Estimation of economic benefits from structural modifications of auto-coupler unit in hot metal ladle cars

The Hot Metal Ladle Cars (HMLC) is frequently employed for transportation of molten iron at elevated temperatures from furnace to Steel Production Units (SPU). It moves along the railways with the help of traction equipment and tilted with a winch or crane to pour the liquid metal at designated place. It basically consists of bearing frame, railway carriages, ladle and automatic-coupler. The current research involves the design modification of the body of auto-coupler attached to the HMLC; to prevent its frequent breakdowns and increase its life and structural stability, which leads to reduction in reducing repair costs and circuit time. In connection to the same, auto-coupler body has been simulated and structurally analyzed for three configurations incorporating Rectangular Slot (RS), Circular Slot (CS) and Ellipsoid Slot (ES) under equivalent static loading 3 MN Compressive as well as 2.5 MN Tensile. It has been identified from the detailed diagnosis that auto-coupler body having ellipsoid slot, adjudged to be most stable amongst all aforementioned configurations owing to least value of resultant stress (327 MPa and 272 MPa) under the action of compressive and tensile loadings respectively. Besides that, the highest fatigue life (5186 cycles) was reported for the same configuration which generates an aggregate economic savings of 25.02 Crores per annum or 2,428,578 Euro per annum.