Metallurgical furnace with scrap metal preheater and dispenser
AssigneeEMPCO (Canada) Ltd.
InventorEdgar R. Wunsche
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A Preheater-Steelmaking Furnace and closed loop Process System for semi-continuous melting of integrally preheated recycled or virgin ferrous charge, by using highly energy efficient combustion process of natural gas combusted by oxygen as the main heat source, after preheating of the cold charge, by fully exploiting thermal energies of the melting process off-gases, in a gas tight, low noise, ecologically friendly PSF with scant CO and drastically reduced CO2 in exhaust gases for semi-continuous, batch self-charging, sealed pairs of eccentrically rotating quasi cylindrical, permeable half drums hoppers creating separate preheating chambers.
Claims14
A unified preheating and steelmaking furnace system for high temperature and high efficiency preheating of recycled cold solid steel scrap and other ferrous charge materials and its consequent rapid melting in an integrated metallurgical furnace, with concurrent flow of scrap and hot gases, comprising:
- an autonomous preheating structure, which is independently operated, energy efficient, safe to operate and pollution reducing with concurrent flow of initially cold scrap and hot waste gases, including an integrated inclined device for semi-continuous self charging and controlled, stepped and gradual preheating of the cold scrap and gravitational discharging of the preheated scrap into an integrated sealed metallurgical furnace operating in tandem with the preheating structure;
- a scaled metallurgical furnace operating in tandem with the preheating structure and having a vessel shell of oval shape, equipped with a generally horizontally oriented slag free tapping system, where thermal energy is provided to the metallurgical furnace solely by one or more generally arcuate oxy-fuel burners/lances;
- where the oval shaped furnace vessel shell has a refractory hearth bottom which is sloped toward a tap hole, and two trunnions, located on a half of the vessel shell closest to the taphole, and allowing for tilting of the furnace vessel for slag free tapping, where the tilting of the furnace is controlled by two hydraulic cylinders.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.