How a 300-Person Team Solved Reciprocating Grate Technical Challenges
Although reciprocating grates have many advantages, they also suffer from industry pain points such as poor working conditions for grate bars in high-temperature zones, relatively serious coal leakage, and weak adaptability to load changes. Our partner factory assembled a professional R&D team of 300 people, and through years of technical breakthroughs, solved these challenges one by one, driving continuous upgrades in reciprocating grate technology.
Targeting the core pain point of grate bars being easily damaged in high-temperature zones, the R&D team carried out dual innovation in both material and structure. In terms of material, it collaborated with universities to develop special heat-resistant alloy materials, raising the high-temperature tolerance of grate bars from 800°C to 1100°C, while improving wear resistance through metallographic structure optimization, extending the service life of grate bars by more than 2 times. In terms of structure, it designed hollow cooling grate bars with built-in cooling air ducts that carry heat away through air flow, reducing the working temperature of the grate bars. This technology has been granted 3 national utility model patents.
To solve the coal leakage problem, the R&D team optimized the overlapping structure of the grate bars, adopting a stepped laminating design that reduces the gap between grate bars from the traditional 3–5 mm to 1–2 mm, while adding an adjustable coal leakage recovery device beneath the grate, lowering the coal leakage rate from over 5% to below 1%. To address poor adaptability to load changes, it developed an intelligent variable-frequency control system that uses sensors to monitor parameters such as furnace temperature and pressure in real time, automatically adjusting grate movement speed and air supply volume to achieve smooth regulation within a 30%–110% load range, meeting the requirements of different operating conditions. These technical breakthroughs have brought the overall performance of our partner factory’s reciprocating grates to an internationally advanced level.
