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US 10,946,440 B2Granted
Process and apparatus for minimizing the potential for explosions in the direct chill casting aluminum alloys
AssigneeAlmex USA, Inc.
InventorsRavindra V. Tilak, Rodney W. Wirtz, Ronald M. Streigle
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Steam exhaust ports are located around a perimeter of a direct chill casting pit, at various locations from below the top of the pit to the pit bottom to rapidly remove steam from the casting pit with addition of dry excess air. Gas introduction ports are also located around a perimeter of the casting pit and configured to introduce an inert gas into the casting pit interior.
Claims20
An apparatus comprising:
- a casting pit having top, intermediate and bottom portions;
- a mold located at a top portion of the casting pit;
- a mechanism for introducing coolant for cooling and solidifying a molten metal as it passes through the mold;
- a movable platen supporting the metal as it solidifies in the mold;
- a mechanism for detecting the occurrence of a bleed-out or a run-out;
- an array of exhaust ports for exhausting a generated gas from the casting pit;
- an array of inlet ports for introducing an inert gas into the casting pit to impinge on a solidifying metal wherein the inert gas has a density less than a density of air;
- and
- a mechanism for exhausting the generated gas continuously and in parallel with the introducing of the inert gas.
6 more elements
An apparatus comprising:
- a casting pit having top, intermediate and bottom portions;
- a mold located at a top portion of the casting pit;
- a mechanism for introducing coolant for cooling and solidifying a molten metal as it passes through the mold;
- a movable platen supporting the metal as it solidifies in the mold;
- a mechanism for detecting the occurrence of a bleed-out or a run-out;
- an array of exhaust ports for exhausting a generated gas from the casting pit, wherein the array of exhaust ports comprise exhaust ports about at least the top portion of the casting pit;
- an array of inlet ports for introducing an inert gas from a gas introduction system into the casting pit to impinge on a solidifying metal wherein the inert gas has a density less than a density of air and wherein the array of inlet ports comprise inlet ports about at least the top portion of the casting pit;
- a mechanism for exhausting the generated gas continuously and in parallel with the introducing of the inert gas;
- and
- a controller comprising non-transitory machine-readable instructions that when executed by the controller, stop an introduction of coolant and activate the gas introduction system.
7 more elements
An apparatus comprising:
- a casting pit having top, intermediate and bottom portions;
- a mold located at a top portion of the casting pit;
- a mechanism for introducing coolant for cooling and solidifying a molten metal as it passes through the mold;
- a movable platen supporting the metal as it solidifies in the mold;
- a mechanism for detecting the occurrence of a bleed-out or a run-out;
- an array of exhaust ports for exhausting a generated gas from the casting pit, wherein the array of exhaust ports comprise exhaust ports about at least the top portion of the casting pit;
- an array of inlet ports for introducing an inert gas from a gas introduction system into the casting pit to impinge on a solidifying metal wherein the inert gas has a density less than a density of air and wherein the array of inlet ports comprise inlet ports about at least the top portion of the casting pit;
- a mechanism for exhausting the generated gas continuously and in parallel with the introducing of the inert gas;
- and
- a controller comprising non-transitory machine-readable instructions that when executed by the controller, stop an introduction of coolant and activate the gas introduction system in response to a signal from the bleed-out or run-out detection mechanism.
7 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.