Author : S. Ravichandran, N. Alagumurthi and K. Palaniradja

The study analyses the effect of four process parameters for energy conservation in Spheroidal graphite iron (S.G. Iron) manufacturing in induction furnace. Bundled steel, loose steel, cleaned and uncleaned scrap are the process parameters. Mixture design of experiments is used to study the effect of process parameters on power consumption. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) is performed to test the statistical efficacy of the model. The use of bundled steel and cleaned scrap is found to significantly reduce the power consumption in induction furnace. The experimental values were in good agreement with the predicted values and the key finding is that 44 kWh/ton is conserved with optimal values of process parameters.

Key Words: Castings; Induction furnace; Mixture design of experiments; Analysis of Variance

Article published in International Journal of Current  Engineering  and Technology, Vol.2,No.3 (Sept- 2012)