1. Background and meaning

Electrolytic refining is a common practice in non-ferrous metallurgy, the electrolysis process of most non-ferrous metals is the same. Taking copper as an example, the grade of refined copper produced by fire refining is generally 99.2% to 99.7%, and it also contains 0.3% to 0.8% of impurities. The purpose of electrolytic refining is to further remove impurities that are difficult to remove by fire refining, which damage the electrical conductivity and mechanical properties of copper, increase the copper grade to more than 99.95%, and recover the valuable elements contained in fire refining copper, especially precious metals, platinum group metals and rare metals. In copper electrolytic refining, current efficiency and grade rate are important indicators for evaluating the efficiency and capacity of electrolytic production, and faulty electrodes will have an adverse effect on the above two indicators. When faults such as short circuit and thermal burn occur between the electrodes, on the one hand, part of the electrical energy is consumed due to heat, and the current efficiency will naturally decrease; on the other hand, on the cathode of the faulty electrode, the faulty electrode part of the board usually has a large crystal and agglomerates make this cathode unable to be included in the high-purity cathode copper, which affects the grade rate. Therefore, it is very important to find the faulty electrode in time.

There are many reasons for the failure of the electrode, such as non-parallel plate arrangement, natural bending or warping of the pole piece, the attachment of the anode mud to the cathode surface, the imbalance of the additive ratio and so on. Regardless of the cause, as long as there is a faulty electrode, there will be excessive current distribution on the electrode plate, which will cause the local magnetic field to be too strong and the temperature to rise. For a long time, due to the limitation of technical conditions, the monitoring of the temperature between the plates of the electrolytic cell in China has mostly adopted the reed tube hand-drag type groove inspection device and combined with the "eyes and hand" methods for joint inspection. It represents the following defects. 

● Manual inspection with high cost, low efficiency. The larger the scale is , the more  the disadvantages are , and the test results are easily affected by personal experience;

● The hand-drag type slot-checking device for reed pipes is limited by the principle of electromagnetic induction detection and cannot detect thermal burn failure;

● Manual detection is lagging. When manual sequential detection is used, the timeliness of detection cannot be guaranteed, and continuous and online monitoring cannot be realized;

● After manual detection finds faults, paper forms are used to record, lack of automatic detection, faulty plate location, and closed-loop control of processing results;

● The electrolysis workshop has been exposed to acid mist, high temperature, and high humidity for a long time, which affects the physical and mental health of the staff.

2, plan

The scheme adopts GS-EDL2000 electrolyzer fault electrode high-precision detection and positioning system, through independent development of image processing technology of core algorithm, and combined with infrared temperature measurement technology + AI analysis + big data technology. The system is mainly composed of infrared detectors (installed on the top steel beams of the electrolysis workshop), electrical control boxes, power boxes, data transmission equipment, temperature analysis dedicated servers, clients (including software) and related auxiliary components (wireless industrial Ethernet, intelligent patrol) Inspection terminal) composition.

3. Main functions

● System operation status indication, on-site visible light and infrared heat map display, detection data storage, equipment abnormal alarm, automatic detection area and inspection plan setting, etc.;

● Faulty plate distribution display, faulty plate handling record management, tank group maintenance status management, electrolytic copper discharge cycle management, group statistics and reports; 

● Infrared thermal imaging auxiliary diagnosis, faulty plate processing and recording, and real-time display of faulty plates.

4. Value

● 7×24-hour continuous, online monitoring, replacing traditional slot-checking devices and manual methods, optimizing the production process;

● Replace manual inspections, reduce labor intensity, avoid working in harsh environments, and improve employees’ occupational health;

● Whole workshop coverage, short construction period, automatic positioning of faulty plates, maintenance-free products, to ensure that the inspection, the accuracy of the test, and the long-term use;

● Improve current efficiency, reduce cell voltage, save energy, and improve electrolysis product quality;

● Integrates short-circuit management, copper discharge management, slot surface state management, and shift management into one, helping companies to continuously optimize processes and improve management; 

● Realize automatic detection, automatic positioning, and closed-loop control of processing results, which makes up for the vacancy of online detection in the traditional metallurgical industry.

5. Application case