Abstract: Automated installation for the laying for masonry on a wall, especially of a converter, comprising an operating station with a work plateform movable vertically inside the enclosure and capable of rotating about the vertical axis of the latter, areas for the simultaneous storage of two pallets of bricks on the platform, a robot for handling and laying the bricks, a monitoring and control station, retractable props for stabilizing the operating station and a device for raising and lowering pallets of bricks. The entire operating station is supported by a telescopic mast mounted on a turntable of a movable floor which is located outside the enclosure and with which the operating station forms a retractable self-propelled or towable unit.

Abstract: An apparatus for lining the inside wall of a vessel with bricks is presented. The apparatus includes a work platform, a handling robot and telescopic hoists. The telescopic hoists have carriages for receiving a stack of bricks of the same type. At the platform level, a vertical conveyor is associated with the hoists. The vertical conveyor transfers the stack of bricks from the carriages and raise the bricks to the platform level. The installation of this invention is particularly useful for laying a refractory lining on the inside wall of a metallurgical converter.

Abstract: The apparatus comprises an operating station with a rotary work platform, a non-rotary supporting stage supporting the work platform by means of a first bearing, a robot for laying the bricks, a monitoring booth, a device for raising and lowering brick pallets and at least one automatic brick-depalletizing mechanism for transferring the bricks from the pallets towards a stand-by station. This stand-by station comprises a turret which can contain a reserve of bricks of different types and which is supported by the stage by means of a second bearing, so as to be rotatable independently of the stage and the platform about the vertical axis of the vessel. The apparatus is particularly well suited for repairing metallurgical converters.

Abstract: An automated apparatus for lining the inner wall of a vessel with bricks is presented. This apparatus comprises an operating station which has at least two levels for storing pallets (having bricks thereon) above one another. An automatic device consisting of at least one automatic depalletizing mechanism for transferring the bricks from each of the superimposed pallets onto at least one standby track is provided along with at least one robot equipped with a gripping device for picking up bricks located on the stand-by tracks and for depositing the bricks at the intended location. In accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the operating station has two automatic depalletizing mechanisms associated respectively with each of the two superimposed pallets.

Abstract: An apparatus for automatically laying the refractory lining along the inner wall of a vessel (i.e., a metallurgical converter) which permits automatic repair of the vessel lining. This refractory brick laying apparatus comprises an operational center capable of being lowered and raised inside the vessel and comprising a lower table, an upper table and a rotary cage arranged between the upper table and the lower table and connected to each of these by a runway block. The upper table or lower table has a sufficiently large orifice to allow a pallet of refractory bricks to pass inside the rotary cage. Arranged on the rotary cage is a robot which has at least three degrees of freedom, such that it can reach all points of the working range. The end of the robot is equipped with a gripping device for automatically picking up, handling and laying the bricks intended for forming the refractory lining.

Abstract: Molten steel, carried in a transport ladle from a converter to a casting stage, is treated in a heating chamber which has two tubes depending from its bottom into the ladle to a depth sufficient to penetrate a slag layer and an intermediate layer atop the melt. The ladle is surrounded by a pressure vessel whose rim sealingly engages an outlying annular flange of the chamber bottom and into which high-pressure gas is admitted to drive part of the melt into the heating chamber. Each of these two tubes is initially closed at its lower end by a fusible sheet-metal cap which prevents the entry of slag into the heating chamber but melts upon immersion into the hot metal bath. Treatment gas may be introduced into the chamber via one of these tubes.

Abstract: A method of operating a furnace for incinerating refuse, notably household refuse, commercial and industrial waste or rubbish, wherein the furnace is of the type comprising a charging zone, a drying zone, a pyrolysis zone, and a combustion and melting zone with at least one orifice for extracting volatile products from the drying zone, at least one orifice for extracting the melted material in the combustion and melting zone, and one or more tuyeres for injecting the combustion gases under pressure into the combustion and melting zone, by which the combustion gases under pressure are injected into a volume of liquid or molten slag at the level of the combustion and melting zone so that the energy liberated by the injection of the gases under pressure is diminished and controlled.