Iron Ore Pellets Induration Solutions

Iron ore green balls are soft and easy to break.  So after the pelletizing and screening operations, iron ore pellets have to be hardened in a furnace through a firing process.  Once fired, they can be handled, loaded in ships or trains and delivered to the end users.

Two indurating furnace technologies dominate the pelletizing industry, the straight travelling grate and the grate-rotary kiln technologies.

Although some of Metal 7’s products could be adapted for the grate-rotary kiln operation, the company mainly focuses on the straight travelling grate applications.

The straight travelling grate consists of a horizontal furnace divided in zones through which a grate moves slowly through each zone,, exposing the pellet bed to a progressive increase in temperature. The temperature is controlled in each zone to maintain the appropriate firing curve. At the end of the furnace, the last zone is fed cold air passing through the pellet bed, to cool the pellets prior to their discharge. The cold air changes into hot gases once passed through the hot pellets. The hot gases recuperated from the cooling zone and the indurating sections are recirculated in the different zones, improving the energy efficiency of the process.

The grate is composed of a series of pallet cars rolling on wheels and rails on which the pellets are fed from the roller feeder/grate feeding station to form a pellet bed of a specific height and profile.

The energy for the operation of the furnace and the firing of the pellets comes from two sources. Part of the energy comes from the pellet composition (whether from carbon added in the pellets or from the exothermic reaction of the material composing the pellets). The combustion of fossil fuel through burners, usually mounted on burner ports on both sides of the furnace, completes the energy requirement.

Straight travelling grate furnace solutions

Metal 7 offers specific solutions for elements composing the furnace to:

-    Reduce energy consumption;

-    Increase the productivity of the indurating furnace – more tons per hour;

-    Increase the life of key components reducing maintenance costs for the end users

Which products

-    Combustion system and high pressure atomizing burners for liquid fuel;

-    Wear and sealing parts for the furnace;

-     Pallet car parts 

Our induration solutions

Furnace combustion systems and burners family

Wear and seal furnace components family

Furnace car family