should match the scale of the furnace and/or the sanding volume to be delivered.
The Swiveling Sander 20 may be installed on the sump panel or on the sump panel platform and the Slag Plunger 30 may be installed on the Sump Panel or on the sump panel platform. The Swiveling Sander is at the level at which it will be capable of swiveling the Sand Guiding Pipe 70 over the Sump Panel Door Opening 191.
While embodiments of the invention have been described in the detailed description, the scope of the claims should not be limited by the preferred embodiments set forth in the examples but should be given the broadest interpretation consistent with the description as a whole.
