US3406736A

US3406736A - Mold for sampling molten iron

Info

Publication number: US3406736A
Application number: US539999A
Authority: US
Inventors: Robert W Jett; James I Mcnelis; Sowa Steven
Original assignee: Ford Motor Co
Current assignee: Ford Motor Co
Priority date: 1966-04-04
Filing date: 1966-04-04
Publication date: 1968-10-22
Anticipated expiration: 1985-10-22

Description

Oct. 22, 1968 R. w. JETT ETAL MOLD FOR SAMPLING MOLTEN IRON Filed April 4, 1966 F/G. Z

////U/ /UU /z/ ROBERT W JE 77' JAMES Mc/VE IS STEVEN SOWA INVENTORS United States Patent O 3,406,736 MOLD FOR SAMPLING MOLTEN IRON Robert W. Jett, Sonthgate, James I. McNelis, Trenton,

and Steven Sowa, Lincoln Park, Mlich., assignors to Ford Motor Company, Dearborn, Mich., a corporation of Delaware Filed Apr. 4, 1966, Ser. No. 539,999 4 Clairns. (Cl. 164-4) ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A sampling device for removing an analytical sample from a fiow stream of molten metal such as gray or pig iron. This sampling device is fabricated from a highly conductive, high melting point metal.

This invention relates to the ferrous metal production field and is more specifically concerned with a process and apparatus for more elfectively correlating the operations of a conventional blast furnace and a basic Oxygen furnace for the production of steel from the iron produced by the blast furnace. This invention is more particularly concerned with a process of accurately and quickly sampling the blast furnace iron as it is tapped from the blast furnace and with an apparatus for executing this sampling method.

The usual basic Oxygen charge is approximately seventy percent molten blast furnace iron and is charged as received from the blast furnace. An essentially immediate knowledge of the chemistry of this lmolten iron is necessary to the intelligent and most effective operation of the basic Oxygen furnace into which this iron is charged. The process and apparatus taught by this invention enables a sarnple of this iron to be taken quickly, economically and without contamination.

This invention is explained in connection with the drawings in which:

FIGURE 1 is an exploded perspective view of the essentials of the sampling apparatus with a similar showing of a finished sample, and

FIGURE 2 is a perspective view of the actual sampling operation showing pictorially the preferred Way of obtaining a sample from a stream of molten iron as it fiows from the blast furnace.

FIGURE 1 clearly shows the mold employed for casting the sample. The particular device illustrated has been machined from a copper rod four inches (10.2 cm.) long and two and one eighth inches (5.4 cm.) in diameter. Copper has been chosen for its combination of very high conductivity and reasonably high melting point. The invention is not limited to the use of copper but may obviously by carried out in a mold of silver, or any other metal of similar thermal characteristics.

The mold employed in this invention may well take the form of a cylinder split upon a longitudinal axis, with the halves so produced provided with keying recesses and tapered dowel pins to assure proper assembly. A circular passage one half inch (1.3 cm.) in diameter and one and one quarter inches (3.18 cm.) deep is drilled axially from each end of the mold assembly. That portion of the mold 3,406,736 Patented Oct. 22, 1968 ICC between the ends of these passages is machined to produe a sample cavity which will produce a sample one and one quarter inches (3.18 cm.) in diameter and about three sixteenths (0.48 cm.) of an inch thick. This sample 5 cavity is connected at each end to the circular passages.

The actual sampling operation is seen in FIGURE 2.

The mold described supra is secured in refractory coated tongs (not shown) and placed in the fiowing stream of iron with the upstream mold passage immersed in the molten iron and the downstream passage held out of the iron stream. The high thermal conductivity of the copper mold protects it from attack by the molten iron for a period of time sufficient to permit a sample to be secured. The particular mold form shown provides, if necessary, for an initial brief fiow of iron through the mold if a rapid iron stream is conducted through the mold and also for the freezing of a sample promptly in the sample cavity when the fiow is retarded. The rate of fiow is regulated by the inclination of the mold.

The finished sample is promptly obtained by separating the two halves of the mold and removing the cast sample. The sample in the sample cavity is available for chemical analysis With only minor surface preparation.

This invention is clearly applicable to the sampling of metals from molten streams other than cast iron. Molten finished steel is an obvious example.

We clairn as our invention:

1. The process of obtaining a clean and representative analytieal sample from a stream of molten metal comprising supporting a highly conductive metallic mold in the stream of molten metal, said mold having a pair of passages each of which start at an end of the mold and terminate in an intermediate sample cavity which sample cavity has one dimension much less than the smallest dimension of the passages, fiowing the molten metal through one of the passages into the sample cavity and freezing the sample in the cavity to provide the solid sample.

' 2. The process recited in claim 1 in which the sample is taken with the axis of the passages arranged so that the outer termination of the upstream passage is immersed in molten metal and the outer termination of the downstream passage is at least partially above the adjacent fiowing metal.

3. The process recited in claim 1 in which the arrangement of the mold in the stream is such that the first metal entering the mold fiows past the sample cavity without solidifying therein.

4. The process recited in claim 1 in which the small dimension of the sample cavity is approximately Vertical. 50

References Cited J. SPENCER OVERI-IOLSER, Primary Examiner. E. MAR, Assistant Examner.