That shift where the old cupola finally gave out on us

Last Tuesday started normal, just another morning melt in the old building. We were about two hours into the pour for a big municipal grate order when our main cupola started making this awful groaning sound, like metal under way too much stress. The foreman, Dave, yelled for everyone to clear the floor just as the whole lining gave way. Molten iron went everywhere, but thank goodness the safety channels held. We lost the whole batch, about 1200 pounds of good metal, and the furnace was down for the rest of the day. The cleanup took a crew of five of us almost six hours, just chipping away at the spill that hardened in all the worst spots. It was a total mess, but honestly, it was a good reminder of why we do all those lining checks. Has anyone else had a cupola fail that fast? What's the biggest batch you've ever lost to a equipment break?

4 comments

4 Comments

logan_wells27d ago

Man, that's rough but glad everyone was okay. Just one thing though, a cupola lining doesn't usually just "give out" without some warning signs first. We had a similar scare last year, and the post-mortem showed the refractory was way more worn down than the weekly visual checks caught. It made us start doing those monthly thickness measurements with a laser gun religiously. A groove can look fine until it suddenly isn't. Your batch loss is brutal, we lost about 800 pounds once when a spout clog let go wrong.

calebc4027d ago

Visual checks miss a lot.

ryanc5727d ago

You're totally right about visual checks being limited. The groove Logan mentioned is a perfect example. It can look solid from the top, but the side walls get thin where you can't see. We caught one last quarter that was way worse on the laser scan. That's why pairing the monthly scan with the weekly visual is key, it gives you the full picture.

kim.nina27d ago

Ugh, my visual checks are so bad I'd probably miss a hole in my own coffee cup, but @ryanc57 is right about needing both.