US3452808A - Device for feeding molten metal to a continuous casting device - Google Patents

Device for feeding molten metal to a continuous casting device Download PDF

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Publication number
US3452808A
US3452808A US569889A US3452808DA US3452808A US 3452808 A US3452808 A US 3452808A US 569889 A US569889 A US 569889A US 3452808D A US3452808D A US 3452808DA US 3452808 A US3452808 A US 3452808A
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molten metal
metal
crucible
wheel
casting
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US569889A
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English (en)
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Ilario Properzi
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    • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
    • B22—CASTING; POWDER METALLURGY
    • B22D—CASTING OF METALS; CASTING OF OTHER SUBSTANCES BY THE SAME PROCESSES OR DEVICES
    • B22D11/00—Continuous casting of metals, i.e. casting in indefinite lengths
    • B22D11/06—Continuous casting of metals, i.e. casting in indefinite lengths into moulds with travelling walls, e.g. with rolls, plates, belts, caterpillars
    • B22D11/0637—Accessories therefor
    • B22D11/064—Accessories therefor for supplying molten metal

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  • PROPERZI 3,452,808 DEVICE FOR FEEDING MOLTEN METAL TO A CONTINUOUS CASTING DEVICE July 1, 1969 Sheet Filed Aug. 5, 1966 INVENTOR ATTORNEY 1.
  • This application relates to a device for feeding molten metal to a continuous casting device.
  • Devices for the continuous casting of metals are known, wherein molten metal is continuously cast and wherefrom said metal is fed out, usually in the form of a continuous section or molten bar.
  • Rods, tapes or round bars obtained with such devices are, however, exposed to the drawback of showing structural defects or even segregation of the components of a metal alloy if a metal alloy is being cast. It has been possible to ascertain that the aforementioned short-comings are essentially a result of the fact that the cooling or solidification of the liquid metal take place with said liquid metal in an at rest condition in general, so that the solidified metal exhibits as has been viewed both in macrographic and micrographic plates, a crystalline structure which is somewhat coarse and is accompanied by separation of components.
  • the crucible which contains the molten metal is affixed to the framing of the device above the liquid meniscus of said device, and the molten metal reaches said meniscus by flowing within a nozzle having the shape of an elongate conduit which is sloping with respect to a vertical line, projects from the crucibles bottom and extends up to the immediate vicinity of said meniscus.
  • the molten metal flows with a considerable momentum from the nozzle and induces a whirling motion within the liquid metal being cooled within the device: to obtain the desired grain size in the crystalline structure of the metal which is being solidified within the device, the turbulence of the liquid metal being cooled should obviously have a predetermined value, and this means that the molten metal should be fed out of the outlet nozzle of the crucible at a determined speed.
  • the rate of flow of the molten metal from the nozzle is determined by the head of molten metal in the crucible, that is, by the level differential between the outlet orifice of the nozzle and the level of molten metal within the crucible.
  • the continuous casting device also includes a wheel having a peripheral groove, driven to a continuous and constant rotary motion, of the kind disclosed in the U.S. patent applications No. 243,087 and No. 404,815 and in the British Patent 1,014,449.
  • the rate of flow of the molten metal from the crucible should have, under steady operative conditions, a well defined and constant value so as to give rise to the desired turbulence rating. It may occur that the temperature of the molten metal in the crucible undergoes even considerable variations as a consequence of corresponding variations taking place in the oven and that the efficiency of the metal cooling system within the device is varied for example due to pressure differentials of the coolant water. To make the problem quite clear, let it be assumed that during casting the temperature of the molten metal Within the crucible undergoes a sudden increase, or that the efiiciency of the cooling is decreased due to a decrease of the pressure of the water which feeds the cooling system, the latter being for example of the kind disclosed in the U.S.
  • the device, or wheel for the continuous casting is coupled to a rolling mill so as to form a unit for continuous casting and rolling wherein the conditions of the unit could frequently demand variations in the speed of rotation of said wheel.
  • the wheel should increase its rotational speed so as to increase the solidified metal output, one has obviously to increase the amount of molten metal delivered by the crucible so as to keep at a constant level the liquid meniscus, that is the liquid plane within the peripheral groove of the wheel. This increased delivery of molten metal obviously requires an increase of turbulence of the metal being cooled so as to avoid the formation of coarse crystals.
  • 404,815 lies in that, if it is necessary to slow the rotation speed of the wheel in which the cooling of the metal takes place and it thus becomes necessary to diminish the flow of molten metal from the crucible, the molten metal stream flowing within the nozzle and whose cross-section becomes thinner and thinner towards the outlet bore of the nozzle due to the speed increase, may split into droplets in its lowermost portion, thus giving rise to gaseous occlusions.
  • a further drawback is the difficulty of making long nozzles of a refractory material, adapted to convey liquefied metals at a high temperature, such as steel, copper and their alloys.
  • Another object is to cause the molten metal to go from the crucible to the liquid meniscus in a vertical casting by freely falling from said crucible, thus doing away with the necessity of having nozzles for conveying said molten metal.
  • the additional advantage is thus achieved that the liquid meniscus in the groove of the casting wheel on which the molten metal coming from the crucible falls has a minimum area which substantially corresponds to a section of the groove taken with a horizontal plane containing the axis of the wheel; the cooling of the liquid metal in the vicinity of the meniscus is thus more regular than it would be in the case in which the casting takes place through the long nozzle of the prior art with which a liquid meniscus having a larger area was obtained, corresponding to a section of the wheel groove still taken with a horizontal plane but not containing the axis of the wheel.
  • the device according to the invention comprising supporting members which can be vertically moved and parallel to themselves and supporting a crucible containing the molten metal to feed the continuous casting device and means for controlling the vertical displacement of said members, the crucible bottom being fitted with a perforation positioned on the vertical line of the liquid plane of the molten metal being cooled within the device.
  • FIGURE 1 is a diagrammatical elevational view, partly in section, of a continuous casting machine
  • FIGURE 2 is illustrative of an enlarged detail of the device, taken along the line IIII of FIG. 1.
  • FIGURE 1 is illustrative of a continuous casting machine for metals which is very similar, the device for feeding in the molten metal being excepted, to the machines described in the above mentioned U.S. copending patent applications No. 243,087, No. 404,815 and in the British Patent No. 1,014,449.
  • Said device comprises a baseplate 1 which freely and rotatably supports the shaft 2 of a casting wheel 3 which is rotatable about its own axis and has a peripheral casting groove 4.
  • a pillar 5 which supports an arm 6 carrying two wheels, 7 and 8, respectively, which freely rotate about their axes.
  • a flexible endless metal tape 9 is held taut between the casting wheel 3 and the wheels 7 and 8: the tension of the tape is obtained through a device diagrammatically shown in FIG. 1 and connoted by the numeral 10, which is not illustrated in detail for simplifying the showing in that it is of known and conventional construction and is adapted to transfer displacements to the wheel 7 in the sense of bringing it towards and away of the wheels 3 and 8.
  • the endless tape 9 is moved solidly with the casting wheel 3 in the direction indicated by the arrow in FIG. 1 and confines, with the peripheral groove 4 of said wheel a so-called casting area which is extended along an arc of circle defined by the periphery of the rotary casting wheel: more precisely, said are goes from that point of the periphery of the wheel 3 in which the tape 9 is kept pressed against said wheel by an idle roller 11 to the point at which the tape parts off said Wheel.
  • the casting wheel is internally cooled and is also cooled from its outside by a device 13 simply and diagrammatically shown in FIG. 1 since the cooling system is not disclosed in detail herein and is not shown in the drawings in detail inasmuch as it is of a kind very much the same as that disclosed in the US. patent application No. 243,087 and British Patent No. 1,014,449.
  • a device for feeding the molten metal to said wheel, said device comprising a vertical guiding member 14 affixed to the machine baseplate in which a vertical groove, in the shape of a dovetail, has been formed; said groove houses and guides a slide which is movable and to whose body 15 (FIGS. 1 and 2) are solidly afiixed bracket-like members 16 which carry a crucible 17.
  • body 15 FIGS. 1 and 2
  • a vertical screw-threaded bore is formed (not shown in the draw ings), in which a long threaded shaft 16 is engaged.
  • a wheel 19 having a helical thread engaging a worm-Wheel 20, placed horizontally and rotated whenever a rotational drive is imparted to a handwheel 21 afiixed to the shaft of said screw. It is apparent that a rotation in either direction of the handwheel 21 caused a corresponding rotation of the threaded shaft 18 and thus a lifting or a depression in vertical direction of the slide 15 and thus also of the crucible 17.
  • the crucible 17 holds molten metal 22 which continually pours out of a melting furnace in a manner known per se and not shown for the sake of simplicity.
  • the crucible has been shown partially shielded by a vault 23 lined with a refractory material through which a perforation 24 (see also FIG. 1) has been formed, a flame being passed through said hole so as to sweep the liquid plane of the molten metal held in said crucible, a fuel for the heating flame being fed in a conventional way through a blowpipe 25.
  • a member 26 is provided through which a bore is formed, exactly positioned on the vertical line of the section of the groove 4 which is substantially defined by a horizontal plane passing through the axis of the wheel 3 and is near the roller 11.
  • a rod 27 is pro vided, which is vertically movable and whose displacement can be controlled through manually actuable members 28 and 29.
  • the member 28 can simply consist of a head shaped as a handle, solid with the rod 27 which in a portion intermediate its length can be screwthreaded screwably to engage a nut afiixed to the machine baseplate. By rotating the member 28 the rod 27 would be either lifted or depressed according to the direction of rotation.
  • the member 29 could, in turn, be the head of a screw which is intended to lock the rod 27 by impeding the displacements thereof.
  • the lower portion of the rod 27 is shaped as a conical surface so that, by displacing the rod 27, it is possible to vary the flow area of member 26 from a condition of complete closure to a condition of total aperture, thus varying the rate of flow, or flow in the unit of time of molten metal from the crucible.
  • tubular member 30 for example a stainless steel tube, having the shape shown in the drawings and extending downwardly towards the casting wheel 3.
  • the hole of the member 26 is at least partially left free by the rod 27 and the metal held in the crucible, for example steel or copper or their alloys, freely falls from said hole into the groove 4 of the casting wheel, Under normal steady operative conditions, the groove 4, in correspondence with the casting area, is filled with metal which, in the right side of FIG. 1 is liquid and is solid in the left portion of said figure,
  • the liquid plane or meniscus 31 of the molten metal 32 in the casting wheel is kept at a constant level substantially contained in a horizontal plane passing through the axis of the casting wheel, and that means, as outlined above, that said meniscus has an area corresponding to the minimum area of the cross-section of thecasting groove, the result being that the cooling of the liquid metal in the neighborhood of the meniscus 31 takes place under conditions of utmost uniformity.
  • the liquid metal coming out of the hole of member 28 freely and directly falls onto the liquid meniscus in the casting Wheel.
  • the metal solidified in the casting wheel continually emerges from said wheel in the form, for example, of a continuous rod 33 and is removed for the subsequent uses.
  • tubular member 30 since the tubular member 30 has an opening which communicates with the ambient atmosphere only at its lowermost end, no air renewal takes place therewithin, so that the liquidlcolumn falling from the crucible is practically submerged by an inert gas atmosphere.
  • the tubular member 30 also fulfills the function of avoiding that possible droplets or spatters of molten metal falling from the crucible may be a hazard for people standing near the machine, said drops being conveyed into the groove 4.
  • the molten metal falling from the crucible comes into contact with the meniscus 31 of the liquid metal being cooled in the casting area of the wheel 3 at a speed which is essentially a function of the distance of the crucible from said meniscus 31, the level of the liquid plane of the molten metal Within the crucible being kept constant during the continuous casting operation.
  • the kinetic energy of the metal falling into the casting area of the wheel 3 originates a vigorous turbulence of the metal being cooled in said area, coarse crystalline formation being thus prevented along with segregations of the constituents of an alloy, if the metal being cast is in alloy form.
  • the speed at which the molten metal falling from the crucible comes into contact with the liquid meniscus 31 can be varied very quickly and simply manipulating the handwheel 21 so as to lift or depress the crucible: it is thus possible readily to obtain a solidified metal having a uniform crystalline structure of the desired grain size.
  • a continuous casting machine comprising a rotatable casting wheel having a circumferential edge face provided with a circumferential casting groove therein; an endless travelling belt looped about the circumference of said wheel and having an inner surface engaging said edge face over a portion of are for closing a corresponding portion of said groove and defining a travelling mold cavity therewith; supply means arranged to introduce molten metal into said travelling mold cavity for undergoing cooling and solidification therewithin; a crucible having an outlet aperture located upwardly spaced from the upstream end of said travelling mold cavity; first means operative for varying the rate of flow of molten metal through said outlet opening and second means operative for varying the spacing of said outlet aperture from the level of molten metal in said travelling mold cavity, whereby to vary the kinetic energy with which molten metal issuing from said outlet aperture impinges upon and mixes with the molten metal in said mold cavity.
  • said outlet aperture having a predetermined cross-sectional area
  • said first means being operative for varying the effective cross-section of said outlet aperture between two conditions in which the eflective cross-section respectively corresponds to 100% and to 0% of said predetermined crosssectional area.
  • said second means being operative for varying the spacing of said outlet from said level of molten metal in said casting groove in a direction substantially vertical to said level.
  • said supply means further comprising a tubular member carried by said crucible and extending from said bottom wall towards said travelling mold cavity in registry with said outlet aperture, so that molten metal issuing from the latter passes through said tubular member prior to entering into said mold cavity.
  • tubular member being imperforate and having an upper open end rigid with said bottom wall and a lower open end proximal t0 the upstream end of said travelling mold cavity, so that molten metal passing from said outlet aperture into said mold cavity is surrounded by said tubular member over substantially the entire distance between the former and the latter.

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  • Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
  • Mechanical Engineering (AREA)
  • Continuous Casting (AREA)
US569889A 1965-08-05 1966-08-03 Device for feeding molten metal to a continuous casting device Expired - Lifetime US3452808A (en)

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Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
IT779565 1965-08-05
IT1767365 1965-08-05

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BE (1) BE685157A (en, 2012)
CH (1) CH445033A (en, 2012)
GB (1) GB1143264A (en, 2012)

Cited By (6)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US3596705A (en) * 1970-01-28 1971-08-03 Southwire Co Long band life wheel-band casting machine
US3623535A (en) * 1969-05-02 1971-11-30 Southwire Co High-speed continuous casting method
US3710846A (en) * 1970-01-14 1973-01-16 I Properzi Continuous casting apparatus
US3805877A (en) * 1972-09-15 1974-04-23 Southwire Co Continuous casting apparatus employing an oval-ended pouring spout
EP0233481A1 (en) * 1986-01-28 1987-08-26 Inco Engineered Products Limited Improvements in casting metal strip
US5137075A (en) * 1987-10-13 1992-08-11 Ltv Steel Company, Inc. Continuous casting apparatus and method

Families Citing this family (4)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US3682234A (en) * 1970-09-17 1972-08-08 Essex International Inc Structure for the continuous casting of metal bars
FR2359663A1 (fr) * 1976-07-27 1978-02-24 Pechiney Aluminium Ruban metallique sans tension et a haute conductibilite thermique pour machine de coulee
FR2779672B1 (fr) * 1998-06-10 2000-07-28 Pechiney Rhenalu Procede de fabrication de profiles metalliques de section polygonale par coulee continue sur roue a gorge et laminage continu
EP2780302A4 (en) 2011-11-17 2015-07-22 Dyno Nobel Asia Pacific Pty Ltd EXPLOSIVE COMPOSITIONS

Citations (4)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US315045A (en) * 1885-04-07 Nathan e
US359348A (en) * 1887-03-15 Mechanism for forming ingots
US2659949A (en) * 1951-11-08 1953-11-24 Properzi Ilario Machine for the continuous casting of metal rods
US3300821A (en) * 1964-08-14 1967-01-31 Gen Motors Corp Battery grid casting method and machine

Patent Citations (4)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US315045A (en) * 1885-04-07 Nathan e
US359348A (en) * 1887-03-15 Mechanism for forming ingots
US2659949A (en) * 1951-11-08 1953-11-24 Properzi Ilario Machine for the continuous casting of metal rods
US3300821A (en) * 1964-08-14 1967-01-31 Gen Motors Corp Battery grid casting method and machine

Cited By (6)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US3623535A (en) * 1969-05-02 1971-11-30 Southwire Co High-speed continuous casting method
US3710846A (en) * 1970-01-14 1973-01-16 I Properzi Continuous casting apparatus
US3596705A (en) * 1970-01-28 1971-08-03 Southwire Co Long band life wheel-band casting machine
US3805877A (en) * 1972-09-15 1974-04-23 Southwire Co Continuous casting apparatus employing an oval-ended pouring spout
EP0233481A1 (en) * 1986-01-28 1987-08-26 Inco Engineered Products Limited Improvements in casting metal strip
US5137075A (en) * 1987-10-13 1992-08-11 Ltv Steel Company, Inc. Continuous casting apparatus and method

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BE685157A (en, 2012) 1967-01-16
CH445033A (it) 1967-10-15
GB1143264A (en) 1969-02-19

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