Vibratory Scrap Feeder

The demand for high quality foundry products and their cost effective production places high demands for furnace charging equipments in melting plants. Though much of the initial head way made in foundry automation was with the mould making process, more important is the melt shop automation. This includes remote furnace charging systems. Automation is mainly thought of as a solution to high labour cost and it certainly can increase workers productivity. However, much more important today is the effect of automation on quality. Another important advantage that automation provides in foundry environment is enhanced safety. For example automation allows foundry men to work at a safe distance from molten metal or do their jobs behind protective barriers thus reducing injuries from metal splash or furnace eruption. Also where automation exercises monitoring & control functions, it helps prevent accidents related to in-attention or judgment errors.

Today’s most technologically advanced induction furnaces provide high power densities and are able to run to full power throughout the charging process. These furnaces require rapid charging to keep pace with the melting power of the system. In many foundries, however, charging the furnace can be a labour-intensive. Moreover, manual operation is too slow which does not allow maximum utilization of the melting system. Charge materials are simply dumped into the furnace with wheel barrows or dropped in by hand essentially the same way as it has been done for centuries. Besides the inefficient use of time and manpower, manual charging can damage furnace lining if heavy charge materials are dropped into the furnace, thus gouging or cracking the wall or bottom refractory. In Induction Furnaces improper manual charging can also lead to dangerous bridging situation in which tangled pieces of scrap from a layer above and apart from the molten bath. If unrecognized by the furnace operator, bridging can lead to superheating of the bath, failure of the furnace lining and run out.

Manual charging also directly exposes melt deck workers to the dangers of metal splash from charge materials hitting the molten bath and of furnace eruption or explosion caused by wet or damp charge materials. Metal splash is one of the most common melt deck hazards & ideally, melt deck worker should be away from the furnace or behind protective barriers during charging which can only be accomplished with remote systems. Remote charging systems enhance safety not only by allowing melt deck worker to be away from the furnace during charging, but by reducing the chances of damage to the furnace lining & the likelihood of bridging situation.

The metallic components like scrap, bales, pig iron and foundry retains are stored in the hopper. The hopper shape is specially designed to enable bulky and irregular scrap pieces to be extracted without problem. Vibrating furnace charger is effective solutions to problems such as high labor cost, hazards operators faced in foundries, melting shops etc. Such a kind of automation allows foundry men to work at a safe distance thus preventing injuries arising out of molten metal splash. It also facilitates in rapid and quick charging of the furnace thereby allowing maximum utilization of the furnace, in addition to this, the damage to furnace lining is avoided which normally occurs in manual charging of the furnaces.

Vibratory Furnace Charger consists of a vibrating feeder mounted on a moving trolley with a storage hopper mounted above the feeder. Our company make vibratory furnace chargers basically comprise of the following parts.

· Vibrating Feeder is suitable for delivering required capacity.

· Storage hopper of required capacity.

· Moving carriage with driving arrangement.

· Control panel for operating the system.

· Cable reeling Drum / Cable Drag Chain.

The charging car on the vibrating furnace charger comprises a discharge chute with vibratory feeder for the metallic components and is hopper all mounted on the traveling framework with drive gear. The discharge snout is inclined and formed of a rounded trough to bring about a good charge distribution and enable irregular or bulky pieces of scrap or returns to be discharged. The feeder is driven by unbalanced motors. The vibration frequency can be altered by an A. C. Inverter, thereby regulating the feed velocity and also influencing the noise emission. The batch hopper as well as the charging feeder is built in sandwich construction which reduces the noise generated by contact between the charge materials and the hopper walls or feeder deck. However, this does not eliminate the noise produced by contact between the charge pieces themselves.

Operating Principle:

The required amount of scrap metal is loaded into the storage hopper at the loading point. The trolley then carries the vibrating feeder along with the storage hopper to the furnace charging point. Here, the vibrating feeder is energized and the material is effectively discharged into the furnace as per the required capacity. As the metal is melted down, fresh batch of metal can be fed into the furnace thereby keeping the furnace full. The capacity of the vibrating feeder can be varied by varying the amplitude of variations. The amplitude of vibrations can be varied by adjusting the position of centrifugal weights or by using a variable frequency drive (optional). A control panel specially designed to suit individual client requirement depending on the sequence of operations required is provided.