Development of iron ores sintering machine for blast furnace process

There must be proper means to sinter and, agglomerated iron ore concentrate before it can be further processed in the blast furnace. A Sintering machine of 5kg capacity of agglomerated ore was designed and fabricated using mild steel material, which was locally sourced. The machine was fabricated with a combustion chamber of 30 by 30 cm and with 15cm depth. It was also lined with refractory material to reduce the chamber to the volume of 3375 cm3. However, the sintering chamber was designed to have a truncated square pyramid shape to the volume of 2150 cm3 after lining with refractory material. The design was made to utilize coke and palm kernel shell char as fuel which will be ignited to produce heat into the sintered material by suction of the heat into the agglomerated sintered ore. Tests such as tumbler index, abrasion, and porosity test were carried out on the sintered products in agreement with ASTM E276 and E389 standards. The results from the test gave a tumbler index of 70.2% and 65.7% for coke and palm kernel shells respectively. Also, abrasion index of 5.1% and 4.6% for coke and palm kernel char, and porosity of 6.8% and 6.5% for coke and palm kernel char respectively. The results from the experimental test were in agreement with other research work. Therefore, the developed iron ore sintering machine has a better efficiency of producing sinter for blast furnace operation.