Aluminum ingot feeding system design and optimization for basic oxygen furnace

Iron and steel products are the primary input of durable consumer goods, construction materials and automotive industry. Thence, elevation of iron and steel product consumption is the most important pointer of development and prosperity for a country. Developing countries as Turkey, iron and steel product consumption increases constantly and also production capacity can be formed to respond consumption. However, the prices of raw materials, fluxes and deoxidants which are used in steel making process, increase day by day due to steel making cost increases and the profitablility decreases. Also aluminium which is used for deoxidation and alloying, increases the cost. Deoxidation is the method of removing oxygen from molten metal and it is the last part of the steel making process with Basic Oxyfen Furnace (BOF). Steel making process with BOF, aluminum ingots that have 5 kg nominal weight are feeding manually in a ladle. This situation can lead to some problems such as quality error and loss of efficiency. The problem was solved by designing automatic aluminum ingot feeding system. Hereby feeding system performance variables had improved considerably. In this studies the tables which are derived from using aluminium feeding system before and after datas are prepared and their comparison is made. Finally, this study showed us that aluminium deoxidation with aluminium ingot feeding system is useful application for cost saving. With using this feeding system in deoxidation process saving approximately 91.176 $ was achieved. Meanwhile, automatic feeding system is rolled out instead of manual feeding system that has injury risk previously. Hereby risks caused by occupational health and safety aspects have been eliminated.