Plant for melting and/or heating metal material and method to power it
AssigneeDanieli Automation S.P.A.
InventorAntonello Mordeglia
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A plant for melting and/or heating metal material includes a furnace, electrical energy feed means and an electric power apparatus connected between the feed means and the furnace; and a corresponding method to power the melting and/or heating plant.
Claims15
A plant for melting and/or heating metal material comprising:
- a furnace, electrical energy feed means and a power apparatus connected between said feed means and said furnace, wherein said power apparatus further comprises:
- at least one transformer connected to an electricity grid, and configured to receive an alternating primary electric voltage and an alternating primary electric current and transform them into an alternating secondary electric voltage and an alternating secondary electric current;
- a plurality of rectifiers connected to the transformer and configured to transform the alternating secondary electric voltage and the alternating secondary electric current into a direct intermediate electric voltage and a direct intermediate electric current;
- a plurality of converters connected on one side to the rectifiers and on the other side to the furnace, configured to convert the direct intermediate electric voltage and direct intermediate electric current into an alternating supply voltage and an alternating supply current, to be supplied to the furnace, which can be selectively set by means of a control and command unit connected to said converters,
- wherein said feed means comprise at least one source of alternative energy, different and independent from said electricity grid, connected to said power apparatus and configured to supply energy to power said furnace in addition, or as an alternative, to the electrical energy supplied by said electricity grid.
A method to feed electrical energy to a furnace of a plant for melting and/or heating metal materials, which provides to supply electrical energy by means of feed means to a power apparatus and convert said electrical energy by means of said power apparatus in order to obtain an alternating supply voltage and an alternating supply current to be supplied to said furnace, wherein said method comprises:
- supplying by means of an electricity grid, a primary electric voltage and primary electric current to a transformer;
- transforming with said transformer, said primary electric voltage and primary electric current into a secondary electric voltage and a secondary electric current;
- rectifying said secondary electric voltage and secondary electric current with a plurality of rectifiers to obtain a direct electric voltage and a direct electric current;
- converting with a plurality of converters, said direct electric voltage and direct electric current into said alternating supply voltage and alternating supply current which can be selectively set by means of a control and command unit connected to said converters;
- the feeding of said supply voltage and supply current to said furnace, and
- supplying electrical energy to the furnace in addition, or as an alternative, to the electrical energy supplied by the electricity grid, by means of at least one source of alternative energy, different and independent from said electricity grid and connected to said power apparatus.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.