Design and Construction of Oil Fired Compact Crucible Furnace

Abstract

As a prelude to necessary industrialization, foundries are springing up in various parts of Nigeria and most of these foundries rely on oil fired furnaces in their operation. This study is aimed at developing an oil fired crucible furnace from locally sourced materials for foundries in Nigeria. In our design, a new system of fuel supply was developed in order to achieve optimum fuel consumption, high temperature, and low cost of melting. The crucible furnace was carefully designed and manufactured in order to ensure effective performance, ease and low cost of operation. It was constructed from locally sourced materials which include: mild steel sheet of thickness 3mm measuring 1822mm x 540mm, an hollow metal drum which was lined with refractory brick insulation. The firing technique employed, involved the use of two burners attached tangentially to the inner walls of the furnace and a fuel mass flow rate of 8.4 kg/hr with
a temperature of 12000C was achieved in 25 minutes of operation.

Keywords: Crucible Furnace, Effective Performance, Fuel Consumption, Locally Sourced Materials.