Preheating appartus for steel scrap and metallurgical melting vessel equipped therewith

A metallurgical melting apparatus, comprising:

• a metallurgical melting vessel with a charging opening on an upper side for receiving steel scrap;
• and
• a preheating apparatus disposed above the charging opening, including
• a vertical shaft, disposed above the metallurgical melting vessel and surrounded by a housing wall, receiving the steel scrap;
• at least one closure element having fingers laterally spaced substantially equidistantly apart, each finger being curved along an arc of curvature and having a concave upper surface;
• and
• a support structure including a base frame with an opening above the metallurgical melting vessel and a support frame, having lower ends attached to the base frame and upper ends attached to the at least one closure element and suspending the at least one closure element above the opening in the base frame, the at least one closure element being supported during movement from a closed position in which the at least one closure element holds back the steel scrap by protruding at least partly into the vertical shaft, to an open position in which the at least one closure element is opened at least wide enough so that the steel scrap falls from the vertical shaft through the opening in the base frame and into the metallurgical melting vessel, the movement of the at least one closure element being along the arc of curvature and having an axis of rotation located at a vertical distance above the fingers and running transverse to a vertical axis of the vertical shaft, the axis of rotation being located at a center of the arc of curvature of the fingers.