At the beginning of the new year, State Key Laboratory of Rolling and Automation (RAL) from Northeastern University brought good news at the site ofAt the beginning of the new year, State Key Laboratory of Rolling and Automation (RAL) from Northeastern University brought good news at the site of Zhongpu (Handan) Iron & Steel Group (Puyang Group). The high-end intelligent heat treatment production line for medium plates developed by the laboratory scientific research team successfully carried out thermal load commissioning and entered the trial production stage.
This production line is the second medium plate heat treatment line of Puyang Group. RAL undertakes the design of the heat treatment line and the development, supply and commissioning of the complete set of equipment. RAL also offers the core process equipment includes 1 set of non-oxidation quenching furnace, 1 set of multi-function roller quenching machine, 2 sets of high uniformity tempering furnace and 1 set of supporting water system. At present, the quenching furnace, quenching machine and a set of tempering furnace of the production line have been put into thermal load test run, entering the trial production stage. The operation of this production line is another important achievement of our cooperation with Puyang Group, which has significantly improved the order receiving ability and equipment level of the heat treatment line of Puyang Group.
Fig. 1 New heat treatment line
Since 2006, our scientific research team has been engaged in the research and development of new furnaces for special heat treatment needs, guided by the major needs of the industry. The first set of furnaces in China developed and constructed by RAL include: Baosteel's new high temperature roller-hearth solution furnace, Angang's ultra wide high-temperature roller-hearth furnace for nuclear power, Alnan Group’s aviation grade aluminum alloy roller-hearth furnace and air-cushion furnace, Handan Steel Group's steel plate flue gas circulating tempering furnace, Puyang Group's ultra-low emission non-oxidation quenching furnace and other furnace types. In view of the product demand of Puyang Group and the conditions of the site, public and auxiliary media, the heat treatment line developed this time is based on the principle of low carbon emissions, accurate temperature control and intelligence, providing better equipment for Puyang Group to achieve low-cost, high-quality and efficient production and improve the consistency of product performance. The heat treatment furnace adopts a series of technologies such as low nitrogen oxide combustion, high/ coke gas integrated calorific value control, flue gas waste heat recovery, and high-precision furnace temperature control. Among them, the tempering furnace uses a flue gas circulating tempering heating system with independent patent technology, which breaks through the limitation of traditional heat treatment furnace that large temperature range is difficult to achieve a global high-precision heating. This provides a basis for Puyang Group to produce wear-resistant and high-strength products with higher purposes and narrower process windows. The quenching machine adopts technical concept of continuous progress in RAL for many years, which can realize the high flatness quenching of 6~100mm steel plate. At the same time, the heat treatment line has used the self-developed intelligent centralized control technology and method to realize the integrated control of the whole production process from the start of furnace feeding to the end of straightening and printing, realizing the centralized intelligent control of the new production line and the integrated control of the whole process of heat treatment process temperature. This not only greatly improves the level of production automation, but also ensures the stability and consistency of the production process and product quality.
Fig.2 Centralized control center of heat treatment production line
