Abstract: The invention comprises a sinter belt and a collector, vacuum chambers, a gas cleaning device, an air purifying device, and an exhauster mounted adjacent the belt. Above the sinter belt are mounted assemblies for loading a bed and a charge, and an ignition hearth. Downstream from the sinter belt are mounted a sinter breaker and an inclined chute wherein are mounted vibrating screens communicating with a cooler for a sinter return and for the bed, and an air classifier. The air classifier comprises a fan, a diffuser, a movable grid for varying the speed of the air produced by the fan, and a partition member forming a settling chamber together with the chute. Within the settling chamber is mounted a device for settling coarse fines, said device communicating with the collector through the air purifying device, and with the cooler for the sinter return.

Abstract: A method of supplying a pulverized fuel mixture to blast furnace tuyeres comprises batch loading the pulverized fuel mixture into a discharging chamber 8 being under gauge pressure, and subsequent continuous distributing thereof from this chamber, and transportation along pipelines 15 to the blast furnace tuyeres by means of gas. According to the invention, after distributing the pulverized fuel mixture from the discharging chamber 8, a supplementary gas is introduced into each pipeline 15, the total flow rate of said gas exceeding that of the main gas 3 to 10 times, and the product of the total flow rate of gas within each pipelines 15 by concentration of the fuel mixture therewithin being maintained equal for all the tuyeres 16.