Closed tiltable steelworks arc furnace with associated scrap charging assembly

A steelworks apparatus, comprising:

• a closed tiltable arc furnace operable for melting metal scrap, said furnace comprising a lower vessel part and an upper vessel part defining a furnace interior, a furnace roof, an electrode extending into the upper vessel part, means for exhausting gases from the furnace interior, and means for feeding charge material into the furnace interior;
• said feeding means comprising a pair of tiltable storage containers mounted on the furnace for receiving and holding scrap to be heated and fed into the furnace interior;
• each said storage container having a bottom communicating with the furnace interior and a top opposite said bottom and said, each container being connected to said gas exhausting means intermediate said top and bottom for receiving exhaust gases from the furnace interior;
• a sealing device in each said storage container and operable for closing the container top against a release of exhaust gases from said top and for directing exhaust gases from said gas exhausting means toward the storage container bottom to heat scrap held in said container;
• a gas-permeable bottom-defining device proximate the bottom of each said storage container and operatively movable between a closed position in which the bottom-defining device prevents passage of scrap in said storage container through and beyond said device while permitting ready passage of gases through said device, and an open position in which scrap in said storage container is passable beyond said bottom-defining device and into the furnace interior;
• and
• compensation means disposed between said lower vessel part and said storage containers for accommodating relative positional and orientational changes of said lower vessel part and said storage containers as said arc furnace and said storage containers are operatively tilted while maintaining a gas-tight connection between said furnace interior and said storage containers.