Compact blast furnace installation

Metallurgical apparatus – With control means responsive to sensed condition

Reexamination Certificate

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C266S142000, C266S144000, C266S198000, C266S199000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06833106

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to a blast furnace installation comprising a blast furnace of a shaft furnace construction and of a free-standing configuration without frame as well as correlated installation parts such as hot blast generating device, burdening, and pouring bay for continuous smelting of at least partially treated iron ore to hot metal.
Such blast furnaces without frame are known. For example, such blast furnaces without frame (American configuration) are described in “Httte”, Taschenbuch für Eisenhüttenleute, publishing house Wilhelm Ernst & Sohn, Berlin, 1961, on page 528, wherein the shaft is armored with a steel sheet mantle and is supported by means of a support ring on supports which are positioned closely adjacent to the blast furnace.
Modern blast furnace installation technology is based on the design and an installation arrangement which is based on the available technology and the logistic necessities for charging of the blast furnace with raw materials as well as for transporting the liquid products hot metal and slag.
The generally available technology results in a blast furnace which is provided with a blast furnace frame in order to free the furnace construction itself as much as possible from all loads. On this blast furnace frame, the entire upper furnace construction, including top closing device, gas removal pipes, and safety valves inclusive of pressure compensation, is supported as well as the charging belt by which the raw materials are transported to the upper end of the blast furnace—the charging platform.
The blast furnace installation of known installations includes, in addition to the blast furnace, a burdening apparatus containing a burdening or mixture of ores (hereinafter referred to simply as “a burdening” or “the burdening”), which is connected with the blast furnace by a charging belt and, corresponding to the incline angle of the charging belt and the height of the blast furnace, approximately 55 to 65 m, is arranged approximately 300 m away from the blast furnace. Moreover, adjacent to the blast furnace a hot blast generating device is provided in which, by means of currently usually three hot blast apparatus, the required reaction gas (combustion air) is pre-heated as well as, furthermore, a dust removal and cleaning device for the blast furnace gas in the vicinity of the blast furnace. The frame armor of the blast furnace is cooled generally by means of a conventional frame open-surface cooler also known as a trickling apparatus.
In an unpublished German patent application (application No. 198 24 367.7) it has been suggested to replace the inclined elevator or the charging belt for the transport of the raw materials to the charging platform by a vertical elevator, and in a further unpublished application (application No. 198 16 867.5) it has been recommended to manufacture the water-cooled cooling elements, arranged between the frame armor and the refractory blast furnace wall, of a material having high thermal conductivity in order to minimize the danger of break-out within the frame area during operation of the blast furnace.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Based on this known prior art, it is the object of the invention to develop for a blast furnace a new space-saving and cost-saving concept of a blast furnace installation by which the crude steel production is economical even for small throughput.
This object is solved for a blast furnace installation wherein the blast furnace with a frame diameter of between 5 and 10 m is of a compact configuration with the features:
(a) a self-supporting blast furnace armor construction wherein the entire upper blast furnace construction of the blast furnace—with a top closing device configured as a revolving chute with a fixedly installed slant angle without tilting mechanism, gas removal pipe, and safety valves including pressure compensation—is supported on the blast furnace armor;
b) in the frame area, in the zones of belly of the blast furnace, waist of the blast furnace, and lower shaft, water-cooled cooling elements of a material having high thermal conductivity are arranged between the refractory furnace wall and the blast furnace armor; and
c) for tapping of the hot metal only one tap hole is installed on the furnace with only one set of tap hole plugging and drilling machines.
With the measures of the invention, to configure the blast furnace in a compact configuration as well as to configure or arrange the arrangement of the most important installation parts belonging to the blast furnace in a compact way in direct vicinity of the blast furnace, a completely new design of a compact blast furnace installation is obtained. There is the possibility of installing a conventional frame open-surface cooler or trickling apparatus.
By employing cooling elements in the thermally highly loaded frame area of the blast furnace, which elements are manufactured of a material having high thermal conductivity, the blast furnace armor is optimally cooled in this area which is at risk for break-out. The danger of cooling failure with local overheating, in connection with failure of the material strength, is therefore no longer present. This results directly in that the blast furnace armor is particularly loaded and the complex blast furnace frame that was required in the past can be eliminated in any case. Required working platforms can be fastened directly on the armor of the furnace. Also, the entire upper furnace construction with a top closing device, gas removal pipes, and the safety valves including pressure compensation are now supported on the blast furnace armor.
According to an advantageous configuration of the invention, in this connections the otherwise conventional complex top closing device is formed by a revolving chute of a simplified configuration wherein a tilting mechanism is eliminated and the slant angle of the revolving chute is fixedly adjusted once according to the furnace size. This has the advantage, in particular, in the case of smaller blast furnaces, that the top closing device drive (the revolving chute carrier) can be constructed in a much simpler way and the material distribution can be controlled with the radially movable throat armor that is present.
Moreover, the support of a charging belt on the blast furnace or on the blast furnace frame is no longer required with the configuration of the compact blast furnace according to the invention because the charging belt is replaced by a vertical conveyor which does not require any supporting action and which is arranged directly adjacent to the blast furnace. The spacing of the vertical conveyor is approximately 25 to 35 m away from the center axis of the blast furnace. This makes it possible to arrange the burdening directly adjacent thereto—it is conventional in known blast furnace installations to have a spacing of the burdening housing from the blast furnace of approximately 300 m—so that a considerable savings in regard to the space requirement for the blast furnace arrangement according to the invention is obtained.
Also, the burdening itself is advantageously of a more compact design in that the working and material storage volume of 10 to 12 hours, conventional according to the prior art, is preferably reduced to 3 to 4 hours. This is sufficient for a safe consumption supply of the installation because the operation, as a result of the installed automation and control, is optimally monitored.
Since on the blast furnace only one tap hole aperture is installed (with only one set of tap hole plugging and drilling machines), it is now advantageously possible to design the pouring bay configuration much smaller (more compact) and thus in a more cost-beneficial way. The pouring bay, according to the invention, is arranged directly adjacent to the blast furnace and is configured such that the rail system for transporting the hot metal and liquid slag is no longer needed. By means of a gutter system the hot metal is transported into correspondingly large ladles and transported in a wheel-bound containe

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