Abstract: This invention relates chiefly to a thermal exchange assembly intended for cooling a gas.A thermal exchange assembly according to the invention includes at least four passages intended respectively for cooling a refrigerant mixture, cooling a gas being processed, heating the refrigerant mixture, and heating an auxiliary refrigerant.The invention is applicable in particular to the liquefaction of gases and gaseous mixtures.

Abstract: The cooling of molten metal, such as metal continuously cast into an ingot mold, is retarded by establishing on the upper surface of the metal in the mold, a layer of cryogenic liquid such as nitrogen, helium or argon, with a finely divided material in homogeneous and stable suspension in the liquid. The finely divided material is in the form of particles having a size between 200 and 2,000 A and is present in a quantity between 10 and 1,000 grams per liter of cryogenic liquid. The suspended material may be aluminum, titanium, zirconium, niobium, calcium, lithium, magnesium, solid glass, or an oxide of aluminum, titanium, zirconium, niobium, calcium, lithium or magnesium, and is highly reflective to infrared radiation from the metal so as to reduce the transparency of the cryogenic liquid to this infrared radiation.

Abstract: A gas delivery tube including tubular body portion of refractory material having a recess adjacent one end in which recess is housed a porous element for emitting small bubbles containing the gas. The body portion is provided with an internal gas inlet pipe, one end of which opens into an internal chamber in communication with said recess while at its other end the pipe terminates in means enabling it to be connected to a supply of gas.The delivery tube is especially useful for degasifying aluminium, copper, and their alloys.

Abstract: A phase-separating member of annular form supplies a liquid phase, which converges towards a molten stream of metal. The liquid phase is distributed in the form of at least two layers, the upper layer meeting the metal stream at a distance h which is not greater than 300 mm from the bottom of the upper supply container, each layer forming an angle .gamma. greater than 30.degree. with the said stream and being intended to protect a proportion of the vertical extent of the stream h not greater than 600 mm. The invention is applicable to protecting casting streams of large diameter and considerable height, in particular between the ladle and the tundish in the continuous casting of slabs.

Abstract: A process for the treatment of a finished or semi-finished forged product de from billets or cast plates of age-hardening aluminium alloys useful in aeronautical applications is provided. The process includes thermally treating the product between the solidus temperature of equilibrium (T.sub.1) and the liquidus temperature (T.sub.2) for a period of 0.5 to 12 hours. The entire surface of the product is coated with an insulating coating and then the product is solution heat treated, and quenched in hot or boiling water.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a method of and a cryogenic installation for distributing gases.From a storage tank at low pressure, successive portions of cryogenic liquid are withdrawn to an enclosure, which is isolated by closing a valve. After this, a further valve is opened, the effect of which is to cause the pressure in a receptacle to rise to the high distribution pressure and to allow the gas concerned to condense to a certain degree so that said enclosure is filled with liquid under pressure. The liquid evaporates partially at the periphery and is thus transferred to a heater and from there to a buffer container.The invention is applicable in particular to the distribution of oxygen, nitrogen and argon under pressure.

Abstract: Enamines which are employed to obtain benzamides effective in the treatment of emesis are produced by efficient processes.

Abstract: Novel substituted N-(1'-ethyl-2'-oxo-5'-pyrrolidinylmethyl) benzamide comnds and derivatives thereof are disclosed. The compounds have psychotropic properties and may be used in pharmaceutical compositions as behavior modifiers.

Abstract: This invention relates to a method of treating a gaseous mixture by adsorption making use of at least one group of three adsorbers which operate in three phases, viz. a high pressure production phase, a first adsorber regeneration phase and re-pressurization phase, and the invention consists in providing a balancing between a first adsorber and a second adsorber which precedes a balancing between said first adsorber and a buffer container: the de-pressurization which occurs in the said regeneration phase includes an additional de-pressuration which extends over the whole of the de-pressurization phase from a high production pressure to a low cleansing pressure and which takes place in the direction opposite the direction of production.

Abstract: Insulating material, of compacted structure and of low thermal conductivity, is formed of silica-based primary particles; it is obtained by heat treatment of a compound of silane, of which the mean diameter is at most equal to 100 A; the apparent density .rho.a expressed in g/cc is between 6.10.sup.-3 and 2.3.10.sup.-3 d, d being the mean diameter of the primary particles expressed in A; in addition, this apparent density is at most equal to two thirds of the density of the solid material.This material is applicable as a thermal insulator in the field involving low temperatures and high temperatures and in the building sector.

Abstract: A device comprises tuyeres at the bottom of the converter and a cylindrical manifold for fluids and powdered products disposed in the center part of and under the bottom of the converter. Connecting pipes between the manifold and the tuyeres are disposed radially around the manifold. The connecting pipes have the shape of a lyre with a closed loop.

Abstract: An automatic device for supplying an elastomer or like material for an intion machine comprising an injection cylinder and a piston, wherein the piston is controlled by a hydraulic multiplier device formed by two stages, the first stage being called the downstream stage and the second stage being called the upstream multiplier stage, and wherein the device comprises a sensor for controlling the supplying of the cylinder with material so as to stock said cylinder by an electrically driven tape advance unit, the sensor being brought into play when the piston is moved in the forward direction, a pressure controller for tripping the upstream multiplier stage to multiply the pressure in the injection cylinder, the pressure controller being controlled from a pressure threshold of the fluid supply of the first downstream stage and an end of travel sensor for tripping the return of the first and second stages to make the piston return at the end of the injection.

Abstract: The mould comprises a copper mould at least partly surrounded by a cooling box in which a cooling fluid flows. The cooling box comprises a first chamber defined by the copper wall of the mould and by a parallel front wall of the box. This front wall includes magnetic poles which are part of an electromagnetic induction stirring device for the metal cast in the mould. The first chamber is connected to a first cooling circuit. The box also has a second chamber in which the coils and cores of the electromagnetic induction stirring device are disposed.

Abstract: A seismograph pickup for use at the bottom of the sea, comprises a detector, a frame, detachable ballast, and a sealed and water-tight container mounted on the frame. The container floats for bringing the pickup to the surface when the ballast is detached. The detector is outside the container so that it may be deposited on the sea bed. The detector is connected to the container by means of an electric transmission cable and a mooring cable. The container includes a power source and means for recording signals delivered by the detector. The invention is also concerned with means for supporting the detector on the frame and for unhooking it when the detector is released.

Abstract: A method for manufacturing viscose filaments from a cellulosic starting material wherein a viscose is prepared from the cellulosic starting material, the viscose is extruded by passing it through a spinneret to form continuous thin strands, the extruded strands are passed continuously through a gaseous medium which contains at least one volatile agent of such a nature, and under such conditions, that a coagulating action on the said strands results, the strands which have thus been coagulated are then brought into contact with an acid medium which causes a pre-regeneration of the initial cellulose, so that the strands are converted to continuous filaments, and the filaments are passed through at least one other acid liquid medium which causes ultimate regeneration of the cellulose.

Abstract: A miniature open circuit refrigerator of the Joule-Thompson type, functions as a demand cryostat by virtue of a pressure-operated refrigerant supply control. The refrigerant fluid under high pressure is introduced at a first relatively rapid flow rate into the cryostat through a calibrated opening that is fully open during the initial or start-up period of the device, for rapid cool down. This calibrated opening is thereafter at least partially closed by a valve which is urged open by a spring and which is urged closed, against the action of the spring, by a bellows containing a gas at high pressure and which is exposed on its outer side to at least a portion of the pressure of the refrigerant fluid. Upon the fall in pressure of the stored refrigerant fluid, toward the end of the start-up, the bellows expands so as at least partially to close the valve, thereby to decrease the flow of refrigerant during the final portion of the cool-down period and during the steady state or on-stream operation of the device.

Abstract: This invention relates to containers for liquified gases, of the kind which comprise an inner container intended to hold the liquified gas which consists of a container body and an elongated neck, and an outer shell spaced away from the said inner container which forms with the latter an evacuated insulating space packed with material made up of successive superimposed layers of materials which are alternately conductive and insulating, marginal portions of the said layers of conductive material being in individual thermal contact, along annular areas spaced above one another, with the neck of the inner container, which extends to the said outer shell. According to the invention, the neck of the inner container is made from a plastics material, the thermal contact between the screening layers of conductive material and the neck being ensured by simple free contact under pressure. The inner container may be made from resin or glass, either of which may be reinforced by fibres.

Abstract: A process for the preparation of sodium percarbonate is disclosed in which concentrated hydrogen peroxide is caused to act generally in the presence of a crystallization modifier on a fluid suspension of sodium carbonate decahydrate in a substantially saturated solution of sodium carbonate, the sodium carbonate decahydrate being in a quantity such that the enthalpy of its dissolution compensates for the enthalpy of crystallization or formation of the sodium percarbonate or other exothermic phenomena. The process is applicable to obtaining sodium percarbonate, of which the elementary particle is a regular rhombohedric crystal.

Abstract: The invention relates to a method of and an installation for the heat treatment of steels, such as heating before hardening, annealing, and carburization, which heat treatment is carried out in a furnace in the presence of a protection or carbon-enrichment atmosphere which flows continuously through the furnace, the atmosphere being obtained by the mixture, before its introduction into the furnace, of a carrier gas including nitrogen and possibly hydrogen, and an active gas constituted by a hydrocarbon, the mixture containing at least 0.2% by volume of hydrocarbon.The active gas may be constituted by ethylene, ethane or acetylene and the treatment is carried out at a temperature between 850.degree. and 1050.degree. C.The installation includes a device for analyzing the atmosphere at the furnace outlet, this analyzer actuating a regulating valve for the inlet flow of active gas through a servo-mechanism, in dependence on the proportion of carbon in the treated steel.

Abstract: A method of and apparatus for automatic or semi-automatic welding or brazing wherein a fillet-wire, mechanically fed to the welding position on a work piece, is heated, along with the work piece, by a flame so that the fillet-wire reaches its melting point. A heating current is supplied to the fillet-wire to flow between the wire and the work piece. In order to maintain a predetermined relationship between the rate at which the fillet-wire is fed to the work piece and the rate at which the wire melts and separates to drop onto the work piece, the feed-rate and/or current intensity is regulated such that the wire is in constant contact with the work piece with a predetermined contact pressure. In one embodiment, the mechanical feeding device comprises a torque-limiting mechanism to maintain a substantially constant predetermined contact pressure of the fillet wire against the work piece.