Abstract
A crucible furnace is a piece of equipment used in the foundry industry for melting metals for casting operations. This research work focuses on the design of a 30-kilogram capacity aluminium crucible furnace that is fired with diesel fuel. The furnace drum has an overall combustion capacity of 0.1404m3. It is fitted with a chimney to allow for the easy escape of combustion gases. The air blower discharges air into the furnace at the rate of 0.3m3/s with an air/fuel ratio of 400:1. The aluminium crucible furnace is designed to consume 4 litres of diesel fuel with a rating of 139000kJ/gallon which is required to completely melt 30-kilogram of aluminium over a period of 18 min. The designed operation temperature range of the aluminium crucible furnace is 500°C to 800°C. The cost of the aluminium crucible furnace is one hundred and eighty-two thousand nine hundred naira (N182, 900.00).
Highlights
Technological advancement of a nation depends solely on its capability to harness and convert its useful mineral resources into required finished products (Osarenwinda, 2015)
As important as oil fired crucible furnaces to the foundry and manufacturing process, its availability seem to be limited in Nigeria and when available most of them are imported and this is costing the country huge sum of foreign exchange
The 30kg aluminium crucible furnace was designed majorly to melt aluminium and other metals whose melting temperatures falls within its designed operation temperature range of 800°C below
Summary
Technological advancement of a nation depends solely on its capability to harness and convert its useful mineral resources into required finished products (Osarenwinda, 2015). Furnaces are usually classified according to the purpose for which the material is heated, nature of the transfer of heat to the material, method of firing the furnace and method of handling material through the furnace (Schlesinger et al, 1998) They are refractory lined vessels that contain the material to be melted and provide the energy to melt it (Wikkipedia, 2015a). The oil fired crucible furnace uses the combustion of diesel as a fire source to heat the crucible and melt the solid metal inside it. Adeodu Adefemi et al.: Development of a 30Kg Aluminium Oil-Fired Crucible Furnace Using Locally Sourced Materials. Alaneme and Olanrewaju (2010), developed a diesel fired heat-treatment furnace using locally sourced materials which was targeted at disposing the use of heating elements requiring electric power which is poorly supplied in the country. The aim of study was to develop a 30 Kg oil fired crucible furnace using locally sourced materials
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