LU84751A1 - IMPROVEMENT IN COOLING DEVICES FOR MACHINE WIRE - Google Patents

Description

I 3Λ695

Claiming priority for r.r;, ·; coriûsponciante (s) deposited (c) in J§ÛfciCyj £ .J._ „\ p.Jkom.? a ç \ xz / * 1_ under the n ° êÿ a. 894 _ / _. y- -ίο 2186/8204.

METALLURGICAL RESEARCH CENTER -CENTRUM VOOR RESEARCH IN DE METALLURGIE,

Non-profit association -Vereniging zonder winstoogmerlc in BRUXELLES, (Belgium).

Improvement of cooling devices for wire rod.

The present invention relates to an improvement to cooling devices for wire rod spread in non-coaxial turns on a conveyor, this device being able to be used indifferently in any heat treatment, particularly at the outlet of the rolling mill, comprising one or more cooling phases. .

The cooling of the wire rod spread in non-coaxial turns on a conveyor is well known and can be achieved in several different ways.

For example, such cooling can be produced by blowing air, but this method is not satisfactory in all cases, due to a limited relative / veining cooling intensity and insufficient cooling homogeneity.

Such cooling can also be produced by immersion in boiling water with the advantages of good homogeneity and a greater cooling intensity than that of air blowing. This modality has technological particularities because of the difference in level and the length necessary to immerse in the boiling water of the conveyor supporting the turns (deflection, etc.). The volume of water used in this type of cooling is therefore quite large, which can be the cause of certain difficulties in cases where temperature regulation must be ensured. It is in particular for this reason that the water temperature remains maintained at boiling point.

In a previous patent, the applicant recommended the use [of a device capable of being suitable in all cases where a 1: J cooling of wire rod spread in non-coaxial turns on I a conveyor must be practiced, whatever the type of horizontal or substantially horizontal conveyor. This device, which can be easily placed at the place of the conveyor where it is desired to carry out the cooling, comprises in principle, means capable of raising the level of an aqueous medium to cover the turns of wire situated on the conveyor and means capable of lowering the level of this same medium; one can thus put at will the aqueous medium in contact or not with the turns of wire.

Preferably, the means capable of raising and lowering the level of the aqueous medium allow rapid circulation of this medium and practically instantaneous switching of the cooling. Λ I * under aqueous medium with air cooling. According to another characteristic of the device, the circulating aqueous medium / is of small volume. f 1 / | / 1, 4 - 3 -

With respect to already existing devices, the device which has just been recalled has the following advantages in particular: - it is easy to apply to any conventional conveyor used in existing installations, thanks to the horizontality or the sensitive horizontality the circulation plan of the turns; - it makes the application of product cooling very flexible, with the consequence of using shorter lines; - it allows the temperature of the aqueous medium to be effectively and precisely regulated. This result is obtained mainly thanks to the low volume of the aqueous medium used; - It makes possible the application of new treatments and in particular so-called "short" cycles concerning mild steels, steels for welding electrodes. We can also improve the quality of prestressing steels with perlite formation or manufacture new qualities: cold-stamping steels with ferrite-martensite formation, prestressing steels with perlite-martensite formation, steels with composite microstructure, for example resulting from a marten-sitic quenching followed by a self-income.

The improved wire cooling device, object of the invention, which comprises a tank provided with inlet and outlet openings of a horizontal or substantially horizontal conveyor, on which the wire to be cooled rests, said tank containing - below the level of the inlet and outlet orifices of the conveyor, a preferably central compartment, known as a supply compartment, with means for supplying an aqueous cooling medium, and so-called recovery compartments for the aqueous cooling medium, preferably located at the upstream and downstream ends of said feed compartment, - above the level of the inlet and outlet orifices of the conveyor, a so-called compartment for covering the wire to be cooled, / 1- 4 - - a closed circuit for circulation of the aqueous medium comprising the supply, recovery and recovery compartments as well as a pump intended to ensure rapid circulation of the aqueous medium, - means for retaining the aqueous medium them in the compartment - covering, is essentially characterized in that the passage of all or at least most of the aqueous medium for cooling the supply compartment in the covering compartment is carried out along the side walls of the tank .

According to the invention, the passage of the aqueous cooling medium along the walls of the tank is ensured through gills | said lateral vents, formed in the wall separating the supply compartment and the covering compartment.

According to the arrangement of the invention, the cooling medium entering through said lateral vents spreads in the covering compartment on the one hand towards the central part of this compartment, located between the lateral vents and on the other hand respectively towards the areas upstream and downstream of this central part.

In a particular embodiment of the invention, the feed compartment includes deflectors for directing the aqueous medium towards the side walls of the tank.

It is immediately understood that this way of circulating the aqueous medium permanently brings into contact the coolest aqueous medium - at the entrances to the covering compartment - and the largest mass of metal, that is to say that located j along the side walls of the compartment, where the turns! non-coaxial rests jointly on each other; thereafter, the aqueous medium spreads throughout the compartment. j y / i / - 5 -

According to the invention, the side vents for the passage of the aqueous medium can be of any shape and size, provided that they are capable of playing their role of appropriate diffuser of the aqueous medium on the wire in turn; It does not depart from the invention to use both lateral openings to ensure the passage of most of the aqueous medium, and orifices spaced from the walls of the tank to allow a secondary supply through the tank.

In a particular embodiment of the improved device, object of the invention, there is, below the level of the conveyor and above the feed compartment and partially above the recovery compartment for the aqueous medium, a so-called separation plate full, in which one optionally spares orifices which can be closed off using shutters, for example with slides.

Still according to the invention, the tank may be provided, at a level located under the conveyor, with a mesh or a perforated plate above the compartments for recovering the aqueous medium.

Also according to the invention, the device comprises means for modifying the surface of the zone in which the turns are covered by the aqueous medium, these means advantageously consisting of obturation devices, for example arranged against the grating or the perforated plate located in the zones. evacuation of the aqueous medium.

By. elsewhere, the device previously recommended by the applicant was already equipped with valves for retaining the aqueous medium, situated above the level of the said inlet and outlet orifices of the conveyor, valves whose upper ends are fixed to a joint and whose the lower ends rest freely on the moving wire.

The present improved device has the characteristic of being equipped with hydraulic means for retaining the medium ^ 4 · - 6 - f; aqueous, the aim of which is to increase the pressure drop in the circulating current, without opposing the movement of the product deposited on the conveyor.

According to the invention, these means for retaining the aqueous medium consist of water injection devices preferably arranged under the surface for circulation of the wire and injecting water from bottom to top, through and against - middle current! aqueous.

i! Also according to the invention, these means for retaining the aqueous medium consist of protuberances formed in the upper face of the bottom plates of the overlap zone.

i In addition to its effect on the cooling conditions of the wire j.

submerged, this opposition to the circulation of the aqueous medium has! also the beneficial effect of reducing the flow rate of the circuit supply means; these are normally arranged to provide forced feed from the bottom of the | covering and preferably constituted by a single pump, f for example a pump of the so-called "impeller" type.

f i i The device according to the invention can comprise a system of | conditioning the temperature of the aqueous medium with the possibility of collecting, evacuating and / or condensing the vapor formed.

f i j. According to the invention, the means for controlling the temperature and the emission of vapor consist of a medium addition system Îfi ï 't | "cold aqueous (for example water), preferably located above the cooling device, which may include sprinklers [(spray, mist) and a medium discharge system: aqueous capable of draining a corresponding quantity at least at / /

the intake (by overflow, racking, etc). / V

/ f f - 7 - # *

The means for controlling the emission of steam can also consist, according to the invention, in a system comprising fans intended for the extraction of the emitted vapor, this = system being used alone or in combination with that of

Idition of a cold aqueous medium.

Figures 1 to 3 attached show, by way of non-limiting example, a method of building a device according to the invention.

According to Figure 1, the device comprises a tank 1 arranged on the path of movement of the wire 2 spread in non-coaxial turns on a conveyor circulating above perforated plates 3 and full plates 3bis; the wire moves in the direction of arrow 4.

! This tank 1 comprises a central compartment 5 for touring injection of compartments 6 and 7 for evacuating (or recovering) the aqueous medium in the direction of the pump 8; this evacuation can be braked for example using a transverse curtain of water jets, directed from bottom to top from the boots 27 and 28.

The walls of compartments 6 and 7 located on the path of the wire have inlet 12 and outlet 13 holes for the turns in the device.

The pump 8 is located below the tank 1 which it supplies with water by means of the vertical duct 14. The drain / drain circuit comprises the compartments 6 and 7, as well as the collector 16 resupplying the pump 8.

I «Λ - 8 -

FIG. 2 shows in plan the area of displacement of the turns of wire between the inlet 12 .v; and outlet 13; this displacement area includes the following sections: - the so-called injection section, where the aqueous medium intended for j. covering the turns is brought by the lateral openings 22 and 23; - the so-called covering section, where the aqueous medium covers the turns. This section comprises the central zone 24 between the vents 22 and 23 and the zones upstream 25 and downstream 26 of the injection zone; - the so-called evacuation section, where the aqueous medium flows into the compartments 6 and 7, through the orifices 20 made in the plates 3.

The device also includes lateral guides 21 located on either side of the wire movement area between the entry 12 and exit 13 doors.

Figure 3 gives a cross-sectional view of the injection area; the water is propelled by the pump 8 in the central duct 14 from where it reaches the injection openings 22 and 23 in lon-I giant the deflector 29; water thus reaches the lateral zones where the wire turns rest on one another and it spreads towards the central part of the turns, in part 24 of the overlap zone, as well as in the zones upstream and in downstream (not shown in the figure). The collector duct 16 brings the water back to the pump 8.

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Claims (4)

1. A wire cooling device comprising a tank provided with inlet and outlet openings for a horizontal or substantially horizontal conveyor, on which the wire to be cooled rests, said tank containing - below the level of inlet and outlet ports of the conveyor in the tank, a preferably central compartment, called a supply compartment, with means for supplying an aqueous cooling medium, and so-called recovery compartments for the aqueous cooling medium, preferably located upstream and downstream of said feed compartment, - above the level of the inlet and outlet orifices of the conveyor in the tank, a so-called cover compartment for the wire to be cooled, - a closed circuit for circulation of the aqueous medium comprising the supply, recovery and recovery compartments as well as a pump intended to ensure rapid circulation of the aqueous medium, - means for retaining the aqueous medium in the compartment cover, characterized in that the passage of all or at least most of the aqueous medium for cooling the supply compartment into the cover compartment is produced along the side walls of the tank. . 2. A wire cooling device according to claim 1, characterized in that the passage of the aqueous cooling medium along the walls of the tank is ensured through * vents known as lateral vents, formed in the wall separating the compartment from power supply and cover compartment. / s j ...! j 3. A wire cooling device according to either of claims 1 and 2, characterized in that there is, t below the level of the conveyor and above the feed compartment I and partially at above the compartment for recovery of the aqueous medium, a so-called separation plate * “; full, in which one optionally protects orifices of | preferably closable with shutters, for example with sashes. [4. Wire cooling device according to either r] of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that it is equipped with; hydraulic means for retaining the aqueous medium, preferably constituted by water injection devices arranged under the surface for circulation of the wire and injecting water, from bottom to top, through and against the current of the aqueous medium . t; * Drawings: —- To— plates 40 pages including ........ ^ ..... cover page ........ g______ description pages .......... St /..... claims pages ______ ^ descriptive abstract Luxembourg, 15 APR. 19B1 The representative: / y: Charles München Λ f. j: * t