Сontinuous walking beam furnace without water cooling for reheating copper alloy blanks

Abstract

It takes a special technique to heat up round blanks cast of copper alloys in conformance with applicable process specification, which implies maintaining a low oxidizing atmosphere in a gas furnace. This paper describes a continuous furnace with walking beams that are not watercooled designed to heat up round blanks to the maximum temperature of 1,000 ºC. The furnace, which stands before the pipe press for making pipes of different sizes, is fueled by natural gas burned in high-speed burners with the air flow rate of α = 0.98 in hot zones and that of α = 1.05–1.1 in preheating zones. The side walls of the furnace are equipped with high-speed burners which serve to intensify the convective heat transfer inside the furnace. The burners ensure a transverse/countercurrent flow of gases with an intense transverse jet circulation. The furnace is equipped with a panel roof lined with ribbed ceramic fiber blocks (original design by UralTermoKompleks) which serves to intensify the radiation heat transfer without raising the temperature. A larger interior surface of the furnace roof leads to an increased radiation heat flow density and hence higher heating rates. It means that the furnace has better performance at the same temperature. The furnace is equipped with charging and discharging systems. An eccentric is responsible for moving the walking beams. An integrated control system controls heat in each of the five zones of the furnace guided by thermocouples and charging and discharging modes. The furnace has been fully commissioned.