Apparatus for automatically punching the tuyeres of a converter

In an apparatus for punching the tuyeres of a converter for smelting of copper or nickel, the apparatus including a carrier frame supported by wheels and which is capable of moving on the working platform located adjacent to the converter, the carrier frame mounting a plurality of punch rods which can reciprocatingly extend into respective tuyeres to remove deposits therein. An electric motor is employed to drive the carrier frame and an electrical control system controls the operation of the electric motor and thus the movement of the carrier frame so that the correct positioning of the punch rods with respect to the tuyeres on a converter can be automatically achieved.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
1. Field of the Invention 
The present invention relates to an apparatus for punching the tuyeres of a 
converter which includes a plurality of punch rods that can be inserted 
into the tuyeres of a converter used to smelt mattes of copper or nickel 
so as to remove the solid deposits which form at the inner ends of the 
tuyeres. 
2. Description of the Prior Art 
In order to smelt mattes of copper or nickel, converters are used which 
generally have cylindrical configurations, such as the Peirce-Smith type 
converters, and mounted in a line along the sides of such converters are a 
plurality of spaced apart tuyeres which allow compressed air to be forced 
into the converters and to oxidize the iron and sulfur included in the 
molten materials therein (and thus smelt the materials). Since the forced 
air passing through the tuyeres is cold, solid deposits will be formed at 
the inner ends of the tuyeres where the cold air contacts the molten 
material inside the converters, and since blockage of these tuyeres is 
very detrimental to the functioning of the blowing operation, removal of 
the deposited materials is essential. 
One known way of removing these deposits is to place individual punch rods 
in the tuyeres from the outside and to push manually a punch rod into and 
withdraw the same from the tuyeres in a "punching" operation so as to 
remove the deposits during the blowing of compressed air therethrough. 
However, this manual procedure is obviously very inefficient. 
Various types of mechanical punchers have also been proposed to more 
efficiently remove the deposits from the insides of converter tuyeres. 
Various types of these punchers are shown in Canadian Pat. No. 727,540, 
issued on Feb. 8, 1966, Japanese Patent Publication No. 3503/30, published 
on May 25, 1955, and Japanese Patent Publication No. 7775/49, published on 
Feb. 24, 1974. One type of puncher involves the attachment of a punch rod 
to each individual tuyere. Another type of puncher includes a carrier 
frame which is mounted to move along the outside of the converter and has 
mounted thereon a single punch rod or a plurality of rods which can be 
inserted into the tuyeres. However, although this latter puncher is 
improved in function over the others, it too displays serious drawbacks 
insofar as a skilled worker must ride on the carrier frame and visually 
line up the punch rods with the respective tuyeres before the rods are 
punched into the tuyeres. 
It is an object of the present invention to provide a punching apparatus 
which will include a plurality of parallel punch rods thereon that can be 
automatically and simultaneously reciprocated so as to be inserted into 
corresponding converter tuyeres and thus remove any solid deposits 
therein, and which will be automatically controlled so as to move along 
rails positioned adjacent the converter such that the punch rods will 
clean sequential sets of tuyeres as the punching apparatus travels from 
adjacent one end of the converter to the other, thereby cleaning all of 
the tuyeres during a cycle of punching apparatus operation. 
SUMMARY OF THE PRESENT INVENTION 
According to the present invention the punching apparatus will include a 
carrier frame which includes supporting wheels that will allow the carrier 
frame to move on a working platform along a line parallel with a line of 
uniformly spaced apart tuyeres on the side of a cylindrical converter used 
to smelt mattes of copper or nickel, and mounted on the carrier frame will 
be a plurality of aligned punch rods which will be uniformly spaced apart 
a distance equivalent to the spacing between the tuyeres, and will also be 
sufficiently long to fit in and through the corresponding tuyeres when the 
rods are reciprocatingly moved with respect to the carrier frame. The 
carrier frame will also have mounted thereon an electric motor which is 
connected to drive the carrier frame on the working platform, as well as a 
pulse generator that will generate pulses based on the revolution of an AC 
induction motor. 
The inventive punching apparatus will include an electrical control system 
which will function to count the pulses generated by the pulse generator 
and based thereon first slow the motor which is moving the carrier frame 
on the working platform and then cause it to stop when the frame is at the 
desired position. Once the carrier frame is stopped, the punch rods will 
be reciprocatingly moved to remove the inner deposits on the corresponding 
tuyeres. Thereafter the motor will be activated to move the carrier frame 
on the working platform by a unit distance which will be sufficient for 
the punch rods to be able to punch a new set of tuyeres (a "set" of 
tuyeres being a plurality of tuyeres equal to the number of punch rods on 
the carrier frame). The punching apparatus will move along the entire 
length of the converter and return to its starting position to complete 
one punching cycle. 
The carrier frame will also include a detecting means which will be capable 
of correcting the errors in the movement of the punching apparatus so as 
to cause it to be positioned exactly at its required standard starting 
point at the commencement of each punching cycle. 
Further objects, advantages and features of the present invention will 
become more fully apparent from detailed consideration of the arrangement 
and construction of the constituent parts as set forth in the following 
specification taken together with the accompanying drawings.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PRESENT INVENTION 
FIGS. 1 and 2 show one embodiment of inventive punching apparatus 
operatively positioned adjacent to a cylindrical converter body 1. 
Converter body 1 includes converter tuyere 2 at opposite ends thereof 
which are themselves rotatably supported on supporting rollers 3 (only one 
supporting roller 3 is shown in FIG. 2 supporting one inclined side 
surface of a converter tuyere 2). On one side of the converter body 1 are 
a number of uniformly spaced apart tuyeres which communicate with the 
interior of the body 1 (the embodiment herein described has forty-eight 
tuyeres.) These tuyeres can be seen to be aligned along a line which runs 
parallel with the longitudinal axis of the converter body 1. 
The inventive punching apparatus 5 is mounted on a flat working platform 6 
which includes thereon a pair of spaced apart, elongated rails 8, an 
intermediate elongated rack rail 18 and an intermediate elongated thrust 
rail 19. Each of the these rails will be positioned to extend along a line 
parallel with the longitudinal axis of the cylindrical converter body 1 
and sufficiently close to the body 1 that the inventive punching 
apparatus, when mounted thereon, will be operatively closely positioned 
with respect to the tuyeres 4. 
The punching apparatus 5 includes a carrier frame 5a which is mounted on 
two spaced apart wheel sets composed of wheels 7 and 7a, and the wheels 7 
and 7a are movably supported on rails 8. Mounted on the carrier frame 5a 
is an air cylinder 9 which includes a piston rod 9a that is capable of 
moving a transverse punching header 10 towards and away from air cylinder 
9. Mounted on punching header 10 so as to extend perpendicularly away 
therefrom are four punch rods 11 that are uniformly spaced apart the same 
distance that tuyeres 4 are spaced apart and are sufficiently long that 
when aligned with tuyeres 4 and reciprocatingly moved by the movement of 
punching header 10, four punch rods will be capable of moving in, through, 
and out of the respective tuyeres 4. 
Also mounted on carrier frame 5a is an AC induction motor 12 which includes 
a drive shaft that drives a reducer 13, which in turn drives a first chain 
wheel 14, which in turn drives, via roller chain 15, a second chain wheel 
16 fixedly connected to an axle 7b. Thus, operation of motor 12 will cause 
rotation of axle 7b and thus, via meshing connection between a pinion gear 
17 also fixedly connected to axle 7b and the rack rail 18, movement of the 
punching apparatus 5 along the rails 8. 
Extending downwardly from carrier frame 5a on either side of thrust rail 19 
are support rods which have mounted thereon thrust rollers 20 and 20' 
whose outer surfaces will engage the opposite sides of the thrust rail 19 
to prevent the carrier frame 5a and thus the entire punching apparatus 5 
from rocking, i.e., to the right or to the left in FIG. 2. 
Axle 7b is seen to also fixedly mount a spur gear 21 which connects with 
another spur gear 22 that rotates a shaft connected to pulse generator 23. 
Rotation of axle 7b by motor 12 will also generate pulses in pulse 
generator 23. 
FIG. 3 shows a block diagram of the electrical control system for the 
inventive punching apparatus and will function as follows. Standard 
available electric current at a commercial frequency will be supplied via 
line X, this current when unmodified being capable of running the motor 12 
at a high speed. This will be the case when switch 24 is closed. Depending 
on whether switch 25 is closed or 26 is closed, the motor 12 will move the 
punching apparatus 5 either in the direction C as shown in FIG. 1 or D. 
At the same time that motor 12 moves the punching apparatus 5, spur gears 
21 and 22 will cause pulse generator 23 to send signals to preset counter 
27 which has been preset with a number of pulses representative of the 
distance by which the punching apparatus 5 must move along rails 8 such 
that the punch rods will be extendable into the desired tuyeres. In the 
present embodiment the preset counter will be preset with the number of 
pulses that will correspond to the moving of the carrier frame 5a past 
four tuyeres on the cylindrical converter body 1. However, it is obvious 
that any lesser distance could be chosen, e.g., the number of pulses 
present in preset counter 27 could instead represent only one pitch or two 
of tuyeres. 
When the number of pulses received in preset counter 27 reaches a certain 
amount (which is less than the noted preset number), a signal will be sent 
from preset counter 27 to terminal A of the current control means 28 
connected to motor 12, which will then act to simultaneously open switch 
24 (and thus stop the direct supply of standard frequency current to the 
motor 12) and close switch 29. Closing switch 29 will cause the standard 
frequency current to flow through thyristor 30 which will function to 
reduce the frequency of the current being fed to the motor 12 to about 1/5 
of its original value, thus reducing the rotational frequency of motor 12 
and likewise slowing down the movement of carrier frame 5a along rails 8. 
Simultaneously with the foregoing, the preset counter 27 will send a 
signal to the digital timer 31 to commence its operation. This digital 
timer 31 will operate until a predetermined time period (which will 
correspond to the time for the number of pulses fed to preset counter 27 
to reach the preset number) has passed, and the digital timer 31 will then 
send a signal to terminal B of the current control means 28 to actuate 
thyristor 30 such that it will pass current in only one direction; thus 
acting to quickly stop motor 12 by damping direct current. 
After the stopping of motor 12, timer 32 allows a small time period to 
pass, and then it activates air cylinder 9 and thus cause the 
reciprocating movement of punching rods 11 towards, into and away from 
tuyeres 4 (thus accomplishing the tuyere punching operation). A limit 
switch (not shown) will detect the completion of the tuyere punching 
operation and will activate timer 33. After a short time period, the timer 
33 will then cause switch 24 to close, thus commencing the next unit of 
movement for the carrier frame 5a. 
Since it is essential that the carrier frame 5a begins to move from its 
standard starting position indicated as 5' in FIG. 1, a cylinder 35 is 
mounted on the side of the carrier frame 5a (see FIG. 2) which supports a 
sensor 36 on the tip of its piston rod, which can detect a converter 
tuyere 2 at the end of the converter body 1. Sensor 36 can thereby 
accurately determine the standard starting point for the carrier frame 5a. 
With the carrier frame 5a positioned at 5', the cycle starting button 34 is 
pushed so as to close switch 24 and thus open switch 29. The carrier frame 
5a will then begin to advance as shown by arrow C in FIG. 1. The first 
unit of movement will, however, be different from the normal unit movement 
during an operational cycle due to need for the carrier frame to move by 
only a distance equal to the distance between the converter tire 2 and the 
first tuyere 4. This first distance of the movement of the carrier frame 
5a will be determined by the preset counter 37, which is only used in 
starting of a cycle. The movements of the carrier frame 5a thereafter will 
be as programmed for a normal cycle. 
The number of unit movements in the advancement of the carrier frame 5a 
will be counted by counter 38, which will control over the opening and 
closing of switch 25. When the carrier frame 5a comes to the last punching 
position in its advancement along direction C, the counter 38 will act to 
close switch 26 and to cause the motor 12 to move the carrier frame 5a in 
a return path as shown by arrow D in FIG. 1. After the last punching 
operation has ceased, and after the piston rod of cylinder 35 has been 
withdrawn into the cylinder 35, the punching apparatus 5 will continue its 
return towards position 5' and when the sensor 36 detects the converter 
tire 2, a signal will be sent to terminal A of the current control means 
28 and the digital timer 31, and thus the digital timer 31 will be 
activated. In the same manner as noted previously, the carrier frame 5a 
will be reduced in its speed and will finally stop at the standard 
starting point 5'. 
The movement of the carrier frame 5a from its standard starting point to 
the opposite end of the converter and then its return to its standard 
starting point will constitute one cycle of movement of the punching 
apparatus. 
The noted control system having sensor 36, which allows the punching 
apparatus to be automatically located at a standard starting point for 
each cycle of movement, thus can compensate for any deviations which may 
occur in any accumulation of errors in the unit movement of the punching 
apparatus, and in the errors which may result from, for example, thermal 
expansions and/or contractions of distances between tuyeres, or from 
impediments encountered such as accumulations of dust on the rails. 
Therefore the accuracy of starting position of the carrier frame can be 
kept in the desired limit. 
It should be noted that metal elements 39 can be positioned below the 
tuyeres on the converter body 1 at spaced apart locations along its 
longitudinal length, e.g., at its middle and at its far end in direction 
C, so that the sensor 36, which extends the piston rod 35 to the converter 
body 1, can be suitably activated as the carrier frame 5a moves therepast 
(either in direction C or D) and thus provide intermediate checks on the 
correct corresponding position thereof with respect to the tuyeres 4. When 
the deviations by intermediate checks of sensor 36 are out of the 
predetermined limit, an alarm can be sounded. 
Although means 30 has been described as constituting a bidirectional 
thyristor, which cause the carrier frame to run at reduced speed and stop, 
any other element that would function in an equivalent fashion as 
previously described could also be employed. 
While the present invention has been described with reference to the 
particular embodiment thereof, it will be understood that numerous 
modifications may be made by those skilled in the art without actually 
departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined in the 
appended claims.