Method and system for purifying graphite by automatic pure physical method

Abstract

The invention provides a method and a system for purifying graphite by an automatic pure physical method. The system comprises a raw material processing assembly used for automatic unloading of ton bags, automatic coding warehousing location management, automatic delivery, automatic ton bag unpacking and automatic moisture detection raw material unpacking; the loading and transporting assembly is used for automatically loading crucibles, capping the crucibles and automatically exchanging RGV crucibles; the purification assembly is used for automatic crucible exchange between the RGV and the purification furnace and purification by an automatic physical method; the finished product conveying and quality inspection assembly is used for automatic purity detection, automatic material suction, crucible outer wall cleaning and crucible size and crack intelligent detection; and the finished product processing assembly is used for automatic packaging, automatic coding and warehousing and automatic warehouse-out and loading of the ton bags. The device has the advantages of being high in automation, intelligence and integration, achieving accurate control over the technological process, reducing manual intervention, improving the consistency and yield of products, improving the working environment and safety and reducing energy consumption and material consumption.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] This invention belongs to the field of graphite material preparation technology, specifically, it relates to an automated purely physical method and system for purifying graphite. Background Technology

[0002] Graphite, especially high-purity graphite (purity typically required to be ≥99.9%), has become an indispensable key material in strategic emerging fields such as semiconductor single crystal manufacturing, photovoltaic silicon wafer production, nuclear reactors, high-temperature components for aerospace, and high-end EDM electrodes due to its excellent high-temperature resistance, electrical and thermal conductivity, chemical stability, and lubricity. These applications place extremely stringent requirements on the purity, impurity content (especially metallic impurities such as iron, aluminum, calcium, silicon, sodium, and potassium), ash content, density, strength, and uniformity of graphite materials.

[0003] Currently, the main method for large-scale industrial production of high-purity graphite is high-temperature physical purification. This method involves placing graphite raw materials in a high-temperature furnace and heating them to 2500℃~3000℃ under an inert atmosphere or vacuum. At these extremely high temperatures, most impurities in the graphite raw materials, such as metal oxides and silicates, will volatilize or undergo reduction reactions to become gaseous products and be removed, thus achieving high-purity graphite. However, existing high-temperature purification processes, materials, and systems have certain shortcomings, limiting the product quality and efficiency of high-purity graphite purified by physical methods. The entire process, including raw material loading, crucible placement, furnace door opening and closing, process parameter monitoring and adjustment, holding time control, cooling process management, and product unloading, relies heavily on operator experience and manual operation. Monitoring of key parameters depends on manual periodic inspections and simple instrument readings, resulting in poor real-time performance and accuracy, and difficulty in responding promptly to abnormal conditions. Consistency in process execution is difficult to guarantee, controllability is low, and it is easily affected by human factors. Manual operation is slow, and the time spent on equipment start-up, shutdown, and parameter adjustments leads to long processing cycles per furnace and limited equipment utilization. Heavy manual labor is not only inefficient but also results in high labor costs and management difficulties. Product defects or downgrades due to inaccurate control further increase raw material and energy costs. The variability in manual operation and the inaccuracy in process parameter monitoring and control directly lead to significant fluctuations in purity, impurity distribution, and physical properties between different production batches, and even between different locations within the same batch of graphite products, making consistency difficult to guarantee. Manual operation is highly prone to contamination, and multiple manual interventions increase the risk of introducing external contaminants, affecting the purity of the final product. Simultaneously, operators must work for extended periods in environments with strong heat radiation and high dust levels, posing occupational health risks such as heatstroke, burns, and pneumoconiosis. Handling high-temperature materials, operating high-pressure / vacuum systems, and contact with protective gases present significant safety risks such as burns, explosions, and asphyxiation. Traditional furnace types may have poor insulation performance and low thermal efficiency. Manual control may lead to suboptimal process operation, resulting in energy waste. Human error can also lead to environmental or safety accidents. Production process data records are fragmented and unsystematic, making full traceability difficult. There is a lack of data-driven capabilities for in-depth process optimization, quality prediction, and predictive equipment maintenance. Remote centralized monitoring and intelligent management are also challenging.

[0004] Patent document CN111661313B discloses a purification system and process for natural graphite anode powder. The system includes, in sequence, a vacuum purification furnace, a reaction vessel, a filter press, a centrifuge, and a drying machine, as well as a condenser filter connected to the vacuum purification furnace. The vacuum purification furnace is used to purify the natural graphite anode powder under vacuum; the reaction vessel is used to react the vacuum-purified natural graphite anode powder; the filter press is used to filter the reacted natural graphite anode powder under pressure; the centrifuge is used to centrifuge the filtered natural graphite anode powder; the drying machine is used to dry the centrifuged natural graphite anode powder; and the condenser filter is used to collect and condense impurities volatilized during the vacuum purification process in the vacuum purification furnace.

[0005] However, the patent document CN111661313B still relies on manual labor and has a low degree of automation and intelligence, which has become a major bottleneck restricting the development of the high-purity graphite industry towards high quality, high efficiency, high safety, and green and low-carbon directions.

[0006] Therefore, a highly automated, intelligent, and integrated physical method and system for graphite purification has been developed to achieve precise control of the process, reduce manual intervention, improve product consistency and yield, improve the working environment and safety, and reduce energy and material consumption. This has significant technological value and urgent market demand. To this end, this invention designs an automated purely physical method and system for graphite purification, solving the aforementioned problems. Summary of the Invention

[0007] To address the shortcomings of existing technologies, the purpose of this invention is to provide an automated, purely physical method and system for purifying graphite.

[0008] An automated, purely physical method for purifying graphite according to the present invention includes the following steps: Step S1: Automatic unloading of bagged graphite raw materials. The bagged graphite raw materials are transferred from the truck to the warehouse by a gantry robot and material conveying device. During the process, the raw material is coded to make the materials traceable. Step S2: After the raw materials are automatically discharged from the warehouse, the bagged graphite raw materials are automatically unpacked. The automatic unpacking machine automatically seals the bags and automatically recycles the waste bags. Step S3: Use positive pressure gas to blow the graphite raw material into the automatic dryer. The graphite raw material powder passes through the rotary drying device to remove moisture. Step S4: The dried graphite raw material powder is transferred to the degassing device through the pipeline, and then the degassed raw material powder is transported to the crucible and pressurized to make the filling dense. Step S5: The filled crucible is conveyed by the conveyor belt to the crucible capping position, where the gantry robot automatically positions the crucible and caps it. Step S6: Use the RGV to pick up the capped crucible and transport it to the purification furnace. The RGV and the purification furnace automatic loading and unloading device automatically exchange crucibles. Step S7: The automatic loading and unloading device of the purification furnace sends the crucible into the purification furnace. After the purification furnace automatically completes the purification, the loading and unloading device retrieves the crucible and exchanges it with the RGV. The crucible number is bound to the purification furnace information to make the process quality traceable. Step S8: The RGV delivers the purified crucible to the capping area, and the gantry robot grabs the crucible cap and delivers it to the cleaning area to automatically clean the bottom of the crucible cap. Step S9: The crucible passes through an online automatic purity detection device on the material conveying device, and the unqualified powder is transferred to the waiting area; Step S10: When the crucible reaches the automatic feeding area, the feeding device picks up the finished powder and cleans the inner wall of the crucible. At the same time, it feeds powders of different purities separately. Step S11: The finished powder is conveyed to the packaging area, the finished ton bag is automatically filled with powder, degassed and packaged, sealed and labeled, and the ton bag is automatically put into storage. The crucible that has finished feeding enters the crucible cleaning area, the outer wall of the crucible is cleaned in a closed manner, and the crucible is inspected for size and intelligent crack detection. Unqualified crucibles are rejected. Step S12: Finished product ton bags are automatically shipped out of the warehouse, and gantry robots are automatically loaded onto trucks.

[0009] Preferably, in step S2: the automatic unpacking machine performs the sealing and unpacking operation, and the automatic unpacking machine is equipped with a pushing and kneading auxiliary unloading device and a tapping device, as well as an empty bag collection device, with an unpacking capacity of more than 12 bags / hour.

[0010] Preferably, in step S3: the maximum inlet moisture content of the automatic dryer can reach 15%, the outlet moisture content is ≤0.1%, the single unit capacity is greater than 5t / h, and the automatic drying device includes an electric heating hot air furnace, a three-cylinder dryer, a dust removal system and system automation control, and the dust removal system emission concentration is below 10mg / Nm³.

[0011] Preferably, in step S4: the pressurized filling process has a filling cycle greater than 3 crucibles / hour; the degassing filling achieves a material compaction density greater than 93%; the powder conveying uses pneumatic conveying, and the pipes at connections and bends are lined with ceramic; and the introduction of metal foreign objects into the material is controlled throughout the process.

[0012] Preferably, in step S6: the RGV is equipped with a multi-level protection device including an emergency stop button and safety contact edges; the RGV horizontal walking mechanism uses a servo motor for motion control, gear and rack transmission, linear guide rail guidance, soft and hard limit switches, mechanical limit switches on each axis, and anti-tipping roller assemblies; the RGV has a load capacity ≥2t, a fork extension speed ≥20m / min, and a fork extension stroke ≥2600mm; the purification furnace is controlled by a fully automatic programmable segmented PID program, which can be divided into 100 program heating curves; the RGV operates with dual-vehicle linkage, and the crucible loading and unloading operation time is short. In 2 minutes, under a protective atmosphere, the purification furnace heats the graphite crucible inside the furnace chamber through IGBT medium-frequency electromagnetic induction to perform high-temperature graphitization purification of carbonaceous samples. It can also perform high-temperature graphitization and high-temperature purification processes for other materials. The purification furnace is vertical with an open top and a loading structure at the bottom. It has a double-layer water-cooled furnace shell made of 304 stainless steel and is equipped with a temperature measuring port, observation port, electrode port, gas inlet and outlet ports, and a vacuum extraction port. The gas inlet and outlet ports are equipped with vacuum valves to replace the vacuum with protective gas and to circulate gas and discharge waste gas during operation. Loading and unloading are controlled by a lifting device.

[0013] Preferably, in step S10: the material suction process performs material suction for graphite of different purities separately; the material suction process sends the crucible to a closed unloading station for unloading by a conveyor; the material suction head has a plowing function, which plows and sucks the material in the crucible while descending; the material is sucked into the hopper of the vacuum feeder; the hopper puts the material into the crusher for crushing; and then it is conveyed to the water-cooled buffer hopper; the material suction device is equipped with a multi-channel separator, which stores materials independently according to purity level; the material suction process adopts a dedicated sealed rotary material suction mechanism; the automatic material suction machine is equipped with an intelligent positioning mechanism, which can automatically identify the position of the crucible and allow the material suction head to accurately enter the crucible bucket.

[0014] Preferably, in step S11: the warehousing process is completed by a four-way shuttle, which can travel in any direction along the longitudinal or transverse tracks on the cross tracks of the automated racking system, and reach any designated storage location in the warehouse according to the instructions issued by the system; the crucible outer wall detection device is equipped with an adaptive fixture and adopts force feedback closed-loop control. The crucible detection process includes crucible outer wall dent detection and crucible cylindrical surface crack detection. The crucible outer wall dent detection process is as follows: by fixing the workpiece to be measured and calibrating the laser camera at zero point to ensure consistent measurement reference, dual laser cameras scan the target from different angles to obtain multi-view point cloud data. The point cloud data is processed by coordinate system transformation and time synchronization, and high-precision stitching is performed using an ICP-based optimization algorithm; the system performs preprocessing operations such as outlier removal, downsampling, normal vector estimation, and edge enhancement. The error value is calculated by template matching or feature point matching and compared with a set threshold to determine whether the accuracy requirements are met.

[0015] Preferably, in step S12: the ton bag packaging process uses visual recognition of the ton bag opening, negative pressure adsorption of the bag opening to complete the opening, and non-metallic grippers to hold the edges of the bag opening to complete the transfer and bagging, and has error correction and re-grabbing functions; the outbound process is completed by a four-way shuttle, which can travel in any direction along the longitudinal or transverse tracks on the cross tracks of the three-dimensional rack, and reach any designated storage location in the warehouse according to the instructions issued by the system.

[0016] Preferably, in step S9: the purity detection device is rigidly fixed to the telescopic actuator, and the distance between the mineral analyzer and the graphite powder surface is kept constant by adjusting the stroke of the telescopic mechanism; the purity detection device introduces standard samples for accuracy correction during the detection process, and the standard comparison plate is a mineral sample with known components and certified by an authoritative institution, covering multiple concentration gradients of the target element; before analysis and during detection, the systematic error between the instrument-measured value and the reference value of the standard sample is compared to establish an error correction model or regression fitting curve.

[0017] An automated purely physical method for purifying graphite according to the present invention includes the following steps: Raw material handling components: used for automatic unloading of ton bags, automatic coding and warehousing location management, automatic outbound, automatic unpacking of ton bags, and automatic moisture detection of raw materials. Loading and transport components: used for automatic crucible loading, crucible capping, and automatic RGV crucible exchange; Purification component: used for automatic crucible exchange between RGV and purification furnace, automating physical purification; Finished product conveying and quality inspection components: used for automatic purity detection, automatic material feeding, crucible outer wall cleaning, and intelligent detection of crucible size and cracks; Finished product handling components: used for automatic ton bag packaging, automatic coding and warehousing, and automatic outbound loading.

[0018] Compared with the prior art, the present invention has the following beneficial effects: 1. This invention breaks through the limitations of traditional processes that rely on manual operation. Through the intelligent collaboration of a gantry robot, RGV (Automated Guided Vehicle), and automatic loading / unloading devices, it achieves fully automated operation of thirteen processes from raw material warehousing to finished product loading. The gap between processes is shortened, and the daily processing capacity is increased. In particular, it overcomes the bottlenecks of high-risk manual operations such as high-temperature crucible transfer, sealing and unpacking, and online sorting.

[0019] 2. In terms of quality, online full inspection and two-stage purity sorting are adopted to reduce the fluctuation of product batch purity and improve the yield of high-end products; in terms of equipment, online flaw detection extends crucible life and reduces container costs. Attached Figure Description

[0020] Other features, objects, and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description of non-limiting embodiments with reference to the accompanying drawings: Figure 1 This is a schematic diagram of the workflow of the present invention. Detailed Implementation

[0021] The present invention will now be described in detail with reference to specific embodiments. These embodiments will help those skilled in the art to further understand the present invention, but do not limit the invention in any way. It should be noted that those skilled in the art can make several changes and improvements without departing from the concept of the present invention. These all fall within the protection scope of the present invention.

[0022] like Figure 1 As shown, an automated, purely physical method for purifying graphite includes the following steps: Step S1: After the vehicle enters the unloading area and parks in place, the unloading machine automatically scans the vehicle, generating angle information, length, width, height, and parking angle data for the vehicle to be unloaded. This data is then transmitted to the unloading system, which initializes the unloading data. The unloading machine's robotic arm moves to the designated position in the truck bed according to the worker's remote control guidance. The robotic arm's gripper opens, and after the worker hangs the bag, the gripper automatically locks, grabbing the material. Following the unloading program and vehicle data, the robotic arm automatically transports the ton bag to the pallet on the automated storage and retrieval system (AS / RS) conveyor line. The unloading machine communicates with the AS / RS, and after the AS / RS confirms the material placement, the material is automatically stored in the AS / RS conveyor line. The AS / RS conveyor line automatically releases the empty pallet, which enters the waiting loading station. The AS / RS communicates with the unloading machine, sending a loading request signal. During this process, raw material coding is completed, enabling material traceability. The unloading machine repeats the above operation sequence until the entire truckload of material is unloaded. The robotic arm then returns to the waiting position, awaiting the departure of the next vehicle and the parking of the next one.

[0023] Step S2: The ton bags are conveyed along the raw material vertical storage conveyor line to the conveyor next to the automatic ton bag unpacking machine. The pallet-ton bag separation mechanism pushes the ton bags onto the conveyor line, and the empty pallets are recycled through the vertical storage.

[0024] The conveyor transports the ton bags into the unpacking machine and then closes the door. The bag-grabbing mechanism inserts hooks into the ton bags and then cuts open the bottom of the bags with a cutter to unload the material. After unloading, a bag-beating mechanism helps reduce material residue in the ton bags. Empty bags are collected by a spiral empty bag collection device. A dust removal system operates throughout the entire unpacking process.

[0025] Preferably, the automatic unpacking machine can perform sealed unpacking operations, and is equipped with a pushing and kneading auxiliary unloading device and a tapping device, as well as an empty bag collection device, with an unpacking capacity of more than 12 bags / hour.

[0026] Step S3: Graphite raw material powder is pneumatically conveyed to a receiving hopper. The receiving hopper is connected to a quantitative feeder, which feeds the raw material powder into an automatic dryer according to a set feed rate. The automatic dryer has a maximum inlet moisture content of 15% and an outlet moisture content of ≤0.1%, with a single unit capacity greater than 5t / h. The automatic drying device includes an electrically heated hot air furnace, a three-cylinder dryer, a dust removal system, and automated system control. The dust removal system emission concentration is below 10mg / Nm³. The dried powder is then pneumatically conveyed to the next process step.

[0027] The three-cylinder dryer consists of three concentric cylinders of different diameters stacked together according to heat exchange mathematical relationships and structural forms. Each cylinder is equipped with specialized lifting plates at different angles and spacings. This structure ensures that the graphite powder to be dried moves along a spiral direction under the action of gravity and thrust, maintaining sufficient residence time and ample dispersion within the cylinder. This allows for thorough heat exchange between the graphite powder and the hot airflow from the combustion chamber, eliminating the heat loss caused by the "wind tunnel" phenomenon often observed in single-cylinder dryers. The special three-cylinder structure allows the inner cylinder to be surrounded by the outer cylinder, forming a self-insulating system. Heat radiated from the surfaces of the inner and middle cylinders participates in the heat exchange of the material in the outer cylinder through radiation. The outer cylinder is not only located at the low-temperature end of the hot airflow, but its surface is also insulated, significantly reducing heat loss and resulting in remarkable energy savings. The graphite raw material powder undergoes a rotary drying process, removing most of the moisture.

[0028] Step S4: Based on the signal from the position sensor installed at the bottom of the container, the filling, extrusion, metering, and lifting operations are completed. During the filling process, a dedicated degassing device separates a large amount of air mixed in the powder and compresses the material. The synchronous hydraulic lifting and extrusion during filling can expel the air contained in the fine powder, ensuring that the material at the outlet is filled into the crucible in a cluster state. Dust will be greatly reduced, achieving high-density filling and allowing more graphite powder to be filled into the same volume of crucible.

[0029] Preferably, the pressurized filling process has a filling cycle greater than 3 crucibles / hour; degassing filling ensures that the material compaction density is greater than 93%; pneumatic conveying is used for powder transport, and the pipes at connections and bends are lined with ceramic; the risk of material introducing metal foreign objects is controlled throughout the process, and there is virtually no dust on site.

[0030] Step S5: The filled crucible is conveyed by a conveyor belt to the crucible capping position. The gantry robot automatically positions the crucible and completes the capping.

[0031] Step S6: The automatic crucible loading and unloading device in the high-temperature purification zone adopts the form of an RGV conveyor. The RGV is the transfer medium between the furnace loading and unloading ports and the conveyor line.

[0032] The RGV is equipped with a multi-level protection device including an emergency stop button and safety edges. The RGV's horizontal travel mechanism uses a servo motor for motion control, gear and rack transmission, linear guide rail guidance, and is equipped with soft and hard limit switches. Each axis has mechanical limit switches and anti-tipping roller assemblies. The RGV has a load capacity ≥2t, a fork extension speed ≥20m / min, and a fork extension stroke ≥2600mm. The purification furnace is controlled by a fully automatic programmable segmented PID controller, which can be divided into 100 programmable heating curves. The RGV operates with dual-vehicle linkage, and the crucible loading and unloading operation time is less than [time missing]. In 2 minutes, under a protective atmosphere, the purification furnace heats the graphite crucible inside the furnace chamber through IGBT medium-frequency electromagnetic induction to perform high-temperature graphitization purification of carbonaceous samples. It can also perform high-temperature graphitization and purification processes on other materials. The purification furnace is vertical, with an open top and a loading structure at the bottom. It has a double-layer water-cooled furnace shell made of 304 stainless steel and is equipped with a temperature measuring port, observation port, electrode port, gas inlet and outlet ports, and a vacuum extraction port. The gas inlet and outlet ports are equipped with vacuum valves to replace the vacuum with protective gas, and can also perform gas circulation and exhaust during operation.

[0033] The loading and unloading are controlled by a lifting device. In addition to transporting the crucible between different points, the RGV works in conjunction with the furnace clamp and lifting operation. After the crucible is lifted, the fork arm extends again. The two parts work closely together to complete the loading and unloading.

[0034] The RGV picks up the capped crucibles and transports them to the purification furnace. The RGV and the purification furnace's automatic loading and unloading device automatically exchange crucibles.

[0035] Step S7: The automatic loading and unloading device of the purification furnace sends the crucible into the purification furnace. After the purification furnace automatically completes the purification, the loading and unloading device retrieves the crucible and exchanges it with the RGV. The crucible number is bound to the purification furnace information to achieve process quality traceability.

[0036] Step S8: The RGV delivers the purified crucible to the capping area, and the gantry robot grabs the crucible cap and delivers it to the cleaning area, automatically completing the cleaning of the bottom of the crucible cap.

[0037] Step S9: The crucible passes through an online automatic purity detection device on the material conveying device. The purity detection device is rigidly fixed to a telescopic actuator. The distance between the mineral analyzer and the graphite powder surface is kept constant by adjusting the stroke of the telescopic mechanism. During the detection process, the purity detection device introduces standard samples for accuracy correction. The standard comparison plate consists of mineral samples with known components and certified by an authoritative institution, covering multiple concentration gradients of the target element. Before and during the analysis, the systematic error between the instrument's measured value and the reference value of the standard sample is compared to establish an error correction model or regression fitting curve.

[0038] The automated purity testing device is a portable X-ray fluorescence (XRF) analyzer used to test the purity of the finished powder. The XRF analyzer is fixed to the top of an electric cylinder, which extends and retracts to bring it into close contact with the graphite powder. X-rays are precisely projected onto the graphite sample in the crucible at a preset angle. The spectral data acquired by the instrument is transmitted in real-time to an industrial control computer via a USB interface. The computer is responsible for preprocessing, correcting, and quantitatively analyzing the data, while substandard powder is transferred to a waiting area.

[0039] Step S10: The crucible reaches the automatic feeding area, the feeding device picks up the finished powder and cleans the inner wall of the crucible. At the same time, powders of different purities are fed separately.

[0040] The material suction process involves conveying the crucible to a sealed unloading station for unloading. The suction head has a plowing function, which loosens the material in the crucible while descending and simultaneously suctioning it. The material is then sucked into the hopper of the vacuum feeder, where it is placed into a crusher for crushing and then transported to a water-cooled buffer hopper. The suction device is equipped with a multi-channel separator for independent storage according to purity level. The suction process uses a dedicated sealed rotary suction mechanism. The automatic suction machine is equipped with an intelligent positioning mechanism that can automatically identify the crucible position, allowing the suction head to accurately enter the crucible.

[0041] Step S11: The finished powder is conveyed to the packaging area. The sucked-out material is cooled by the cooling pipe and then enters the cooling buffer chamber. The material in the cooling buffer chamber directly enters the ton bag packaging machine. The finished ton bags are automatically filled with powder, degassed, packaged, sealed, and labeled. The ton bags are then automatically put into the warehouse.

[0042] The warehousing process is completed by a four-way shuttle, which can travel in any direction along the longitudinal or transverse tracks on the cross tracks of the automated racking system, and reach any designated storage location in the warehouse according to the instructions issued by the system.

[0043] After the crucible has finished feeding, it enters the crucible cleaning area. The crucible is then conveyed to the outer wall cleaning area via a conveyor roller for closed-loop cleaning of the crucible's outer wall. The equipment automatically tracks and positions the crucible and is equipped with an adaptive clamp to automatically hold it. Force feedback closed-loop control is used for clamping. The cleaning blade descends and cleans the outer wall and bottom of the crucible. The crucible then moves to the next station, where the inner wall cleaning head and the feeding machine start up to continuously clean the inner wall and suck out the material. The sucked-out material is placed into the non-conforming powder waiting area through the dust collector outlet.

[0044] Simultaneously, the crucible undergoes dimensional inspection and intelligent crack detection. A line laser displacement sensor scans the outer wall of the crucible, generating a high-precision 3D point cloud model. Subsequent preprocessing operations include outlier removal, downsampling, normal vector estimation, and edge enhancement. Finally, error values ​​are calculated using template matching or feature point matching and compared with a set threshold to determine if dents have appeared on the crucible's outer wall. An ultrasonic flaw detector, using an angled probe tightly coupled to the crucible's outer wall, performs a uniform speed scan along the cylindrical axis. The presence and depth of cracks are determined by the waveform characteristics displayed on the flaw detector screen, and defective crucibles are promptly rejected.

[0045] Preferably, the crucible inspection process includes crucible outer wall dent detection and crucible cylindrical surface crack detection. The crucible outer wall dent detection process is as follows: by fixing the workpiece to be tested and calibrating the laser camera at zero point to ensure consistent measurement reference, dual laser cameras scan the target from different angles to acquire multi-view point cloud data. The point cloud data undergoes coordinate system transformation and time synchronization processing, and is then stitched with high precision using an ICP-based optimization algorithm. The system performs preprocessing operations such as outlier removal, downsampling, normal vector estimation, and edge enhancement. The error value is calculated by template matching or feature point matching and compared with a set threshold to determine whether the accuracy requirements are met.

[0046] Step S12: The ton bag packaging process uses visual recognition of the ton bag opening, negative pressure adsorption to open the bag, and non-metallic grippers to hold the bag opening edges to complete the transfer and bagging, and has error correction and re-grip functions; the outbound process is completed by a four-way shuttle, which can travel in any direction along the longitudinal or transverse tracks on the cross tracks of the three-dimensional rack, and reach any designated storage location in the warehouse according to the instructions issued by the system.

[0047] After a vehicle enters the loading area and parks in place, the loading machine automatically scans the vehicle, generating angle information, length, width, height, and parking angle data for the vehicle to be unloaded. This data is then transmitted to the loading system, which initializes the loading data. The automated storage and retrieval system (AS / RS) conveyor automatically transports the ton-bag materials to the loading machine's gripping station. The AS / RS communicates with the loading machine and sends a material unloading request signal. Following the unloading program and vehicle data, the loading robot automatically moves to the gripping station, opens its gripper, and automatically grabs the material. The unloading machine communicates with the AS / RS, and after the system confirms the material grabbing is complete, the empty pallet is automatically stored in the AS / RS by the conveyor line. The unloading robot then moves to the designated position in the truck bed, opens its gripper, and automatically places the material. The unloading machine repeats the above process until the entire truck is loaded. The robot then returns to its waiting position, awaiting the departure of the next vehicle and the arrival of the next one.

[0048] This embodiment also provides an automated purely physical method for purifying graphite, used for automated physical purification of graphite, including: Raw material handling components: used for automatic unloading of ton bags, automatic coding and warehousing location management, automatic outbound, automatic unpacking of ton bags, and automatic moisture detection of raw materials. Loading and transport components: used for automatic crucible loading, crucible capping, and automatic RGV crucible exchange; Purification component: used for automatic crucible exchange between RGV and purification furnace, automating physical purification; Finished product conveying and quality inspection components: used for automatic purity detection, automatic material feeding, crucible outer wall cleaning, and intelligent detection of crucible size and cracks; Finished product handling components: used for automatic ton bag packaging, automatic coding and warehousing, and automatic outbound loading.

[0049] This invention integrates an automated, continuous graphite production system and its control method that includes automated logistics, raw material processing, high-temperature purification, impurity removal, finished product collection, and quality inspection. It achieves precise control of the process, reduces manual intervention, improves product consistency and yield, enhances the working environment and safety, and reduces energy and material consumption.

[0050] In the description of this application, it should be understood that the terms "upper", "lower", "front", "back", "left", "right", "vertical", "horizontal", "top", "bottom", "inner", "outer", etc., indicate the orientation or positional relationship based on the orientation or positional relationship shown in the accompanying drawings. They are only for the convenience of describing this application and simplifying the description, and do not indicate or imply that the device or element referred to must have a specific orientation, or be constructed and operated in a specific orientation. Therefore, they should not be construed as limitations on this application.

[0051] Specific embodiments of the present invention have been described above. It should be understood that the present invention is not limited to the specific embodiments described above, and those skilled in the art can make various changes or modifications within the scope of the claims, which do not affect the essence of the present invention. Unless otherwise specified, the embodiments and features described in this application can be arbitrarily combined with each other.

Claims

1. A method for purifying graphite by an automated, purely physical method, characterized by the steps of Comprise: Step S1: Automatic unloading of bagged graphite raw materials, transferring bagged graphite raw materials from trucks into the warehouse through truss manipulator and material conveying device, and completing material traceability during the process by coding raw materials; Step S2: After automatic unloading of raw materials, automatic unpacking of bagged graphite raw materials is carried out, and the automatic unpacking machine seals the bag and automatically recycles the waste bag; Step S3: Use positive pressure gas to blow the graphite raw materials into the automatic dryer, and the graphite raw material powder passes through the rotary drying device to remove moisture; Step S4: The dried graphite raw material powder is transported to the degassing device through the pipeline, and then the degassed raw material powder is transported to the crucible and filled under pressure to make the loading compact; Step S5: The filled crucible is conveyed by the conveying belt to the crucible covering position, the truss manipulator automatically positions the crucible and covers it; Step S6: Use RGV to pick up the covered crucible and transport it to the purification furnace position, and the RGV and the automatic loading and unloading device of the purification furnace automatically exchange the crucible; Step S7: The automatic loading and unloading device of the purification furnace sends the crucible into the purification furnace, and the purification furnace automatically completes the purification, then the loading and unloading device takes back the crucible and exchanges it with the RGV, and the crucible number is bound with the purification furnace information to trace the process quality; Step S8: The RGV sends the purified crucible to the covering area, the truss manipulator grabs the crucible cover and sends it to the cleaning area for automatic cleaning of the bottom of the crucible cover; Step S9: The crucible passes through the online automatic purity detection device on the material conveying device, and the unqualified powder is transferred to the waiting area; Step S10: The crucible reaches the automatic suction area, the suction device sucks the finished powder and cleans the inner wall of the crucible, and different purity powders are sucked separately; Step S11: The finished powder is transported to the packaging area, the finished ton bag is automatically filled with powder, degassed, packaged, sealed and labeled, and the ton bag is automatically stored in the warehouse. The suction completed crucible enters the crucible cleaning area for closed cleaning of the outer wall of the crucible, and size detection and intelligent crack detection are carried out on the crucible. Unqualified crucibles are rejected; Step S12: The finished ton bag is automatically unloaded, and the truss manipulator automatically loads the truck.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the method is an automated, purely physical method of purifying graphite. In the step S2: The automatic unpacking machine performs sealed unpacking operation, and is equipped with a pushing and rubbing auxiliary unloading device and a beating device, and is also equipped with an empty bag collecting device, with an unpacking capacity of more than 12 bags / hour.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the method is automated. In the step S3: The automatic dryer has a maximum inlet moisture content of 15%, an outlet moisture content of ≤0.1%, a single unit capacity of more than 5t / h, and an automatic drying device including an electric heating hot air furnace, a three-cylinder dryer, a dust removal system and a system automation control. The dust removal system discharges below 10mg / Nm³.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the method is automated. In the step S4: During the process of pressure filling, the filling beat is more than 3 crucibles / hour; the degassing filling is compacted to a material tap density of more than 93%; the powder transmission uses pneumatic conveying, the connecting and turning pipes are lined with ceramics; and the whole process controls the introduction of metal foreign matters in the material.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the method is automated. In the step S6: the RGV sets the multi-stage protection device of the emergency stop button and the safety touch edge, the horizontal walking mechanism of the RGV adopts the servo motor for motion control, the rack and pinion transmission is adopted, the linear guide rail is guided, the soft and hard limit switches are set, the mechanical limit is set for each shaft, and the anti-toppling roller assembly is set; the RGV carrying capacity is greater than or equal to 2t, the fork telescopic speed is greater than or equal to 20m / min, the fork telescopic stroke is greater than or equal to 2600mm, the purification furnace is controlled by the full-automatic programmable segmented program PID, and the temperature rising curve can be divided into 100 segments; the RGV is double-car linkage operation, the crucible loading and unloading operation time is less than 2 minutes, the purification furnace is heated by the IGBT medium-frequency electromagnetic induction in the hearth graphite crucible in the atmosphere protection state, the high-temperature graphitization purification process of the carbon sample is carried out, and the high-temperature graphitization and high-temperature purification treatment process of other materials can be carried out; the purification furnace is a vertical type, the upper end is opened, the lower end has a loading structure, the double-layer water-cooled furnace shell is made of 304 stainless steel, and the temperature measuring port, observation port, electrode port, gas inlet and outlet port and vacuum exhaust port are provided; the gas inlet and outlet port is provided with a vacuum valve, the vacuum and the protective gas are replaced, the gas circulation and waste gas discharge during operation can be carried out, and the loading and unloading is controlled by the lifting device.

6. The method of purifying graphite according to claim 1, wherein In the step S9: the purity detection device is rigidly fixed on the telescopic execution mechanism, and the distance between the mineral analyzer and the graphite powder surface is kept constant by adjusting the stroke of the telescopic mechanism; The purity detection device introduces a standard sample during the detection process to correct the accuracy, the standard comparison plate is a mineral sample with known components and certified by an authoritative institution, and covers multiple concentration gradients of the target detection elements; before analysis and during the detection process, the system error between the instrument measured value and the standard sample reference value is compared to establish an error correction model or a regression fitting curve.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the method is automated. In the step S10: the suction process is performed on graphite with different purities; the suction process sends the crucible from the conveyor to a closed unloading station, the suction head has a plowing function, which plows and suctions the material in the crucible while descending, the material is suctioned into the hopper of the vacuum feeder, the hopper puts the material into the pulverizer after crushing, and then the material is conveyed to the water-cooled buffer hopper; the suction device is equipped with a multi-channel separator for independent storage according to purity levels, the suction process adopts a dedicated sealed rotary suction mechanism, the automatic suction machine is equipped with an intelligent positioning mechanism, which can automatically identify the position of the crucible, and the suction head can accurately enter the crucible barrel.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the method is automated. In the step S11: the warehousing process is completed by the four-way shuttle vehicle, the four-way shuttle vehicle can travel in any direction along the longitudinal or transverse track on the cross track of the stereoscopic shelf, and reaches any designated storage location in the warehouse through the instruction issued by the system; the crucible outer wall detection device is equipped with an adaptive clamp, force feedback closed loop control is adopted, the crucible detection process includes crucible outer wall depression detection and crucible cylindrical surface crack detection, the crucible outer wall depression detection process is that the workpiece to be measured is fixed and the laser camera is zero-point calibrated to ensure consistent measurement reference, the target is scanned from different angles by the double laser cameras, multi-view point cloud data is obtained, the point cloud data is processed through coordinate system conversion and time synchronization, and high-precision splicing is performed based on the ICP optimization algorithm; The system performs outlier removal, downsampling, normal vector estimation, edge enhancement and other preprocessing operations, calculates error values through template matching or feature point matching, compares with the set threshold, and judges whether the accuracy requirement is met.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the method is automated. In the step S12: the ton bag packaging process adopts visual identification of the ton bag mouth, adopts negative pressure adsorption of the bag mouth and completes bag opening, adopts non-metallic jaw clamping of the bag mouth edge to complete transfer and bagging, and has error correction and re-grabbing functions; the delivery process is completed by the four-way shuttle vehicle, the four-way shuttle vehicle can travel in any direction along the longitudinal or transverse track on the cross track of the stereoscopic shelf, and reaches any designated storage location in the warehouse through the instruction issued by the system.

10. A method for purifying graphite by an automated purely physical method for purifying graphite according to any one of claims 1 to 9, characterized in that, It includes: Raw material processing assembly: for automatic ton bag unloading, automatic coding into warehouse location management, automatic delivery, automatic ton bag unpacking, and automatic moisture detection raw material unpacking; Loading and transportation assembly: for automatic crucible loading, crucible cover loading, and automatic RGV crucible exchange; Purification assembly: for RGV and automatic crucible exchange of the purification furnace, automatic physical method purification; Finished product conveying and quality inspection assembly: for automatic purity detection, automatic suction, crucible outer wall cleaning, and crucible size and crack intelligent detection; Finished product processing assembly: for automatic ton bag packaging, automatic coding into warehouse, and automatic delivery.

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