JP2000345378A - Device for measuring shape soundness of copper electrolysis cathode - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a device for measuring the soundness of a copper electrolysis cathode capable of measuring the shape soundness of the whole cathode including not only the perpendicularly of a seed plate part to the cathode in a carrying line but also the quality of the shape of a ribbon part. SOLUTION: A device for measuring the shape soundness of a copper electrolysis cathode 1 comprises a seed plate 2 for copper electrolysis, a ribbon 3 firmly coupled with the upper end of the seed plate, and a cross bar 4 loosely coupled with the ribbon 3 and is further provided with a first distance meter 5 which is arranged outside the carrying line to normally carry the cathode to optical measure the distance to the seed plate of the cathode in the carrying line, and a second distance meter 6 to optically measure the distance of the cathode to the cross bar part.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

The present invention relates to an apparatus for measuring the shape integrity of a copper electrolytic cathode.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In copper electrolytic refining, the verticality of a cathode seed plate before electrolysis is important. In the electrolytic cell, the cathode seed plate and the anode (anode plate) are alternately suspended at a facing distance of about 20 to 30 mm. If the cathode seed plate has poor verticality, the anode The frequency of contact and short-circuiting of the electrolytic current to disable electrolysis increases, resulting in poor productivity. If the facing distance between the electrode plates is widened to, for example, about 100 mm, mutual contact can be avoided. However, the number of electrode plates that can be inserted into an electrolytic cell having a finite volume is inevitably reduced, and the productivity is similarly deteriorated. In addition, the liquid resistance increases, the voltage between the electrodes increases, and the power consumption increases.

The cathode seed plate (seed plate: the portion excluding the crossbar and the ribbon) is previously flattened by a press or a leveler, etc., but the plate thickness is usually as thin as 0.5 to 1.0 mm, and the electrode plate is made of an electrodeposit. Because of this, it is very difficult to adjust the perpendicularity because the thickness and hardness are partially different. For this reason, it is usually necessary to withdraw several samples from the cathode suspended in parallel and transported to the electrolytic cell, inspect the verticality of the seed plate part, and feed back the inspection result to the press and other correction conditions. Is performed. Conventionally, this inspection is performed manually. However, since skill and patience are required, measurement errors are large, and work efficiency is poor, several techniques for automating the inspection have been proposed in recent years.

The most prominent of these is the patent
Japanese Patent No. 2663522 discloses that the crossbar of an electrolysis seed plate suspended horizontally around the axis of the crossbar with respect to the crossbar is horizontally locked and the seedplate is suspended vertically by its own weight. A hanging mechanism for lowering, and a non-contact type distance meter disposed in a vertical plane facing the suspended seed plate and serving as a distance detection reference plane and directly measuring a facing distance with the seed plate. An apparatus for measuring the perpendicularity and flatness of a seed plate for electrolysis characterized by the following.

[0005]

However, the apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 2663522 requires a suspension mechanism for taking out a measurement sample from a normal cathode transport line and setting it at a distance measurement position. Space is required. Further, since only the distance measurement of the sample seed plate portion is performed, it is not possible to detect a shape defect of the entire cathode due to deformation of the crossbar portion and the ribbon portion.

[0006] Even if the seed plate portion is vertical, if the ribbon portion is twisted due to a crimping failure or the like, it causes the above-mentioned dropping, and the electrode plates become uneven in the left and right when inserted into the electrolytic cell, so that the electrolytic current It causes short circuit and non-uniform electrodeposition.
In view of the above-mentioned problems of the prior art, the present invention provides not only the verticality of the seed plate portion but also the shape integrity of the entire cathode including the quality of the ribbon portion with respect to the cathode in the transport line. It is an object of the present invention to provide an apparatus for measuring the shape integrity of a copper electrolytic cathode that can be measured.

[0007]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to achieve the above object, the present invention comprises a seed plate for copper electrolysis, a ribbon tightly connected to the upper end of the seed plate, and a crossbar loosely connected to the ribbon. A copper electrolytic cathode shape soundness measuring device for measuring the shape soundness of a cathode, which is disposed outside a transfer line that normally carries the cathode, and optically measures a distance to a seed plate portion of the cathode in the transfer line. A shape measuring device for a copper electrolytic cathode, comprising: a first distance meter for measuring; and a second distance meter for optically measuring a distance to a crossbar portion of the cathode.

In the present invention, the first and second distance meters are preferably laser distance meters. In the present invention,
It is preferable that the apparatus further includes an arithmetic unit that converts the measurement distances of the first and second rangefinders into position coordinate values of the measured point and determines the soundness of the shape of the cathode from the correlation between the position coordinate values. Further, in the present invention, it is preferable to have a swing-preventing mechanism for stopping the swing of the cathode that is the distance measurement target.

[0009]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 1 is a three-dimensional schematic view showing the gist of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1, the present invention comprises a seed plate 2 for copper electrolysis, A cathode 1 comprising a ribbon 3 joined and a crossbar 4 loosely joined to the ribbon 3
A shape soundness measuring device for a copper electrolytic cathode for measuring the shape soundness of a cathode, which is disposed outside a transfer line for normally transporting the cathode 1 and optically measures a distance to a seed plate 2 of the cathode 1 in the transfer line. A first distance meter 5 for optically measuring the distance; and a second distance meter 6 for optically measuring the distance to the crossbar 4 of the cathode 1. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 7 denotes a collimation line (light beam), and the cathode 1 moves in the transport direction 10 while both ends of the crossbar 4 are supported by a chain conveyor (not shown) or the like in a normal transport line. The range of the transfer line corresponds to the space through which the cathode 1 passes. In addition,
In FIG. 1, the ribbon and the crossbar are not shown except for the cathode at the top, and the support frame for the distance meter and the like are also omitted.

In the present invention, the first and second distance meters optically measure the distance from the outside of the transfer line to the cathode in the transfer line. This is unnecessary, and there is no need to provide a separate large device space beside the usual transport line. At present, a laser distance meter is optimal as a distance meter that optically measures a distance. The laser rangefinder has excellent directivity, has a wide range of measurable range of 1 to 10 m, and can measure from a position oblique to the cathode as shown in FIG.

In the present invention, since the first distance meter measures the distance of the seed plate portion and the second distance meter measures the distance of the crossbar portion, not only the perpendicularity of the seed plate but also the bending of the crossbar is detected. The twist of the ribbon can be detected through the relative positional relationship between the seed plate portion and the crossbar portion, and therefore, the shape integrity of the entire cathode can be measured. As shown in FIG. 1, the first and second rangefinders may both have a form in which a plurality of units are fixedly arranged (plurality of fixed types), and one or both of them may be turned by turning a single unit ( It is also possible to adopt a form (single swivel type) in which the head can be swung. However,
In the multiple fixed type, one measured point is measured by one distance meter, but in the single turning type, a plurality of measured points are scanned and measured by one distance meter, so that it takes longer measurement time than in the multiple fixed type. However, it is necessary to separately provide a turning mechanism, a turning angle detecting means, and the like, so that the configuration of the apparatus is slightly complicated.

Next, a method for determining the soundness of the shape of the cathode based on the distance measured by the first and second distance meters will be described. For example, the origin is at the center of the transport line, and Z is
X in the horizontal and vertical directions perpendicular to the axis
When an orthogonal coordinate system is set by taking the axis and the Y axis, the position coordinates (x, y, z) of the distance meter, the direction cosine of the collimation line (k, l, m), and the measurement distance L in this orthogonal coordinate system The measurement distance L is calculated using the geometric relational expression X = x + kL, Y = y + 1L, Z = z + mL, which is established between the position coordinates (X, Y, Z) of the measured point. (X, Y, Z).

Therefore, for example, as shown in FIG. 1, when nine units of the first rangefinder and two units of the second rangefinder are arranged as a plurality of fixed types, each of the rangefinders has nine points in the surface of the seed plate. Position coordinate values of two measured points are obtained on the bar surface. Now, the points to be measured on the left → right, top → bottom, and left → right in the crossbar plane are set to P _i (i = 1, 2, ‥‥, 11) in this order,
Let the position coordinate value of each point P _{i be} (X _i , Y _i , Z _i ).

[0014] bending of the crossbar section, for example the evaluation function (Y ₁₀ -Y _11), can be evaluated by the absolute value of (Z ₁₀ -Z _11). The greater the absolute value, the greater the bend.
The twist of the ribbon is, for example, the evaluation function (Z ₁₀ −Z ₁ ) ×
It can be evaluated by the sign of (Z ₁₁ −Z ₃ ) and the absolute value. The twist is greater as the sign is negative and the absolute value is greater.

The verticality of the seed plate portion is determined, for example, by an evaluation function (Z ₁
−Z ₇ ), (Z ₂ −Z ₈ ), and (Z ₃ −Z ₉ ). The larger the absolute value, the worse the perpendicularity. Also, the flatness of the seed plate portion is determined, for example, at points P ₁ , P ₃ ,
The plane で created by P ₈ and the remaining points P ₂ , P ₄ , P ₅ ,
The distances from P ₆ , P ₇ , and P ₉ can be evaluated as evaluation functions. If there is a point having a large distance from the plane ζ, the flatness is poor.

In order to efficiently execute each of the above-described evaluations, the apparatus of the present invention automatically converts the measurement distances of the first and second distance meters into the position coordinate values of the measured point, and reciprocates the position coordinate values. It is preferable that the apparatus has an arithmetic means for automatically determining the shape soundness of the cathode from the relationship. Such an arithmetic means can be very simply configured by a microcomputer. The automatic determination can be performed, for example, by logic (large / fail, small / pass) in which a magnitude relationship between each evaluation function value and a threshold value set for each evaluation function is associated with the shape acceptability. The threshold may be appropriately determined based on the operation results.

In the present invention, it is difficult to measure the distance with high accuracy for the moving cathode, so that it is necessary to temporarily stop the transport line when measuring the distance. The seed plate oscillates around the crossbar due to inertia with the stop of the transfer line, but if the sway is waiting for the natural stop of the sway, the waiting time until the start of the measurement becomes longer and the transfer efficiency is reduced. Therefore, in the present invention, it is preferable that the apparatus has an anti-sway mechanism that stops the oscillation of the cathode that is the distance measurement target. The anti-swing mechanism includes, for example, the arm and its driving means (which can be assembled with an air cylinder or the like) so that the arm rises from below the cathode and lightly touches the seed plate, then gently separates and retracts below the cathode. It can be configured by disposing.

[0018]

EXAMPLE A first distance meter and a second distance meter were arranged outside the transfer line of the copper electrolytic cathode in the form shown in FIG. 1 to measure the cathode shape soundness. As the distance meter, a laser distance meter of a triangulation method, which is considered to be more accurate than the reflection time measurement method, was used. Although not shown, the outputs (measured values) of the respective distance meters were taken into the arithmetic means to automatically determine whether or not the shape was acceptable, and the anti-swing mechanism was provided below the transport line. The time required for distance measurement of one cathode is within 1 second. If there is no anti-swing mechanism,
A waiting time of about 30 seconds was required from the stop of the transfer line to the start of the distance measurement, but this waiting time was reduced to about 5 seconds by using the anti-sway mechanism.

As a result, a cathode having a defective shape can be easily detected and rejected, and the information on the defective shape can be reflected on the pressing conditions of the cathode press. As a result, the conventional method requires 15 minutes. The operation time for setting the cathode in the electrolytic cell was shortened to 3 to 5 minutes.

[0020]

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to quickly detect not only the seed plate portion of the copper electrolytic cathode but also the ribbon portion and the crossbar portion before charging the electrolytic cell with a simple apparatus configuration. As a result, it is possible to improve the efficiency of charging the cathode into the electrolytic cell and to reduce the number of accidents in which the cathode falls from the conveyor.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic three-dimensional view showing the gist of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Cathode 2 seed plate 3 Ribbon 4 Cross bar 5 First range finder 6 Second range finder 7 Collimation line (light beam) 10 Transport direction

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuing on the front page (72) Inventor Kenji Hajime 6-1-1 Hibi, Tamano City, Okayama Prefecture Mitsui Mining & Smelting Co., Ltd.Hibi Refinery (72) Inventor Shinichi Hama Hibi, Tamano City, Okayama Prefecture 6-1-1 F-term in Hibiki Refinery, Mitsui Mining & Smelting Co., Ltd. (reference)

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A copper electrolysis cathode shape soundness measuring device for measuring a shape soundness of a cathode comprising a seed plate for copper electrolysis, a ribbon tightly connected to an upper end of the seed plate, and a cross bar loosely connected to the ribbon. A first distance meter that is arranged outside a transport line that normally transports the cathode, and optically measures a distance to a seed plate portion of the cathode in the transport line,
A second distance meter for optically measuring a distance of the cathode to a crossbar portion, and a shape soundness measuring device for a copper electrolytic cathode. 2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said first and second distance meters are laser distance meters. 3. A calculating means for converting the distance measured by the first and second rangefinders into position coordinate values of a point to be measured, and judging the shape soundness of the cathode from the correlation between the position coordinate values. Item 3. The apparatus according to Item 1 or 2. 4. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a swing-stop mechanism for stopping swing of a cathode whose distance is to be measured.