Importance

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Abstract

This invention relates to improvements in molten metal pumps for the transfer of principally molten aluminum and zinc from specialized molten and holding furnaces through fluidics control means downstream of the pump to control the direction of flow of molten metals at 1200.degree.-1600.degree. temperatures. The molten metal pump is characterized by both upper and lower dual volute pumps driven by the same shaft, each having separated intake filtering adjacent the top and bottom of the pump unit. Separated and extended molten metal intake permit molten metal flow from a submerged environment through restricted peripheral ingress slots both about the top and bottom and into both top and bottom independent voluted pump impellers. The invention permits direct use of the novel pump with aluminum metal, whose oxide impurities settle and/or zinc metal whose oxide particles float, in the molten state without pump modification. Separate dual peripheral filter ingress zones lead into separated dual volute pumps removing hard particulates suspended in the melt, illustratively; spalled fire brick refractory chunks, scraps of unmelted metal and other foreign inclusions from causing excessive wear and tear or total destruction of the interior volutes and their related impellers of the pumps. The combination of the so-improved pump in cooperation with the divergent stream transition control provides an improved portable of selectivity of one egress out of two diverging exit channels through molten metal flow control remote from the melt.

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First Claim