A Computer Control System of the Reheating Furnace for Continuous Cast Bloom

Abstract

Since August 1981, a new computer system has been applied to the reheating furnace for the continuous cast bloom at Kobe Works. This system has been developed for the purpose of saving energy, quality control and automatic operation. The newly designed 5-zoned furnace is equipped with independently-operated walking beams at each zone and blooms are normally hot-charged. In the newly developed system, an optimal heating pattern is determined by on-line calculation in order to minimize total fuel consumption. The technique of minimizing fuel consumption is realized by means of the linear programming method. The bloom temperature is calculated by using the two-dimentional heat transfer equation, and is controlled to coincide with the heating pattern by regulating the setting values of the furnace temperature. Operating results show that fuel consumption is reduced to 600 x 103 KJ/T which is 10% less than that of manual operation. The cast blooms are transported fully automatically from the continuous caster, charged into the furnace, heated up and extracted.