Anode casting facility and anode manufacturing method using the same

Abstract

To provide an anode casting facility capable of easily detecting swelling generated in an anode and suppressing the occurrence of the swelling.SOLUTION: An anode casting facility includes a turntable 1 comprising of a rotatable disk-shaped base on which a plurality of molds 2 for anode casting are mounted at equal intervals in the circumferential direction, a cooling device 4 for cooling the molds 2 during anode casting by spraying cooling water on them, a peeling machine 5 for sequentially peeling off the anodes A cast by the plurality of molds 2, a cooling tank 6 for sequentially immersing the anodes A peeled off by the peeling machine 5 in cooling water, and a transfer machine 7 for lifting the anodes A cooled in the cooling tank 6 by a predetermined number of pieces and transferring them to suspension means 8. A photographing machine 9 provided in the anode casting facility photographs the hot water surface side A1 of the anode A peeled off first or last by the peeling machine 5 among the predetermined number of anodes A group to be lifted at the time of transfer.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 3

Description

[Technical field]

[0001] The present invention relates to an anode casting facility and an anode manufacturing method using the anode casting facility. [Background technology]

[0002] In dry copper smelting, high purity electrolytic copper is produced by increasing the copper grade stepwise from raw materials mainly consisting of copper concentrate through the smelting process, copper production process, and refining process. Specifically, first, in the smelting process, copper concentrate is blown into a flash furnace together with flux and oxidized to produce slag mainly consisting of iron oxide and silicon and matte with a copper content of about 60% by mass. Next, in the copper production process, the matte produced in the flash furnace is transferred to a converter and further oxidized to produce blister copper with a copper content of about 98% by mass. Finally, in the refining process, the blister copper is transferred to a refining furnace and oxygen is removed to produce refined blister copper with a copper content of 99% by mass or more, and the refined blister copper is cast to obtain an anode for electrolysis (hereinafter simply referred to as an anode), which is then electrolytically refined to produce electrolytic copper with a copper content of 99.99% by mass or more.

[0003] In the casting of the anodes, a turntable is used, which has a plurality of anode casting molds (hereinafter simply referred to as molds) arranged at equal intervals in the circumferential direction on a circular base. By casting the refined blister copper extracted from the refining furnace through one or more troughs into the plurality of molds while rotating the turntable, it becomes possible to cast anodes continuously and efficiently.

[0004] Various anode casting apparatuses including the turntable have been proposed, and for example, Patent Document 1 discloses an anode casting apparatus that includes a rotatable turntable on which multiple molds (casting dies) are arranged in the circumferential direction, a first cooling means for primary cooling, a temperature measuring means for measuring the temperature of the mold after the anode is peeled off, a second cooling means for secondary cooling, and a temperature control means for identifying the cooling conditions required to cool the mold to a predetermined temperature based on the measured mold temperature and controlling the second cooling means according to the conditions. It is described that the use of this anode casting apparatus can increase the casting efficiency of the anode without shortening the mold life. [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0005] [Patent Document 1] JP 2006-255757 A Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0006] The anodes continuously cast as described above are arranged alternately with separately prepared cathodes and loaded into an electrolytic cell in the subsequent electrolytic refining step, and a direct current voltage is applied. From the viewpoint of improving production efficiency, it is preferable to operate the electrolytic cell with the applied voltage as high as possible, and in order to prevent short circuits even under these conditions, the front and back surfaces of the anode (also called anode surfaces) are required to be as flat as possible.

[0007] That is, if there is a localized bulge (hereinafter, simply referred to as a "bulge") on the anode surface, the bulge may dissolve and peel off in the electrolyte in the electrolytic cell, causing a short circuit, or the surface distance between adjacent cathodes may become locally close, leading to the formation of nodules. In order to prevent short circuits caused by these factors, it is necessary to operate the anode at a lower applied voltage. Therefore, there is a demand for a technology that can easily detect bulges and suppress the occurrence of bulges based on the detection results. The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and aims to provide an anode casting facility that can easily detect bulges occurring in the anode and suppress the occurrence of bulges based on the detection results, and a method for manufacturing anodes using this anode casting facility. [Means for solving the problem]

[0008] In order to achieve the above object, the anode casting equipment for copper smelting of the present invention comprises a turntable consisting of a rotatable disk-shaped base on which a plurality of molds for casting anodes are mounted at equal intervals in the circumferential direction, a cooling device that sprays cooling water onto the molds during anode casting to cool them, a stripping machine that sequentially strips off groups of anodes cast in the plurality of molds, a cooling tank in which the anode groups stripped by the stripping machine are sequentially immersed in cooling water to cool them, and a transfer machine that hoists a predetermined number of anode groups cooled in the cooling tank and transfers them to a suspension means, and is characterized in that a camera is provided that photographs the molten metal surface side of the anode that is the first or last to be stripped by the stripping machine out of the predetermined number of anode groups that are lifted during the transfer.

[0009] The present invention also provides a method for producing an anode in copper smelting, comprising the steps of: casting a molten metal into a plurality of molds for casting anodes, the molds being placed at equal intervals in the circumferential direction on a turntable consisting of a rotatable disk-shaped base; cooling the molds into which the molten metal has been cast by spraying cooling water; sequentially peeling off groups of anodes cast in the molds; sequentially immersing the peeled off groups of anodes in cooling water; and lifting a predetermined number of the cooled anode groups and transferring them to a suspension means, the method comprising the steps of: photographing the molten metal surface side of the anode that is the first or last to be peeled off among the predetermined number of anode groups lifted during the transfer; and adjusting the conditions for spraying the cooling water based on the presence or absence of a substantially circular bulge in the obtained image. Effect of the Invention

[0010] According to the present invention, bulging of the anode can be easily detected, and the detection result can be fed back to the manufacturing method, thereby suppressing the occurrence of bulging. [Brief description of the drawings]

[0011] [Figure 1] FIG. 2 is a perspective view of an anode cast in the anode casting facility according to the present invention. [Diagram 2] FIG. 1 is a schematic plan view of an embodiment of an anode casting facility according to the present invention. [Diagram 3] 3 is a perspective view of a cooling tank of the anode mold facility of FIG. 2, and a stripping machine and a transfer machine provided before and after the cooling tank, respectively. [Figure 4] 4A and 4B are front and side views of the stripping machine shown in FIG. 3, with the side view showing the state in which the anode is stripped from the mold. [Diagram 5] 4A is a side view showing a state in which multiple anodes have been lifted from within a cooling tank by the transfer machine of FIG. 3, and FIG. 4B is a side view showing a state in which the multiple anodes lifted by the transfer machine are photographed before being placed on an anode support part. [Figure 6]4 is a perspective view showing a state in which anode surfaces are photographed while a plurality of anodes are being transferred by the transfer machine of FIG. 3. FIG. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0012] 1. Anode The anode produced by the anode casting apparatus of the present invention has a characteristic shape as shown in Fig. 1. That is, the electrolytic anode A shown in Fig. 1 has a pair of lugs A protruding in the left and right directions on the paper surface at both upper corners of a substantially rectangular plate portion with a length and width of about 1000 to 1500 mm. L , A R These two ears A L , A R The anode A is suspended by supporting the plate-shaped portions from below on the upper end faces of the opposing side walls of the electrolytic cell, so that the plate-shaped portions can be immersed in the electrolyte in the electrolytic cell. The anode A is also supported by a pair of chain conveyors in a cooling tank (to be described later) or a suspension means for waiting until it is transported by a forklift, and these two lugs A L , A R is suspended by supporting it from below.

[0013] 2. Anode casting equipment An embodiment of the anode casting equipment of the present invention for manufacturing the above-mentioned anodes will be described with reference to the drawings. The anode casting equipment is, for example, a so-called twin-wheel type anode casting equipment in which two disk-shaped turntables 1 are arranged in line symmetry, as shown in Fig. 2, and a plurality of anode molds (hereinafter also simply referred to as molds) 2 are placed on each turntable 1 at equal intervals in the circumferential direction. Note that Fig. 1 shows an example in which 18 molds 2 are provided on the turntable 1, but the number of anode molds is not limited to this.

[0014] By intermittently rotating each of the two turntables 1 in the direction of the white arrow, refined crude copper (also called molten copper or molten metal) refined in a batchwise manner in a preceding refining furnace (not shown) is sequentially cast in fixed amounts into a plurality of molds 2 through the trough section 3. The molds 2 into which the molten copper has been cast are cooled by spraying cooling water from below in the cooling device 4, and the molten copper is cooled and solidified. The anodes A cast by cooling and solidifying in the cooling device 4 have their ears pushed up from the mold 2 by a substantially cylindrical push-up pin that appears and disappears from approximately the center of the bottom surface of the mold 2. The anodes A whose ears have been pushed up as described above are stripped from the mold 2 by a stripping machine 5.

[0015] The peeling machine 5 is composed of a pair of arms 51, a round bar-shaped tip connection part 52, both ends of which are connected to the tip parts of the pair of arms 51, a rear end connection part 53, both ends of which are connected to the rear end parts of the pair of arms 51 on the opposite side to the tip parts to which the tip connection parts 52 are connected, and which acts as a counterweight, and a pair of support legs 54, which rotatably support the rear end sides of the pair of arms 51, as shown in Fig. 4(a). The tip connection part 52 is connected to both ears A of the anode A. L , A R A pair of hooks 55 for suspending and hoisting the respective components are attached so as to be able to swing.

[0016] By using the peeling machine 5 having the above structure, as shown in FIG. 4(b), both ears A are peeled off with a pair of hooks 55. L , A RThe anode A, which has been peeled off from the mold 2 by hooking it onto the turntable 1, is loaded into the cooling tank 6 with its molten metal surface side A1 facing the turntable 1 by rotating the pair of arms 51 around the support parts of the pair of support legs 54 in a clockwise direction on the drawing. As shown in Fig. 3, the cooling tank 6 is provided with a conveying means 61, preferably consisting of a pair of chain conveyors, for moving the loaded anode A from one end to the other end in the longitudinal direction of the cooling tank 6, and a motor 62 for driving the conveying means 61. As a result, the anode A loaded into the cooling tank 6 is cooled by being immersed in the cooling water filled in the cooling tank 6 while being moved from one end to the other end in the cooling tank 6 by the conveying means 61.

[0017] The anode A cooled by the cooling water in the cooling tank 6 as described above reaches the other end of the cooling tank 6. A transfer machine 7 is provided on the opposite side of the cooling tank 6 from the peeling machine 5. As shown in FIG. 6, the transfer machine 7 is composed of a columnar base 71 standing upright from the floor surface, a columnar lifting part 72 rising from the upper end surface of the base 71, a rotating part 73 rotatably provided at the upper end of the lifting part 72, a pair of arms 74 provided to protrude horizontally from both side surfaces on the opposite sides of the rotating part 73, and a pair of claws 75 slidably provided at the tip portions of the pair of arms 74.

[0018] By using the transfer machine 7 having the above structure, the anode group A that has reached the other end side in the cooling tank 6 is transferred to both ears A by a pair of claws 75. L , A R After being hung on the cooling tank 6, a predetermined number of sheets are lifted up at a time, and then rotated by the rotating part 73 around the central axis O extending in the vertical direction, for example, by 180 degrees, and lowered by the lifting part 72 in this state, so that both ears A L , A Rare supported from below by suspension means 8 consisting of a pair of support plates. The anode A group is maintained in a suspended state by this suspension means 8 until it is transported by a forklift. By rotating 180 degrees by the rotating part 73, the anode A group faces in a direction opposite to the direction in which the molten metal surface side A1 faces the turntable 1.

[0019] The camera 9 is provided at a position facing the molten metal surface side A1 of the anodes A group after they have been rotated 180 degrees by the rotating part 73. This makes it possible to photograph the molten metal surface side A1 of the anodes A that are last peeled off by the peeling machine 5 out of the anodes A group transferred in predetermined numbers by the transfer machine 7. By analyzing the image taken by this camera 9, it is possible to easily determine whether or not the anodes A have blistered.

[0020] In the anode casting equipment according to the embodiment of the present invention described above, the anode A is loaded into the cooling tank 6 by the stripping machine 5 so that the surface opposite to the molten metal surface side A1 faces the traveling direction in the cooling tank 6, but the present invention is not limited to this, and the stripping machine may rotate the anode A stripped from the mold 2 by 180 degrees around an axis extending in the vertical direction, and then load the anode A into the cooling tank 6 so that the molten metal surface side A1 faces the traveling direction in the cooling tank 6. In this case, among the group of anodes A transferred by the transfer machine 7 in a predetermined number of sheets at a time, it is possible to photograph the molten metal surface side A1 of the anode A that is first stripped by the stripping machine 5.

[0021] In addition, a release agent spreader 10 is provided downstream of the stripper 5 in terms of the rotation direction on the turntable 1, which spreads a slurry release agent onto the inner surface of the mold 2 so that the anode A to be cast next from the mold 2 stripped by the stripper 5 can be easily stripped off. Furthermore, upstream of the stripper 5 in terms of the rotation direction on the turntable 1, a defective anode stripper 11, which strips off defective anodes that do not meet the specifications and preferably has a similar structure to the stripper 5, and defective anode holding means 12 is provided for temporarily holding the defective anodes stripped by the defective anode stripper 11.

[0022] In the anode casting equipment according to the embodiment of the present invention described above, it is preferable that the number of molds 2 placed on the turntable 1 is different from the number of anodes A pushed up collectively by the push-up means 63 in the cooling tank 6. The reason for this is that if the number of molds 2 placed on the turntable 1 is the same as the number of anodes A pushed up collectively by the push-up means 63, the photographing by the camera 9 will always photograph anodes cast with the same molds 2, and therefore, if a bulge occurs in any other molds 2, it will not be possible to detect it. On the other hand, if the number of anodes A pushed up collectively by the push-up means 63 is, for example, three more than the number of molds 2 placed on the turntable 1, the photographing by the camera 9 will photograph anodes A cast with molds 2 shifted by three in the circumferential direction of the turntable 1, and therefore, as described above, the problem of photographing anodes cast with the same molds 2 every time can be avoided.

[0023] It is preferable that the difference between the number of molds 2 placed on the turntable 1 and the number of anodes A pushed up collectively by the push-up means 63 is 1 or 2. In other words, if the difference between the number of molds 2 placed on the turntable 1 and the number of anodes A pushed up collectively is 1, the anodes A photographed by the camera 9 can be photographed in order of the anodes A cast using the molds 2 placed in positions shifted by one in the circumferential direction for all the molds 2 placed on the turntable 1 each time the turntable 1 makes one revolution, so that the presence or absence of bulges in the anodes A cast using all the molds 2 can be inspected.

[0024] On the other hand, if the difference between the number of placed molds and the number of batch push-ups is 2, then the anodes A photographed by the camera 9 will be photographed in order of the anodes A cast using the molds 2 placed at positions shifted by two in the circumferential direction each time the turntable 1 makes one revolution if there is an odd number of molds 2 placed on the turntable 1. Therefore, in this case too, the anodes A cast using all of the molds 2 placed on the turntable 1 can be photographed in order.

[0025] On the other hand, when the difference between the number of mountings and the number of collective push-ups is 2 and the number of molds 2 mounted on the turntable 1 is an even number, it becomes impossible to photograph the anodes A cast in the circumferential direction for every other one of the molds 2 mounted on the turntable 1. In this case, after photographing the anodes A cast using half of all the molds 2 mounted on the turntable 1, the defective anode stripper 11 located upstream of the stripper 5 can be operated to remove only one anode A. This allows the anodes A cast using the remaining half of the molds 2 to be photographed, and as a result, the anodes A cast using all the molds 2 can be photographed.

[0026] If the number of molds 2 placed on the turntable 1 is a prime number such as 7, 11, 13, 17, or 19, the number of anodes A pushed up collectively by the push-up means 63 can be set to any number other than an integer multiple of the number of molds 2 on the turntable 1, thereby making it possible to inspect the presence or absence of bulging of the anodes A cast with those molds for all of the molds 2 without operating the defective anode stripping machine 11. On the other hand, if the number of molds 2 placed on the turntable is not a prime number, the number of anodes A pushed up collectively by the push-up means 63 can be set to a number different by 1 from the number of molds 2 on the turntable 1, or to a prime number, thereby making it possible to inspect the presence or absence of bulging of the anodes A cast with those molds for all of the molds 2 without operating the defective anode stripping machine 11 in the same manner as described above.

[0027] In the anode casting equipment according to the embodiment of the present invention described above, the group of anodes A pushed up collectively by the push-up means 63 in the cooling tank 6 is rotated 180 degrees using the transfer machine 7, photographed by the camera 9, and suspended on the suspension means 8. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and any rotation angle within the range of 90 degrees to 270 degrees can be adopted. In addition, the rotation angle during photographing by the camera 9 and the rotation angle of suspension on the suspension means 8 may be different from each other. For example, the group of anodes A pushed up by the push-up means 63 may be first rotated 90 degrees using the transfer machine 7 and photographed by the camera 9, and then rotated another 90 degrees and suspended on the suspension means 8. Generally, various equipment is often provided around the turntable 1 in addition to the equipment shown in FIG. 1. Therefore, if the position of the camera 9 and the position of the suspension means 8 can be rotated at any rotation angle within the range of 90 degrees to 270 degrees as described above, the freedom of layout of the equipment is increased, which is preferable.

[0028] 3. Anode manufacturing method Next, an embodiment of the method for manufacturing an anode in copper smelting according to the present invention will be described. The method for manufacturing an anode according to the present invention includes the steps of: casting, through a trough 3, refined blister copper as a molten material discharged from a refining furnace into a plurality of molds 2 mounted at equal intervals in the circumferential direction on a turntable 1 made of a rotatable disk as described above; cooling the molds 2 into which the molten material has been cast by spraying cooling water from below in a cooling device 4; and removing both ears A of each of the anodes A cast in the molds 2 by cooperation of a roughly cylindrical push-up pin protruding from the bottom of the molds 2 and a stripping machine 5. L , A R The anodes A are then successively removed from the mold 2 by hooking them with the hooks of a stripping machine 5, and the removed anodes A are then transported to a cooling tank 6 by a pair of conveying means 61 such as a chain conveyor, with the anodes A being in a position where the molten metal surface side A1 of each of the anodes A faces the turntable 1. L , A Rthe anodes A are supported by the transport means 61 and transported from one end of the cooling tank 6 in the longitudinal direction to the other end while being immersed in the cooling water in the cooling tank 6 for cooling; the anodes A that have reached the other end of the cooling tank 6 by the transport means 61 are pushed up by the push-up means 63 in units of a predetermined number; and the anodes A that have been pushed up in units of a predetermined number are hoisted by the transfer machine 7 and transferred to the suspension means 8 by rotating them around a rotation axis extending vertically.

[0029] In an embodiment of the anode manufacturing method of the present invention, during transfer by the transfer machine 7, the molten metal surface side A1 of the anode A that was last peeled off by the peeling machine 5 out of the predetermined number of anodes A in the group is photographed by the camera 9, and the image is analyzed to check for the presence or absence of a substantially circular convex "bulge" in plan view on the molten metal surface side A1 of the photographed anode A. There are no particular limitations on the method of this image analysis as long as it can accurately check for the presence or absence of the "bulge", and it can be appropriately selected from object detection models for image analysis such as YOLO (You Only Look Once), CNN (Convolutional Neural Network), SSD (Single Shot MultiBox Detector), etc.

[0030] If the above inspection determines that there is a bulge, the mold 2 in which the bulged anode was cast is inspected for any problems, or the amount of cooling water sprayed from below the mold 2 in the cooling device 4 is reduced, or adjustments are made to lower the cooling capacity, such as by raising the temperature of the cooling water. This makes it possible to raise the temperature of the mold 2, thereby preventing the problem of bulging on the molten metal surface side A1 of the anode A, which occurs when the temperature of the mold 2 drops too low.

[0031] As described above, by manufacturing an anode using the anode manufacturing method of the embodiment of the present invention, it is possible to easily and accurately detect "bulges" that have occurred on the molten metal surface side A1 of the anode A, and therefore it is possible to manufacture a high-quality anode with little "bulging." Next, the present invention will be described in more detail with reference to examples. EXAMPLES

[0032] Anodes were manufactured using an anode casting facility as shown in Fig. 2. This anode manufacturing facility consists of two turntables 1 on which 18 molds 2 for casting anodes are placed, and each turntable 1 is provided with a cooling device 4 that sprays cooling water from above and below the mold into which the molten metal has been cast, and the anodes A cast by cooling in the cooling device 4 are stripped from the molds 2 by a stripping machine 5. The anodes A stripped by the stripping machine 5 are cooled by immersion in cooling water in a cooling tank 6, and are transported from one end of the cooling tank 6 in the longitudinal direction to the other end by a chain conveyor.

[0033] The anodes A that reached the other end of the cooling tank 6 were pushed up by the push-up means 63 provided in the cooling tank 6, 16 at a time. The group of 16 anodes A pushed up collectively in this way was rotated 180 degrees around the rotation axis extending vertically of the transfer machine 7 while being lifted by the transfer machine 7, and transferred to the suspension means 8. After this 180-degree rotation, the molten metal surface side A1 of the anode A that was last stripped by the stripping machine 5 out of the group of 16 anodes A was photographed by the camera 9. After photographing the nine anodes A, the defective anode stripping machine 11 was operated to remove only one anode A from the mold. The above operations were repeated to produce anodes A from two batches of refined blister copper.

[0034] The image of the molten metal surface side A1 of the anode A taken by the camera 9 was analyzed using the object detection model YOLO, and if it was determined that the number of approximately circular “bulges” in the image had increased, the cooling water supply valve was closed to reduce the amount of cooling water sprayed from below the mold 2 in the cooling device 4, in order to slightly raise the temperature of the mold 2.

[0035] For comparison, the anode A was manufactured without detecting "bulges" on the molten metal surface side A1 of the anode A with the camera 9. In other words, the anode A was manufactured in the same manner as in the example, except that the operation of adjusting the amount of cooling water sprayed from below the mold 2 in the cooling device 4 according to the number of "bulges" was not performed.

[0036] As a result, in the Example, the number of "blisters" that occurred on the molten metal surface side A1 of the anode A could be reduced to about half compared to the Comparative Example. Specifically, in the Example, the amount of cooling water sprayed from below the mold 2 in the cooling device 4 was adjusted based on the detection results of "blisters" that occurred on the molten metal surface side A1 of the anode A, so that the number of "blisters" that occurred on the molten metal surface side A1 of the anode A could be reduced to 52 / 100 compared to the Comparative Example. [Explanation of symbols]

[0037] A Anode 1 Turntable 2. Mold 3 Hibe 4 Cooling device 5 Peeling machine 6 Cooling tank 7 Transfer machine 8 Suspension means 9. Camera 10 Release agent sprayer 11 Defective anode stripper 12 Defective anode retention means 51 Arm 52 Tip connection part 53 Rear end connection part 54 Support legs 55 Hook 61 Means of transport 62 Motor 71 Base 72 Lifting section 73 Rotating part 74 Arm 75 Claw

Claims

1. 1. An anode casting facility for copper smelting comprising: a turntable made of a rotatable disk-shaped base on which a plurality of molds for casting anodes are mounted at equal intervals in the circumferential direction; a cooling device that sprays cooling water onto the molds during anode casting to cool them; a stripping machine that sequentially strips off anode groups cast in the plurality of molds; a cooling tank in which the anode groups stripped off by the stripping machine are sequentially immersed in cooling water to cool them; and a transfer machine that hoists a predetermined number of anode groups cooled in the cooling tank and transfers them to a suspension means, the anode casting facility is characterized in that it is provided with a camera for photographing the molten metal surface side of the anode that is the first or last to be stripped by the stripping machine out of the group of the specified number of anodes that are lifted during the transfer.

2. 2. The anode casting facility according to claim 1, wherein the number of molds placed on the turntable is different from the predetermined number.

3. 3. The anode casting installation according to claim 2, characterized in that said different number is 1 or 2.

4. 4. The anode casting facility according to claim 3, wherein the cooling tank has a transport means for transporting the anode group sequentially charged from one end to the other end in the longitudinal direction of the cooling tank, and a push-up means for pushing up the anodes transported to the other end side by the predetermined number at a time.

5. 5. The anode casting equipment according to claim 1, wherein the transfer machine rotates the lifted number of anodes by 90 degrees or more and 270 degrees or less around a central axis extending in a vertical direction during the transfer.

6. A method for manufacturing anodes in copper smelting, comprising the steps of: casting a molten material into a plurality of molds for casting anodes, the molds being mounted at equal intervals in the circumferential direction on a turntable comprising a rotatable disk-shaped base; spraying cooling water onto the molds into which the molten material has been cast to cool them; sequentially peeling off groups of anodes cast in the molds; sequentially immersing the peeled off groups of anodes in cooling water to cool them; and lifting a predetermined number of the cooled anode groups and transferring them to a suspension means, The method for manufacturing an anode comprises photographing the molten metal surface side of the anode that is the first or last to be peeled off from the group of the predetermined number of anodes that are lifted during the transfer, and adjusting the conditions for spraying the cooling water based on whether or not a substantially circular bulge is present in the image obtained.

Images