CONTROL OF HEATING DEVICES

For good control of heating devices such as hearth or forging furnace, the following points are should always be considered.

1. The nozzle pointing into the centre of the hearth is called the tuyre and is used to direct a stream of air into the burning coke. The air is supplied by centrifugal blower.

2. As the hottest part of the fire is close to the tuyre opening, therefore, the tuyre is provided with a water jacket to prevent it from burning away.

3. The hood provided at the top of hearth collects smoke, fumes etc., and directs them away from the workplace through the chimney in form of exhaust.

4. The fuel for the fire may be either black-smithing coal or coke. To light the fire, either use paper and sticks or preferably a gas poker.

5. Impurities will collect as clinker and must be removed from the bottom of the fire when the fire cools.

6. The blowers are used to control the air supply using forced draught. Regulators control the draught and the temperature of the fire.

7. Blower delivers to forge adequate supply of air at proper pressure which is very necessary for the combustion of fuel.

8. A centrifugal blower driven by an electric motor is an efficient means of air supply in forging hearth.

9. Fire tools such as rake, poker and slice are generally used to control or manage the fire and theses tools are kept nearby the side of the hearth. Rake is used to take heated workpiece out of the fire. Poker is a steel rod which is used to poke (stir) fire in the hearth.

10. The place of the metal to be heated should be placed just above the compact centre of a sufficiently large fire with additional fuel above to reduce the heat loss and atmospheric oxidation. Copied from A Basic Manufacturing Processes and Workshop Technology by Rajender Singh.