Abstract: A ferrous melt, e.g. of steel, is refined beneath a slag layer by blowing from above with an oxygen-containing gas through a lance and by bubbling an inert gas through the melt from the bottom. According to the invention, the consistency of the slag layer and/or its level is continuously detected on the one hand and the rate of decarburation of the bath is detected on the other hand and in response to these measurements the volume rate of flow of the bubbling gas is controlled on the one hand to maintain a predetermined spacing of the slag layer from the head of the lance and, on the other hand, a fluid consistency of the slag.

Abstract: A process for refining a steel melt in a furnace in which a steel melt is formed with a slag layer thereon, the thickness of which can be controlled by passing a stream of inert gas upwardly through the melt, while directing a first stream of oxygen into the melt from a lance positioned above the melt for the top-blowing refining thereof to produce carbon monoxide above the melt and feeding a second stream of oxygen from the lance for the post-combustion of the released carbon monoxide, while monitoring continuously the thickness of the slag layer, the height of the melt, the carbon monoxide post-combustion factor (%CO.sub.2 /%CO+%CO.sub.2) and the speed of decarburization of the melt and controlling the height of the lance above the melt and the discharge rates of total blown oxygen, the second stream of oxygen and the inert gas stream at any given time in accordance with a particular relationship.

Abstract: Slag is conditioned during blowing from above with oxygen of an iron melt by bubbling an inert gas into the melt from the bottom of the crucible in response to measurements made of the flowability of the slag layer and the speed of decarburization.

Abstract: A method of and a device for the shipping of hot metal goods, such as hot steel ingots and slabs, in which the ingots or slabs are lowered into a container in which a granular insulating material, preferably porous vermiculite, is fluidized by a pressurized gas during the introduction of these metal goods. The particles of the insulating material, upon termination of the fluidization are then allowed to pack around and envelop the metal goods. The insulating material is again fluidized during withdrawal of the metal goods at the unloading site.

Abstract: A road barrier for traffic lanes, raceways and the like comprises a sheet-metal shell which is internally galvanized and is filled with a synthetic-resin foam and which extends continuously along the lane in contact with the ground while being of a height equal at least to a substantial fraction of the average wheel height for four-wheel and two-wheel vehicles using the traffic lane. The structure is anchored to the ground by posts fitting into openings in the rail and in the ground and likewise formed of sheet metal.

Abstract: The heat balance in a shaft furnace, e.g. a blast furnace for the production of iron, is controlled by feeding peat in a comminuted form, i.e. with a mean particle size of 0.05 to 1 mm and a water content of less than 25%, into the blast furnace. The peat is previously comminuted by abrasion and the abraded product dried to a water content of less than 25%.

Abstract: A machine for tying a coil of wire with ties comprises a substantially flat support having at least one cutout, wherein the coil and the flat support are movable with respect to each other to place a portion of the coil into the cutout. A clamp is provided in the region between the closed end of the cutout and the adjacent end face of the coil for gripping one end of the tie at a fixed point. A tie guide rotatably mounted on the flat support defines a path about the cutout and carries an element for gripping a point of the tie adjacent the fixed point so that during rotation of the tie guide the tie is wound about the portion of the coil in the cutout. A cutter arranged in the region between the closed end of the cutout and the end face of the coil serves to cut the tie after being wound about the portion of the coil, whereafter the ends of the tie are twisted by twisting elements.

Abstract: A method of and an apparatus for the reduction of iron oxides continuously comprises a reducing vessel through which the iron oxide is passed and in which it is contacted with a reducing gas continuously withdrawn from a coking furnace during the second phase of the coking operation in which the effluent gas is rich in carbon monoxide and hydrogen.

Abstract: A barrier for highway traffic of the type designed to bring a vehicle to standstill and avoid contact with a roadside hazard, e.g. a post, abutment or pylon, comprises an array of upstanding posts adapted to cushion the impact and increasing in number and height in the direction of travel of the vehicle toward the barrier to impose increasing resistance to traveling. The posts each comprise an upper and a lower section or portion in the form of tubes of which the lower tube is set into the ground while the upper tube is composed of thin sheet metal lined with or filled by a cushioning material such as a foamed synthetic resin. The two tubes or sections of each post are interconnected by a cast iron link which is designed to shear at ground level in part dissipating the kinetic energy of the vehicle. The upper tubes of the array are interconnected by chains.

Abstract: A multiplicity of step-shaped sleepers or ties each having two straight end segments interconnected by a middle portion inclined at obtuse angles with respect to the end segments are each joined at their respective end segments to two adjacent sleepers by means of rib plates to form a zig-zag sleeper network underlying a pair of parallel spaced-apart rails in a railway roadbed assembly. The sleepers are formed from I-beam profiles; a plurality of channel profiles extending parallel to the rails below the sleeper network are connected to the rib plates by bolts traversing the sleepers, the channels being embedded in the ground or in a concrete track bed to prevent lateral displacement of the railway assembly. A method of forming Y-shaped ties includes the bending of I-beam profiles in a press die assembly, welding the profiles together and filling interbeam spaces with a weight-increasing corrosion-retarding material such as concrete.

Abstract: A method of rolling angle structural shapes in which a bar of rectangular ofile is rolled in a first step to form a blank having a rounded convex protuberance on one side and a flat opposite side. In at least one subsequent state, the blank is rolled to transform the protuberance or hump into a triangular protuberance or ridge with flanks lying substantially at a right angle, whereupon the blank is bent, after rounding the edges of the flat surface, to form the angle profile.

Abstract: A method of measuring the level of molten metal in a continuous casting m comprises inducing in the molten metal a magnetic field by a primary electrically energized coil and, by the relationship of this magnetic field to a pair of symmetrical secondary coils coaxial with the primary coil, inducing voltages in these secondary coils which are electrically connected in a circuit opposition so that the resultant voltage represents the level of the molten metal.

Abstract: A method of rolling angular structural shapes with flanges of equal width, specially from steel, in which a substantially round bar or billet is rolled in a first pass to a generally flat intermediate shape having a planar side and a side formed centrally with an upstanding triangular cross-section protuberance. Thereafter, in one or more passes, preferably no more than three passes, the blank is rolled to the angular profile in which the vertex is formed by the protuberance.

Abstract: Pollutant-containing gases which are generated in a steel-making and/or coking plant are mixed with fresh air in at least one stream and passed through an incandescent bed of minerals, e.g. the sintering cake of an ore-sintering furnace. The resulting gases are then subjected to gas cleaning in at least one filtering or washing station.

Abstract: In a process for injecting fine-grain brown coal or lignite into a blast furnace through tuyere arches thereof, the initial speed at which coal dust, after leaving the supply conduit, moves towards the center of the blast furnace hearth is substantially lower than the speed at which the hot blast is blown into the furnace.

Abstract: Wire-mesh webs formed from interengaged flattened spirals, especially chain-link fencing, upon manufacture are coiled by twisting the planes of the spirals so that they fit tightly together and almost coincide with axial planes of the roll. During the coiling process, one to three tension elements are introduced into the corresponding troughs of the successive undulations formed by the successive spirals and are maintained under tension during coiling to maintain the spirals in their substantially erect condition. The result is a highly compact roll.

Abstract: A method for producing hot briquettes, for example, for use in blast furnaces, and using a briquetting material of non-caking components, such as low temperature coke from bituminous coal and/or lignite, coke dust and/or oil coke and caking fat coal at temperatures between 430.degree. C. and 540.degree. C., comprising, delivering the briquetting material to a briquetting press to form briquette blanks, tempering and degassing the blanks by delivering the blanks into individual chambers in a closed system of several chambers having gas communication with each other so that there is partly changing amounts of gas generated in the individual chambers and the briquette blanks are formed into tempered briquettes, and applying an overpressure to the chambers to conduct the gases away from the chamber with one and the same overpressure.

Abstract: A welding wire constituted by a core of welding powder enclosed by a mantle of metal is produced by forming an upwardly open metal channel composed of an outer channel and an inner channel abutting against the inner surface of the outer channel and having lateral flanks of a height which is about half the height of the lateral flanks of the outer channel, filling the inner channel with the powder, introducing a profiled metal band into the open channel which overlaps the powder in the inner channel and which engages the flanks of the latter at inner faces thereof so that the powder is enclosed by the inner channel and the profiled metal band, and bending upper longitudinal edges of the outer channel into abutment with each other. The longitudinal edges of the outer channel may be subsequently welded to each other, especially if the cross-section of the thus-produced wire is subsequently considerably reduced by passing it through drawing dies or the nip of pressure rolls.

Abstract: A construction element comprises a wide-flange steel beam having a web-flange thickness ratio of at least 0.8. Anchors or holding members in the form of studs or wire fabric are secured only to the web of the beam, and a reinforcing bar or plate extending along the beam is in turn welded to the achoring members. The area between the flanges of the beam is then filled with a concrete body in which the holding members and reinforcing elements are embedded for fire resistance.

Abstract: Knotted wire fencing, e.g. for enclosing a cultivated or uncultivated region which may be traversed by animals or other creatures of various sizes, comprises longitudinal (horizontal) and transverse (vertical) wires forming a mesh and tied together at the junctions or intersections of the two arrays of wires. The length of the transverse (vertical) wires periodically changes along the fencing relative to the maximum breadth thereof so that some wires extend the full breadth (height) of the fence while others extend from the bottom thereof only partly over the height of the fencing. The shorter transverse wires have a length which differs from that of the full-length transverse (vertical) wires by the height of one mesh.