GB735642A - Improvements in or relating to apparatus for feeding articles or moulds through a treating or casting zone - Google Patents

Abstract

735,642. Casting-machines; powder metallurgy. BRENNAN, J. B. June 3, 1952 [Oct. 24, 1951], No. 13954/52. Classes 83 (1) and 83 (4). Apparatus for feeding articles through a casting or treating zone comprises guide means passing through the zone, a feeding device with a number of article-receiving openings therein to bring the openings into register with one end of the guide means, and means for pushing an article from the feeding device into the guide so that another article at the other end of the guide is moved into a similar synchronously-driven unloading device. A tubular member 12 passes through a crucible 1 of molten metal and through a cooling jacket 16 and has lateral openings 13 to allow the entry of metal from the crucible. The crucible is heated by a high-frequency coil 2 and is enclosed in an outer vessel 9 which may be evacuated from a port 11. Molten metal is fed to the crucible by a heated pipe 3 from another crucible 4 similarly enclosed within a vacuum chamber 10. In operation, moulds 15 are loaded into openings in a rotary feeding- device 22 and carried in turn to a position above and in alignment with the member 12, whereupon each mould is pushed into the member by a plunger 29, thereby pushing the lowest mould out of the lower end and into a second rotary device 22 which carries it to an unloading station beneath a plunger 28. As each mould passes through the tube 12, it passes the openings 13 and becomes filled with molten metal. The apparatus may be used for sintering metal compacts by leaving the crucible 1 empty, feeding the compacts through the tube 12 and heating them to sintering temperature by a high-frequency coil 35.