It makes use of technology to make the first start-up of potlines more effective and economical.
The company needed to provide a means to provide a melt bath for the start up of DX potlines at Emal. Different start up options such as dry start-up and transportation of molten bath and metal from Dubal to Emal were discussed.
Dry starting of pots is thought to be detrimental to the pot lining and is only considered a last resort option. Transporting molten bath from Dubal to Emal was impractical for safety reasons and because the bath solidifies in a short space of time.
So PES developed a portable bath melting plant designed as a lid size to fit a Dubal 7.5t crucible. A means was provided to gradually introduce the solid bath as a fume duct. The crucible will be mounted on a trailer which means the molten bath in the crucible can be driven to the potlines and emptied directly into the pots for start-up.
The 20-week project involved a team from engineering, technology development, potlines and safety also involved four contractors and Emal staff. There were no recorded incidents or lost-time accidents.
The installation was completed on time to facilitate Emal start up and was within budget.