Apparatus for feeding raw material bars to a melting furnace

An apparatus for feeding raw material bars to a furnace body of a melting furnace, said apparatus comprising:

• an enclosure body provided with a feed passage that extends vertically and that is to be disposed above an open top side of the furnace body;
• a feeding unit including a push mechanism that extends vertically into an upper part of the feed passage, and a material retarder that extends into a lower part of the feed passage;
• and
• a transferring unit disposed at the enclosure body and configured to transfer a raw material bar to the feed passage in a manner that the raw material bar extends vertically in the feed passage with the push mechanism being disposed above the raw material bar and with the raw material bar contacting the material retarder;
• wherein the push mechanism is operable to push the raw material bar in the feed passage downwardly and the material retarder is configured to retard downward movement of the raw material bar out of the feed passage and into the furnace body;
• wherein the enclosure body further has an access passage;
• wherein the apparatus further comprises a carriage movable into and out of the access passage and configured to hold the raw material bars;
• and
• wherein the enclosure body further has a gate mechanism configured to selectively open and close the access passage.