System for tracking and assessing the condition of refractory elements in a metallurgic facility

A system for tracking and assessing a condition of replaceable refractory elements in a metallurgic facility, comprising:

• a) a plurality of identifiable metallurgical vessels, such as ladles, wherein each of said identifiable metallurgical vessels comprises removable refractory elements, such as slide gate valve plates;
• b) a plurality of replacement refractory elements, wherein each replacement refractory element comprises a machine-readable identification tag comprising refractory element identification data;
• c) a reading station, such as an RFID workbench, for reading the machine-readable identification tag of a replacement refractory element positioned in a reading zone of the reading station;
• d) a refractory condition tool for assessing the condition of refractory elements coupled to anyone of said metallurgical vessels, wherein the refractory condition tool is a plate condition tool for measurement of condition data of slide gate valve plates coupled to the slide gate valve of a metallurgic vessel, such as a ladle, said slide gate valve comprising a collector nozzle protruding from an outer wall of said slide gate valve, said slide gate valve being able to switch between an open and a closed configuration by sliding at least two slide gate valve plates with respect to one another, said collector nozzle being in fluid communication with a casting channel of said metallurgic vessel when said slide gate valve is in the open configuration, said plate condition tool comprising:
• i. a main body comprising an obturator for obturating at least partially the collector nozzle;
• ii. a gas injecting device comprising a pressure regulator for injecting a gas in the collector nozzle through the obturator at a target pressure;
• iii. a gas flow measuring device for measuring the flow of the gas injected by the gas injecting device;
• iv. a controller communicatively connected to the gas flow measuring device and configured to receive input data relating to the relative position of the slide gate valve plates;
• e) a monitoring unit comprising at least one electronic processor and being connectable to the reading station and the refractory condition tool, wherein the monitoring unit is configured to:
• i. receive, from the refractory condition tool, condition data of at least one refractory element coupled to one of said metallurgical vessels;
• ii. receive identification data of said metallurgical vessel;
• iii. store in a refractory condition database said condition data in association with identification data of said metallurgical vessel;
• iv. decide whether the refractory element must be replaced based on said condition data (“GO OR NO GO”), and in case the case the refractory element must be replaced (“NO GO”), the monitoring unit is configured to:
• a. ascertain that refractory element identification data received from the reading station corresponds to the identification data of the replacement refractory element replacing said at least one refractory element;
• b. associate in the refractory condition database said refractory element identification data with the identification data of said metallurgical vessel.