Crucible preheating stations

Molten metal transport crucibles are used widely in the aluminium industry. In primary plants they are used to transport the liquid metal from the pot rooms to the casthouse furnaces, in semi fabrication plants they are used to shuttle metal between furnaces, in recycling plants they are used to deliver liquid metal by road to customers and in die casting plants they are used to bring metal from bulk melting furnaces to the holding furnaces at the die casting machines.

For all these applications it is of paramount importance that these crucibles are going to a proper dry-out cycle when the refractory lining is newly installed and that they are preheated in-between use. Crucibles must be absolutely dry before they can be filled with liquid metal! Failure to dry crucibles before filling can cause solidification of the metal inside the cold crucible but when there is moisture in the crucible, this can cause life-threatening explosions!

Thermcon make custom designed crucible preheating systems. The picture does show a preheating station in the crucible maintenance shop in a primary smelter. A significant feature of these crucibles is that they have two possibilities to be emptied, one is by tipping and pours the metal out via the spout, and the other is via a pneumatically operated bottom tap out. This option was included to be able to serve all existing furnace configurations in the plant where space restrictions necessitated two different systems for emptying.