Hot repair robot for coke ovens.

Abstract

A heat-resistant robot has been developed to repair cracks or opened joints in the chamber wall of coke ovens which are in hot operation. The robot is placed on the ovens and inserts its arm into the hot chamber through a charging hole. This repair robot has the following capabilities and characteristics:1) Repair of the central portion of ovens under high temperatures up to 1000°C.2) Capability to seal narrow cracks or opened joints with a plasma spray gun.3) Compact and fully automated operation with a high level man-machine interface.4) No disturbance of oven operation and no large firebrick temperature drop.Repair tests on high temperature coke ovens have confirmed the capabilities and usefulness of this system. The control accuracy of the robot is about 3mm, which is accurate enough to repair and seal a narrow crack. The wall surface after repair has a good cross profile without protrusion. The time required for repair is short enough for utilization during the period between chargings. The repair material has been found to remain on the wall for more than 3 years without spalling.