GB1590924A - Cleaning apparatus for cleaning the stand pipes and/or fill holes of a coking oven battery - Google Patents

Description

(54) CLEANING APPARATUS FOR CLEANING THE STAND PIPES AND/OR FILL HOLES OF A COKING OVEN BATTERY (71) We, RUHRKOHLE AKTIENGESELL SCHAFT, a German Body Corporate, of 1, Rellinghauser Strasse, D-4300 Essen, Germany, do hereby declare the invention, for which we pray that a patent may be granted to us, and the method by which it is to be performed, to be particularly described in and by the following statement:- This invention relates to cleaning apparatus for cleaning the stand pipes and/or fill holes of a coking oven battery which have become coated with graphite and other contamination. The walls of the stand pipes, especially in the region of bends, as well as the fill holes and the seating surfaces of the fill hole lids of coking ovens can, as is known, in time become largely blocked with graphite deposits.The graphite deposits start with the adhering of coal dust which very quickly forms a kind of basic agglomerate and, in time, leads to a gaphite deposit which becomes very hard. Even today, removal of the graphite deposits requires heavy physical labour, to a great extent by hand. For this, as a rule, at least one additional man is needed for the oven roof.

Devices are known in which rotating knives or scrapers remove the caking at given intervals and are thus meant to replace the usual manual labour. Such a device is described, for instance, in German Auslegeschrift No. 1264391. This device is connected to the hopper car and consists of a cleaning device arranged on a carrying frame which can be raised and lowered, and is intended to remove the caking. Particularly striking is the very expensive lifting mechanism which is necessary to protect the universal joint of the device from the heat radiating from the open fill hole. In the first place, such devices have the disadvantage that they interrupt the work rhythm, as the operation of cleaning necessitates an additional work process in the same way as the manual operation.Thus, with those kinds of cleaning device which are attached to the hopper car, the hopper car is out of service after the filling process until completion of the cleaning process.

From Patent Specification No. 1,422,173, a cleaning device for the cleaning of the stand pipes of coking ovens is known, which device comprises a mechanically operated cleaning tool provided with additional exit holes for air in order to assist, on the one hand, the work of the mechanically operating tool in separating pieces of the graphite deposit and, on the other hand, cooling of the linkage.

The device described in that Specification also interrupts the rhythm of the filling process because it is connected to the hopper car.

In operation of the known devices described above, it has transpired that, in the case of high capacity ovens, the construction of hopper cars which include all the devices for charging the coking ovens and for cleaning work on the stand pipes and fill holes becomes so complicated that considerable operational interruption can occur by reason of the many devices not directly required for charging. Furthermore, as a result of this multiplicity of devices, the hopper car eventually becomes restricted in the number of coking ovens that it can serve.

An object of the invention is the provision of cleaning apparatus by means of which all caking on the stand pipes and the fill holes can be removed without high additional expense, and minor variations in position or orientation of the stand pipes and/or fill holes can be accommodated.

In accordance with the present invention there is provided cleaning apparatus for cleaning the stand pipes and/or fill holes of a coking oven battery, which apparatus comprises a cleaning car adapted for displacement along a guideway extending in the direction of the longitudinal axis of the battery, at least one cleaning device mounted on the car and capable of being introduced into a stand pipe and/or fill hole, and adjustment means for adjusting the position of the cleaning device(s) on the car to accommodate minor variations in position or orientation of the stand pipe and/or fill hole.

It is known that stand pipes mostly do not maintain their dead perpendicular orientation in the course of operation. Deviations from the dead perpendicular orientation can readily be compensated for in that the cleaning device(s) may be pivotable, as well as being movable on a slidable frame which is adjustable in position with respect to the remainder of the car in the direction of the longitudinal axis of the battery. Thus operational disturbances which might otherwise arise due to the cleaning device not being able to enter a stand pipe, particularly due to changes in orientation, are minimised. Furthermore, it is advantageous that the actual charging procedure can proceed continuously and without interruption by the cleaning procedure.Whilst the personnel requirement is not reduced without additional investment, it can be mentioned as an advantage that, from the ergonomical point of view, the working conditions on the cleaning car are more favourable than the previous activity directly on the coking oven roof. Furthermore, it is conceivable to provide the individual cleaning devices with a control mechanism connected to a preprogrammed control device so that cleaning can proceed according to a pre-set sequence.

In order to avoid an uneven graphite deposit in a stand pipe jamming the cleaning devices, which can lead to considerable operational interruptions, it is a preferred feature of the invention to employ, as a cleaning device for the stand pipes and the stand pipe bends, a pressure rod which is pivotable through 90 about an axis transverse to its length, one end of which features one or more scrapers. So much force can be transmitted through the pressure rod that the graphite which is deposited within the period of a coking procedure can be knocked off the ceramic walls without difficulty. As the stand pipes of today's high capacity ovens usually have a length of four meters and over, pivoting ofthe pressure rod facilitates passage of the cleaning car through the coal tower.In view of this pivoting facility, it is also possible ahd logical to clean the stand pipe bend and the stand pipe itself with the same device, i.e. the cleaning device has two differeht work positions and a stationary position.

Furthermore a cleaning device is preferably provided on the car for cleaning the fill holes, the device comprising a pressure rod having a scraper ring mounted thereon.

The walls of the stand pipe are lined with heat-resistant materials, and damage to these walls would eventually lead to operational interruptions. For this reason, it is preferred that the scrapers are provided with hardened portions, or are fitted with metal pieces, having a lesser hardness than the walls of the stand pipes and/or the fill holes. In this manner, it is ensured that only the graphite caking and similar materials are knocked off by the scrapers.

The charging procedure, i.e. the depositing of the coking coal from the hopper car into the coking oven, should take place as quickly and with as little interruption as possible.

Also, it is important that the oven is loaded with coal as evenly as possible. The number of the fill holes is therefore dependent on the length of the coking oven. Because ofthe short periods available for the cleaning of the fill holes, each fill hole may have a cleaning device assigned to it, which consists of a pressure rod with scrapers. In this manner, all fill holes can be freed from caking simultaneously.

In order to ensure good manipulation of the cleaning devices and to achieve even removal of the caking, a further preferred feature of the invention provides that the pressure rods are slewably positioned and feature a lifting and rotational drive.

Dirt does not only occur in the fill hole shaft itself, but also on the seating surfaces of the fill hole lids. It is therefore preferable that the pressure rod of the fill hole cleaning device includes a second scraper ring above the first scraper ring, whose diameter corresponds to the diameter of the fill hole lid and which is attached to the pressure rod at a spacing corresponding to the thickness of the coking oven roof. Thus the seating surfaces of the fill hole lid and the walls of the fill hole shaft can be cleaned simultaneously with the same device.

The advance in the technique of charging coking oven chambers has led to the construction of essentially two types of hopper car, namely, hopper cars with enforced discharge and dust-removal devices and gravity hopper cars with suction means for removing the charging gases in the neck of the retort.

The gravity cars in particular are operated as so-called single-point cars, i.e. the individual work stages on charging take place without further movement of the hopper car on the oven roof. After the hopper car has travelled onto the oven to be charged, there follows the automatic lifting of the fill hole lid, the lowering of the charging funnel into the fill hole in the oven roof, the charging of the coking oven chamber with c6king coal, the raising of the charging funnel and the automatic replacing of the fill hole lid, without the car having to be moved, before or during these individual operational steps. In order for the cleaning car to be used also as a singlepoint machine, it is advantageous to arrange the lid-raising device below the cleaning device for the fill hole shafts, so that the lidraising device can operate in the same place.

For this reason, the device for releasing the fill hole lid, according to a further feature of the invention, has a universal joint. After the releasing procedure, the fill hole lid is swung away by means of this universal joint, far enough for the cleaning procedure of the fill hole with the pressure rod to be carried out.

The lid of the fill hole is subject to exceptional variations in temperature, so that it tends to accumulate a particularly heavy deposit. Accordingly it is advantageous if the fill hole cleaning device further comprises means for cleaning the fill hole lid after removal, which means incorporates a member having a roughened surface and means for pressing the fill hole lid against the roughened surface whilst causing relative rotation therebetween, the removal means being adapted to swing the fill hole lid into the position in which it is cleaned. In these means, an acceptable cleaning of the seating surface of the lid is assured.

A completely furnished cleaning car may be arranged on both sides of each hopper car. This is, however, only necessary if the hopper car has to service ovens on both sides of a battery coal tower. As the only time available for cleaning work lies between two charging procedures, i.e. the time in which the hopper car fetches new coal from the battery coal tower, the arrangement of a cleaning car on both sides of each hopper car ensures that the outer car can fully exploit that period, which is typically from 3 to 4 minutes.

The combination of several cleaning devices on one cleaning car, together with their associated manipulating devices, necessitates considerable maintenance expense. Furthermore, the operation must not be interrupted by possible faults with these machines. For this reason, the cleaning car preferably includes ring lugs for lifting devices which enable removal of the cleaning car at the coal tower. Without outside aid, a defective cleaning car may be replaced or held in reserve.

An embodiment of the invention will now be described, by way of example, with reference to the accompaying drawings, in which: Figure 1 shows details of a cleaning device for a stand pipe, Figure 2 shows details of a cleaning device for a fill hole, Figure 3 shows an arrangement of hopper cars and cleaning cars at the coal tower, and Figure 4 shows an arrangement of hopper cars and cleaning cars at the end oven.

Referring to Figures 3 and 4, special cleaning cars 1 are provided with devices for cleaning various parts of a coking oven battery, including stand pipes 30 and stand pipe bends 31, and fill hole shafts 21, fill hole frames and fill hole lids 22, together with a vacuum cleaner which keeps the oven roof 20 free of dust. The cleaning cars 1 can be moved independently of the hopper cars 40. About 4 to 5 minutes after the coking oven has been emptied by a pressure device (not shown), the cleaning cars 1 run on to the oven and remove the fill hole lids 22 so that the fill hole shafts 21 can be cleaned with the aid of cleaning devices 8 (see Figure 2). This cleaning device 8 consists of a pressure rod 6 with a scraper ring 7 fitted to it.At a distance from the scraper ring 7 corresponding substantially to the thickness of the oven roof 20, there is a second scraper ring 9 which is intended to clean the seating surface of the fill hole lid 22. This scraper ring 9 has a diameter which corresponds to that of the fill hole lid 22. The pressure rod 6 is pivotable so that the scraper rings 7 and 9 may be rotated into the fill hole shaft 21 and the seating surface of the fill hole lid 22, so that all deposition cakiig is safely but, at the same time, reliably removed. The pressure rod 6 can be adjusted in height by means of a suitable device. All fill holes 21 are cleaned simultaneously with similar cleaning devices 8. Separate cleaning devices 5 (to be described in more detail with reference to Figure 1) are provided for cleaning the stand pipes 30.

With conventional coking ovens, it was usual to dimension the fill hole shafts 21, and also the stand pipe 30, so that their internal diameters were smaller or equal to the relevant chamber width of the oven, although recently this has been departed from. The transition from the chamber to the fill hole 21 has been moved to the oven roof area. For the cleaning devices 8 and/or 5 to be fully effective, it is necessary that the cylindrical dimension of the fill hole shafts 21 and/or the stand pipes 30 is carried through as far as the area of the gas collecting chamber 25, in order to make sure that no caked deposits can occur beyond the areas cleaned by the scrapers 7 and/or 4 of the cleaning cars 1.

This is possible because the return point, i.e.

the upper edge of the heating flues, lies below the gas collecting chamber 25 and there is sufficient room available for the scrapers 7 and/or 4 to project into the chamber 25.

Also represented in Figure 2 is the device for removing the fill hole lid 22. The fill hole lid 22 is lifted and is then swung with the aid of the linkage 23 into a cleaning device 12.

The fill hole lids 22 are, as shown, placed on a kind of plate having a roughened surface and rotated thereon by rotating means (not shown), so that possible dirt is knocked off by the roughened surface of the plate.

Alternatively, theplate can be rotated, to ensure careful treatment of the fill hole lid 22.

In Figure 1, a device 5 for cleaning a stand pipe 30 and a stand pipe bend 31 is shown. After the stand pipe cover 34 has been opened, the cleaning device 5 consisting of a pressure rod 3 and a scraper ring 4 is driven into the stand pipe tube 30 and lowered therein to the end of the stand pipe tube adjacent the gas collecting chamber 25.

As the scraper ring 4 is fitted with scrapers having a lesser hardness than the wall 32 of the stand pipe tube 30, damage to the stand pipe tube 30 is avoided. By swivelling the cleaning device 5, the stand pipe bend 31 can be cleaned with the same device, as is shown in chain-dotted lines in Figure 1.

The stand pipe bend 31 opens into a receiver 33. A few coking plants are to be provided with two such cleaning devices 5, because receivers 33 are fitted on both sides of the coking ovens. This provision is possible without difficulty with the apparatus according to the invention. Finally, as shown in dashed lines in Figure 1, the cleaning device 5 can also be brought to a stationary, horizontal position. In this position, the cleaning car 1 can also be driven through the underside of the coal tower 50. Also shown is the anchoring girder 35, which gives the necessary stability to the coking oven.

The cleaning devices 5 and 8 are mounted on a frame (not shown) which can slide on the car 1 in the direction of the longitudinal axis of the oven battery to accommodate slight movement of a stand pipe 30 out of its true vertical position (which will also necessitate pivoting of the devices).

Figures 3 and 4 show a combination of cleaning cars 1 and hopper cars 40 in the vicinity of the coal tower 50 and at the end of a battery respectively. Normally two cleaning cars 1 are associated with each hopper car 40 when coking ovens on both sides of the battery coal tower 50 are to be served, as the only time available for the cleaning operation lies between two charging procedures, whilst the hopper car fetches fresh coal from the coal tower. If, for the above-mentioned arrangement of the ovens, two hopper cars 40 are being used, then normally three or four cleaning cars 1 are provided. A lifting device 42 is available on the coal tower or at another suitable place, with the help of which, at any time, replacement of a defective cleaning car is possible. Figure 4 shows an arrangement with two hopper cars 40 and four cleaning cars 1, in the area of the last oven.

WHAT WE CLAIM IS: 1. Cleaning apparatus for cleaning the stand pipes and/or fill holes of a coking oven battery, which apparatus comprises a cleaning car adapted for displacement along a guideway extending in the direction of the longitudinal axis of the battery, at least one cleaning device mounted on the car and capable of being introduced into a stand pipe and/or fill hole, and adjustment means for adjusting the position of the cleaning device(s) on the car to accommodate minor variations in position or orientation of the stand pipe and/or fill hole.

2. Cleaning apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a cleaning device is provided on the car for cleaning a stand pipe and a stand pipe bend, which device comprises a pressure rod pivotable through 90" about an axis transverse to its length and having at least one scraper at one end region.

3. Cleaning apparatus according to claim 1 or 2, wherein a cleaning device is provided on the car for cleaning a fill hole, which device comprises a pressure rod having a scraper ring mounted thereon.

4. Cleaning apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the fill hole cleaning device further comprises a second scraper ring mounted on the pressure rod and spaced from the first scraper ring, the second scraper ring being intended for cleaning the seating for the fill hole lid.

5. Cleaning apparatus according to claim 3 or 4, wherein the fill hole cleaning device further comprises removal means for removing the fill hole lid.

6. Cleaning apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the fill hole cleaning device further comprises means for cleaning the fill hole lid after removal, which means incorporates a member having a roughened surface and means for pressing the fill hole lid against the roughened surface whilst causing relative rotation therebetween, the removal means being adapted to swing the fill hole lid into the position in which it is cleaned.

7. Cleaning apparatus according to any one of claims 2 to 6, wherein the or each pressure rod is rotatably mounted and is provided with means for lifting the rod and axially rotating the rod.

8. Cleaning apparatus according to any preceding claim, wherein the cleaning car includes ring lugs for engagement by lifting means to enable lifting of the cleaning car.

9. Cleaning apparatus according to any precedingclaim, wherein the adjustment means comprises a slidable frame which is adjustable in position with respect to the remainder of the car in the direction of the longitudinal axis of the battery, the or each cleaning device being mounted on the frame.

10. Cleaning apparatus substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to, and as shown in the accompanying drawings.

11. A coking oven battery incorporating cleaning apparatus according to any pre

Claims (1)

1. ceding claim.

   12. A battery according to claim 11 when appended to claim 2 or 3, wherein the or each scraper or scraper ring incorporates a hardened portion, or is fitted with a metal piece, which has a lesser hardness than the walls of the stand pipes or fill holes.

   13. A battery according to claim 11 or 12, wherein the cleaning car is displaceable along the same guideway on the oven roof as a hopper car for charging the ovens.

   14. A battery according to claim 13, wherein there are a plurality of cleaning cars and a plurality of hopper cars on the guideway, each hopper car being arranged between two cleaning cars, and each cleaning car being provided with cleaning devices for cleaning the stand pipes and fill holes.

   15. A battery according to claim 11, 12, 13 or 14, wherein lifting means are provided in the vicinity of a coal tower to enable removal of a cleaning car from the guideway.

   16. A coking oven battery substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to, and as shown in, the accompanying drawings.