How to reduce the electricity cost of heat treatment
How to reduce the electricity cost of heat treatment
Compared with mechanical processing, a heat treatment workshop or a professional heat treatment plant consumes a lot of power. Often a heat treatment equipment is equivalent to the power consumption of a dozen mechanical processing equipment, which is an out-and-out "electric tiger". Reducing the electricity cost of heat treatment production is of great significance for reducing the production cost of heat treatment and improving production efficiency. Therefore, large-scale mechanical processing plants with heat treatment workshops or professional heat treatment plants regard reducing the electricity cost of heat treatment production as a key task.
I think there are four main ways to reduce the electricity cost of heat treatment production:
(1) Eliminate outdated and high-power-consuming heat treatment equipment, and adopt advanced heat-treatment equipment with low power consumption.
(2) On the premise of meeting the requirements of the heat treatment process, shorten the heating and holding time as much as possible, reduce unnecessary power consumption, and achieve the purpose of reducing power consumption; develop a correct and reasonable heat treatment process, reduce operation errors, and improve the pass inspection It is also very important to reduce the heat treatment repair rate of the product, which can reduce unnecessary power consumption and also help ensure the heat treatment quality of the product.
(3) Do a good job in the maintenance and maintenance of heat treatment equipment, which can greatly reduce the failure rate of heat treatment equipment. When the heat treatment equipment, especially the heat treatment furnace, has parts that are heating or keeping warm, if it is necessary to stop the furnace to cool down or take a long time to repair, then it will increase the power consumption, and sometimes it will The parts are repaired in batches, which greatly increases the power consumption. Although the failure of the heat treatment furnace is inevitable, we can greatly reduce the failure rate of the heat treatment equipment by doing a good job in the maintenance and maintenance of the heat treatment equipment, and achieve the purpose of reducing power consumption.
(4) Reasonably arrange heat treatment production, make full use of low-voltage electricity, and reduce electricity costs.
In most cases, a heat treatment workshop or a professional heat treatment plant will not randomly replace heat treatment equipment. Because the replacement of heat treatment equipment requires a lot of technical reform funds, and the manufacturer needs to plan in a planned way; only when the manufacturer feels that the existing equipment is really old, high energy consumption, high failure rate, and there is enough Only with the support of technological transformation funds, will they consider replacing heat treatment equipment with low energy consumption and advanced technology; another possibility is that the manufacturer considers the need to further increase the heat treatment production output or the need to further improve the heat treatment quality of the product. Therefore, as managers and craftsmen of heat treatment workshops or professional heat treatment plants, they should make more fuss and find ways to save energy and reduce consumption, and reduce electricity costs.
Reasonably arrange heat treatment production, make full use of low-voltage electricity, and reduce electricity costs. This is what I want to focus on in this article. Let me introduce to you the management methods and experience of our factory's heat treatment production, hoping to inspire you and be used for reference.
Our tool and die branch is a manufacturer specializing in manufacturing tools, molds, measuring tools, knives, fixtures, tooling and other products. Our heat treatment plant is mainly responsible for the heat treatment of these tools, molds, measuring tools, knives, fixtures, and tooling. The main heat treatment equipment is ordinary Box-type resistance furnace, high-temperature box-type resistance furnace, box-type ball-bottom furnace, pit-type carburizing furnace, pit-type tempering furnace, ordinary salt bath furnace, high-temperature salt bath furnace, high-frequency induction heating furnace, etc.
According to the heat treatment equipment, heat treatment classes are divided into electric furnace classes, salt furnace classes and high frequency classes. The electric furnace class is mainly for heat treatment of some larger size workpieces, including larger size structural steel workpieces, high carbon steel molds, alloy steel molds, ring parts with outer diameters greater than 320mm, and heating temperature of 980~1100 ℃ alloy steel mold. The salt furnace class is mainly for heat treatment of smaller size workpieces, such as smaller size structural steel workpieces, high carbon steel molds, alloy steel molds, ring parts with outer diameters less than 320mm. High temperature salt bath furnaces are specially used for Heat treatment of high-speed steel cutting tools and small high-temperature alloy steel molds.
First of all, our factory strengthens the promotion of energy saving and consumption reduction, implements lean management, encourages all employees to participate in energy saving and consumption reduction work, and strives to create a good atmosphere of "energy saving and consumption reduction starting from bit by bit".
The second is to make full use of low-voltage electricity. We in Zhuzhou City implement "time-by-time electricity prices" for industrial electricity, that is, electricity prices are different in different time periods. There are four time periods, peak power usage time, peak power usage time, normal power usage time, and low power usage time. The price of electricity during peak hours is the highest, followed by peak hours, and the price of electricity during valleys is the lowest.
Because the electricity cost is the price of electricity × the time of electricity consumption, the lower the electricity price, the less electricity costs need to be paid for the same time. From the electricity price table above, we can see that there is a very large difference between the low and peak electricity prices. Taking the flat water period as an example, the electricity price during the trough period of electricity consumption is 0.54 yuan/kWh, and the price of the peak electricity period is 1.83 yuan/kWh. The same heat treatment furnace uses one hour of electric energy during the peak period of electricity consumption in the valley. The electricity period can be used for nearly 3.5 hours. Therefore, making full use of low-valley electricity can greatly reduce electricity costs.
Recognizing this, our heat treatment plant makes a fuss about the trough electricity consumption period, rationally arranges heat treatment production, makes full use of trough electricity, and tries to avoid using peak electricity, peak electricity, especially peak electricity. The specific production arrangements are as follows:
(1) The quenching of the parts whose material heating temperature range is between 840～900℃ in the salt furnace class should be completed before 8 o'clock in the morning, and the parts whose material heating temperature range is between 780～820℃ are arranged in the normal time of noon. get on.
(2) The heating and heat preservation of the electric furnace shift box heating furnace are arranged in three shifts (after 10 o'clock in the evening), and the quenching operation must be completed before 8 o'clock in the morning. The tempering of the workpiece is arranged in the normal electric time at noon (usually structural steel or low-alloy structural steel workpieces. After quenching, the residual temperature of the tempering furnace is used to heat the workpiece to prevent the workpiece from cracking. The tempering furnace will be energized at 11 o'clock. ).
(3) For high-speed steel and high-temperature alloy steel that use more heat treatment and heating equipment and have a long cycle, the furnace raising and heat preservation are arranged in the three shifts of low electricity consumption period, and whether the furnace can be opened is determined according to the number of parts. Under the premise of affecting the production schedule, try to reduce the number of openings.
(4) Under the premise of ensuring the quality of heat treatment, the parts for deformation correction should be tempered with residual temperature or furnace tempering (tempering together with parts with suitable tempering temperature).
