Robotic system and method for the automation of slag and matte discharge from smelters

Abstract

At present, the discharge of slag and/or matte from smelting furnaces is being carried out manually. One of the major disadvantages of all the activities associated to the slag and/or matte discharge is the fact the personnel is exposed to harsh environmental conditions. In the medium and long term, this could generate serious occupational diseases to the operators in charge of carrying out the discharge. Due to the above, a robot system and/or method have been developed for the discharge of slag and/or matte from the smelting furnaces which include: a flash furnace, teniente converter, pierce smith converter, reverbatory furnace, electrical furnace, blast furnace among others. The robot system and method is composed mainly of an anthropomorphous robotic manipulator of at least 5 degrees of freedom and a gripping mechanism to take several tools for tapping and punching the smelting furnace, taking samples from channels and cleaning the smelting furnace channels. In this regard, most of the problems associated to the safety of the personnel and the productivity of the manual and/or mechanical process are eliminated.

1 . Robot system for slag and/or matte discharge from the smelting furnace, comprising of an anthropomorphous robotic arm of at least 5 degrees of freedom, one control, communication and programming unit, one gripper adapter, one pneumatic gripper mechanism, one pneumatic gripper mechanism driving system, one electric supply system, one fixed and/or mobile tool holder, one tool for punching, one tool for slag and/or matte sampling, one tool for channel cleaning and one tool for plugging wherein the anthropomorphous robotic manipulator of at least 5 degrees of freedom is provided with a gripping mechanism, to take in a sequential and programmed way, each of the different tools which are deposited in the fixed and/or mobile tool holder, located near the robotic manipulator, and which will be used, separately, to carry out the passage punching, the sampling of the slag and/or matte, the cleaning of the channels and the passage plugging, so as to close the flow of slag and/or matte from the smelting furnace.  
     
     
         2 . Robotic system for slag and/or matte discharge from the smelting furnace, according to  claim 1 , wherein the system has the capacity to take, move, manipulate and release each of the different tools, in different paths, within the work volume of the robotic manipulator.  
     
     
         3 . Robotic system for slag and/or matte discharge from the smelting furnace, according to  claim 1 , wherein the robotic manipulator is mounted on a mobile or fixed system which allows, in a sequential and programmed way, to move itself to approach or move away from the smelting furnace to carry out the passage punching procedure, the sampling of the matte and/or slag, the cleaning of channels and the passage plugging procedure.  
     
     
         4 . Robotic system for slag and/or matte discharge from the smelting furnace according to  claim 1 , wherein the anthropomorphous robotic manipulator could communicate itself or through a PLC interface with the control system.  
     
     
         5 . Robotic system for slag and/or matte discharge from the smelting furnace, according to  claim 1 , wherein the anthropomorphous robotic manipulator has the capacity to obtain and interpret the information from installed analogue and/or digital sensors.  
     
     
         6 . Robotic system for slag and/or matte discharge from the smelting furnace, according to  claim 1 , wherein the anthropomorphous robotic manipulator has the capacity to generate analogue and/or digital signals to control devices with analogue and/or digital inputs.  
     
     
         7 . Robotic system for slag and/or matte discharge from the smelting furnace, according to  claim 1 , wherein the robotic manipulator may use a pneumatic, electrical and/or hydraulic gripping mechanism, which allows in a sequential and programmed way, to take, manipulate and release the different types of devices to be used in the passage punching procedure, sampling of matte/slag, channel cleaning and passage plugging procedure, respectively.  
     
     
         8 . Robotic system for slag and/or matte discharge from the smelting furnace, according to  claim 1 , wherein the system uses a tool holder which may be fixed and/or mobile, from which the robotic manipulator takes, in a sequential and programmed way, the different tools to be used in the passage punching procedure, sampling of matte and/or slag, channel cleaning and passage plugging procedure, respectively.  
     
     
         9 . Robotic system for slag and/or matte discharge from the smelting furnace, according to  claim 1 , wherein the system uses a tool which is located in the tool holder, in a way that the robotic manipulator takes the tool, in a sequential and programmed way, to carry out the passage punching process, and once this procedure is finished, it deposits the tool back to the tool holder.  
     
     
         10 . Robotic system for slag and/or matte discharge from the smelting furnace, according to  claim 1 , wherein the system uses a tool, which is located in the tool holder, in a way that the robotic manipulator takes the tool, in a sequential and programmed way, to carry out the sampling process of the matte and/or slag, and once this process is finished it deposits the tool back to the tool holder.  
     
     
         11 . Robotic system for slag and/or matte discharge from the smelting furnace, according to  claim 1 , wherein the system uses a tool, which is located in the tool holder, in a way that the robotic manipulator takes the tool, in a sequential and programmed way, to carry out the channel cleaning process, and once this process is finished it deposits the tool back to the tool holder.  
     
     
         12 . Robotic system for slag and/or matte discharge from the smelting furnace, according to  claim 1 , wherein the system uses a tool, which is located in the tool holder, in a way that the robotic manipulator takes the tool, in a sequential and programmed way, to carry out the passage plugging process, and once this process is finished it deposits the tool back to the tool holder.  
     
     
         13 . Robotic system for slag and/or matte discharge from the smelting furnace, according to  claim 1 , wherein the anthropomorphous robotic manipulator has an electric and/or hydraulic system driven by three-stage induction motors, with vectorial control.  
     
     
         14 . Robotic system for slag and/or matte discharge from the smelting furnace, according to  claim 1 , wherein the system could be integrated to the discharge of slag and/or matte in any type of smelting furnaces whether smelting and/or conversion process of copper and other materials such as iron, zinc, nickel, silver, gold, tin, lead, etc.  
     
     
         15 . Robotic system for slag and/or matte discharge from the smelting furnace, according to  claim 1 , wherein the system may operate automatically, or semiautomatically, and also allows solutions scalability.  
     
     
         16 . Robotic method for slag and/or matte discharge from the smelting furnace using the robot System of  claim 1  to  15 , wherein the anthropomorphous robotic manipulator of at least 5 degrees of freedom is provided with a gripping mechanism to take, in a sequential and programmed way, each of the different tools deposited in the fixed and/or mobile tool holder, located near the robotic manipulator, and which are going to be used, separately, to carry out the passage punching at the side of the furnace, the sampling of the slag and/or matte, the cleaning of the channels of the smelting furnaces and the passage plugging, so as to close the flow of slag and/or matte from the smelting furnace.  
     
     
         17 . Robotic method for slag and/or matte discharge from the smelting furnace using the robot System of  claim 1  to  15 , wherein the system has the capacity to take, move, manipulate and release each of the different tools, in different paths, within the work volume of the robotic manipulator.  
     
     
         18 . Robotic method for slag and/or matte discharge from the smelting furnace using the robot System of  claim 1  to  15 , wherein the robotic manipulator is mounted on a mobile or fixed system which allows, in a sequential and programmed way, to move itself to approach or move away from the smelting furnace to carry out the passage punching procedure, the sampling of the matte and/or slag, the cleaning of channels and the passage plugging procedure.  
     
     
         19 . Robotic method for slag and/or matte discharge from the smelting furnace using the robot System of  claim 1  to  15 , wherein the anthropomorphous robotic manipulator could communicate itself or through a PLC interface with the control system.  
     
     
         20 . Robotic method for slag and/or matte discharge from the smelting furnace using the robot System of  claim 1  to  15 , wherein the anthropomorphous robotic manipulator has the capacity to obtain and interpret the information from installed analogue and/or digital sensors.  
     
     
         21 . Robotic method for slag and/or matte discharge from the smelting furnace using the robot System of  claim 1  to  15 , wherein the anthropomorphous robotic manipulator has the capacity to generate analogue and/or digital signals to control devices with analogue and/or digital inputs.  
     
     
         22 . Robotic method for slag and/or matte discharge from the smelting furnace using the robot System of  claim 1  to  15 , wherein the robotic manipulator may use a pneumatic, electrical and/or hydraulic gripping mechanism, which allows in a sequential and programmed way, to take, manipulate and release the different types of devices to be used in the passage punching procedure, sampling of matte/slag, channel cleaning and passage plugging procedure, respectively.  
     
     
         23 . Robotic method for slag and/or matte discharge from the smelting furnace using the robot System of  claim 1  to  15 , wherein the system uses a tool holder which may be fixed and/or mobile, from which the robotic manipulator takes, in a sequential and programmed way, the different tools to be used in the passage punching procedure, sampling of matte and/or slag, channel cleaning and passage plugging procedure, respectively.  
     
     
         24 . Robotic method for slag and/or matte discharge from the smelting furnace using the robot System of  claim 1  to  15 , wherein the system uses a tool which is located in the tool holder, in a way that the robotic manipulator takes the tool, in a sequential and programmed way, to carry out the passage punching process, and once this procedure is finished, it deposits the tool back to the tool holder.  
     
     
         25 . Robotic method for slag and/or matte discharge from the smelting furnace using the robot System of  claim 1  to  15 , wherein the system uses a tool, which is located in the tool holder, in a way that the robotic manipulator takes the tool, in a sequential and programmed way, to carry out the sampling process of the matte and/or slag, and once this process is finished it deposits the tool back to the tool holder.  
     
     
         26 . Robotic method for slag and/or matte discharge from the smelting furnace using the robot System of  claim 1  to  15 , wherein the system uses a tool, which is located in the tool holder, in a way that the robotic manipulator takes the tool, in a sequential and programmed way, to carry out the channel cleaning process, and once this process is finished it deposits the tool back to the tool holder.  
     
     
         27 . Robotic method for slag and/or matte discharge from the smelting furnace using the robot System of  claim 1  to  15 , the system uses a tool, which is located in the tool holder, in a way that the robotic manipulator takes the tool, in a sequential and programmed way, to carry out the passage plugging process, and once this process is finished it deposits the tool back to the tool holder.  
     
     
         28 . Robotic method for slag and/or matte discharge from the smelting furnace using the robot System of  claim 1  to  15 , wherein the anthropomorphous robotic manipulator has an electric and/or hydraulic system driven by three-stage induction motors, with vectorial control.  
     
     
         29 . Robotic method for slag and/or matte discharge from the smelting furnace using the robot System of  claim 1  to  15 , wherein the system could be integrated to the discharge of slag and/or matte in any type of smelting furnaces whether smelting and/or conversion process of copper and other materials such as iron, zinc, nickel, silver, gold, tin, lead, etc.  
     
     
         30 . Robotic method for slag and/or matte discharge from the smelting furnace using the robot System of  claim 1  to  15 , wherein the system may operate automatically, or semi automatically, and also allows solutions scalability.  
     
     
         31 . Tool for slag and/or matte discharge from the smelting furnace using the robot System of  claim 1  to  15 , wherein the system uses a tool which is located in the tool holder, in a way that the robotic manipulator takes the tool, in a sequential and programmed way, to carry out the passage punching process, and once this procedure is finished, it deposits the tool back to the tool holder.  
     
     
         32 . Tool for slag and/or matte discharge from the smelting furnace using the robot System of  claim 1  to  15 , wherein the system uses a tool, which is located in the tool holder, in a way that the robotic manipulator takes the tool, in a sequential and programmed way, to carry out the sampling process of the matte and/or slag, and once this process is finished it deposits the tool back to the tool holder.  
     
     
         33 . Tool for slag and/or matte discharge from the smelting furnace using the robot System of  claim 1  to  15 , wherein the system uses a tool, which is located in the tool holder, in a way that the robotic manipulator takes the tool, in a sequential and programmed way, to carry out the channel cleaning process, and once this process is finished it deposits the tool back to the tool holder.  
     
     
         34 . Tool for slag and/or matte discharge from the smelting furnace using the robot System of  claim 1  to  15 , wherein the system uses a tool, which is located in the tool holder, in a way that the robotic manipulator takes the tool, in a sequential and programmed way, to carry out the passage plugging process, and once this process is finished it deposits the tool back to the tool holder.