1.        Equipment overview

In order to achieve the stability of the slab quality of the continuous caster, it is necessary to add mold slag into the mold. Manual operation has the following problems:

(1) The ambient temperature is too high, and the artificial cannot withstand the high temperature working environment for a long time;

(2) The frequency of adding slag is too frequent, and it is necessary to continuously add mold slag manually;

(3) The labor cost is high and the efficiency is limited.

(4) Manual slag addition generally uses a shovel to add slag, and the slag addition is uneven and cannot be uniformly melted on the surface of the mold.

(5) With the rapid development of Industrialization 4.0, it is an inevitable trend for robots to replace manual labor.

Robot automatic slag feeding is a high-performance and stable automation equipment based on an industrial robot (linear guide) as a platform, using a quantitative slag feeding device to evenly distribute the mold slag from the silo to the continuous casting mold.

The mold slag is given quantitatively from the silo box through the stepping motor and the quantitative giver, and the mold slag is blown along the pipeline to the slag guide rod through the air flow, and the robot drives The slag feeding duct spreads the mold slag evenly on the surface of the mold according to the preset track.

The robot takes 6 degrees of freedom as the core control platform, and through HMI settings, continuous casting speed, and steel grade selection, the amount of slag added to the mold surface at a preset speed. The robot runs according to the specified trajectory, the robot runs with 6 degrees of freedom, and the mold powder can be added to the surface of the mold without dead ends.

2.        Design conditions

The parameters of the continuous casting machine are as follows：

The elevation of the upper plane of the crystallizer: +0.638;

Elevation of pouring operation platform: +0.00;

3.        Equipment function and technical parameters

3.1 Main technical function

(1) Easy operation, uniform feeding, stable operation, safe and reliable;

(2) According to different pulling speeds, different amounts of mold slag are continuously fed into the mold, the covering thickness is uniform, and each flow is controlled separately without interfering with each other;

(3) Continuously feeding slag, the slag feeder filters and cleans the agglomeration, there is no phenomenon of mold slag blocking, the amount of slag feeding matches the pulling speed, and the thickness of the mold slag on the molten steel surface in the mold is guaranteed to be stable;

(4) Add mold powder automatically, evenly and reliably. After the setting is completed, there is no need for manual intervention and adjustment in the working process;

(5) The thickness of the lower slag can be precisely controlled by setting the upper and lower values ​​of the frequency;

(6) The debugging function of air source, motor and fan motor can be manually operated;

(7) Workers can stop and start the automatic feeding system through the control unit on site;

(8) The outer wall of the silo is heated at a constant temperature, which can heat the mold slag;

(9) It has real-time feedback function of current, voltage, frequency and running status between various frequency converters;

(10) The reversing function of the motor can be debugged in the manual operation mode (it needs to be debugged in the manual mode, only for equipment maintenance).

(11) Real-time monitoring of the operation of the system and real-time alarm for abnormal conditions; sound and light alarm function when the material level of the feeding bin is insufficient;

(12) It can realize the high temperature and dust protection functions of the robot;

3.2 The main technical parameters

(1) The long-term measurement error of the amount of slag added is ≤5%;

(2) The normal utilization rate of equipment is 98%;

(3) The mold slag on the molten steel surface in the mold is evenly covered, and there is no slag dead angle;

(4) System operation stability: the failure rate is not higher than 1%.

4.        System composition

The main configuration is: industrial six-axis robot, robot base, machine vision system, slag conveying system (intelligent slag box, intelligent feeder), robot control cabinet (including teach pendant), PLC control cabinet and electrical control system Software, safety guardrails, safety door locks and warning lights.

(1) The system design uses a six-axis industrial robot as the action platform, which can achieve the function of free listing from multiple angles. The system is equipped with domestic and foreign first-line brand robots.

(2) The silo box, also known as the slag hopper, is manually added by the operator to provide the mold slag required for the system to add slag. The maximum capacity of the hopper is 600L (the slag addition time is about 4 hours), and a material level detection device is attached to it to realize an instant alarm when the material is lacking. The hopper has a heating function to heat the mold flux to ensure the drying of the mold flux. Material: all 316 stainless steel; maximum capacity: 600L (slag addition time is about 4 hours);

(3) Slag feeding hose: The slag feeding hose is a steel wire reinforced wear-resistant hose. The feeder is connected with the inlet of the slag feeding device to form a flexible mold slag channel. The mold slag can fall into the slag inlet of the slag adding device more smoothly.

Slag feeding device: The slag feeding device adopts a spiral elastic quantitative device, which is driven by a stepping motor. The traveling device is provided with an intermediate terminal box, and the intermediate terminal box is equipped with an input/output aviation plug. The input aviation plug is used to connect the intermediate terminal box and the control cabinet. The output aviation plug is used to connect the intermediate terminal box and the stepper motor.

5.        Equipment classification

Based on market needs, we have also developed a series of products of “quantitative slab electric slag feeding”, “quantitative billet electric slag feeding”, and “robot slag feeding”.