KMEZ installed new gas-handling equipment in the copper rod casting division
At the copper rod casting division in order to protect the equipment from adhesion of hot copper melt soot is used. It is formed as a result of the combustion of acetylene and oxygen and is applied in a thin layer to the casting wheel and casting belt. Up to that moment, part of the soot got into the air of the production room, settled on the walls and ceiling. The new home-made STRADA aspiration system captures soot in the burner zone, mixes it with moisture and, in a liquid state, brings it into a water closed cycle for further use in the technological process.
The installation of a new aspiration system in the division was timed to coincide with the planned repair of the shaft and holding furnaces, during which the furnaces lining was replaced. For the first time, the company bought for these purposes 40 tons of special, more resistant to high temperatures bricks from a new manufacturer: not from the USA, as before, but from Sweden. According to the Chief Engineer of JSC KMEZ Alexander Sidorenko, the very first days of work after repair showed that this type of refractory has a lower thermal conductivity than the previous one. This saves the gas used during the production process.
Simultaneously with the commissioning of the furnaces after scheduled repairs, a new modernized module of the raw material load accounting program was tested. Previously, information about the raw materials used for the production of copper rod became available only after the cathodes were loaded in the shaft furnace. Time to time this led to duplication of information or more serious errors. On the instructions of the management, the instrumentation and automation department specialists reprogrammed the module. Now the operator, before loading, enters a unique number for each batch of raw material and only after the information has been checked operator receives permission to load it. For this purpose, a new panel computer is installed near the shaft furnace.
— Today the module is working in a trial mode. — comments Sergey Silantyev, a software engineer at the automated control systems department. — We test it, make conclusions, if necessary correct it, try to bring it to perfection.
These innovations introduced in the copper rod production division will ultimately improve the working conditions for the workers, improve the production standards, improve the raw material accounting system, and have a beneficial effect on the quality of the finished product.
