Abstract: A charging apparatus includes a charging hose, one end part of which is arranged to be connected to at least one supply of particulate or liquid explosive, and the other end part of which is arranged to be inserted into a drill hole to deliver thereto explosive fed through the charging hose from the forementioned supply; a guide sleeve for guiding the charging hose; a hose-feeder arrangement for displacing the charging hose longitudinally in the guide sleeve; and an aligning and adjusting means for carrying the guide sleeve and placing the aforementioned one end of the sleeve in a position for guiding the other end part of the charging hose into the drill hole. The wall of the guide sleeve is provided with a closeable opening arranged to enable bodies of solid explosive or cartridged explosive to be introduced into the guide sleeve when the charging hose is at least partially withdrawn out of the guide sleeve.

Abstract: A heat exchanger for heat exchange between downwardly flowing solid particulate material and a gas comprises a substantially conical casing having arranged at the bottom thereof a tubular outlet for material having undergone heat exchange. A tube extends downwardly into the casing substantially symmetrically about the vertical axis thereof and forms an outer defining wall of an annular inlet through which material to be treated is charged to the interior of the casing. Extending through the tube co-axially therewith is a gas inlet having a gas inlet pipe which extends down into the casing and which forms an inner defining wall of the annular material inlet. The gas inlet pipe has a discharge orifice located at a given distance beneath the discharge orifice of the material inlet, and a collecting chamber for gas having undergone heat exchange and arranged at the top of the casing is laterally defined by the wall of the tube and the wall of the casing, and is provided with a gas outlet.

Abstract: In a plant for heating or heat-treating a bed of material carried by an upper part of an endless, perforated belt-type conveyor, said upper part extending through at least one heating or heat-treatment zone in which heating or heat-treatment gas passes through said upper part and the bed being conveyed thereon, the conveyor includes a plurality of mutually adjacent endless, imperforate belt parts. These belt parts are separated by perforated regions. The upper conveyor part is slidably supported, preferably by means of gas-cushion bearings, along at least substantially the whole of its material-carrying length in the region of said belt parts.

Abstract: A screening apparatus has a screening surface comprising at least one group of elongate, mutually parallel and mutually adjacent screening elements, the size of the mesh defined by adjacent elements being varied by moving the elements of one and the same group transversally of their longitudinal axes while maintaining an equal distance between all said elements. Each screening element of a particular group of said elements is mounted on an associated arm arrangement which can be swung about an axis extending parallel to the long axis of an associated screening element. Planes containing the pivot axis of a respective arm arrangement and the longitudinal axis of its associated screening element are parallel to one another while the distance between said axes decreases from arm arrangement to arm arrangement in direct proportion to the distance between the pivot axes of the arm arrangements.

Abstract: Agglomerates are fired in a sintering apparatus of the type, in which the agglomerates during transport on a travelling grate in zones along said grate are pre-dried with substantially pure warm air passing upwardly through the grate and finally dried and heated with hot process gas passing downwardly through the grate, and in which the hot process gas is generated by combusting fuel while using, as secondary air of combustion, air previously used to cool fired agglomerates. In order to reduce the quantity of gas contaminated during the firing process there is maintained in a sealing zone located between the pre-drying and final-drying zones and mechanically shielded thereagainst, by supplying air above the grate and removing air by suction from beneath the grate, pressures which are substantially equal to the pressure above the grate and the pressure beneath the grate respectively in the adjacent final-drying zone.

Abstract: In a method of operating a shaft furnace for the production of sintered iron ore pellets, in which the pellets are fired by introducing hot gas at the level of the furnace adjacent the opening for introducing the pellets to be fired and located at the top of the furnace and cooling air for cooling the pellets after having been heated by the hot gas is introduced into the shaft at the bottom thereof to pass upwardly through the shaft while cooling the pellets, the improvement of applying a substantial portion of the coolant air through air inlet channels distributed around the circumference of the shaft at a level of the shaft located between the bottom opening of the shaft and the burner openings at a substantial distance from both said openings as compared with the distance between the openings, to provide a temperature distribution of the coolant air flowing through the shaft such that the temperature of the coolant air flowing along and in the vicinity of the shaft adopts a value which is substantially low