Optical: systems and elements – Extended spacing structure for optical elements
Patent
1998-11-16
2000-02-08
Henry, Jon
Optical: systems and elements
Extended spacing structure for optical elements
358367, 348 83, 348214, H04N 5232, H04N 718, F27D 2102
Patent
active
060221127
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to the maintenance of industrial furnaces, in particular coke oven batteries. It is concerned, more specifically, with an accurate monitoring of the state of the refractories forming the walls of the flues of these ovens, even while the latter are in operation.
During its period of operation, a coke oven battery undergoes thermomechanical stresses essentially caused by the cyclic nature of the operations of loading and unloading the materials. This results, sooner or later, in permanent deformations of the metallic parts and refractories which will reduce the service life of the battery.
In order to achieve satisfactory service lives of thirty years or more, an accurate diagnosis of the state of the oven refractories must be made at regular intervals. However, this diagnosis is often difficult to make on account of the very limited accessibility of some zones of the oven, such as, for example, the flues, which, moreover, are the places which are subjected to the greatest thermal stress. This may result in actions which are too late and repairs which are inappropriate or useless.
Endoscopy is a technique which will henceforth be in widespread use in many sectors of industry, but is still, at present, put to little use in the field of coking, possibly because most of the endoscopes proposed prove unsuitable for inspecting the refractories within the flues of coke ovens, no doubt particularly in view of the extreme thermal conditions which prevail there.
In outline, the probes used or capable of being used at the present time for inspecting coke oven flues may be divided into two types which have in common the fact that the inspection head housing the sensitive element is suspended in the flue at the end of a supporting line which connects it to an operating unit arranged outside the oven.
PRIOR ART
According to a first known type, which actually includes endoscopes, the supporting line consists of a long rigid metallic tube cooled by internal water circulation and operated in vertically translational motion by means of a rack-and-pinion system. This embodiment constitutes a heavy and bulky assembly which is difficult to handle and, in fact, is intended to remain permanently in place, whereas inspection requirements are of short duration and are at relatively long time intervals.
In a second known type of probe, which includes the present invention, the rigid tube is replaced by a longitudinally flexible sleeve wound on a drum, the lower part of which is immersed in a water tank intended for moistening the sleeve in order to cool the latter. This technology results from the discovery that it was possible, in fact, to dispense with cooling by internal water circulation, provided that there was a simple and lightweight appliance which could be operated quickly, and by means of which the rapidity with which the inspection operations were carried out made it possible to dispense with a complicated cooling system. Thus, the probe described in the document FR-B-84.18822 was designed and developed. In this probe, the sensitive head consists of an optical pyrometer of elongate shape (the "pencil" type), which is protected within a sheath made of fibrous refractory material ballasted at the base and the upper part of which is attached to the end of the flexible supporting sleeve, said end housing a steel rope, at the end of which the pyrometer is suspended. This probe seems to have been entirely satisfactory hitherto. However, it is limited to supplying the temperature of the gases within the flues, and this quantity is only a distant indicator of the state of the refractories of the walls.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The object of the present invention is to achieve a direct visual observation of these walls.
For this purpose, the subject of the invention is an endoscopic probe for inspecting the refractory walls of industrial furnaces, in particular the flues of coke ovens, of the type comprising an inspection head enclosing the sensitive element and attached
REFERENCES:
patent: 3974330 (1976-08-01), Askowith et al.
patent: 4131914 (1978-12-01), Bricmont
patent: 5519543 (1996-05-01), Olsson et al.
Bastian Norbert
Bendif Madjid
Gaillet Jean-Paul
Isler Daniel
Centre de Pyrolyse de Marienau "CMP"
Cole Thomas W.
Henry Jon
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