Bosch Rexroth was contracted by Wooding Industrial Corporation in the USA to supply the hydraulic components for a rotating material distributor for enhanced iron smelting capabilities within a blast furnace.
The hydraulically operated rotating distributor is extremely precise when layering input materials in blast furnaces.
“What made this project unique was the stringent specification on accuracy for an application with huge dynamic load changes,” explains Charles Erdo, industrial machinery engineer at Bosch Rexroth. “The control system has to react fast enough to maintain a very tight cylinder stroke tolerance between four differential area hydraulic cylinders.”
Bosch Rexroth’s solution, based on hydraulic engineering, commissioning and technology, comprised high-response directional proportional valves, electronic pressure transducers and control software for closed loop control.
Metallurgists have consistently sought to revise the centuries-old design of the iron blast furnace, with contemporary strategies aiming to optimise the composition of charge layers for increased production and efficiency.
Sinter and coke layers are created by an internal hydraulic distributor, using a chute located in the throat of the blast furnace to deposit raw materials in precise locations. The more accurately the chute can be controlled, the more precise the layers and the more efficient the blast furnace becomes.
Wooding Industrial Corporation’s existing furnace distributor utilised a traditional hydraulic circuit with open loop control, offering only a limited degree of chute control for the distribution of large quantities of iron ore pellets and coke.
The new hydraulic distributor underwent extensive accuracy and repeatability verification using the proprietary simulation tool MOSIHS (Modular Simulation of Hydraulic System), which allowed simulation of a virtual model including the overall hydraulic system. The simulations verified the hydraulic circuit design and that the selected Bosch Rexroth components were optimal. In addition, the simulation showed that by using a specialised spool flow characteristic control valve, control performance could be improved.
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