EP0058324B1 - Device for the controlled cooling of wire at rolling temperature - Google Patents

Abstract

Apparatus for cooling rolled wire rod consists of a first part which guides the wire rectilinearly and cools it with water, a turn-laying unit which forms the wire into turns and lays the turns in staggerred disposition on a continuously running conveyor, and a second part comprising the conveyor which allows passage of an approximately vertically directed stream of air to the turns and conveys the wire turns to a coil forming station which collects them. In order to provide substantial adaptability to various cooling requirements by means of simple and inexpensive conversion, the two parts are composed of a plurality of modules of the same modular length or an integral multiple of the modular length. A base frame carries the modules and the turn-laying unit is fixed on the base frame in a longitudinally displaceable manner. Thus, the lengths of the first and second parts can be changed, and individual modules or groups can be replaced.

Description

The controlled cooling of steel wire rod from the rolling heat has become of considerable importance in the past two decades due to the introduction of the so-called “Stelmor process”. Originally used for patenting wire made of medium to high carbon steel, the process soon came into general use by adapting to the cooling conditions of other types of steel in order to save the heat treatment of the wire that would otherwise be necessary before further processing. The cooling conditions, which must be based on the type of steel and the diameter of the wire to be cooled and the throughput, made changes to the cooling devices necessary in order to be able to regulate the cooling intensity and the timing of the cooling within wide limits. Examples of this are shown in DE-C-1 752 519, DE-A-2 009 839, DE-A-2 150 609 and DE-A-2 546 589. Despite considerable additional construction work, the area of application of the device is still limited and one Adaptation to later occurring, not immediately scheduled applications or deferred for cost reasons is hardly possible or only possible at high cost.

DE-C-1 508 443 discloses an early proposal for increasing the adaptability of the cooling device to widely differing cooling conditions. According to this prior art, from which the invention is based, the cooling device, as usual, has a first, guiding the wire in a straight line and in sections with a water-cooling part and a conveyor, which allows an approximately vertically directed coolant flow to pass through and access to all winding parts, as a second part, which feeds the wire windings to a bundle forming station arranged downstream of the conveyor, which collects and forms bundles, the one between the two parts arranged, forming the wire into turns and placing the turns opposite to each other on the continuously running conveyor laying layer - following the proposal according to DE-C-1 508 443 - adjustable along the device and thus changing the effective lengths of the first and second parts of the device is trained. Despite the advantage that the possibility of changing the effective lengths of the differently acting parts of the device brings, the basic structure of the cooling device in both parts corresponds to the rest of the prior art, so that here and there the construction of the cooling device in both parts hardly or only can be changed at high cost.

The object of the invention is to obtain extensive adaptability of the cooling device to very different cooling conditions by creating simple and cost-saving conversion options. According to the invention, both parts of the cooling device are composed of a plurality of modules of the same basic length or an integral multiple of the basic length and built on a base frame on which the winding layer is also attached, the modules or groups of modules functioning as guides or Differentiate conveyors and / or influence the cooling effect differently.

The modules of the first part of the cooling device are provided with the wire straight pipe pieces according to a feature of the invention and according to a further feature of the invention, the pipe pieces can be provided with cooling water supplies and combined by a collecting container for the cooling water running off.

According to one feature of the invention, the modules of the second part of the cooling device are designed as basic units of a conveyor for transporting wire windings which are offset on it in the conveying direction, the conveying means of which permit an approximately perpendicular cooling air flow to pass through and access to all parts of the wire windings.

The hot wire windings on the conveyor generate a thermal which is sufficient if only moderate cooling speeds are required. Very high cooling speeds can be achieved if, according to a further feature of the invention, a frame with vertically operating fan wheels is placed under each module of the conveyor. In most cases, it is sufficient if, according to a further feature of the invention, an air chamber fed by a blower is placed under several modules of the conveyor, a high cooling rate being achievable.

A known and practiced way of influencing the cooling speed is to deposit the wire windings with more or less little dislocation on the conveyor by adjusting the conveying speed accordingly. If the cooling conditions require that a period of rapid cooling should be followed by a period of slow cooling, for which purpose the wire windings should be placed closer, or if the wire windings have to be pulled apart for trouble-free ejection before entering the bundling station, this can be done with the invention Reaching the cooling device particularly easily, according to a further feature of the invention, modules of successive sections of the conveyor are operated at different conveying speeds and are arranged in a descending step, which is achieved in the simplest manner by documents of appropriate strength between the modules and the base frame.

If the cooling speed is to be reduced further, this can be done by limiting the Cooling air flow and further by preventing heat radiation. According to a further feature of the invention, the individual modules or groups of modules of the second part of the cooling device, if appropriate between the modules and the documents, the frame for the fan wheels or the air chambers, plates made of building material that insulates heat radiation are arranged with Slots are provided for the passage of a cooling air flow, this has the desired effect that the heat radiation is prevented downwards and an un forced air movement is slowed down, while the slots allow a cooling air flow forced by fans or blowers sufficient passage, so that the plates with exception the case of thermal cooling can remain under the modules.

If a very slow cooling of the wire rod is required, this can be achieved if, according to a further feature of the invention, the modules of the conveyor on the inner walls facing the long sides of the conveyor can be equipped with plates made of building material that insulates heat radiation and on the modules U- shaped hoods from the heat radiation insulating building material can be placed as sections of a warming tunnel.

• Figur 1 eine Gesamtdarstellung eines Ausführungsbeispiels zu dem in den
• Figuren 2 und 3 Einzelheiten in größerem Maßstab dargestellt sind.
  Weitere Einzelheiten sind in den
• Figur 4 bis 8 dargestellt und dienen zur Abwandlung des Ausführungsbeispiels. Die
• Figur 9 zeigt nochmals das in Fig. 1 dargestellte Ausführungsbeispiel und die
• Figuren 10, 11 und 12 zeigen Beispiele von Abwandlungen des Ausführungsbeispiels in schematischer Darstellung.

The invention is explained using an exemplary embodiment with reference to the drawings. They show in perspective:

• Figure 1 is an overall view of an embodiment of the in the
• Figures 2 and 3 details are shown on a larger scale.
  Further details are in the
• Figures 4 to 8 shown and serve to modify the embodiment. The
• Figure 9 shows again the embodiment shown in Fig. 1 and
• Figures 10, 11 and 12 show examples of modifications of the embodiment in a schematic representation.

In the overall illustration, FIG. 1, 1 denotes the last pair of rolls of a wire-rolling mill. The finished rolled wire leaving the pair of rolls 1 enters the cooling device directly, which consists of a first part A and a second part B, which in turn is divided into sections B1, B2 and B3. Between the two parts A and B, a driving roll stand 2 and a winding layer 3 are arranged. A bundle forming station 4 connects to part B or the last section B3 of the cooling device.

The first part A of the cooling device guiding the wire in a straight line is composed of modules 5 and 6. The modules 5 and 6 are provided with pipe sections 7 for wire guidance, which are combined in the modules 5 by a collecting container 8 and in the modules 6 by a support beam 9, the pipe sections 7 of the modules 5 being not shown here, for example by the DE-C-27 14 019 known cooling water supplies are provided. The collecting container 8 of the modules 5 are supported by bases 10 and the support beams 9 of the modules 6 are supported by bases 11, which in turn are seated on a base frame 14 of the cooling device and are detachably fastened. Modules 5 and 6 are designed in two basic lengths.

A base 12 of simple basic length carrying the drive roller stand 2 and the bearing housing 13 of the winding layer 3 of double basic length sit on the base frame 14 following the base 10 and 11 and are also detachably fastened to this. The winding layer 3 forms the wire into turns in the form of screws and places them on the subsequent conveyor in the second part of the cooling device. Depending on the conveying speed of the continuously operated conveyor, the turns lay more or less offset on the conveyor.

The conveyor, that is to say the second part B of the cooling device, is composed of modules 15 as basic units of the conveyor. The modules 15 consist of a frame 16 with fastening flanges 17. The frame 16 is open at the top and bottom. Transport rollers 18 are mounted in the longitudinal side walls of the frame 16. The shafts of the transport rollers 18 are guided out of the frame 16 on a longitudinal side thereof. A shaft in each module 15 is driven by a gear motor 19. Sprockets and chains 20 seated on the shaft journals serve for the geared connection of all transport rollers 18 of a module 15. The conveying speed of each module is infinitely variable.

In the exemplary embodiment according to FIG. 1, the second part B of the cooling device is subdivided into sections B1, B2 and B3 in order to be able to meet the required cooling conditions assumed here, which require a very rapid cooling in section B1. For this purpose, the modules 15 of this section are regulated to a high conveying speed on the one hand so that the windings are offset strongly (over 35 mm), that is to say they are widely separated, and on the other hand the modules 15 are combined with fans 21 to generate a very strong air flow (see FIG . 2). The fans 21 are mounted in frames 22, which have the same connection dimensions as the modules 15 and are placed underneath them together with the modules 15 on the base frame 14 and fastened.

The modules 15 together with the fans 21 in the frame 22 provide a cooling intensity in the case of strongly offset windings which is suitable for continuing the strong initial cooling started in the first part A of the cooling device to a sufficient extent. This has the advantage that the first part A of the cooling device is kept correspondingly short and the turns can be laid at about 850 ° C. A short distance between the last roll stand and the coiler at one Correspondingly high temperature of the wire in the winding layer are essential prerequisites for a high final rolling speed of 75 and more m / sec. The design of the cooling device allows, however, in cases where a particularly low temperature (800 ° C and less) must already be reached at the winding layer, to extend the first part A of the cooling device by a few modules and the second part B by a corresponding one Shorten the number of modules with a corresponding displacement of the drive roll stand 2 and the winding layer 3, in which case the rolling mill can be operated at a lower final rolling speed.

Following the very rapid cooling in section B1, rapid cooling is sufficient, which is ensured in section B2 by placing an air chamber 23 below it, for example three modules 15, which is fed by a blower 24 (see FIG. 3). The modules 15 sit on the air chambers 23 and with them on the base frame 14. The air blown into the chambers 23 exits the modules 15 between the rollers 18. The cooling speed sought in section B2 can be achieved with an average offset of the turns (approximately 20 to 30 mm), and the modules 15 in section B2 are therefore regulated to an average conveying speed. So that the wire windings can move together easily and smoothly during the transition from section B1 to section B2, the modules 15 in section B2 are set somewhat lower than in section B1, which is indicated by documents of different thickness, namely documents 25a for the modules 15 in section B1 and less strong documents 25b is reached for the modules 15 in section B2. The modules 15 in section B3 also sit on an air chamber 23 and with this on the base frame 14. The conveying speed of the modules 15 in section B3 is, however, adapted to that for the transfer of the turns into the bundle forming station 4, which is somewhat higher than the conveying speed in section B2. In order to be able to pull apart the wire windings at the transition from section B2 to section B3 without interference, the modules 15 in section B3 are set lower than in section B2 in that the modules 15 in section B3 are mounted without documents.

In cases in which only a moderate cooling speed is required in the second part B of the cooling device or one of its sections, or only the further transportation of the wire windings can be accomplished, the modules 15 can be placed directly on the base frame 14 (see FIG. 4). The inherent heat of the wire windings conveyed on the modules 15 causes an air movement (thermals), which causes a moderate cooling rate.

The moderate cooling rate caused by natural air movement (thermal) and heat radiation is still too high in the cooling conditions of a group of steels. In such cases, the modules 15 can be closed at the bottom by underlaid panels 26 (see FIGS. 5, 6 and 7). So that the plates 26 do not have to be removed each time the cooling program changes to accelerated cooling, the plates 26 are provided with slots 27 which expediently increase in the conveying direction. The ribs remaining between the slots 27 have a braking effect on an air flow to such an extent that the natural air movement is greatly reduced. The downward heat radiation is largely insulated by the plates 26, even if they are provided with slots 27. The braked air movement and the partial, downward-insulated heat radiation ensure slow cooling. The plates 26 consist of heat-resistant and heat-insulating material. The slots 27 in the plates 26, however, allow an air flow forced by fans or blowers to become fully effective when the plates 26 are between the frames 22 of the fans 21 and the modules 15 (see FIG. 5) or between the ventilation chambers 23 and the modules 15 (see FIG. 6) are set, the slots 27, with their inclined position, simultaneously directing the air flow in a desired direction.

In order to achieve very slow cooling, the heat radiation can be reduced further. For this purpose, the modules 15 are fitted along the inner walls of the long sides with plates 28 which are connected to the inner walls and are provided with semicircular recesses 29 of somewhat larger radius than those of the transport rollers 18 on their upper surfaces located at the level of the axes of the transport rollers 18 . From above, 15 hoods 30 are placed on the modules, the side walls 31 of which are supported on the plates 28 and, like these, are provided with semicircular cutouts 32 (see FIG. 8). While the plates 28 can remain in the modules 15, the hoods 30 are only placed on the modules 15 as required.

The exemplary embodiment shown in FIG. 1 with the omission of part of the modules 15 in section B2 is shown again completely in FIG. 9, but schematically with the omission of the roll stand upstream of the cooling device and the coil forming station downstream of the cooling device and of the base frame.

Some examples of possible modifications of the embodiment shown in FIG. 9 are shown in FIGS. 10, 11 and 12.

Thus, FIG. 10 shows a cooling device which is of a very simple design, as it can be used for different types of bulk steels which, in the case of strong initial cooling in the first part C, require only moderately rapid cooling in the second part D. The length of the first part C located in front of the winding layer 3 together with the strong cooling of the wire in this part and thus a relatively low temperature of the wire in the winding layer 3 only allow a limited throughput speed of the wire if trouble-free operation is to be ensured. A construction of the cooling device as shown in FIG. 10 can, however, be suitable as a first construction stage, since the design according to the invention allows the cooling device to be converted without further ado.

If higher rolling speeds are to be used and types are to be cooled which require strong cooling in the second section of the cooling device, it is advisable to set up the cooling device as shown in FIG. 11. Here, the first part E of the cooling device is shortened compared to the structure according to FIG. 10, while the second part F is correspondingly lengthened and equipped for strong cooling, in that air modules 23 with fans 24 - as shown in FIG. are set.

Very high rolling speeds require a further shortening of the first section of the cooling device, and the construction according to FIG. 9 is recommended, which allows very strong cooling in section B1, as already described. Since the very strong cooling in section B1 is effected with wire with a small cross-section, it is advisable to convert the cooling device into the structure according to FIG. 11 when rolling out wire of larger cross-section, which is anyway rolled out at a lower final speed.

As the example according to FIG. 12 shows, a cooling device according to the invention - in the example that according to FIG. 9 - can easily be set up for very slow cooling, once the modules 15 are underlaid with plates 26 and plates 28 are inserted into the modules 15. Then only the hoods 30 have to be put on and the fans 21 and the blowers 24 have to be stopped. The modules 15 in sections B1 and B2 are also to be adjusted to a low conveying speed, so that there is a tight packing of the wire windings with a small offset (down to 3 mm). After removing the hoods 30, switching on the fan 21 and fan 24 and setting the higher conveying speeds on the modules 15 in sections B1 and B2, the cooling device according to FIG. 12 has the same effect as that according to FIG. 9.

Claims (10)

1. An apparatus for the controlled cooling of rolled steel wire from rolling temperature, comprising a first part A, which guides the wire in a straight line and cools it in sections with water, and a conveyor (18), which allows a flow of cooling agent directed approximately vertically to pass through and reach all parts of the wire coils, as a second part B, which conveys the wire coils to a bunch-forming station (4) which collects the latter and forms them into bunches and which is disposed downstream of the conveyor, and the coil layer (3) which is disposed between parts A and B and forms the wire into coils and which deposits the coils offset relative to one another on the continuously moving conveyor (3) can be displaced along the apparatus and is thus formed so as to alter the actual lengths of the first and second parts A and B of the apparatus, characterized in that the two parts (A, B) of the apparatus consist of a plurality of modules (5, 6, 15) of the same basic length or an integral multiple of the basic length and are mounted on a base frame (14) on which the coil layer (3) is also secured, the modules (5, 6, 15) or groups of modules (5, 6, 15) differing in their function as a guide (7) or conveyor (18) and/or affecting the cooling action in different ways.

2. An apparatus according to Claim 1, characterized in that the modules (5, 6) of the first part (A) of the apparatus are provided with tube members (7) which guide the wire in a straight line.

3. An apparatus according to Claim 2, characterized in that the tube members (7) are provided with cooling water inlets and are surrounded by a collecting tank (8) for the discharged cooling water.

4. An apparatus according to Claim 1, characterized in that the modules (15) of the second part (B) of the apparatus are formed as basic units of a conveyor (18) for conveying wire coils which are positioned offset thereon in the conveying direction and the conveying means of which allow a flow of cooling air directed approximately vertically to pass through and reach all parts of the wire coils.

5. An apparatus according to Claim 4, characterized in that a frame (22) with vertically operating fan wheels (21) is positioned below each module (15) of the conveyor (18).

6. An apparatus according to Claim 4, characterized in that an air chamber (23) supplied by a blower (24) is positioned below a plurality of modules (15) of the conveyor (18).

7. An apparatus according to any one of Claims 4 to 6, characterized in that modules (15) of successive sections (B1, B2, B3) of the conveyor are driven at a differing conveying speed and are arranged in stages decreasing in height.

8. An apparatus according to Claim 7, characterized in that the modules (15) positioned higher are supported on the base frame (14) with correspondingly thick base supports (25a, 25b).

9. An apparatus according to any one of Claims 4 to 8, characterized in that there are disposed under each module (15) or a group of modules (15), where appropriate between the modules (15) and the base supports (25a, 25b), the frame (22) for the fan wheels (21) or the air chambers (23), plates (26) of a material preventing heat radiation, which are provided with slots (27) for the passage of a cooling air flow.

10. An apparatus according to any one of Claims 4 to 9, characterized in that the modules (15) of the conveyor on the inner walls directed towards the longitudinal sides of the conveyor can be provided with plates (28) of the material preventing heat radiation, and U-shaped hoods (30) of the material preventing heat radiation can be attached to the modules (15) as sections of a heat-retaining tunnel.

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