| Specialising in continuous casting technology, Rautomead International Ltd, UK, has announced the delivery of the first upwards vertical casting machine, model RFS-03, in Iran, to the company Simcat Tabriz Wire & Cable Co. The recently introduced model RFS-03 has been designed to utilise either selected grades of scrap or cathode feedstock, with the capability to produce either rods, strips or hollow bars. Rated at 240kVA, with a nominal throughput capacity of 300kg/hr (2,200 tonnes per year), the RFS-03 offers the flexibility to produce the following rod, tube and strip options:
- 3 strands of rod ranging from 8 to 12.5mm �;
- 2 strands of rod ranging from 12.5 to 30mm �;
- 2 strands of tube shell: 30mm OD x 5mm WT;
- 1 strand of strip: 120 x 12mm.
Based on the company�s well-established RS series of copper rod casters, the new RFS-03 can accept baled clean cable scrap, granulated and briquetted scrap, cathode or a blend of each. Melting and casting of the copper is carried out in a single furnace, with a dwell time in excess of six hours to ensure through conditioning of the melt before casting. The process is inherently a reducing one: with the oxygen being scavenged through contact with carbon surfaces while the copper is in the molten state. A blend of cathode with scrap is used as a means of accommodating a variable scrap composition and ensuring a consistent final product. The RFS-03 also uses familiar Rautomead graphite furnace technology, as a reliable, simple and effective means of melting and holding copper. Electric resistance heating is used with burst firing, thus eliminating the need for capacitor banks to overcome problems of power factor correction in induction systems.
The RFS03 recently delivered to Simcat Tabriz Wire & Cable Co is the second machine supplied by Rautomead. In 2001, the Scottish company supplied its model RS 2200/8/8, a machine that produces 8mm oxygen-free copper redraw rod, using exclusively cathode feedstock.
|
