1. Process of direct continuous steel production out of iron-containing materials, present in the form of a liquid refined layer and a liquid slag layer containing iron oxides and admixtures to be processed, comprising the following stages:
Provision of a single reaction space by the said layer of refined metal situated under the layer of the liquid slag which contains iron-containing materials to be processed and droplets of reduced metal so that an intermediate emulsion layer \u201cslag-melted metal-gas\u201d is designated in between the said layers,
continuous supply of iron-containing materials into reaction space including alloying and liquefying additives, oxygen containing blast and solid carbonic fuel supply,
as well as continuous removal of liquid metal, slag and effluent gases from the reaction space,
supply of the flow of oxygen andor oxygen containing gas andor inert gas andor their mixture into intermediate emulsion and refining layers,
creating conditions in emulsion layer for intensive turbulent-diffusion transfer of iron oxides and reduced metal droplets contained in slag layer into intermediate emulsion layer,
hereby providing the interaction of oxygen isolated during iron oxides decomposition and the oxygen supplied to the emulsion and refining layers\u2014with the carbon from reduced iron for providing the process of refining which occurs simultaneously in the intermediate emulsion and refining layers,
intensifying transfer of metal droplets and carbon oxide from the slag layer and the progress of refining process due to carbon oxide isolated during refining and leading to refined metal boiling (bubbling), whereas the intermediate emulsion layer and the layer of refined metal function together as a single dynamic system with positive feedback having at least two regions of equilibrium conditions\u2014\u201ccast iron\u201d and \u201csteel\u201d,
Provision of the preliminary determined contents of dissolved carbon, oxygen and admixtures in the said refining layer and, consequently, in the steel produced\u2014in the desired dynamic system operational regime, in equilibrium region \u201csteel\u201d which is realized at the start-up by forming pulsecontinuouscontrols for supplying solid carbonic fuel, oxygen andor oxygen-containing gas andor oxygen dioxide andor air andor inert gas andor mixture thereof,
as well as by control for the flow of charge processed,
Stabilization of technological regime under the conditions of normal continuous exploitation by controls mentioned earlier permitting to maintain the correspondence of the steel quality produced to the determined characteristics.
2. Process, according to claim 1, wherein the layers of the said liquid refined metal and slag are created by means of coke-free reduction of iron and some admixtures out of iron-containing materials to be processed which are chosen from the group containing, in particular, ground iron-containing ores, iron-ore concentrates, iron-containing waste, iron-containing scrap.
3. Process, according to claim 1, wherein the said refining includes decarburization of liquid metal and removal of definite admixtures.
4. Process, according to claim 2, wherein coke-free reduction is realized in the said single reaction space.
5. Process, according to claim 1, wherein the said layer of refining metal has the desired content of carbon and admixtures.
6. Process, according to claim 1, wherein the desired carbon content in the metal produced within the limits of \u02dc0.2-2.0% is provided by realizing one of the existing dynamic system equilibria for refining carbon iron product.
7. Process, according to claim 1, wherein high frequency oscillations in metal layer to be refined are excited for intensifying some chemical reaction, e.g., by means of pulse interruptions in solid fuel supply having pulse length TM=\u02dc(0.01-0.5) h and amplitude \u02dc(0.1-0.8)*AM, where AM.=Fpy\u2014flow of solid carbonic fuel supplied.
8. Process, according to claim 1, wherein the given oxygen content in refined metal is provided by oxygen coming from iron oxides decomposition and, in case of shortage, by additional blowing according to schemes of upper or combined blow-down through side andor bottom andor vertical tuyeres.
9. Process, according to claim 8, wherein the additional gas supplied contains up to 99.5% of oxygen.
10. Process, according to claim 9, wherein the moment of attaining the desired operational regime is determined according to admixtures content in steel, after which oxygen supply by additional tuyeres is considerably decreased, and transition for operational regime of stationary control is carried out.
11. Process, according to claim 9, wherein in case of stable progress of the given operational regime complete termination of oxygen supply by additional tuyeres is carried out.
12. Process, according to claim 10, wherein in case of terminating oxygen supply by additional tuyeres, transfer of these tuyeres operation for inert gas supply for maintaining the attained operational regime is carried out.
13. Process, according to claim 12, wherein oxygen content of up to 75% is provided for in the inert gas.
14. Process, according to claim 1, wherein the said layer of refined metal has oxygen content in the desired range of 0.001-0.5%.
15. Process, according to claim 1, wherein the said quick transfer of iron oxides and reduced iron droplets from slag layer into intermediate emulsion layer \u201cslag-molten metal-gas\u201d as well as from that layer into the refined metal layer is provided by supply of oxygen-containing gas and reaction gases entering from refining layer by means of bubbling the slag melt, turbulent diffusion and changes in interphase surface of the intermediate emulsion layer, as well as, in case of necessity, also by supplying oxygen-containing blast andor mixture of oxygen and inert gas andor inert gas by additional side, bottom or vertical tuyeres.
16. Process, according to claim 1, wherein the stage for controlling the desired content of carbon and admixtures in steel produced as well as iron oxides and carbon in slag attaining intermediate emulsion layer \u201cslag-molten metal-gas\u201d is carried out.
17. Process, according to claim 16, wherein the desired iron oxides content in slag is provided within the limits of \u02dc0.1-15%.
18. Process, according to claim 16, wherein the said control includes discrete-continuous content determination, in particular, oxygen, carbon and admixtures content in slag, carbon and iron oxides content in slag leaving the reactor, CO and CO2 content in furnace effluent gases.
19. Process, according to claim 16, wherein the said control includes regulation of composition and quantity of iron-containing product supplied, carbonic fuel and other incoming flows,
hereby solid carbonic fuel is delivered whole into upper bubbled slag layer from above.
20. Process, according to claim 16, wherein the said control includes regulation of composition and quantity of iron-containing product supplied, carbonic fuel and other incoming flows,
hereby small fractions of carbonic fuel are sieved from the main fuel flow and supplied in the flow of inert gas through special tuyeres into slag layer.
21. Process, according to claim 1, wherein, in case of necessity, for attaining the necessary carbon and admixtures content in steel produced, the reaction subspace of refining layer is divided at least for two zones functioning in series in relation to carrying out separate operation stages in refining the steel produced.
22. Process, according to claim 18, wherein, in case of necessity, the last operational stages of refining the steel produced are carried out outside the reaction space with supplying the intermediate carbon iron product refined from that space.
23. Device for direct continuous one-stage steel production out of iron-containing materials comprising:
inlets for continuous supply of all the previously determined input products,
reservoir for one-stage refining of carbon iron product supplied with upper andor combined blow-down,
at least one tuyere connected to the desired region inside the installation for delivering oxygen containing gas andor inert gas and for providing preliminary determined carbon, oxygen and admixtures content in the refined layer of metal in relation to the given working regime,
panels of heat tubes with high temperature fillers for lining walls, bottom and reaction reservoirs partition made of firebricks which are protected by the said panels from strong wear due to practically continuous metal boiling (bubbling) under conditions of normal exploitation,
outlets for continuous removal of liquid slag and metal from reaction space and metal delivery, in case of necessity, for external processing and refining up to the determined characteristics.
24. Device for direct continuous multistage steel production, comprising:
blocks and units of the device for one-stage refining characterized by the fact that
the reaction space for refining process permitting to realize upper and combined blow-down is formed by at least two reservoirs providing for carrying out the process at least in two stages,
application of more than one reservoir for refining within reaction space provides for the possibility of mounting at least one vertical movable tuyere for oxygen andor oxygen-containing gas supply beginning with the second longest reservoir,
additional atomizers at the furnace butt end near metal output at the slag level are installed with provision of even partial counter-current \u201cslag-metal\u201d,
siphon drains connected with the main furnace space through outlets for continuous removal of produced steel and slag,
pipe for connecting with effluent gases from the first process stage,
steel supply, in case of necessity, for external processing and refining according to determined characteristics.
25. Device for direct continuous multistage steel production, comprising:
blocks and units for one-stage refining with upper andor combined blow-down,
external refining block comprising:
reaction space with a reservoir for at least one refining stage,
inlet for continuous metal supply from the device for one-stage refining or intermediate heated reservoir,
inlet for scrap loading and other slag forming agents,
at least one vertical movable tuyere for oxygen andor oxygen-containing gas supply,
reservoir for slag-metal emulsion separation,
siphon drains connected with the main furnace space through outlets for continuous removal of produced steel and slag,
pipe for effluent gases removal and their uniting with the effluent gases from the first process stage,
trough for steel delivery, in case of necessity, for external processing and refining according to determined characteristics.
The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.
1. An inkjet printer comprising:
a nozzle plate defining an array of nozzles;
an actuator corresponding to each nozzle in the array for ejecting ink through the nozzle; wherein,
the nozzle plate has an exterior surface with pattern of raised formations extending between the nozzles of the array, the pattern of raised formations being configured for reducing its co-efficient of static friction.
2. An inkjet printer according to claim 1 wherein the raised formations are columnar projections of equal length extending normal to the plane of the nozzle plate.
3. An inkjet printer according to claim 1 wherein the actuators are thermal actuators, each having a heater element extending between two contacts, the contacts forming an electrical connection with respective electrodes provided by the drive circuitry, the thermal actuator being a unitary planar structure.
4. An inkjet printer according to claim 3 wherein the heater elements are formed from elongate strips of heater material, the electrodes are exposed areas of a top-most metal layer of the drive circuitry, and the ink chamber is configured such that the heater element are suspended by the contacts in the chamber.
5. An inkjet printer according to claim 4 wherein a trench etched into the drive circuitry extends between the electrodes.
6. An inkjet printer according to claim 1 wherein each of the ink chambers have a plurality of nozzles; wherein during use,
the actuators simultaneously eject ink through all the nozzles of the chamber.
7. An inkjet printer according to claim 6 wherein each of the ink chambers have two nozzles.
8. An inkjet printer according to claim 6 wherein the nozzles in each chamber are arranged in a line parallel to the length of the heater element with the central axes of the nozzles are regularly spaced along the heater element.
9. An inkjet printer according to claim 1 wherein the nozzles are elliptical.
10. An inkjet printer according to claim 8 wherein the major axes of the elliptical nozzles are aligned.
11. An inkjet printer according to claim 1 wherein the drive circuitry has a drive field effect transistor (FET) for each of the thermal actuators, the drive voltage of the drive FET being less than 5 Volts.
12. An inkjet printer according to claim 11 wherein the drive voltage of the drive FET is 2.5 Volts.
13. An inkjet printer according to claim 1 wherein the array of ink chambers is defined by sidewalls extending between a nozzle plate and the underlying wafer substrate, one of the sidewalls of each chamber having an opening to allow ink to refill the chamber;
an ink conduit between the nozzle plate and underlying wafer, the ink conduit being in fluid communication with the openings of a plurality of the ink chambers.
14. An inkjet printer according to claim 13 further comprising a plurality of ink inlets defined in the wafer substrate; wherein,
each of the ink conduits is in fluid communication with at least one of the ink inlets for receiving ink to supply to the ink chambers.
15. An inkjet printer according to claim 14 wherein each of the ink conduits is in fluid communication with two of the ink inlets.
16. An inkjet printer according to claim 14 further comprising at least one priming feature extending through each of the ink inlets; such that,
the surface tension of an ink meniscus at the ink inlet acts to draw the ink out of the inlet and partially along the flow path toward the ink chambers.
17. An inkjet printer according to claim 14 wherein each of the ink inlets has an ink permeable trap and a vent sized so that the surface tension of an ink meniscus across the vent prevents ink leakage; wherein during use,
the ink permeable trap directs gas bubbles to the vent where they vent to atmosphere.
18. An inkjet printer according to claim 14 wherein the ink chambers have an elongate shape such that two of the sidewalls are long relative to the others, and the opening for allowing ink to refill the chamber is in one of the long sidewalls.
19. An inkjet printer according to claim 12 further comprising a filter structure at the opening of each ink chamber, the filter structure having rows of obstructions extending transverse to the flow direction through the opening, the obstructions in each row being spaced such that they are out of registration with the obstructions in an adjacent row with respect to the flow direction.
20. An inkjet printer according to claim 1 wherein the nozzles are arranged in rows such that the nozzle centres are collinear and the nozzle pitch along each row is greater than 1000 nozzles per inch.