Full throttle valve and method of tube and gate change

A refractory plate for use in valve apparatus for controlling the flow of liquid from the pour opening of the teeming vessel and operative for the injection of fluid material into said pour opening, comprising:

• (a) a refractory body having an axial opening therethrough;
• (b) said axial opening being formed with at least three axially spaced steps of progressively greater diameter from one end of said opening to the other;
• (c) a pourous plug for reception in said axial opening, said plug having an exterior surface formed of axially spaces steps of progressively reduced diameter from one end of said plug to the other;
• (d) the peripheral suraces of the endmost steps on said plug being cementedly connected to the;
• and corresponding steps in the axial opening in said body;
• and
• (e) a step on said plug intermediate said endmost steps being formed of a diameter significantly less than the corresponding step in the axial opening and cooperating therewith to define an annular passage.

A gate operative in valve apparatus in which the flow of metal from the pour opening of a teeming vessel to a receiver is controlled by the throttling movement of the gate with respecct to the vessel pour opening and the receiver inlet and in which the vessel pour opening is circular and the receiver inlet is defined by an opening elongated in the direction of throttling movement of the gate, said gate comprising:

• a generally rectangular refractory body,
• a through-opening in said body defining a metal flow orifice,
• said through-opening at its upper end being substantially circular at its lower end being elongated in the direction of throttling movement of the gate with the major axis of said elongated position of said opening corresponding to the diameter of the circular position thereof, and
• the wall of said through-opening between said upper and lower ends being downwardly converging to maintain a smooth transition between the upper and lower ends thereof.