Pouring System Research Articles

Digital twin model of a large scale hot molten metal ladle pouring system

In steel-making processes, large quantities (frequently exceeding 300 t) of liquid metal are transferred between vessels. In Basic Oxygen Steel (BOS) making process, metal is poured from Hot Metal (HM) ladles, utilising overhead gantry cranes, into furnaces for further processing. Due to the large quantities of liquid metal poured, this operation poses significant safety concerns associated with metal spillage and releases of heat emissions. This can further lead to damage being caused to surrounding infrastructure. Pouring automation can reduce the likelihood of metal spillage, optimising ladle movement for reduction in heat emission releases. Given the hazardous nature of this operation, robust testing and evaluation of automated crane pouring movements is required prior to their application. A digital twin (DT) model of an overhead gantry crane/HM ladle system is presented here, intended to provide a safe testing environment for controlled pouring movement and serve as a testbed for control system design studies. Accurate crane movement is achieved using multi-body dynamics, solving for non-linearities present due to rigid joint frictional components. The flow rate of HM is estimated through the application of a dynamic model, allowing the modelling of system dynamics due to differences in HM pouring weights. The devised DT model is evaluated by simulating real crane movement and making a comparison on the resultant changing HM weight inside the ladle. The devised DT removes the need for construction of a physical model or performing tests directly on the HM pouring system.

S-ABA Enhances Rice Salt Tolerance by Regulating Na+/K+ Balance and Hormone Homeostasis.

In order to explore the regulating role and the physiological and biochemical mechanisms of trans-abscisic acid (hereinafter referred as S-ABA) in the process of rice growth and development under salt stress, we took Chaoyou 1000 and Yuxiangyouzhan as materials and set up three salt concentration treatments, CK0 (Control treatment), N1 (50 mmol L-1 NaCl), and N2 (100 mmol L-1 NaCl), in potted trials; we aimed to study the mechanism of rice's response to salt stress from the perspective of agricultural traits and physiological biochemicals and to improve rice's resistance to salt stress through exogenously applying the regulating technology of S-ABA. The following results were obtained: Under salt stress, the growth of rice was significantly suppressed compared to CK0, exhibiting notable increases in agricultural indicators, photosynthesis efficiency, and the NA+ content of leaves. However, we noted a significant decrease in the K+ content in the leaves, alongside a prominent increase in NA+/K+ and a big increase in MDA (malondialdehyde), H2O2 (hydrogen peroxide), and O2- (superoxide anion). This caused the cytomembrane permeability to deteriorate. By applying S-ABA under salt stress (in comparison with salt treatment), we promoted improvements in agronomic traits, enhanced photosynthesis, reduced the accumulation of NA+ in leaves, increased the K+ content and the activity of antioxidant enzymes, and reduced the active oxygen content, resulting in a sharp decrease in the impact of salt stress on rice's development. The application of S-ABA decreased the endogenous ABA (abscisic acid) content under salt stress treatment but increased the endogenous GA (gibberellin) and IAA (indole acetic acid) contents and maintained the hormonal homeostasis in rice plants. To summarize, salt stress causes damage to rice growth, and the exogenous application of S-ABA can activate the pouring system mechanism of rice, suppress the outbreak of active oxygen, and regulate NA+/K+ balance and hormone homeostasis in the blades, thus relieving the salt stress.

Influence of ice structure on vitability of frozen sand-water and sand-clay mixtures

Purpose. To establish influence regularity of sand, water and clay preparation conditions on vitability of frozen mixtures made from combinations of these components and to increase the castings quality in foundries, as well as to improve technologies for artificial freezing of soils for underground constructions. Methodology. In this research, sand, clay, and water are used. Ice quality is estimated visually after water freezing at -15 °C in glass tubes. Frozen mixtures’ vitability at -15 °C is studied on beam-type samples. As indicators of survivability, the time to 1 mm bending of samples on supports and the time to their destruction are accepted. The time is recorded with a stopwatch, the temperature with an alcohol thermometer, the mass with electronic scales and the deflection arrow with a clock-type indicator. Findings. The presence and amount of water-soluble impurities in rare water significantly influence the nature, size and distribution of gas bubbles in ice, as well as frozen sand-water mixtures vitability. Frozen mixtures’ survivability increases with water content in them increasing, and, for sand  water mixtures, survivability is maximum if ice has a homogeneous structure. Among mixtures with clays, the mixture with non-swollen kaolin clay has the greatest vitability. Regarding survivability, recommendations for manufacturing products from frozen foundry mixtures have been developed. Originality. For the first time, deformation change kinetics (bending arrows) under the influence of beam-type samples’ self-mass from mixtures of quartz sand and water and quartz sand, clay and water frozen at -15 °C, which have been previously prepared in different ways, have been investigated. Insights into the influence of various factors and ice quality on the vitability of frozen mixtures have been further developed. Practical value. The obtained results can be useful for expanding ideas about natural frozen soils’ behavior during their cyclic temperature changes, soils artificially frozen during mine shafts elaboration, escalators’ and junctions’ tunnels, etc. when constructing subways. In foundries, the developed recommendations will reduce technological losses and will improve casting quality made using frozen casting molds and cores from sand-water or sand-clay-water mixtures, castings’ patterns and their pouring systems from sand-water mixtures.

Features of the distribution of non-metallic inclusions during electroslag surfacing with a high sulfur content

Today, the question of the quality of parts is quite acute in mechanical engineering. As a rule, most parts are made from castings obtained by various methods. The main task facing the foundry industry in our country is to significantly improve the overall quality of castings, which is expressed in reducing the thickness of the walls, reducing the allowances for mechanical processing and for pouring and feeding systems while maintaining the necessary operational properties of the products. The final result of this work should be to provide the increased needs of mechanical engineering with the required number of cast blanks without a significant increase in the total production of castings by mass. The high operational characteristics of castings depend significantly on the purity of the alloys in terms of the content of harmful impurities and non-metallic inclusions. Sulfur is a very harmful impurity for steel, which, even in small amounts, significantly reduces its mechanical properties. This is especially relevant for parts that work in difficult working conditions (variable loads, high temperature, etc.). This article presents the results of the study of the distribution of non-metallic inclusions and sulfur in the fusion zone, the transition zone and the base metal during electroslag welding of chemically heterogeneous steels with a high sulfur content. It is shown that the amount of sulfur in the metal, even at high concentrations, does not affect the purity of the fusion zone in terms of the content of non-metallic inclusions. Intensive cleaning of the fusion zone and the first portions of the deposited metal occurs due to the large reaction surface with the highly active liquid fluoride flux and the high temperature of the slag bath. As a result of these processes, non-metallic inclusions are crushed, their number decreases and they are evenly distributed throughout the volume of the metal. Accordingly, non-metallic inclusions in the fusion zone have a favorable globular shape, they are small in size and evenly distributed in the volume of the metal, which helps to increase the level of mechanical properties of steels, because their size does not exceed the so-called “critical” sizes of inclusions.

Reliability Analysis of a Three-Engine Simultaneous Pouring Control System Based on Bayesian Networks Combined with FMEA and FTA

Pouring is an important process in the production of solid propellant rocket engines, and usually, the cost of a solid propellant rocket engine is extremely high. Therefore, pouring production with high reliability is very important. The pouring of three engines of solid propellant rocket engines simultaneously can greatly improve its production efficiency. However, it makes the system more complex and redundant. For a multi-state system, it is difficult to make an accurate evaluation of system reliability. Aiming at the redundancy of multiple engines and acousto-optic combined control in the three-engine simultaneously slurry pouring alarm control system with dissimilar redundant alarm units, a reliability analysis method is proposed based on the combination of Failure Mode Effect Analysis (FMEA) and Fault Tree Analysis (FTA). The control system is divided into several redundant states according to the alarm function, and then the Bayesian Networks method is used for reliability evaluation and calculation. Finally, the reliabilities of systems with dissimilar redundancy degrees are obtained. The tangible results of this research work are as follows: (1) The research results obtained by applying the FMEA method laid a foundation for the establishment of a fault trees model for analyzing the reliability of the control system using the FTA method, in addition, which can guide the maintenance and fault identification of the control system during engineering application. (2) The calculated value of the reliability of the control system is 0.999989, and the mean time between failures is MTBF is 5 × 104 by using the fault tree analysis method, which proves that the designed three-engine simultaneous pouring system is very reliable. (3) Based on the calculation and comparison of the Bayesian Networks of redundant three-engine pouring control systems, the circuit diagram of the improved control system is identified.

Design and Implementation of A Simple Pot Watering Control System

People who like to care for plants need to take care of plants in addition to the work pressure, which consumes people's time and energy. To solve this problem, an intelligent pouring system based on STM32 and WiFi module ESP8266 was designed. The system took STM32F103 development board as the main control core, combined with ESP8266, soil moisture sensor, temperature and humidity sensor DHT11, photosensitive resistance and other sensors to carry out data transmission to realize temperature and humidity monitoring of flowers. The system can carry out local control through the terminal, realize manual mode control based on MQTT platform and Java language, and set alarm threshold of each parameter. The results show that the system can be applied to different types of plants, which provides convenience for people to conserve plants.

Investigation of the process of bimetallic castings formation for crushing and grinding equipment

The analysis of the state of production of wear-resistant materials showed that one of the promising directions for improving their quality is the use of bimetallic castings, which have a complex of properties differentiated by the volume and surfaces of the products. However, the problem of obtaining a high-quality connection of the base and the working layer has not been solved until now. The article examines the influence of the chemical composition, temperature parameters, and mass ratio of alloys of bimetallic pairs on the process of bimetallic castings formation. The purpose of the study was to study the growth kinetics and structural-phase composition of the transition diffusion layers of bimetallic castings depending on the chemical composition, temperature parameters and the ratio of the masses of the alloys of the bimetallic pairs. As a research result, it was established that the formation of transition layers of bimetallic castings is determined by the processes of diffusion and structural-phase transformations in the interaction zone - "solid - liquid metal". The processes largely depends on the chemical composition of bimetallic pairs, temperature parameters, and the mass ratio of the layers. It was determined that in bimetallic castings obtained by pouring liquid metal onto a preheated solid billet, the transition layer is characterized by the presence of two zones - pearlitic, from the side of the base metal and without the carbide region of the matrix of the working layer. It has been established that the formation of transition layers in bimetallic castings obtained by successive pouring of melts into the mold through autonomous pouring systems is accompanied by the saturation of steel by carbon from cast iron to a depth of 600-800 microns and the formation of a zone with a lamellar pearlite structure along the border of the alloy junction, and the transition layer between cast iron and steel consists of pearlite in the form of a narrow strip and a zone of chromic ferrite from the side of cast iron. As a result of the study of the peculiarities of the formation of transitional layers of bimetallic castings when liquid metal is poured onto a solid billet, it was established that the degree of dissolution of the base metal in liquid cast iron increases with an increase of the billet preheating temperature and the temperature of the melt, as well as the ratio of the mass of liquid cast iron to a unit surface area of the metal base. At the same time, the rate of dissolution is proportional to the gradient between the temperatures of the contact surface and the cast iron solidus. It was established that the formation of a reliable diffusion bond for bimetallic pairs "carbon (low-alloy) steel - high-chromium cast iron" is ensured if the temperature of the contact surface exceeds the temperature of the eutectic transformation of cast iron. The mechanism is revealed of formation of the transition zone structure. The materials of the article can be used by scientists for further research and practitioners in the selection of materials for work in extreme conditions. Keywords: steel, cast iron, temperature, transitional layer, solidus, liquidus, melt, solidification.

Experimental and numerical investigation of beer foam

The frothy foam on top of beer is produced by bubbles of gas, predominantly carbon dioxide, rising to the surface. The chemical components that produce the head are wort protein, yeast, and hop residue. This involves a large number of chemical components and numerous physical interactions. The beer foam and, especially, its stability is an essential quality characteristic of a beer. A consumer defines a beer's head by its stability, quantity, lacing (glass adhesion or cling), whiteness, creaminess, and strength. To achieve an accurate prediction of beer foam formation and collapse is challenging because complex numerical models are required to account for these nonlinear beer foam effects. To analyze a new design of a beer bottom-to-top pouring system for the startup company Einstein 1, we first set up the experimental tests of this pouring system. Afterward, we performed the associated repeatability studies to achieve stable working conditions. To study beer foam formation and its collapse, we employed a multiphase Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes solver that considered two inter-penetrating continua, which allowed accounting for multi-component phases and mass and heat transfer between these phases. We numerically and experimentally investigated beer foam patterns, beer heights, beer/foam ratio, foam height, foam stability, and foam volume fractions. We performed grid sensitivity studies and validated the numerical solver by comparing results against model test measurements. The results indicated that that the higher the temperature of the beer and the higher the tap pressure is, the greater the foam development and the associated foam height are but not necessarily the foam stability.

Razvoj modela za simulaciju livenja pri aluminotermijskom zavarivanju šina

Aluminothermic welding has been used to connect railway rails for over a century. This technique has the advantages of flexibility, weld compactness, and simplicity. External energy is not required for the procedure. Exothermic heat is produced by chemical reactions of aluminothermic elements. To create a quality welded connection, the mold and pouring system must provide uniform pouring of hot steel without turbulence, even heat dissipation or cooling, and an acceptable micro and macro structure of steel free of internal and external faults. The design of the mould was constantly changing, necessitating costly industrial experimentation. As a result, the mould's design was constantly evolving, necessitating the use of costly experimental procedures in industrial settings. The latest iteration of the model the casting cavity was improved by adding hoes in the sand and putting rails on both sides in order to more aquratly simuate heat transfer. Software programs are emulating conventional casting procedures for thermite steel casting in welded railway connections to save money and effort on costly and timeconsuming industrial testing. For the 49E1 rail, NovaFlow & Solid CV were utilized to simulate casting thermite steel in the mould cavity or weld junction.

Research on Optimization Design of Cast Process for TiAl Case Casting

The effect of the cast process procedure and pouring systems on several typical metallurgical defects for TiAl case casting was studied by numerical simulation and pouring test. The results indicated that gravity casting had much better melt-filling stability and synchronization, compared to centrifugal casting. Misrun defects in the upper edge of the thin-walled outer ring could be removed by increasing the bottom cross runners, and the negative effect of the overheated zone in the thick-walled flange could be reduced by designing a suitable inner-gate structure. The crack induced by stress concentration in the transition zone brought significant challenges for TiAl case casting and the issue would be effectively resolved through structural design and process optimization.

Robotic Pouring Based on Real-Time Observation and Visual Feedback by a High-Speed Vision System

Making robots capable of pouring can be useful in both service and industrial applications. Considering the importance of controlling liquid vibration in mixing chemical reagents and other industrial applications, we investigated in the this study robotic pouring with the aim of controlling liquid vibration, more specifically, the beer-foam ratio during beer pouring. We propose a vision-based measurement method that can measure the liquid volume with an error of less than 5% in real time. Besides, together with a proposed robot pouring controller, we develop a robot pouring system that can control ratio of beer-foam volume with an error of less than 5% during pouring. The flexibility of the developed system was also demonstrated through experiments using different types of container and beer.

Design of an Automobile Injection Mould Based on Automation Technology

At present, there are frequent occurrences in the industry of manufacturers only having products, but they have no product data, resulting in manufacturers unable to open molds to produce the products themselves and can only buy them at high prices. This article takes the rear case of an automobile generator produced by a company as an example, which aims to show the design of automobile injection molds through automation technology. This paper studies the use of automation technology to achieve the automatic model reconstruction of products, and uses the CAD technology to design injection molds based on the obtained digital models of products. This paper also uses the CAE technology to verify the feasibility and rationality of the designed mold, exploring the optimization method of the injection molding process of the mold. In this paper, a special product pouring system and demolding mechanism are designed according to the product process requirements. The design greatly simplifies the mold structure while fulfilling the product process requirements, which avoids the use of expensive hot runners and complex flip-chip mold structures, reducing the mold manufacturing cost. Secondly, the overall design of the injection mold is carried out, and the external dimensions and other main parameters of the mold are determined. Then, Moldflow software is used to simulate the injection molding process, verifying the feasibility and rationality of the designed mold. The optimization method of the injection molding process is also proposed, and the optimal injection process parameters are determined to ensure that the mold can produce qualified products and ensure high production efficiency. It can be seen from the analysis results that the maximum warpage deformation of the plastic part under all effects is 0.65 mm, which meets the product process requirements.

Optimizacija dizajna kalupa za ulivanje termitnog čelika kod aluminotermijskog zavarivanja železničkih šina softverskom simulacijom

The aluminothermic welding process of rail welding has been used to join railway rails for more than a century. The benefits of this procedure include its flexibility, compactness of the weld, and ease of execution. It is not necessary to bring in outside energy to complete the process. It is provided by the exothermic effect of the chemical reactions of the aluminothermic mixture's constituents. The design of the mold with the pouring system, which should ensure even pouring of thermal steel, without turbulence, then even heat dissipation or cooling in order to obtain appropriate micro and macro structure of steel, without internal and external defects, is an important element for making a welded joint of the required quality. As a result, the mold's design was constantly evolving, requiring the use of costly experimental methods in industrial settings. Today, software packages are used to simulate traditional casting processes that can be used in the casting of thermite steel during the manufacture of welded railway joints, thereby avoiding costly and time-consuming industrial tests. The simulation of casting thermite steel in the mold cavity, i.e. in the weld joint for the 49E1 rail, using the NovaFlow & Solid CV software package, is presented in this paper. The simulation results were validated by establishing test welded joints in industrial settings and testing their quality in accordance with the EU 13740-1: 2017 standard.

Evolution of Microstructure and Mechanical Properties of LM25-HEA Composite Processed through Stir Casting with a Bottom Pouring System.

Aluminum matrix composites reinforced by CoCrFeMnNi high entropy alloy (HEA) particulates were fabricated using the stir casting process. The as-cast specimens were investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The results indicated that flake-like silicon particles and HEA particles were distributed uniformly in the aluminum matrix. TEM micrographs revealed the presence of both the matrix and reinforcement phases, and no intermetallic phases were formed at the interface of the matrix and reinforcement phases. The mechanical properties of hardness and tensile strength increased with an increase in the HEA content. The Al 6063–5 wt.% HEA composite had a ultimate tensile strength (UTS) of approximately 197 MPa with a reasonable ductility (around 4.05%). The LM25–5 wt.% HEA composite had a UTS of approximately 195 Mpa. However, the percent elongation decreased to roughly 3.80%. When the reinforcement content increased to 10 wt.% in the LM25 composite, the UTS reached 210 MPpa, and the elongation was confined to roughly 3.40%. The fracture morphology changed from dimple structures to cleavage planes on the fracture surface with HEA weight percentage enhancement. The LM25 alloy reinforced with HEA particles showed enhanced mechanical strength without a significant loss of ductility; this composite may find application in marine and ship building industries.

Design of Large Hot Runner Injection Mold for Interior Part Based on CAE Analysis

According to the shape and structural characteristics of an automotive interior plastic part, this paper has designed a large hot runner injection mold in accordance with the customers’ layout requirement, i.e., one mold and two cavities. It then analyzes the mold filling, cooling, and weld lines via the software, Moldflow, and hence determines a reasonable pouring system; a side core pulling mechanism, “lifter block + square push bar”, has been adopted for the large inverted part on the inner side of the plastic part, while a “lifter + insert” is organized for the two bayonet catches or inverted buckles on the inner side of the plastic part; the combination form of “ejector pin + lifter” has also been employed for the mold release system, with complicated mold structure. Practices prove that the mold structure is reasonable and reliable, and the production of plastic parts meet the quality requirements.

Risk Assessment and Intelligent Control of Ladle Pouring Mechanism

The constant current casting of molten steel in ladle lifted by special-purpose crane is an important part of metallurgical production line. At the same time, there are risks of failure in the pouring process, so it is necessary to carry out risk assessment on the pouring system. Based on the constant current casting theory, the relationship between velocity and time is deduced by assuming the physical model in the pouring process. And the visual programming software is proposed, and the lifting speed of the auxiliary hook at different moments in different pouring stages is calculated. The lifting speed of the auxiliary hook at different times was input into MATLAB, and the Gaussian curve was fitted in the Notebook environment, to obtain the function and function curve of the lifting speed of the auxiliary hook with respect to time. It can be seen from the comparison of a series of auxiliary hook lifting velocity function curves that the molten steel starts to flow from the ladle until the molten steel is poured. The lifting speed changes smoothly and does not cause huge fluctuations and splashes of molten steel. This study not only prevents the failure of ladle crane, but also realizes the intelligent automatic control of the casting process of ladle crane. It is of great significance to the intelligent development of ladle crane.

Casting process of gate valve steel based on ProCAST simulation

The sand casting process of 18CrNiMo7-6 gate valve casting was designed in this paper. The molding and core making methods of castings are sodium silicate CO2 method and self hardening cold box method respectively. The technological parameters of the casting were determined. The middle pouring system and top riser were designed. Using software to draw the assembly and 3D entity of gate valve casting. ProCAST simulation software is used to realize the numerical simulation task of the gate valve casting process. Shrinkage and porosity are the main research objects. It is found that the defects mainly appear in the thick part of the casting and the flange through the simulation experiment feedback parameters. In this paper, from the point of view of reducing and avoiding defects, the casting process is improved and improved. Finally, according to the experimental results, S2 (with chill) is determined as the final scheme.

Вплив хаотичної зміни швидкості потоку нафтопродуктів на точність вимірювання витратоміру Коріоліса

Modern automated pouring systems have been used at tank farm for the release of petroleum products. The main physical quantities for the accounting of release of petroleum products are weight, volume, density and temperature. There is a large number of methods and means, the so-called flow meters, to measure these physical quantities. One of the most common, versatile and accurate is the mass flowmeter of liquid which is built on the principle of Coriolis forces, since mass measurement is direct. However, the use of Coriolis flowmeters to measure the flow of petroleum products has a number of factors that can affect the accuracy of mass measurement and flow density. Such factors, for example, may be the appearance of two phases of the flow, or the rupture of the flow rate. Therefore, there is a need to control and create conditions for the movement of the flow of petroleum products in the pipeline in which, this flow meter will correspond to the required accuracy of measurement. The main metrological characteristics of modern automated pouring systems at tank farm are considered. The requirements for the accuracy of measuring of mass consumption of petroleum products at tank farm are analyzed. An experimental research of the automated pouring system with Coriolis flowmeter are performed at a randomly change and unchanged rate of the measured flow of petroleum products to detect the effect on the accuracy of measurement by the Coriolis flowmeter as part of the system. The article includes a structural diagram of the experimental equipment. Processing of measurement results is done. Methods for controlling the parameters of the measured flow of petroleum products in the pipeline at the input and output of the Coriolis flowmeter are proposed.

Low pressure casting technology and forming process analysis of metal mold based on ProCAST FEA procedure

In order to simulate the casting process of a typical aluminum alloy, a 3 D entity model for a pouring system was used for numerical analysis of the filling and solidification process with ProCAST software. A comprehensive analysis including the change of temperature field, the velocity of filling, the solid phase as well as the location of casting defect, showed that the defects such as shrinkage (cavity) porosity can be reduced effectively with an increase in the mold preheating temperature and the number of vents. This simulation also serves as a theoretical reference for the sake of facilitating casting quality.

Using MOLDFLOW to Optimize the Pouring System of Bucket Injection Mould

Combining the structure of the product and the molding material, the mold flow analysis (CAE) was carried out. From the filling process and the pressure at the time of pressure switching, the mold flow analysis was performed on the two bucklein injection molding process of the insert buckle. And put forward the optimization of the gating system, providing some guidance experience for the repair work.