Abstract: An arrangement for controlling the pouring of a melt out of a crucible with a hole in the bottom which hole is blocked while the material is being melted with a closure plate that melts through locally as the result of heat transferred from the melt. To precisely establish the time at which the closure plate melts through, the plate is cooled from below while the starting material is being melted. Cooling is at least decreased and preferably terminated when it is time to pour out the melt. The plate can be cooled by a flow of a gas coolant directed against it or by contact with a cooling element that is raised into position against it from below.

Abstract: A device for manufacturing powder from a melt by a mechanism for dividing it up. The device has a vertical shaft and a powder outtake that communicates with the shaft. To achieve the objectives of reducing the overall height of such a device and preventing the powder from sintering, the powder outtake consists of the lower section of the shaft and has essentially the same cross-section as the upper section. Both sections, together, essentially determine the overall height of the device. Both sections are connected with a releasable connecting element and can be separated from each other in a direction perpendicular to the axis of the shaft.

Abstract: An arrangement for manufacturing powder from a melt by a mechanism for dividing it up. The device has a vertical shaft and a powder outtake that communicates with the shaft through a funnel-shaped housing component. To achieve the objectives of reducing the overall height of such a device and preventing the powder from sintering, the axis of the housing component is perpendicular to the axis of the shaft, and the shaft tilts in a bearing until the axis of the housing component is horizontal.

Abstract: A plant for producing metal powder from metal melts includes a first chamber with a device for converting a melt stream initially into liquid and then solid metal particles in a non-oxidizing atmosphere, a tundish with a closable floor opening that can be mounted on the first chamber and discharged thereinto, and a melt device for filling the tundish with molten metal. The metal melt is continuously protected against oxidation or absorption of gas, the structural height of the plant is reduced and the capacity of the melt device is utilized to a greater degree by enclosing the melt device by a second chamber separated from the first chamber for maintaining a nonoxidizing atmosphere. The second chamber is equipped with at least one lock into which the tundish can be brought and from which it can be removed.

Abstract: To improve the bonding layer for connecting wires to semiconductor chips with contact fingers, or contact strips, on a substrate carrier, the bonding layer is formed as spongy, microporous structure, applied to discrete positions of the contact strips by screen printing, and secured to the metallic connecting strip by a diffusion zone. Preferably, the bonding layer comprises a metal of gold, palladium, silver, aluminum and copper, or an alloy of at least two of these metals, or a base alloy of one of these metals, for example gold applied as a gold paste having an average grain size of less than 5 micro-meters, the layer being between 2 to 30 micrometers thick, preferably 3 to 10 micrometers. The metal is part of a paste of the metal in an evaporative organic carrier. After screen printing, the carrier is eliminated by heating; subsequent heating converts the metal to a spongy microporous structure bonded to the substrate carrier by a diffusion zone.

Abstract: To improve the bonding layer for connecting wires to semiconductor chips with contact fingers, or contact strips, on the carrier, the bonding layer is formed as spongy, microporous structure, applied to discrete positions of the contact strips by screen printing, and secured to the metallic connecting strip by a diffusion zone. Preferably, the bonding layer comprises a metal of gold, palladium, silver, aluminum and copper, or an alloy of at least two of these metals, or a base alloy of one of those metals, for example gold applied as a gold paste having an average grain size of less than 5 micrometers, the layer being between 2 to 30 micrometers thick, preferably 3 to 10 micrometers.