Temperature control of cupola melting

Abstract

The cupola is a furnace used for melting steel scrap, cast iron scrap, and ferroalloys to produce cast iron. Its main energy source is coal coke. It is one of the oldest methods of producing cast iron, and it remains the dominate method because of its simplicity and low fuel cost. The size of Cupolas is 27 inch shell diameter, 4.5 inch thickness of lower lining, 18 inch diameter inside lining, and can produce up to 1 tons per hour of cast iron. Although cupola melting has a long history, Automatic control has been elusive because the process has been poorly understood. Most foundries rely on the intuition of experienced operators to make control decisions. The purpose of this work, which has been program, is to develop a controller for cupola using temperature control method. The temperature control method have two level control systems, there are system controller and process control. The system control takes input from the process operator about iron requirements such as iron temperature and composition. The process controller then acts to optimize economics by determining the set points that will produce the most efficient melting process. This project is used to the foundry company as plant of technology implementation control process with automatic control system.