Patent GB-877046-A (GB)
Title: Oxygen-blast converters
IPC: F22B1/18
Filed: 1960-04-21
Abstract: 877,046. Converter chimneys. COMPAGNIE DES ATELIERS ET FORGES DE LOIRE, ST. CHAMOND, FIRMINY, ST. ETIENNE, J. HOLTZER. April 21, 1960 [April 21, 1959; Dec. 14, 1959; April 12, 1960], No. 14087/60. Class 25 [Also in Groups XIII and XXVIII] The blast gases from a converter 3, received by a hood 1 lined with three sets of water tubes 2 connected to a common steam and water drum 4, are divertable by a pivoted valve 13 either to a stack 10 having a steam ejector nozzle 101 to assist discharge to atmosphere or, through a cooled gate 15, to a cleaning conduit 11 which has water injection pipes 20 and leads to a wet scrubber 11<SP>1</SP> connected to a variable speed blower 22 delivering processed oxygen to a storage container 12 sludge being discharged from the bottom of the scrubber 11 by a pump 11 2 . A burner 18 for starting and stopping operations is provided on the stack 10. Steam, generated by an auxiliary heating device in the drum 4, is injected into the stack at 19 before the beginning of an oxygen blast and when smoke first appears at the top of the stack the blower 22 is started and'the gate 15 is opened while the valve 13 is moved from position A to position B so that the gas flow is switched to the scrubbing and storage section. After the oxygen blast the valve 14 is returned to the position A, the valve 15 is closed, and the blower 12 is switched off steam being injected at the junction between the valve 13 and the gate 15, at 19, and at 9, and 19. A movable seal between the top of the converter 31 and the hood 1, Fig. 2, comprises an annular steam chamber 8 which has orifices for injecting steam between the hood and the converter and into an expansion chamber 6 which rests upon the converter. In a modification, Fig. 6, not shown, lower and upper hood sections are provided with separate water jackets connected respectively with individual drums the higher pressure mid-section being provided with a nest of tubes also connected to a separate drum. The upper hood section, accommodating a water sprayer, terminates in a valve box for directing the blast gases through a stack or to a scrubber and recovery system. A superheater, housed in the upper hood section and supplied with steam from the mid-section steam and water drum supplies steam e.g. to the converter seal. The lower hood section may be provided with a telescopic, water jacketed extension, Fig. 3, not shown, which can be hydraulically lowered on to the snout of the converter and sealed by a movable seal, Fig. 5, not shown. Fig. 7 shows a hood the section 33, 34 of which is rotatable about a vertical axis of and is connected by a rotary hydraulic seal 50 with, an upper section 35, the hood resting upon a cradle 51 rollable on an annular track 52 for moving the hood into an operative and disengaged position. Other arrangements are described wherein the hood can be mounted on a rocking cradle to detachably co-operate at its ends with the snout of the converter and the lower end of the stack or, wherein the hood can be vertically displaceable. The hood part 33 may be removably connected to the part 34 by means of a quick-latching, mechanically retractible seal (see Group XXVIII). A seal, Fig. 14, which is provided around an oxygen blast pipe 72 vertically displaceable in a casing 71 arranged within a frame 70 carried by the hood 33, comprises a pair of longitudinally displaceable slides 73, 74 with arcuate recesses to fit around the pipe 72 and which are movable in opposite directions by means of jacks and linkages 75. Flaps 76, 77 are pivoted at 76, 77 on the slides 73, 74 and are adapted to engage closely around the pipe 72.