Apparatus and method for rotary furnace flame control to melt metal

An apparatus for melting metal material comprising:

• a rotatable body having a chamber sized to receive metal material for melting of the metal material;
• at least one burner positionable adjacent to the chamber to output at least one flame for melting of the metal material that is positionable in the chamber;
• a controller having a processor connected to a non-transitory computer readable medium, the controller communicatively connectable to at least one sensor and the at least one burner;
• the controller configured to:
• control operation of the at least one burner so that the least one flame impinges an upper surface of the metal material or is within a pre-selected distance that is no greater than 1 meter from the metal material while an entirety of the metal material is in a solid state;
• and
• determine that the metal material has melted such that the metal material is at least in a partially liquid state liquid state based on sensor data received from the at least one sensor, and, in response to determining that the metal material is at least partially in the liquid state, control operation of the at least one burner to adjust the at least one flame to move the at least one flame away from the metal material.

A control system comprising:

• a controller having a processor connected to a non-transitory computer readable medium, the controller communicatively connectable to the at least one sensor and at least one burner positioned to output at least one flame to melt metal material within a rotatable chamber;
• the controller configured to
• control operation of the at least one burner so that the least one flame impinges an upper surface of the metal material or is within 1 meter of the upper surface of the metal material while an entirety of the metal material is in a solid state;
• and
• determine that the metal material has melted such that the metal material is at least in a partially liquid state based on sensor data received from the at least one sensor, and, in response to determining that the metal material is in the at least partially liquid state, control operation of the at least one burner to adjust the at least one flame to move the at least one flame away from the metal material or cease outputting of the at least one flame.