Manufacturing Technology-I
Melting Furnaces
Department of Mechanical Engineering
National Institute of Technology Patna
Melting Furnaces
➢ A furnace is an equipment to melt metals for casting or heat materials for change of shape (rolling,
forging etc.) or change of properties (heat treatment).
• Furnace should be designed so that in a given time, as much of material as possible can be heated
to a uniform temperature as possible with the least possible fuel and labour.
➢ Pouring temperature is always greater than the melting temperature, because if we just pour at the
melting temperature then the molten metal cannot flow into the entire cavity.
➢ Since the products of fuel, gases directly contact the stock, thus type of fuel chosen is of importance.
For example, some materials will not tolerate Sulphur in the fuel. Also, use of solid fuels will generate
particulate matter, which will interfere the stock place inside the furnace.
• Melting furnaces for steel, cast iron use electricity in induction and arc furnaces.
• Non-ferrous melting utilizes oil as fuel.
Types and Classification of Different Furnaces
➢ Based on the method of generating heat
1. Combustion type (using fuels)
• oil fired
• coal fired
• gas fired
2. Electric type
➢ Based on the mode of charging
1. Intermittent or Batch type furnace or Periodical furnace
2. Continuous furnace
➢ Based on mode of waste heat recovery
1. Recuperative furnaces
2. Regenerative furnaces
Crucible Furnace
➢ A crucible is a container in which metals or other substances may be melted or subjected to very high
temperatures.
➢ Crucible is made up of graphite, silicon carbide, clay, resin, and some more binders.
➢ Fuel used are coke, oil or gas.
➢ Crucible furnace is the simplest of all
furnaces.
➢ Usually installed in formed pit.
➢ Have refractories lining inside.
➢ May be stationary, tilting, or movable.
➢ Have high fuel consumption.
➢ Capacity ranges from 30 to 150 kg.
Oil Fired Furnace
➢ An oil furnace uses oil as a fuel source to produce heat, which is then
redistributed throughout to increase the temperature.
➢ Furnace oil is the major fuel used in oil fired furnaces, especially for
reheating and heat treatment of materials.
➢ The crucible is placed in the heating chamber and is heated by the flame.
➢ The furnace can be stopped whenever needed & temperature can be
controlled easily.
➢ They give lesser pollution.
➢ However, improvements in efficiencies have been brought about by
methods such as preheating of stock, preheating of combustion air and
other waste heat recovery systems.
➢ These furnaces operate with efficiencies as low as 7% as against upto
90%.
➢ Light diesel oil (LDO) is used in furnaces where sulphur is undesirable.
Oil Fired Furnace
Pros and cons of oil furnaces
➢ Pros:
• Oil furnaces are usually less expensive to install.
• Oil furnaces generates more heat per BTU (British Thermal Unit) than a gas furnace
• Oil furnaces can be installed in areas where gas pipelines aren’t available
➢ Cons:
• Oil furnaces typically require more maintenance than other types of furnaces
• Oil furnaces can be less efficient than a gas furnace
• Fuel oil must be purchased and stored, which adds an extra cost
Electric Furnace
➢ Electric furnace, heating the chamber with electricity as the heat source for achieving very high
temperatures to melt alloy and metals.
➢ The electricity has no electrochemical effect on the metal but simply heats it.
➢ Modern electric furnaces generally are either arc furnaces or induction furnaces.
➢ A third type, the resistance furnace, is still used in the production of silicon carbide and electrolytic
aluminum; the furnace charge (i.e. the material to be heated) serves as the resistance element.
➢ In one type of resistance furnace, the heat-producing current is introduced by electrodes buried in the
metal.
➢ Electric furnaces are mostly used by steelmakers to produce almost all the stainless steels, electrical
steels, tool steels, and special alloys required by the chemical, automotive, aircraft, machine-tool,
transportation, and food-processing industries.
➢ Electric furnaces also are employed, exclusively, by mini-mills, small plants using scrap charges to
produce reinforcing bars, merchant bars (e.g., angles and channels), and structural sections.
➢ It have precise control over the temperature.
Electric Furnace
➢ In the induction furnace, a coil carrying alternating electric current surrounds the container or chamber
of metal. Eddy currents are induced in the metal (charge), the circulation of these currents producing
extremely high temperatures for melting the metals and for making alloys of exact composition.
➢ High and Low frequency
➢ Arc furnace, type of electric furnace in which heat is generated by an arc between carbon electrodes
above the surface of the material (commonly a metal) being heated.
➢ Direct and Indirect
Arc furnace Induction furnace Resistance furnace
Cupola Furnace
➢ Cupola furnace is the oldest and simple furnace. Cupola
is derived from Latin word Cupa, which means cask or
barrel.
➢ A cupola furnace cupola furnace is a cylindrical steel
shell it is used to burn the pig iron and scrap iron in the
presence of coke and flux in order to produce the hot
molten metal for the casting process.
➢ Based on its principle, the cupola furnace is a shaft
melting furnace, it is filled with fuel (coke), metal charge
(pig iron, circulation material, scrap steel) and slag-
forming additives (limestone) from the top.
➢ In the bottom part of the furnace, combustion air (blast)
compacted by a blower is fed into the furnace shaft by
nozzles.
Cupola Furnace
➢ Cupola furnace is a large vertical cylindrical furnace equipped with a tapping spout at its base.
➢ The cupola furnace was originated from China during 403 – 223
BC and later it got evolved and widely used in European
countries during industrial revolution.
➢ In 1720, the French scientist René Antoine Ferchault de
Réaumur has made the modern cupola furnace.
➢ It is widely used because it has a capability to operate
continuously, have high melting rate, available in various sizes
and capacity, easy to operate and maintain, and economical.
Construction of Cupola Furnace
➢ The exterior of cupola is covered by a thin cylindrical steel sheet about 6 to 12 mm thickness. The
diameter of the cylindrical structure is about 1 to 2 meters, and the height varies from 4 to 5 times of its
cylindrical diameter.
➢ The cylindrical portion of the cupola is lined inside with refractory bricks made-up of alumina and silicon
oxide.
➢ The base is rested at 0.85 to 1 meter above from the ground level.
➢ The shell is prepared with the molding sand which slopes towards the tapping spout. On the opposite side
there is a slag spout where slag is discharged.
➢ The air is always carried out through air blast inlet pipe from motorized blower, first to wind box and then
to multiple tuyeres in the shell. The air pressure is always controlled by a valve present in the air blast
pipe.
➢ Above 3 to 6 meters from tuyeres there is a charging door which is used for charging coke, flux, metal etc.
Charging platform is usually built around the cupola at 200 to 300mm below the charging door, so that
operators can ergonomically use it charge the cupola.
➢ The cupola is extended 4 to 5meters above charging door and has a conical cap like structure at the top
called spark arrester. Sparks are arrested and only smoke escapes here.
Working principle of Cupola Furnace
➢ The first operation is to clean up the cupola by opening the bottom drop doors to discharge the debris
from the previous use.
➢ Then the furnace is ignited with the small fire and coke is added gradually. Coke should be added till
the level of 0.5 meters above the tuyeres.
➢ Then the cupola charge should be gradually added to the chamber through charging door. The cupola
charge contains pig iron, scarps, cast iron casting rejections, coke and flux.
➢ Normally limestones are used as cupola flux at quantity of 2 to 4% of the weight of iron charge. Now
tuyeres are opened, and a constant air volume is supplied to combustion chamber.
➢ During this combustion stage, all available oxygen is consumed, and an exothermic reaction occurs in
the combustion zone. Huge amount of heat at the temperature of 1550 oC to 1850 oC is liberated
during this exothermic reaction.
Working principle of Cupola Furnace
➢ The temperature then drops to 1200 oC in the reduction zone. The reduction zone starts from the top of
combustion zone and extends to the top of coke bed. In this zone the reduction of CO2 occurs.
➢ Finally, the metal charge turns to molten state in the melting zone. At this zone the temperature is
increased to 1600 oC to melt the metal charge. Then the molten metal flows down through the coke
bed and reaches the well zone and then they are tapped out through tapping spout. The following
reaction occurs during the melting zone.
➢ In preheating zone, the alternate or mixed layers of coke, flux and metal are preheated by the upgoing
gases that comes the from the melting zone. The temperature at this preheating zone is about 1100 oC.
➢ The hot gases produced within the furnaces are escaped through the stack zone.
Advantages of cupola furnace
➢ Simple and robust design.
➢ Easy and economical to operate compare to other industrial furnaces.
➢ Anyone can build their own cupola according to their needs and there are available in various sizes.
➢ Wide range of metal alloys such as pig iron, nodular cast iron, white cast iron and copper-based alloys
also can be melted.
➢ Easy to discharge debris from the chamber due the presence of prob and drop bottom door.
➢ Cupolas can be operated continuously with multiple production cycles.
➢ Cupolas are highly efficient and gives high output.
➢ Depending upon their size, it requires less floor space compared to other industrial furnaces.
➢ It can operate and withstand even at high temperatures.
➢ Usually, cupolas have longer operational life that are properly maintained.
Disadvantages of cupola furnace
➢ Since it is an industrial furnace, it emits lot of pollutants in the atmosphere which causes
environmental concerns. Emission of pollutants can be controlled by fitting additional air filters,
precipitators and collectors at the furnace top. Adding these additional equipments will end up with
additional cost.
➢ Though it has robust design, there is a limitation on controlling the furnace temperature over the
melting cycle. The limited temperature control sometimes can impact the quality and consistency of
molten metal.
➢ Cupolas are not electrical. Coke is traditional used as a fuel for cupola. The production of coke
mainly depends on coal.
➢ It might be easy to operate but it is difficult to repair when there is a damage. A skilled technician is
required in such situations.
➢ Safety training should be given to operators to operate such industrial furnaces.
