GB1468528A - Method and apparatus for gas shroulding of liquids - Google Patents

Abstract

1468528 Continuous casting; pouring metal through special atmospheres JONES & LAUGHLIN STEEL CORP 1 March 1974 [15 March 1973] 9418/74 Heading B3F [Also in Division F4] A protective atmosphere for a stream of liquid, e.g. comprising one of the inert gases, nitrogen, a hydrocarbon or a mixture of these for protecting a steel stream, passing from a container 11 (such as a casting ladle or tundish) to a second container 13 (such as a tundish or mould) is provided by way of a tube 15 communicating with a tube 14 between its open ends and mounted, as on a pivot 31, on a support 33, or slidably, so that the tube 14 can be moved transversely with regard to its axis, into or out of the position where the stream passes through it, while the stream is passing. The hydrocarbon may be natural gas, propane, coke oven gas or an atomized mist. The tubes 14, 15 may be round, oval, square, rectangular, triangular or hexagonal in crosssection and a tube may be different in crosssection at its two ends. They may be of steel, ceramic or composite metal/refractory. As well as being movable laterally by virtue of the pivot 31, the tube 14 may be tilted since the tube 15 is mounted on a ball-and-socket 32. The tubular device 14, 15 may be mounted independently of the mould or tundish 13. It may be mounted on a ladle, especially if the latter is used to feed a series of moulds. For non-turbulent flow, the gas is passed from a pipe 18 by a diffusion nozzle 17 into the tube 15. It flows out at both ends of the upright tube 14 and therefore leaves in counterflow to the protected stream at one end and concurrently at the other. According to weight relative to air, the tube 15 is connected to the tube 14 nearer the top or the bottom.