Cupola Furnace
Manipulation with material, weighing
Raw material such as basalt, dolomite and coke is transferred by trucks or railway and stored in piles in an open-air warehouse. The transport from the piles to the receiving container is executed by loaders. The material is poured from the receiving container to the primary conveyor by the means of a vibrator. The primary conveyor transports the raw material into daily containers that are intended for 4 different elements (basalt, cinder, dolomite, coke) with the use of a distribution conveyor located in the upper part of the containers. There are four weighing (feeding) systems under the containers that automatically fill up the cupola furnace with the exact required volume of raw material. The weighed material is transferred to a conveyor and transported to a feeding conveyor that takes the material directly to the cupola furnace.
Cupola furnace
For many years ENETEX company has been successfully using coke cupola for melting of raw materials. From the cupola flue gas system hot air with temperature up to 650 °C is blasted to cupola and reach the melt capacity of up to 16 tons per hour.
The material (stone with additives) is fused in the cupola furnace with the use of coke. The cupola furnace consists of a feeding, extracting and fusing zone. The upper part of the cupola furnace consists of a receiving hopper fitted with a rotary feeding neck and gate with air-operated closing cone and feeding tube that distributes the material evenly. The minimal level of material in the feeding tube is monitored by a surface sensor. Combustion products are conducted away from the extracting zone.
The fusing zone consists of a conical, water-cooled casing. The bottom part widens for easier dumping of the cupola furnace. There is a distributing air duct in the upper part of the fusing zone from which the preheated air is blown through blowers to the fusing zone. The molten mass flows from the cupola furnace through a siphon and distribution channels to a spinning machine. When the fiberizing process is interrupted, the molten mass is diverted through an emergency drain down below the cupola furnace.
