Claims:We Claim:

1. A system for testing of refractory samples for their Creep and Hot Modulus of Rupture properties comprising
heating control means for Creep & HMOR tester equipment including heating furnaces ;
means for controlled input supply voltage for different rate of heating based on phase angle control of said Creep & HMOR tester equipment comprising a single phase temperature controller for Creep tester equipment and a three phase temperature controller for high bending tester for HMOR testing;
a common Programmable temperature controller (3), for generating the firing pulse and sending the signal to said temperature controller, wherein the firing pulse depends on the selected rate of rise of temperature as per testing requirement;
PC based dash board screens (7) for controlled operation of the testing equipment in operative communication with field devices(4) including load cell, inductive displacement transducer and thermocouples interfaced with the PLC favouring attaining selectively desired uniform heating of the furnace, desired rate of heating, digitization of the signal from the load cell,
thermocouples, inductive displacement transducer and digitalization of the process of testing of refractory samples for creep and hot modulus of rupture properties.
2.. The system for testing of refractory sample for their Creep and Hot Modulus of Rupture properties as claimed in claim 1 wherein said field devices
include
(i)two number of thermocouples used for HMOR and three number thermocouples in Creep tester for measuring the temperature of the furnace of Creep & HMOR tester;
(ii)a load cell measuring the load applied on the sample during HMOR testing and a signal converter cooperating with said load cell such that load cell signal is converted into current signal to be interfaced with PLC through said signal convertor; and
(iii)an inductive displacement transducer with its signal convertor for measuring the elongation and contraction in the sample during creep test.

3. The system for testing of refractory sample for their Creep and Hot Modulus of Rupture properties as claimed in anyone of claims 1 or 2 wherein input power supply to the heating elements of both the equipments is through their respective transformer.
4. The system for testing of refractory sample for their Creep and Hot Modulus of Rupture properties as claimed in anyone of claims 1 to 3 wherein means for change in input supply voltage for different rate of heating include full wave single phase controller for Creep and full wave three phase controller for HMOR.
5. The system for testing of refractory sample for their Creep and Hot Modulus of Rupture properties as claimed in anyone of claims 1 to 4 comprising PID Loop for controlled heating of the Creep & HMOR testing equipment in the PLC.
6. The system for testing of refractory sample for their Creep and Hot Modulus of Rupture properties as claimed in anyone of claims 1 to 5 wherein said separate temperature controllers comprises thyristor based full wave control for controlled heating of the furnace of Creep and high bending tester for HMOR test.
7. The system for testing of refractory sample for their Creep and Hot Modulus of Rupture properties as claimed in anyone of claims 1 to 6 wherein both the temperature controllers are interfaced with a common PLC and adapted for generating the reference firing Pulse and its PID control.
8. The system for testing of refractory sample for their Creep and Hot Modulus of Rupture properties as claimed in anyone of claims 1 to 7 comprising analog input of the instruments including selectively load cell, inductive displacement transducer and thermocouples are interfaced with the PLC through hardwired connection;
dash-boards are provided in the desktop PC for monitoring of the hardware parameters, data logging in real time of the reading from the instruments including selectively Load cell, thermocouples, inductive displacement transducer, historical trending and report generation of the tests being carried out.
9. The system for testing of refractory sample for their Creep and Hot Modulus of Rupture properties as claimed in anyone of claims 1 to 8 wherein said heating control means for Creep & HMOR tester equipment for heating control in both the equipments are provided for temperature control up to 1400oC with holding time as desired for different segments while heating of the furnace up to desired temperature with rate of rise of temperature between 5oC/min to 10oC /min.
10. The system for testing of refractory sample for their Creep and Hot Modulus of Rupture properties as claimed in anyone of claims 1 to 9 comprising means enabling digitization of signals for desired digitalization of testing procedure.

Dated this the 15th day of March, 2022
Anjan Sen
Of Anjan Sen & Associates
(Applicant’s Agent)
IN/PA-199
, Description:FORM 2
THE PATENT ACT 1970
(39 OF 1970)
&
The Patent Rules, 2003
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION
(See Section 10 and Rule 13)

1 TITLE OF THE INVENTION :
A SYSTEM FOR TESTING OF REFRACTORY SAMPLES FOR THEIR CREEP AND HOT MODULUS OF RUPTURE PROPERTIES.



2 APPLICANT (S)

Name : STEEL AUTHORITY OF INDIA LIMITED.

Nationality : Indian.

Address : Research & Development Centre for Iron & Steel,
Doranda, Ranchi, Jharkhand, India. PIN-834002.






3 PREAMBLE TO THE DESCRIPTION

COMPLETE

The following specification particularly describes the invention and the manner in which it is to be performed.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an improved system for testing of the refractory samples for Creep and Hot Modulus of Rupture(HMOR) properties for suitability of its use in furnaces. The heating control scheme for Creep and HMOR test is based on input supply voltage for different rate of heating achieved through full wave single phase controller for Creep and full wave three phase controller for HMOR. Soft PID Loop for controlled heating of the Creep and HMOR testing equipment has been incorporated in the PLC. Both the temperature controllers are interfaced with a common PLC for generating the reference firing Pulse and its PID control. Dash-boards are made in the desktop PC for monitoring of the hardware parameters, data logging of the reading from the instruments such as Load cell, thermocouples, inductive displacement transducer and report generation of the tests that have been carried out. The heating control in both the equipment have been tested up to 1400oC with holding time as desired for different segments while heating of the furnace up to desired temperature. The rate of rise of temperature between 5oC/min – 10oC /min have also been achieved which was not possible in prior art. The dash-boards in the desktop PC have been tested with respect to the operation of the system, data logging in real time and historical trends and paperless report generation.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The Creep and HMOR testing equipment of the Refractory lab group of RDCIS Ranchi is used for testing of refractory samples for its use in furnaces. The testing equipment because of the defects in the prior art were not able to function properly in terms of heating of the furnaces upto the desired temperature, maintaining the proper heating control rate and the operation of the system and report generation was manual and therefore depended on the operator’s expertise.

The inventors thus by way of this invention successfully designed, installed and commissioned an improved system over the prior art for testing of the refractory samples for Creep and HMOR properties. The heating control scheme for Creep and HMOR test in the existing testing equipments at Applicant’s RDCIS testing laboratory has been designed based on the phase angle control scheme.
The input power supply to the heating elements of both the equipments is through their respective transformer. The change in input supply voltage for different rate of heating is through full wave single phase controller for Creep and full wave three phase controller for HMOR. Soft PID Loop for controlled heating of the Creep & HMOR testing equipment has been incorporated in the PLC. Dash-boards are made in the desktop PC for monitoring of the hardware parameters, data logging of the reading from the instruments such as Load cell, thermocouples, inductive displacement transducer and report generation of the tests that have been carried out. A separate temperature controller (thyristor based full wave control) for controlled heating of the furnace of Creep and High bending tester for HMOR test has been installed. Both the temperature controllers are interfaced with a common PLC for generating the reference firing Pulse and its PID control. The analog input of the instruments such as load cell, inductive displacement transducer and thermocouples are interfaced with the PLC through hardwired connection. The heating control in both the equipments have been tested up to 1400oC with holding time as desired for different segments while heating of the furnace up to desired temperature. The rate of rise of temperature between 5oC/min – 10oC /min have also been achieved which was not possible in prior art. The dash-boards in the desktop PC have been tested with respect to the operation of the system, data logging in real time & historical trends and paperless report generation. Digitalization of testing procedure has been achieved through the digitization of the signals.

OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION

The basic object of the present invention is directed to provide an improved system for testing of the refractory samples for Creep and Hot Modulus of Rupture(HMOR) properties.

A further object of the present invention is directed to an improved system for testing of the refractory samples for Creep and Hot Modulus of Rupture(HMOR) properties for achieving the uniform heating of the furnace, desired rate of heating, digitization of the signal from the load cell, thermocouples, inductive displacement transducer and digitalization of the process of testing of refractory samples for creep and hot modulus of rupture properties.

A further object of the present invention is directed to an improved system for testing of the refractory samples for Creep and Hot Modulus of Rupture(HMOR) properties by PLC based automated control of rate of heating and temperature rise to precisely determine the respective properties without dependence on human expertise.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The basic aspect of the present invention is directed to a system for testing of refractory samples for their Creep and Hot Modulus of Rupture properties comprising
heating control means for Creep & HMOR tester equipment including heating furnaces ;

means for controlled input supply voltage for different rate of heating based on phase angle control of said Creep & HMOR tester equipment comprising a single phase temperature controller for Creep tester equipment and a three phase temperature controller for high bending tester for HMOR testing;

a common Programmable temperature controller (3), for generating the firing pulse and sending the signal to said temperature controller, wherein the firing pulse depends on the selected rate of rise of temperature as per testing requirement;

PC based dash board screens (7) for controlled operation of the testing equipment in operative communication with field devices(4) including load cell, inductive displacement transducer and thermocouples interfaced with the PLC favouring attaining selectively desired uniform heating of the furnace, desired rate of heating, digitization of the signal from the load cell, thermocouples, inductive displacement transducer and digitalization of the process of testing of refractory samples for creep and hot modulus of rupture properties.

A further aspect of the present invention is directed to said system for testing of refractory sample for their Creep and Hot Modulus of Rupture properties wherein said field devices
include
(i)two number of thermocouples used for HMOR and three number thermocouples in Creep tester for measuring the temperature of the furnace of Creep & HMOR tester;
(ii)a load cell measuring the load applied on the sample during HMOR testing and a signal converter cooperating with said load cell such that load cell signal is converted into current signal to be interfaced with PLC through said signal convertor;and
(iii)an inductive displacement transducer with its signal convertor for measuring the elongation and contraction in the sample during creep test.

A still further aspect of the present invention is directed to said system for testing of refractory sample for their Creep and Hot Modulus of Rupture properties wherein input power supply to the heating elements of both the equipments is through their respective transformer.
A still further aspect of the present invention is directed to said system for testing of refractory sample for their Creep and Hot Modulus of Rupture properties wherein means for change in input supply voltage for different rate of heating include full wave single phase controller for Creep and full wave three phase controller for HMOR.
A still further aspect of the present invention is directed to said system for testing of refractory sample for their Creep and Hot Modulus of Rupture properties comprising PID Loop for controlled heating of the Creep & HMOR testing equipment in the PLC.
Another aspect of the present invention is directed to said system for testing of refractory sample for their Creep and Hot Modulus of Rupture properties wherein said separate temperature controllers comprises thyristor based full wave control for controlled heating of the furnace of Creep and high bending tester for HMOR test.
Yet another aspect of the present invention is directed to said system for testing of refractory sample for their Creep and Hot Modulus of Rupture properties wherein both the temperature controllers are interfaced with a common PLC and adapted for generating the reference firing Pulse and its PID control.
A further aspect of the present invention is directed to said system for testing of refractory sample for their Creep and Hot Modulus of Rupture properties comprising analog input of the instruments including selectively load cell, inductive displacement transducer and thermocouples are interfaced with the PLC through hardwired connection;
dash-boards are provided in the desktop PC for monitoring of the hardware parameters, data logging in real time of the reading from the instruments including selectively Load cell, thermocouples, inductive displacement transducer, historical trending and report generation of the tests being carried out.
A still further aspect of the present invention is directed to said system for testing of refractory sample for their Creep and Hot Modulus of Rupture properties wherein said heating control means for Creep & HMOR tester equipment for heating control in both the equipments are provided for temperature control up to 1400oC with holding time as desired for different segments while heating of the furnace up to desired temperature with rate of rise of temperature between 5oC/min to 10oC /min.
A still further aspect of the present invention is directed to said system for testing of refractory sample for their Creep and Hot Modulus of Rupture properties comprising means enabling digitization of signals for desired digitalization of testing procedure.

The above and other aspects and advantages of the present invention are described hereunder in greater details with reference to the following accompanying non limiting illustrative drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE ACCOMPANYING DRAWINGS
Figure 1: shows the basic scheme of the system illustrating the arrangement of hardware features.
Figure 2: shows the Creep Dash borads displaying (a) the Creep testing system components and (b) respective control parameters.
Figure 3 : shows the HMOR Dash Boards displaying (a) the HMOR testing system components and (b) respective control parameters.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION WITH REFERENCE TO THE ACCOMPANYING DRAWINGS

The present invention is directed to provide an improved system of testing of Refractory Sample for their Creep & Hot Modulus of Rupture properties.
The heating control scheme for Creep & HMOR test in the existing testing equipments at RDCIS lab has been designed based on the phase angle control scheme. The input power supply to the heating elements of both the equipments is through their respective transformer. The change in input supply voltage for different rate of heating is through full wave single phase controller for Creep and full wave three phase controller for HMOR. Soft PID Loop for controlled heating of the Creep & HMOR testing equipment has been incorporated in the PLC. Dash-boards are made in the desktop PC for monitoring of the hardware parameters, data logging of the reading from the instruments such as Load cell, thermocouples, inductive displacement transducer and report generation of the tests that have been carried out. A separate temperature controller (thyristor based full wave control) for controlled heating of the furnace of Creep and High bending tester for HMOR test has been installed. Both the temperature controllers are interfaced with a common PLC for generating the reference firing Pulse and its PID control. The analog input of the instruments such load cell, inductive displacement transducer and thermocouples are interfaced with the PLC through hardwired connection. The heating control in both the equipments have been tested up to 1400oC with holding time as desired for different segments while heating of the furnace up to desired temperature. The rate of rise of temperature between 5oC/min – 10oC /min have also been achieved which was not possible in prior art. The dash-boards in the desktop PC have been tested with respect to the operation of the system, data logging in real time & historical trends and paperless report generation. Digitalization of testing procedure has been achieved through the digitization of the signals. The scheme of the system for testing of refractory samples for their creep and hot modulus of rupture properties is shown in accompanying Figure 1 illustrating a preferred embodiment of the system. The dash boards for operation of the Creep and HMOR test configured on PC is shown in Figure 2 and 3 respectively.

The details of the Installed System as shown in Figure 1 are described as follows:

Temperature Controller : 02 Nos : As shown in Figure 1 , the system comprises of one number (1) single phase temperature controller for Creep testing equipment and one number (2) three phase temperature controller for high bending tester for HMOR testing. The function of this temperature controller is to regulate the input supply voltage to the heating element based on phase angle control method.

Programmable Logic Controller(PLC) : 1 No : As shown in Figure 1, the system comprises of a common Programmable temperature controller (3) , for generating the firing pulse and sending the signal to temperature controller. The firing pulse will depend on the rate of rise of temperature chosen. The PLC also takes all the input from the field devices and generates the calculated HMOR values and creep values.

PC based Dash boards Screens : 1 No: As shown in Figure 1, the system comprises of PC based Dash board screens (7) for operating the testing equipment as per the details shown in Figure 2 and Figure 3.

Field Devices : Shown in Figure 1 (4)
(a) Thermocouples : 5 No : As shown in Figure 1, the system comprises of thermocouple for measuring the temperature of the furnace of Creep & HMOR tester. Two number of thermocouples are used for HMOR and three numbers in Creep.

(b) Load Cell and signal convertor : 1 No : For measuring the load applied on the sample during HMOR testing load cell is used. The load cell signal is converted into current signal to be interfaced with PLC through signal convertor.

(c) Inductive displacement transducer and signal convertor : 1No : For measuring the elongation and contraction in the sample during creep test, the inductive displacement transducer with its signal convertor is used.

It is thus possible by way of this invention to precisely attain the set temperature, control the heating rate and holding time which was not accurately possible in the prior art. Through the dashboards in the present invention, it possible to operate the system with minimum manual intervention, generate and save the reports in soft copies which in earlier system was through chart recorder and saved in hard copies. This innovation shall be useful for revamping of similar laboratory equipments in cost-effective manner. Further, this innovation will help in digitalization of the testing and report generating process.