Walking Beam Furnace
The objective of the ADEX application to the walking beam furnaces in Avilés was to stabilize the temperatures in different zones of the furnace in order that these would respond with more precision to the required temperature profiles. These kind of furnaces are difficult processes to control due fundamentally to the load changes and interactions between the various zones in the furnace and their energy consumption is considerable. The results obtained have validated ADEX technology for this type of application, key within the Metallurgical industry.
The figure alongside shows 4 hours of operation of the ADEX controller in zone 5 of furnace 3. The changes in the control action (coloured blue) required to maintain the zone temperature (green) can be seen demonstrating a high level of precision around the set point (red) whose value varies between 1240 and 1360 ºC. The variations in set point for the temperature are generated from a model produced by the manufacturer of the furnace.
The figure alongside shows 2 hours of operation in the same zone 5 of furnace 3 under PID control. Oscillations both in the control signal and the temperature around the set point can clearly be seen, in spite of the stability and virtual absence of variations in the value of the set point.
