Abstract: A three plate non-reversible sliding gate system and tube holder where the plates and tube holder include modified corner configurations so as to preclude reverse loading of the system.

Abstract: A refractory member has therethrough a flow channel for the passage of molten metal. At least an inner wall portion of the refractory member defining the flow channel is at least partially formed of a material that at least partially includes a ceramic material having the properties of being capable of being heated inductively and to being electrically conductive at a temperature at least equal to the liquidus temperature of the molten metal. A primary induction coil, preferably formed of an electrically conductive ceramic material, surrounds the flow channel and inductively heats the material of the inner wall portion to prevent freezing of molten metal within the flow channel and the formation of deposits therein.

Abstract: An injection block of an injection valve intended for bottom injection but optionally operable on the side of a teeming vessel for side injection is disclosed. The invention is directed specifically to a multi-passageway multi-orifice injection block in which the injection passages may be parallel, radially disposed around a frustoconical locus, or angled in a tangential fashion within the injection block. The thrust of the invention, however, is to stage the permeable elements in progressively more buried relationship to the hot face of the injection block sequenced in the order in which the particular passageways which are plugged by the porous plug are programmed for use. In this manner, progressive erosion of the wet or hot face of the injection block will progressively expose the upper portion of the permeable plug in accordance with the timed usage intended for the same.

Abstract: A sintering furnace includes an upper housing having a gas permeable insulating enclosure therein, with heating elements within the enclosure, and a lower housing having a hearth against which the insulating enclosure rests. Sweep gas is introduced to the interior of the upper housing, outside of the insulating enclosure. The sweep gas flows through the porous enclosure, past the pieces being sintered to sweep organics away, and out of the enclosure through an organics sink post extending upwardly from the hearth. The sink post is hollow and has openings therein, and is in communication with an external trap and vacuum pump, so that the organic-laden sweep gas is drawn out of the furnace. The insulating enclosure includes a gas barrier having openings therethrough and insulation layers on either side, the openings being sized such that the flow of sweep gas prevents diffusion of organic vapor out of the enclosure into the upper housing.

Abstract: The disclosure relates to a method for supplying, with a lance (11), a liquid to a heat treatment oven, the liquid being vaporized by the oven heat and being introduced into the oven with the aid of a carrier gas, and a lance (11) for carrying the method into effect.According to the method, the liquid is, with a carrier gas, atomized in an end of the lance (11) facing away from the interior of the oven, the atomized liquid and the carrier gas being supplied to a vaporization chamber (12) with an outlet aperture (14) directed towards the interior of the oven, in which chamber (12) the atomized liquid is vaporized by the oven heat during simultaneous cooling of the chamber (12), and the thus formed vapor and carrier gas are caused to depart from the vaporization chamber (12) of the lance (11) through the aperture designed as a nozzle (22).

Abstract: A transfer tube is produced comprised of a high density ceramic oxide tube having directly bonded to its outer surface wall a low density ceramic oxide shell.

Abstract: A vertical heat treatment apparatus includes a reaction furnace constituted by a reaction chamber having an inner tube and an outer tube and a heater arranged outside the reaction chamber, a manifold communicating with a lower portion of the reaction chamber to support the reaction chamber and a gas being supplied and exhausted through the mainfold, a hollow vessel, arranged together with the boat in the reaction furnace, for supporting a lower end of a boat having objects, and a plurality of first heat-insulating members detachably arranged in the hollow vessel, wherein the number of the first insulating members is adjusted to adjust a heat-insulating effect. The first heat-insulating member includes a fin unit constituted by fins horizontally arranged at predetermined intervals and spacers for keeping the intervals between the fins.

Abstract: A nozzle for discharging molten metal used in a casting device, wherein at least an inner surface portion defining a nozzle bore of the nozzle is made of a refractory, whereby a blockage of the nozzle bore is effectively prevented.

Abstract: An improved vortex inhibitor for separating slag from molten metal during the discharge of molten metal through a nozzle includes a uniform castable refractory body with a regular pyramidal shape. The tapered body includes swirl obstructing surfaces extending along its length and is geometrically proportioned so that the center of gravity is closer to the apex than the center of buoyancy of the body. Preferably, the outermost parts of the base intersect a circle whose diameter is larger than the diameter of the nozzle opening and defining a base length dimensionally fixed with respect to the base length within a predetermined range. Preferably, the longitudinal height is in the range of 0.5 to 1.0 times the diameter of the circumscribed circle. A modified, spherically configured body which can be rolled into position also is geometrically proportioned to keep the center of gravity spaced from the center of buoyancy and closer toward the apex of the modified shape.

Abstract: The invention is exclusively concerned with heat treatments before hardening, of metallic pieces, by cementation, carbonitridation and heating. The process concerns the feeding of a non muffle heat treatment furnace with various components including nitrogen which is produced by an adsorption or selective permeation generator and which has a residual oxygen content of the order of 2%. According to the invention, after the furnace has ceased to be in operation for a substantial period of time, it is reconditioned by injecting purer nitrogen which has a residual oxygen content lower than 0.3% and which is produced by said generator, adjusted at a lower extraction rate.

Abstract: A sliding gate valve assembly which has a stationary refractory plate mounted to a mounting plate and secured there by the force pressed against it exerted by another refractory is disclosed. A clamp ring is provided which has extending ears, each of which is bored to ride on a clamp spring assembly. Yieldable means, preferably a coil spring, surrounds the shank of the clamp spring assembly guide shank and engages the underside of the ear and rides in the main frame. When the main frame is closed, pressure is urged on the spring which, in turn, transmits the force to the clamp, the tapered inner edge of which engages the tapered outer edge of the stationary plate. The method of the present invention depends upon utilizing the clamping force of a valve assembly having a main frame and in which yieldable means are provided between the main frame and the mounting plate to urge a continuous clamp ring into engagement with the bandless stationary plate having tapered sidewalls.

Abstract: An automatic installation for obtaining in large series circular pieces of small thickness, such as notably spring diaphragms, for the automobile industry, in forming, swaging, quenching, tempering and peripheral tempering stations, these various working treatment stations being placed one after the other so that the pieces to be worked be successively transferred from one station to another, characterized in that:it includes a machine allowing realizing automatically and in series a forming operation by hot swaging and quenching of spring diaphragms or circular pieces;each entirely automated working station includes a press provided with individual heating means, said working stations receiving the pieces one by one from said automatic machine, with the assistance of transfer means withdrawing one by one the pieces to be treated from the quenching stations of the automatic machine for transferring them successively thereafter and one by one to each of the working stations;means are provided for blowing into

Abstract: The invention relates to a method and apparatus for controlling the temperatures of a plurality of zones of a casting hearth or vessel. The invention also relates to a method for controlling the thickness of the solidified skull of castable material in the casting hearth or vessel. By the present invention, the efficiency of the skull casting process can be significantly improved by reducing the thickness of the skull and thereby increasing the amount of castable material which can remain molten and pourable.

Abstract: The refractory block arrangement for a rotary slide valve closure for metal melt containers having a bottom discharge, which arrangement comprises a refractory top block; a refractory rotatable frustoconical discharge block having a discharge flow channel having a vertical central axis that coincides with the central axis of the flow channel of the top block, and an axis of rotation extending at an acute angle to the vertical central axis of the discharge flow channel and intersecting the vertical central axis at a point lying in a cross-sectional plane of the discharge opening; and further comprising a drivable annular entraining casing rotatably supported in the slide valve casing of the rotary slide valve closure for supporting the frustoconical discharge block.

Abstract: A system that employs air to directly cool heat-accessible metallurgical vessels that are provided with separate annular supports, characterized in that air channels (6) are positioned on the outside of the annular support (5) with a number of air-injection pipes (7) distributed along the circumference and extending radially from the channels to the inner wall of the annular support, whereby outlets (8) slope up into the gap (3) between the annular support and the outer wall (1) of the metallurgical vessel, in that air is injected into the cooling system through one or both load-bearing connectors (4), and in that the difference in pressure within the system is less than 2000 mm H.sub.2 O and the air travels at less than 25 m/sec.

Abstract: An injection block of an injection valve is disclosed which is normally intended for installation in a metallurgical vessel or holding vessel containing ferrous metal. Other metals can be similarly treated by injection metallurgy, but the maximum utility is believed to be involved in the processing and metallurgical finishing of ferrous metals. The injection block is provided with orifice passages terminating in orifices through which the injections are gas driven, wire fed or in pellet form inserted into the molten metal in the vessel. The orifice passages are angled in one of two directions or a combination of the two directions, radially relative to the axis of the injection block and/or tangentially away from an element that is parallel to the axis of the injection block so as to circumvolve the axis of the injection block.

Abstract: A rotary valve for controlling the discharge of molten metal from a metallurgical vessel includes a refractory rotor having a cylindrical outer peripheral surface and fitted within a recess defined by a cylindrical inner surface in a refractory stator and complementary to the outer surface. The rotor may be rotated about either a horizontal or a vertical axis relative to the stator and may be axially moved within the recess therein. The rotary valve may be mounted on the exterior of a bottom wall of a metallurgical vessel or alternatively may be mounted within a refractory lining of the metallurgical vessel, particularly in a transition area between a side wall and a bottom wall of the metallurigcal vessel. Further alternatively, the rotary valve may be mounted within the refractory lining of the bottom wall of the metallurgical vessel, with the rotor extending through the bottom wall and being actuated for movement from below the bottom wall.

Abstract: A tundish (11) has located alongside it an upright support member (20). A cross arm (22) is pivotally mounted on the member (20) with one end of the cross arm (22) overlying the tundish (11). A hydraulic or pneumatic ram (25) is mounted in the member (20) for applying a downward force on the overlying end of the cross arm (24) which mounts a drive means (27) connected to the stem (14) of a rotary valve (12) for controlling the exit of hot or corrosive liquid from the tundish (11).

Abstract: A torsion pendulum apparatus and a dialometer are combined for simultaneous measurement of the internal friction and the expansion of an alloy. The combination is controlled by a programmable controller so as to conduct in-situ measurements of the internal friction and the expansion of a metal during its phase transformation or specific heat treatment. The results of the internal friction measurement and the expansion measurement can be checked and assumed by one another so that more accurate and detailed information can be obtained for the study of metal alloys.

Abstract: A process and a device for discharging free-flowing media, especially molten metal that is contained in a hermetically sealable vessel having an outlet (2) that has a level-recording unit (3). Pressure is built up in the vessel by supplying a pressurized gaseous medium introduced into the interior of the vessel, whereby the liquid metal is forced from the vessel. After attainment of a certain level of the free-flowing medium in the outlet (2) as detected by the level-recording unit (3), the gaseous medium for building up the dosing pressure is further introduced into the vessel (1) for a predetermined or predeterminable amount of time. Control of pressure inside the vessel (1) is effected by a control unit (4) that receives corresponding signals from a time-recording device (15).