Abstract: Disclosed herein is a method and an apparatus for improving the efficiency of conventional vertical shaft metal melting and refining furnaces by novel refractory arrangements to form a multiple level hearth which will support pieces of metal that have reached the hearth without being melted. With this invention there is even and complete distribution and diffusion of heat around and through these unmelted pieces of metal to effect their rapid melting. Thus unmelted pieces of metal cannot block burners or clog tapping outlets of vertical shaft furnaces, and undue restriction to the flow of molten metal in and from these furnaces is substantially avoided.

Abstract: A pilot flame to be positioned close to the charge opening of a cupola which uses carbon monoxide as a fuel in the presence of a fresh supply of combustion air, such carbon monoxide being drawn off from a position on the cupola where the temperature is above the self-ignition temperature of the carbon monoxide. Air preheated to a temperature above the self-ignition temperature of carbon monoxide may also be supplied.

Abstract: A fuel-fired furnace for melting metal in a more efficient manner, the furnace having a burner with its combustion air being preheated by passage through an air chamber between spaced inner and outer walls of the furnace jacket and by passage through a heat exchanger through which waste combustion products pass. The jacket is double insulated and the burner is cooled by a special arrangement.

Abstract: A charge is admitted into a shaft furnace so as to form a charge column therein. The lower end of the column is melted with a flame and the charge moves downwardly by gravity as melting proceeds. The flame is generated by admitting one or more streams of oxygen and one or more streams of fuel into the furnace. A stream of oxygen and a stream of fuel are admitted into the furnace as a pair and in such a manner that the respective oxygen stream is surrounded by the respective fuel stream. This procedure provides the result that the fuel entering the furnace withdraws so much heat from the surroundings that water-cooling of the burners may be eliminated. Moreover, the withdrawal of heat from the surroundings serves to cool the furnace wall in the regions of the burners sufficiently for molten material flowing on the furnace wall in these regions to solidify. Consequently, protuberances are formed on the furnace wall.

Abstract: The invention relates to a process for automatically deslagging a cupola furnace and to an improved cupola furnace using this process.According to the invention the bottom of the crucible is permanently connected to atmosphere via a siphon sill whose level is determined so that the interface between pig iron and slag is sometimes above and sometimes below this sill. The side wall of the cupola furnace has on the one hand a taphole for the pig iron opening into the crucible level with the hearth and which can be sealed with a plug and on the other air blowing tuyeres in the upper part of the crucible, as well as a siphon linked with the crucible for the supply thereof by means of a passage whose lower edge is adjacent to the bottom of the crucible and whose upper sill extends below the maximum permitted pig iron level determined by the siphon outflow, whereby the maximum permitted slag level is located below the nozzles.

Abstract: A furnace for melting solid ferrous pieces such as pig iron and steel scrap, features a combination of electric induction heating and flame heating of the pieces which are charged into the furnace hearth via a charging stack up through which the products of combustion flow from the furnace counter-current to the descending charged pieces moving downwardly through the stack. The flame heating is via burners supplied with hydrocarbon fluid fuel with oxygen proportioned for incomplete combustion, the products of combustion and unburned fuel ascending through the stack and preheating the descending charged pieces. Air is supplied to the stack to complete the combustion of the previously unburned fuel in and around the descending pieces, this being done at a level where the descending pieces have not yet reached temperatures sufficient to cause excessive oxidation of the pieces. Other details providing for effective utilization of these principles, are included in the disclosure.

Abstract: An arrangement is provided for feeding a liquid alloyed metal under protective atmosphere into a high speed continuous casting machine for casting a strip of alloyed metal, preferably calcium lead which is subsequently formed into battery grids and the like. The arrangement includes a melting pot and specifically a resilient skid ramp in the melting pot which permits metal hogs to be charged into the melting pot in a nondestructive manner while supporting the hog at a fixed level in the melting pot bath to insure homogeneous mixing of the alloyed elements in the hog during melting thereof.