Cleaning plant for metal products
AssigneeDanieli & C. Officine Meccaniche SpA
InventorsLuciano Vignolo, Alessandra Primavera, Emanuele Trucillo
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Abstract
A cleaning plant for hot-rolled metal strips provided with a surface oxide layer, the plant comprising unwinding means for unwinding at least one coil of rolled strip and pickling means for pickling said rolled strip; wherein there are provided measuring means for measuring the thickness of the surface oxide layer, arranged between said unwinding means and said pickling means; and wherein gaseous hydrogen detection means are provided to detect the presence of gaseous hydrogen in fumes produced by said pickling means. A corresponding cleaning method is also claimed.
Claims17
A cleaning plant for cleaning rolled metal strips provided with an oxide surface layer, the plant comprising:
- unwinding means for unwinding at least one coil of rolled strip;
- chemical pickling means for pickling said rolled strip;
- measuring means for measuring a thickness of the oxide surface layer, arranged between said unwinding means and said chemical pickling means;
- wherein said measuring means comprise at least one laser source cooperating with an optical fiber spectrometer, defining a Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) system also adapted to analyze an oxide composition;
- wherein gaseous hydrogen detection means are provided to detect a presence of gaseous hydrogen in fumes produced by said chemical pickling means;
- wherein a processing unit is provided, adapted to process data from at least said measuring means and said gaseous hydrogen detection means, and adapted to adjust operating parameters of said chemical pickling means accordingly;
- wherein said processing unit comprises:
- an oxide layer simulation model, configured to produce simulation data of the oxide surface layer along the strip, by acquiring both first input data, relating to the strip as wound on the coil, and second input data consisting of data detected by the measuring means during plant operation;
- a pickling adjustment model, configured to adjust pickling parameters comprising the strip feeding speed in the chemical pickling means and/or the turbulence level of the acid solution present in said chemical pickling means, said pickling parameters further comprising the acid concentration in the acid solution and/or the temperature of said acid solution;
- wherein the simulation data are sent to the pickling adjustment model;
- and
- wherein at least one control loop is provided, configured so that, if the difference between a gaseous hydrogen value in the fumes, detected by the gaseous hydrogen detection means, and a gaseous hydrogen value in the fumes provided by the pickling adjustment model exceeds a threshold value, a feedback is produced requiring the pickling adjustment model to adjust at least one pickling parameter so that said difference does not exceed said threshold value.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.