Improvement of the Degreasing Performance of Surface Treating Steel Sheet by the Automatic Control of Alkaline Degreasing Process

알칼리탈지공정 자동화관리에 의한 표면처리용 강판의 탈지능 향상

Experiments on the automatic control of NaOH concentration and on the spraying condition of NaOH solution in the alkaline degreasing process of a continuous hot-dip galvanizing line have been carried out in order to improve degreasing performance of a galvanizing sheet steel using laboratory degreasing and galvanizing simulators. The concentration of NaOH for the good degreasing has been determined to be 6.0% and more and this concentration has been able to be automatically well controlled within $\pm$0.1% by employing a solution electrical conductivity meter under a flow injection analysis condition rather than by employing a sodium ion selective electrode in the degreasing simulator. Frequent blocking of the spraying nozzles of the solution has been reduced considerably by the set-up and periodical operation of an automatic valve system in the nozzle system. By applying this automatic valve system and by automatic controlling the NaOH concentration and other ordinary variables in the degreasing process, the degreasing performance has been increased from the conventional 76% to the new 85%.