All-Russian Scientific-Research Institute of Inorganic Materials, Moscow, Russia:

N. A. Matyushkin, Senior Researcher, e-mail: empire@bochvar.ru

LLC “Uralstroymontazh”, Izhevsk, Russia:
E. P. Semenovykh, Head of a Site
V. A. Pushin, Managing Director

JSC “Chepetsky Mechanical Plant”, Glazov, Russia:
S. E. Pogudin, Chief Production Preparation Engineer

This paper describes the method of industrial obtaining of zirconium by electrolysis of fluoride-chloride melts. There are given the functions of automated monitoring and control of electrolysis process, which realization requires the definition of productivity of initial charge screw doser in electrolyte. There were considered the existing methods of definition of screw doser productivity in the following modes:
- manual mode with visual definition of the charge level in loading hopper on inoperative electrolytic cell;
- automatic mode, using the signaling device for definition of lower level of charge in the loading hopper on operating electrolytic cell.
It is shown that application of these methods leads to increase of error of definition of the screw doser productivity. There is given the task of searching of alternative way to define the screw doser productivity. There was defined that for the purpose of calculation of screw doser productivity, the temperature of electrolytic conductor, which starts to increase at operated screw doser and lack of salts in electrolytic furnace loading hopper, can be used as the basic indicator. Knowing the total operating time of the screw doser and the charge mass, it allows to carry out the automatic definition of screw doser productivity. There was defined the temperature increase rate in electrolytic conductor. There was also developed the algorithm of automated definition of screw doser productivity, together with creation of software for its implementation. Researches, carried out in the conditions of industrial production of zirconium, have shown that the given algorithm allows to define the screw doser productivity with accuracy of ±0.1 kg/min and to carry out the significant increasing of reliability of operation of the basic algorithms of automated control of electrolytic conductor composition and electrolytic conductor temperature.

1. Shikov A. K., Kabanov A. A., Bezumov V. N., Dunaev A. I., Matyushkin N. A. Povyshenie effektivnosti elektroliticheskogo protsessa polucheniya tsirkoniya (Increasing of efficiency of electrolytic process of zirconium obtaining). Tsvetnye Metally = Non-ferrous metals. 2011. No. 3. pp. 47–50.
2. Bezumov V. N., Baklanov V. P., Dunaev A. I., Matyushkin N. A., Titov G. N., Ogorodnikov L. V. et al. Razrabotka matematicheskikh modeley protsessa elektroliza v rasplave K₂ZrF₆ – KCl – KF – NaCl (Development of mathematical models of electrolysis process in K₂ZrF₆ – KCl – KF – NaCl melt). Tsvetnye Metally = Non-ferrous metals. 2005. No. 7. pp. 100–102.
3. Matyushkin N., Bezumov V., Novikov V., Kabanov A., Andronov V., Dunaev A. Kontrol i upravlenie kachestvom sreza katodnogo osadka v Sisteme Avtomatizirovannogo Upravleniya “Elektroliz” (Monitoring and control of quality of cathode sediment cut in the Automated Control System “Elektroliz”). Sovremennye tekhnologii avtomatizatsii = Contemporary Technologies in Automation. 2011. No. 2. pp. 42–44.