Robot-loader cranes to appear at Kyshtym Copper Electrolytic Plant
In the Tankhouse- to-be, two cranes from the Austrian company «KUENZ» were installed. Specialized lifting equipment is installed in the warehouse, which was buit during technical modernization of the cathode production and is adjacent to the Tankhouse building.
Raw materials for copper electrolysis — anodes cast in JSC Karabashmed will be delivered to one of these premises – the anode warehouse. Here they will be stored, from here they will be sent to the Anode Preparation Machine. Scrap – anode residues formed during copper electrolysis after dissolution of the anodes – will be delivered to the same warehouse. After that, the scrap will be returned to Karabash for remelting. The first crane with a lifting capacity of 10 tons is exactly intended for automatic handling of anodes and anode residues, the.
The purpose of the second crane with a lifting capacity of 3.5 tons is to pick up the finished packages of cathode copper from the Cathode Stripping Machine, place them in the cathode warehouse or directly on a transport for further transportation to other divisions of the plant.
Anode and cathode cranes are very similar to each other.
“The forks act as a load-gripping mechanism in each of them – these are the same forks the fork-lifts we are used to operate are equipped with. With their help, it is very easy to grip packages with cathodes or anodes. In fact, these are loader cranes equipped with a telescopic lift” explains Ildus Dinislamov, Senior Mechanic of the Tankhouse under construction.
Contractors from SMU-2 LLC under the supervision of specialists from Austria carried out works on the mechanical assembly of mechanisms, laying and connecting electrical cables.
“We arrived at KMEZ only on June 3, and a week later the mechanical part of the equipment was 70 percent ready,” said engineer Marcel Pinesil. “We shall complete the mechanical and electrical installation work, after which my colleagues will come to grips with automation.”
Both cranes will be able to operate in automatic mode. The unloading and loading processes will be carried out without human intervention. The operator will be able to monitor crane operation remotely, from the Main control Center of the Tankhouse. Operator cabins is not provided in design of the cranes at all, but there are cameras, laser devices and many sensors that allow the machines to independently recognize the type of pallet, determine from what height to pick up the cargo, and accordingly respond to an arriving vehicle.
“The new cranes meet all the requirements that we impose for the equipment of the future Tankhouse” says Mikhail Chulichkov, Chief Mechanical Engineer of JSC KMEZ. “They are modern, work accurately, independently and safely. To be honest, there are not many examples of such robotic cranes in the world. We are among the pioneers in this regard.
Technical modernisation of the Tankhouse at the Kyshtym Copper Electrolytic Plant will increase the output of copper cathodes from 140,000 to 230,000 tons per year. The project is being implemented in two stages, the first of which consist of 336 cells installation and commissioning. By the time the second stage is launched, the KUENZ technological cranes will serve the entire Tankhouse — 672 cells.
