TERM PAPER Of -->>>MEC 104<<<--:Topic:

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Submitted By:-

Name:-Niraj kumar. Section:-k4009. Reg No:-11001084. Roll no.:-B27

First and foremost I thank my teacher Mr. Kamlesh kumar Mishra who has given me this Term Paper to bring out my creative capabilities. I am also thankful to him for their valuable suggestions on my term paper.

I express my gratitude to my parents for being continuous source of encouragement and for their entire financial ad given to me.

I would like to acknowledge the assistance provided to me by the library staff of L.P.U.

My heartfelt gratitude to my friends, for helping me morally to complete my work in time.

:1: Introduction. 2:Melting practice. 3:Types of furnaces. 4:Advantage and disadvantage. 5:Bibliography.

t started long ago in 1973. I used the bottom third of a 200 liter oil drum, filled it with sand and left a hole in the sand of about 20 cm wide and deep, put some ordinary (nonrefractory) bricks around it and that was the furnace. I used anthracite as fuel with a reversed vacuum cleaner as fan. To light the coal I burned some wood first. It reached temperatures until 1600 C (2900 F) and I used stainless steel 'crucibles' for melting copper ... which leaked after two times of use, because the alloy components of the stainless steel dissolved in the liquid copper. And I started with home made foundry sand which I later replaced by 'real' foundry sand for better results. Later on I also got a 'real' 500 cc graphite crucible. The melting capacity was about three kilos (6 1/2 lbs). The furnace wall bricks were completely cracked and 'slaggifiedon the inside.

I suspended this hobby for 20 years and I resumed it in 1992 with a large furnace from refractory concrete which is able to heat 500 cc crucibles for melting 3 kilos of copper in 45 mins with a roofmaker's propane burner. The furnace was just an oil drum of about 30 cm (12") diameter and height and I lined this with a layer of 7 cm refractory concrete. From the top of the drum I cut about 7 cm, filled it with that same concrete (leaving an exhaust hole just off the center) and that was the lid. Now I call this furnace the 'roar furnace' because it roars so loudly that once on a summer day when I was melting bronze a neighbor thought that a jet airplane was flying low. I use it very seldom, only when I make large castings. A year later I also made smaller castings and started silver- and goldsmithing. I bought high resolution oil-based sand (purchased at a silversmithing supply store) for small (< 100 grams) bronze and sterling silver castings and home made sand for coarse (cast iron) and larger castings (bronze). The small furnace can be used in the garage too because I have a hood with a vent. The description below is about the small furnace. In October 1995 I discovered that one of the cheapest buiding materials (air - spaced gypsum) turned out to be one of the best and most insulating refractories. I could make the furnace so hot that it is able to melt cast iron and shorten the melting times of copper, silver and gold alloys further Melting, or fusion, is a physical process that results in the phase change of a substance from a solid to a liquid. The internal energy of a substance is increased, typically by the application of heat or pressure, resulting in a rise of its temperature to the melting point, at which the rigid ordering of molecular entities in the solid breaks down to a less-ordered state and the solid liquefies. An object that has melted completely is molten.

After moulding, melting is the major factor which controls the quality of the casting. There are a number of methods available for melting foundry alloys such as pit furnace, open hearth furnace, electric furnace, rotary furnace, cupola furnace, etc. The choice of furnace type is based on these four factors. AlloyType *Metal Quality *Production Demands *Economics Alloys have a wide spectrum of temperatures that they melt at; the list below should illustrate this point. Metal Alloy Type * Zinc * Aluminium * Magnisium * copper * Cast iron * High Maganese * Nickel Based Alloys * High Alloys Irons * Titanium * Zirconium Temp.Range(celsius) 345-455. 620-735. 620-735. 908-1180 1340-1480. 1400-1455. 1430-1540. 1480-1600. 1700-1820. 1845-1900.

Table 1:Melting point of common materials. Metal Quality is affected by oxidization and losses due to vaporization, which can adversely affect the chemical properties of the alloy being melted. Similarly the types of refractory used are matched to the basicity or acidity of the metal and/or its resultant (Dross or slag).

Production demand can range from small batches under 30 Kg through to 100 tonne/hr continuous pour furnaces that run for days and weeks at a time uninterrupted. The economics of furnace selection relate to factors of capital depreciation, maintenance and operating labour, as well as the fuel and power consumption.

Cupola The most popular melting furnace in the ferrous foundries is cupola furnace. Cupola is similar to the blast furnace. It is shaft-like vertical furnace consisting of a steel shell lined with refractory bricks, equipped with tuyeres (nozzles for blowing air). The liquid iron is periodically (or continuously) removed through a spout. Iron, coke and limestone flux are charged by means of an opening locating in the upper half of the steel shell.

It consists of a cylindrical steel shell with its interior lined with heat resisting fire bricks. It has drop doors at the bottom. After closing the door a proper sand bed is prepared. This sand bed provides necessary refractory bottom for the molten metal and the coke. Immediately above the sand bed is the metal tapping hole which is initially closed with clay till the molten metal is ready for tapping. Above the metal tapping hole normally in a position opposite to is the slag hole through which the slag generated during the melting process is tapped.

Fig:1.1 cupola Above the slag hole is the wind box which is connected to the air blowers supplying the requisite air at a given pressure and quantity. The lining is generally thicker in the lower portion of the cupola as the temperatures are higher compared to those in upper portion. There is a charging door through which coke, pig iron, steel scrap and flux is charged.

 The blast is blown through the tuyeres. These tuyeres are arranged in one or more row around the periphery of cupola. Hot gases which ascend from the bottom (combustion zone) preheat the iron in the preheating zone. Cupolas are provided with a drop bottom door through which debris, consisting of coke, slag etc. can be discharged at the end of the melt. At the top conical cap called the spark arrest is provided to prevent the spark emerging to outside.

Operation of Cupola
To operate the cupola, first, the drop doors at the bottom are closed and a sand bed with a gentle slope towards the tap hole is rammed. Then a coke bed of suitable height is prepared above the sand bottom and ignited through the tap hole or any other hole. When the coke bed is properly ignited, alternate layers of charge, flux and coke are alternatively fed into the cupola through the charging door maintaining necessary proportions and rate of charging. The charge is allowed to soak in the heat for a while, and then the air blast is turned on. Within about 5 to 10 minutes, the molten metal is collected near the tap hole. When enough molten metal is collected in the well of the cupola, the slag is drained off through the slag hole before opening the tap hole. The molten metal is collected in the ladles and then transported to the moulds into which it is poured with a minimum time loss. The fluxes are added in the charge to remove the oxides and other impurities present in the metal. The flux most commonly used is limestone (CaCO3) in a proportion of about 2 to 4 % of the metal charge. Some of the other fluxes that may also be used are dolomite, sodium carbonate and calcium carbide. The flux is expected to react with the oxides and form compounds which have low melting point and also

lighter. As a result, the molten slag tends to float on the metal pool and thus, can very easily be separated. A variant of cupola is called hot blast cupola. In this, air supply is preheated to a temperature of 200 to 4000 C with help of the hot gases coming out of the stack or by a separate heat input. In either case the equipment gets complicated by the addition of the extra pre-heater and the circulation equipment. The main advantage gained is that the amount of heat required by the cupola gets reduced. This in turn reduces the contact of the metal with the coke and air thus reducing the carbon and sulphur pickups as well as the oxidation losses. Because of the additional equipment and extra care needed for operation, the hot blast cupolas are used only in shops that require large amounts of metal to be melt on a continuous basis. Most of the foundries operate on a batch basis. A number of sand moulds are prepared and kept ready for pouring before the molten metal is prepared. This process may take a few days to weeks depending upon the size and nature of the foundry plant. Thus it becomes necessary only to start melting may be once a week or so. Cupola has been the most widely used furnace for melting cast iron. This is because of the low cost of melting. However, less control of the final quality, and the losses involved would call for some change in the choice. Therefore liquid or gas fired furnaces and electric furnaces are becoming popular because of their better control of melting process and low melting losses. But these are more expensive compared to the solid fuel fired furnaces and therefore the higher cost is to be justified based on the better control of quality achieved in terms of the composition and temperature.

Electric Furnace
The Electric Arc Furnace (EAF) uses three vertical carbon rods as electrodes for producing arcs, striking on to the charge and heating it to the required temperature. For heavy steel castings, the open hearth type of furnaces with electric arc would be suitable in view of the large heat required for melting. Due to good temperature control and

flexibility of operation, this furnace is widely used for melting for small to medium sized castings in ferrous as well as non-ferrous alloys. There are three types of electric furnaces on the basis of source of heating (Arc, Resistance, and Induction).

Fig 1.2: Schematic representation of Arc furnace. In above figure three electrodes are used that are tied to a 3 phase electrical source. The electrodes strike an arc with the metal charge. The heat of the sustained arc can be in excess of 40000 C. With such extreme heat comes the requirement of cooling with water jackets, heat exchangers and recirculation systems. Arc furnaces are of two types; Direct and In-direct types. Arc Furnaces can be configured with "Ultra-High-Powered" (UHP) transformers that can supply 600-900KVA/tonne. The furnace can have a pivoting point with a hydraulic actuator to tilt the furnace backward to skim of the dross/slag or forward to pour off the metal. The high temp capacity of this furnace lends itself better toward ferrous casting than non ferrous. The electrodes can be either graphite or carbon, and are selected to match the type of metal being melted. The In-Direct Arc furnace is similar in principle, but the arc is struck above the metal charge and is typically just one electrode. The In-Direct furnace also can be a sealed unit that operates under a reduced atmosphere for specialty metals that are sensitive to oxidization or atmospheric contamination.

 Induction Furnace
Induction furnaces are widely used for melting non-ferrous and ferrous alloys. There are two types of induction furnaces: coreless induction furnaces and channel induction furnaces:

Coreless induction furnace

Coreless induction furnace consists of: a water cooled helical coil made of a copper tube, a crucible installed within the coil and supporting shell equipped with trunnions on which the furnace may tilt. Alternating current passing through the coil induces alternating currents in the metal charge loaded to the crucible. These induced currents heat the charge. When the charge is molten, electromagnetic field produced by the coil interacts with the electromagnetic field produced by the induced current. The resulted force causes stirring effect helping homogenizing the melt composition and the temperature.

The frequency of the alternating current used in induction furnaces may vary from the line frequency (50Hz or 60Hz) to high frequency 10,000Hz

Channel induction furnace

Channel type induction furnace consists of a steel shell lined with refractory materials and an inductor attached to the shell. There is a channel connecting the main body with the inductor. The inductor of the channel furnace works as a transformer. It has a ring-like iron core with a water- or air-cooled coil as a primary coil and a loop of the melt, circulating in the channel, as a secondary coil. Melt circulation has a stirring effect. Channel induction furnaces work at line frequency currents. Channel induction furnaces are commonly used as holding furnaces (furnace for maintaining a molten metal, poured from a melting furnace, at a proper temperature). Channel furnaces are also used for melting low melting point alloys and iron. For two or three shift operation channel furnaces are more economical than coreless furnaces. Channel furnaces of ratings up to the 10s of MW and up to capacities of thousands of tonnes have been used for melting and superheating iron.

Crucible furnace

Crucible furnaces are used for melting and holding small batches of non-ferrous alloys. Crucible furnaces are the oldest type of melting furnaces. A refractory crucible filled with the metal is heated through the crucible wall. There are two main types of crucible furnace:

electricity resistance furnaces, gas (oil) fired furnaces.

In the gas fired furnaces heat is provided by a burner directed to the crucible. In the resistance furnaces electric heating elements are used as a source of heat

Induction heating is a heating method. The heating by the induction method occurs when an electrically conductive material is placed in a varying magnetic field. Induction heating is a rapid form of heating in which a current is induced directly

into the part being heated. Induction heating is a non -contact form of heating. The heating system in an induction furnace includes: 1. Induction heating power supply, 2. Induction heating coil, 3. Water-cooling source, which cools the coil and several internal components inside the power supply. The induction heating power supply sends alternating current through the induction coil, which generates a magnetic field. Induction furnaces work on the principle of a transformer. An alternative electromagnetic field induces eddy currents in the metal which converts the electric energy to heat without any physical contact between the induction coil and the work piece. . The furnace contains a crucible surrounded by a water cooled copper coil. The coil is called primary coil to which a high frequency current is supplied. By induction secondary currents, called eddy currents are produced in the crucible. High temperature can be obtained by this method. Induction furnaces are of two types: cored furnace and coreless furnace. Cored furnaces are used almost exclusively as holding furnaces. In cored furnace the electromagnetic field heats the metal between two coils. Coreless furnaces heat the metal via an external primary coil.

Fig 1.3: Schematic representation of Induction furnace. Fig 1.4: Schematic representation of Electric Resistance furnace. Advantages Induction heating is a clean form of heating High rate of melting or high melting efficiency Alloyed steels can be melted without any loss of alloying elements Controllable and localized heating .

Disadvantages
High capital cost of the equipment High operating cost

Oil-Fired Furnace.
Primarily used for non-ferrous metals Furnace is of a cylindrical shape Advantages include: no wastage of fuel Less contamination of the metal Absorption of water vapor is least as the metal melts inside the closed metallic furnace.

Electric Resistance Furnace

A series of Ni-Chrome elements are energized around the crucible and the radiant energy is absorbed by the Crucible and the metal. Unlike the Core/Channel Induction furnace ER type systems can take solid charge material. The resistance type heating is generally used for holding furnaces to maintain the liquid metal at a certain temperature for non-ferrous alloys such as for die casting. This has no noise, fumes, flames or potential for disaster.

Bibilography
=>http://www.artmetal.com/project/TOC/proces/cast/ag_cast.html. =>www.scribd.com. =>http://www.substech.com/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=melting_furnaces.