A blast furnace is a smelting furnace that looks like a tower and it’s used to smelt raw material for the production of iron or industrial metals. This furnace functions by having combust air forced upwards from below.
This type of furnace is identified as one of the most important equipment in the process of making steel. It is known to last at least 15 years before it would need to be refurbished or replaced.
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Components of a Blast Furnace
There are 5 components of a blast furnace and they are as follows:
Foundation
This is the huge concrete structure that’s reinforced with steel and partially buried below ground level. It goes without saying of course that this is what holds the entire furnace structure up.
Hearth
This is the part of the furnace where the iron ore is melted and the molten metal and liquid slag accumulate and are collected.
Bosh
The bosh is the area that has immense heat and it is the part that has the highest width in the furnace. It is made up of fire bricks and constructed with steel reinforcement. It is in this part of the furnace that steel plates or cooper that has been cooled with water are put at intervals to protect the lining from intense heat.
Tuyeres
This part is found over the hearth and this is where the hot air needed for fuel combustion is blown into the furnace. So the hot air is blasted from the hearth through the tuyeres to the furnace. The number of these components varies according to the size of the furnace.
The Bell and Hopper Setup
The bell is atop the furnace while the hopper is the structure that looks like a cone. The arrangement of the bell and the hopper is responsible for charging the furnace. This setup ensures that the furnace is charged continuously without exhaust gases leaking out of the blast furnace.
This is just a summary of these parts but this article would give you a full understanding of this component.
Now if anything were to go wrong with any of these parts, you know that the whole equipment would not function as it should. That is why you need highly qualified professionals to carry out the initial installation and then go on to maintain it. And in the event of any malfunction, they’ll be readily available to fix it.
Criteria For Choosing Repairmen For A Blast Furnace
Check The Certification of The Company
Before you hire anyone/company to install or repair a blast furnace, you need to check out the qualification of the staff. We all know that this contraption is not your run of the mill equipment therefore they need specialized skills to handle them.
This is not something that anyone can just fiddle with; you have to be certain that the person(s) working on the equipment is qualified. In fact the best thing to do is just come outright and ask about it. This would save you a lot of grief and waste of time and resources.
Work With Licensed Professionals
Every category of engineering has specific licensing and metallurgical engineers are not left out. Metallurgical engineers are the ones that get to work with anything that has to do with metals. They are also the ones that get to work on equipment such as blast furnaces.
Each state has the type of license that these engineers are expected to have. These licenses are obtained after series of exams and tests (both theoretical and practical). Which means that anyone that has a government approved license is qualified to practise as a metallurgical engineer.
Furthermore, when you hire a certified and licensed engineer, you can seek redress from the authorizing body if anything goes wrong with the project.
Ensure That They Have The Right Machinery For The Job
Whatever company you decide to work with, it is essential that you check and find out whether they have the right machinery for the job. Times are changing and technology is constantly evolving; that is why you have to ensure that the company has up to date equipment. This would go a long way to determine the precision of the job that they would be able to do.
Ask For A Warranty
With the magnitude of work that has to be done in either installing or repairing a blast furnace, you need to ask for a warranty. A warranty assures you that the company is confident in the work that it would do for you.
Get A Written Document
After you have settled with the company on warranties and their papers, then you need to get a written document on all that you have settled on. On that document should be written all that you expect from the finished work. This should include the amount charged and the length of time the work is expected to last.
Make sure that everything you agreed upon is written down and signed off by both parties.
Evaluate Their Work Ethics
The work ethics of any company is the driving force behind their performance. You can find out what a company is all about by asking former clients. The review you get from them would enable you to know what their work ethics is.
This would also determine what you can expect from them; whether you can trust their word or not. For example, if they tell you that you might need to shut down a portion of the pipeline for some number of days or hours, their work ethics would enable you to trust that it wouldn’t exceed the time limit.
When you work with professionals that have impeccable work ethics, you can plan installation, repair and maintenance with confidence. Additionally, you can rest assured that they would use high quality materials for the blast furnaces repairs even after the installation of the equipment.
Conclusion
Blast furnaces are integral to the production of all things metals and they are highly specialized equipment. For this reason, any business that makes use of them has to ensure that they hire the right professionals to handle the project from installation, to maintenance and/or repairs.
We believe that the points we have shared in this article would serve as a reminder to those that are involved in the process of hiring these professionals.
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