JPH04236729A - Material feeder for metal melting furnace - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To automatically or operatorlessly discharge the material and charge the material into a melting furnace by arranging a material stockyard, a melting furnace, a material charging time sensor means, a material feed conveyor, a material delivery unmanned movable carrier and their controllers. CONSTITUTION:Materials 2A-2C are separately stored in the respective lanes of a stockyard. The conditions in a melting furnace 1 are always detected by the sensor means consisting of optical sensors 12 and 14 and grasped by a controller. A conveyor 10 is actuated when the materials are to be charged, and the material 2B loaded on the conveyor 10 is charged into the furnace 1. Meanwhile, the actuation of the conveyor 10 and the loading state of the materials 2A-2C are grasped by the controller, an unmanned movable carrier 20 is driven by the controller, and the materials 2A-2C stored in the respective lanes are carried by the conveyor 10 in the preset order.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

0001

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a raw material charging apparatus for a metal melting furnace having a melting capacity of 7 tons/h or more, which continuously melts metal raw materials such as aluminum and copper.

0002

[Prior Art] To put it simply, the conventional system for charging raw materials into a metal melting furnace for aluminum, copper, etc. consists of setting up a large outdoor stockyard as a storage area for raw materials, and storing various raw materials in this. A worker constantly monitors the inside of the melting furnace directly or with an industrial camera to determine whether or not to charge new raw materials, and when it is necessary to charge raw materials, another worker uses a forklift to Operate the crane system and extract the required raw materials from the stockyard.
A common method is to transport this to a melting furnace and charge it.

0003

[Problem to be solved by the invention] In reality, it is a more complicated system, and it is difficult to judge when to charge raw materials, how to transport them, etc.
Various charging methods have been adopted depending on the melting capacity (capacity) and structure of the melting furnace, the mode of operation, the type and shape of the raw material to be charged, the distance between the stockyard and the melting furnace, etc. However, in any of the conventional methods, each of these operations relies on human labor, and with conventional systems, it is difficult to unmanned or automated. The reason for this is that the raw materials charged into the metal melting furnace are
100k of 2 or more different brands or materials, etc.
In many cases, raw materials (workpieces) weighing more than 1 gram are intentionally combined and melted, and since the shape and packaging of the raw materials to be charged are often irregular, it is difficult to select raw materials, etc. It was thought that automation would be extremely difficult as it would have to rely on human labor.

[0004] The present invention was made to solve these problems, and it is possible to create a metal melting furnace that is unmanned or automated, from the removal of raw materials from the stockyard to the charging of raw materials into the metal melting furnace. The purpose is to provide a raw material charging device.

[0005]

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the present invention provides a raw material stockyard having a plurality of lanes and storing raw materials classified by type in each lane, and A melting furnace that melts the raw materials stored in each lane of the yard at a preset ratio, a sensor means that detects when to charge the raw materials into the melting furnace, and a conveyor that charges the raw materials into the melting furnace. a device, moving between each lane of the raw material stockyard and the conveyor device;
An unmanned mobile transport vehicle receives raw materials from each lane and delivers them to the conveyor device, and operates the conveyor device at the raw material charging time detected by the sensor means to transfer the raw materials loaded on the conveyor device to the melting furnace. In addition to charging the
A device for charging raw materials into a metal melting furnace, comprising: a control device that operates the unmanned mobile guided vehicle to convey raw materials stored in each lane to the conveyor device in a preset order. is provided.

[0006]

[Operation] Each lane of the raw material stockyard is organized by raw material brand, material, shape, packaging style, etc.
Predetermined types of raw materials are stored. The control device constantly grasps the situation inside the melting furnace detected by the sensor means, operates the conveyor device at the raw material charging time, and charges the raw material loaded on the conveyor device into the melting furnace. let On the other hand, since the control device can grasp the raw material loading status of the conveyor device from the operation of the conveyor device, it operates the unmanned mobile guided vehicle according to the raw material loading status of the conveyor device, and controls the raw material stored in each lane. are conveyed to the conveyor device according to a preset order.

[0007]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Examples of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. 1 and 2 show an example in which the present invention is applied to an apparatus for charging raw materials into a copper melting furnace (vertical furnace). This copper melting furnace 1 has a melting capacity of 20 tons/h, for example, and is installed in a factory building 3. Charging port 1 of melting furnace 1
a is located at a height of approximately 15 m from the ground level (GL). An inclined lifter 10 is disposed between this loading port 1a and the ground, and this inclined lifter 10 is equipped with a mounting table 10b. This loading table 10b is moved from the loading position 10a on the ground to the loading port 1a by a hoisting machine 10c.
At the loading position 10a, the raw material 2B delivered from the unmanned forklift vehicle 20, which will be described later, is transferred to the charging port 1.
a, and there charge it into the furnace. The raw materials 2A charged into the furnace are sequentially melted and fall toward the bottom of the furnace.

Transmissive optical sensors 12 and 14 are arranged near the charging port 1a of the melting furnace 1 to detect the amount of raw material charged into the furnace and to monitor the timing of raw material charging. This optical sensor 12
, 14 are electrically connected to a control device 40, which will be described later, and supply detection signals to the control device 40. A raw material stockyard 30 is provided outside the factory building 3 in which the melting furnace 1 is installed. This raw material stockyard 30 has a large number of lanes, for example, 10 rows of lanes A,
B, C, . . . are arranged in tandem, and the lane length of each row is, for example, 7 m. An unmanned forklift vehicle 20 (described later) is guided to each lane, and guide lines 44a, 44b, 44c branch from the main guide line 44, respectively.
・is buried. These guide lines are buried along the movement path of the unmanned forklift vehicle 20 from each lane of the raw material stockyard 30 to the mounting position 10a of the above-mentioned inclined lift 10, and one end thereof is connected to the above-mentioned control device 40.
The control device 40 transmits guidance signals to the unmanned forklift vehicle 20.

The unmanned forklift vehicle 20 is capable of self-propelled along the above-mentioned guide lines 44, 44a, 44b, etc., and has a fork 20a on the front for raising and lowering the raw material and for holding and transporting the raw material. are doing. The unmanned forklift vehicle 20 unmannedly, that is, automatically performs the raising and lowering of the fork 20a, steering, speed control, etc. in response to the drive control signal transmitted from the control device 40 via the above-mentioned guide line. It is configured as follows. Note that a forklift type vehicle is most preferable as the unmanned mobile guided vehicle. This is because if you use a forklift type, you can pick up cargo from the 30 lanes of the raw material stockyard, and you can efficiently transport and store heavy objects outdoors, giving you an extremely high degree of freedom. Because it will be.

In each lane of the raw material stockyard 30, a pair of rails 31 and 32 having an appropriate shape as shown in FIGS.
The saddle horses 31 and 32 of each of these lanes A, B, C, . Moreover, on the saddle horses 31 and 32, there are shapes,
Predetermined types of raw materials classified by composition, packaging style, etc. are placed there. Then, these raw materials 2D (2E) are placed between the raw materials 2D (2E) so as to sandwich the pair of saddle horses 31 (32).
) is lifted and transported by the fork 20a of the unmanned forklift vehicle 20 inserted below.

The control device 40 includes the aforementioned optical sensor 12,
14, and guide wires 44 (44a, 44b...) are connected thereto, and an operation panel 42 is provided on the output side of the hoisting machine 10c for inputting various operating commands by the operator.
etc. are connected to the input side. The control device 40 includes a central processing unit that executes a predetermined program for raw material charging control, a storage device that stores various calculation results and control variable values, detection signals from sensors, and drive signals for the hoisting machine 10c. , an I/O interface for controlling input/output of guidance control signals, etc. of the unmanned forklift vehicle 20.

Next, the raw material charging control procedure by the control device 40 will be explained with reference to the flowchart of FIG. First of all,
The operating plan of the unmanned forklift vehicle 20 is stored in the control device 40 by operating the operation panel 42. That is, what brands of raw materials are stored in each lane of the raw material stockyard 30, and in what proportion or order the raw materials stored in each lane are taken out and charged into the melting furnace 1. or etc. It goes without saying that the raw materials stored in each lane must be arranged in such a way that they can be easily received and delivered by the unmanned forklift vehicle 20, so that they do not collapse.

Next, the detection signals from the optical sensors 12 and 14 that detect the amount of raw material charged into the melting furnace 1 are constantly monitored, and it is determined whether or not it is time to charge the raw material (step S1 in FIG. 6).
. The timing of charging the raw material is determined by the optical sensors 12 and 14 depending on whether the amount of the loaded raw material has decreased with respect to a predetermined level near the charging port 10b. If this determination is negative (No), this step S1 is repeatedly executed and the process waits until it is determined that it is time to charge the raw material.

If it is determined that it is time to charge the raw material based on the detection signals from the optical sensors 12 and 14, and the determination result in step S1 is affirmative (Yes), the control device 40 sends a drive signal to the hoisting machine 10c. Output and place the tilt lifter 10 on the mounting table 1
The raw material 2B placed on 0b is lifted to the charging port 1a and charged into the furnace (step S2). After loading, the loading table 10b is moved back to the loading position 10a on the ground by the hoisting machine 10c.
will be returned to. At this time, since the loading table 10b is empty of raw materials, the control device 40 outputs a guidance signal to the unmanned forklift vehicle 20 waiting at the standby position to move it forward to the loading position 10a, where it The raw material 2C placed on 20a is transferred to the mounting table 10b. Then, the unmanned forklift vehicle 20 that has transferred the raw material 2C to the mounting table 10b leaves the mounting position 10a, and the guide line 44 (4
4a, 44b...) to a predetermined lane of the raw material stockyard 30 where the raw materials to be charged next time are stored, receive the raw materials there, and return to the above-mentioned standby position (
Step S3). When the unmanned forklift vehicle 20 returns to the standby position, the control device 40 returns to step S1 described above and again determines whether it is time to charge the raw material. Note that the standby position may be set at a predetermined position near the aforementioned mounting position 10a.

In this way, the raw material is charged into the melting furnace 1 using the inclined lifter 10, and the raw material is transferred to the raw material stockyard 30 with respect to the inclined lifter (conveyor device) 10.
Unmanned forklift vehicle (unmanned mobile carrier) being transported from
By distinguishing it from 20, unmanned forklift vehicle 20
is not directly exposed to the heat generated in the metal melting furnace 1,
Moreover, it is not necessary to synchronize the movement of the unmanned forklift vehicle 20 and the timing of charging into the melting furnace 1.
The degree of freedom in operation of the unmanned forklift vehicle 20 increases.

In the above embodiment, the optical sensors 12 and 14 were used to detect the amount of raw material charged into the melting furnace 1, but the detection of the amount of raw material charged is not limited to these sensors. In addition to optical sensors, any sensor suitable for the furnace conditions may be used, such as ultrasonic waves or X-rays. Also, if the scale of the melting furnace is small,
A load cell suitable for directly detecting the total weight of the furnace may be used, or if the furnace is vertical, the charging level of raw materials from the bottom of the furnace may be detected using an ultrasonic sensor, etc. You can also. Furthermore, the amount of raw material charged can also be detected using a float type liquid level meter.

[0017] Furthermore, the charging of raw materials into the melting furnace is not limited to the inclined lifter, but may also be carried out by a feed conveyor. Furthermore, to determine whether or not raw material is placed on a conveyor device such as an inclined lifter or feed conveyor, a limit switch is installed to detect the workpiece (raw material) at the loading position or charging position. Detection may also be performed using a switch.

Furthermore, it goes without saying that the present invention can be applied to various metal melting furnaces, and is not limited to copper melting furnaces, but may also be applied to aluminum alloy melting furnaces.

[0019]

Effects of the Invention As is clear from the above explanation, the apparatus for charging raw materials into a metal melting furnace of the present invention can be used to monitor the raw material charging level in the melting furnace, drive the conveyor device, and stockyard the raw materials. Transporting raw materials between the machine and the conveyor equipment can be carried out with a minimum number of workers, and continuous operation 24 hours a day is possible through labor-saving and automation.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a plan view showing the configuration of a device for charging raw materials into a copper melting furnace according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a partially sectional side view of the raw material charging device.

3 is a front sectional view showing a state in which raw materials are stored in each lane of the raw material stockyard 30 shown in FIG. 1. FIG.

FIG. 4 is a front sectional view showing another embodiment in which raw materials are stored in each lane.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a control device that controls the operation of the raw material charging device.

6 is a flowchart showing a control procedure for raw material charging control executed by the control device 40 shown in FIG. 5. FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Melting furnace 2A to 2E Raw material (work) 10 Incline lifter (conveyor device) 12, 14 Optical sensor (sensor means) 20 Unmanned forklift vehicle (unmanned mobile carrier) 30 Raw material stock yard 31, 32 Kurama (rail) 44, 44a Guide line A to G lane

Claims (1)

[Claims] Claim 1: A raw material stockyard having a plurality of lanes and storing raw materials classified by type in each lane, and melting the raw materials stored in each lane of the raw material stockyard at a preset ratio. A melting furnace, a sensor means for detecting when to charge the raw material into the melting furnace, a conveyor device for charging the raw material into the melting furnace, and a sensor means for moving between each lane of the raw material stockyard and the conveyor device. , an unmanned mobile carrier that receives raw materials from each lane and delivers them to the conveyor device; and a conveyor device that is operated at the raw material charging time detected by the sensor means to melt the raw materials loaded on the conveyor device. A control device for charging the raw materials into the furnace and for operating the unmanned mobile carrier to convey the raw materials stored in each lane to the conveyor device in a preset order. Equipment for charging raw materials into the melting furnace.