Apparatus for preventing dust accumulation in exhaust duct of an electric furnace

DETAILED DESCRIPTION An object of the invention is to provide an apparatus for preventing dust from accumulating on the interior of a smoke suction duct of an electric furnace.
The above-described object is achieved by an apparatus for preventing dust accumulation in an exhaust duct of an electric furnace in accordance with the invention, wherein a smoke suction duct is separately constructed from other exhaust duct portions and is rotatably supported about an axis of the smoke suction duct.
A turning device is provided for rotating the smoke suction duct about the axis of the duct, either alternately in left and right directions or in one direction.
In the apparatus of the invention, dust is prevented from accumulating on an interior surface of the smoke suction duct in the following ways: More particularly, exhaust gas flow from the electric furnace is biased radially outward at the turn of the elbow and therefore flows faster at an upper portion of the cross-sectional area of the smoke suction duct than at a lower portion thereof.
When the dust accumulating on a bottom inside surface of the smoke suction duct is raised by rotating the smoke suction duct about the axis thereof, the raised dust is pushed progressively downstream by the strong exhaust gas flow in the upper portion of the cross-sectional area of the smoke suction duct, toward the combustion tower.
Further, the dust raised from a first portion of the bottom inside surface of the smoke suction duct will slip and/or drop to a second portion of the bottom inside surface of the smoke suction duct located downstream of the first portion.
Due to repeatedly raising and slipping and/or dropping the dust, the dust moves toward the combustion tower.
When the dust finally reaches the combustion tower, the dust falls to the bottom of the combustion tower.