Rotary Casting Machine

a device for pouring liquified metal into molds.

The rotary casting machine was proposed in 1897 by the American metallurgist A. Walker. It is widely used in nonferrous metallurgy for casting nickel and copper anodes, commercial lead and zinc ingots, and wirebars (bars made of electrochemically purified copper, used mainly for the production of wire).

The working section of the rotary casting machine consists of a round turntable with supports upon which the molds are set. The molds are arranged radially in the rotary casting machines used for the production of anodes and ingots; in machines producing wirebars the arrangement may be either radial or tangential. The tangential arrangement makes continuous copper casting possible, ensuring ingots of higher quality. The metal is poured into the molds with a casting ladle. When the turntable rotates, the melt enters a water-cooled zone to be cooled. In anode rotary casting machines, the hardened anodes are removed from the turntable by a special device (stripper) and sent to a water tank for final cooling, while the empty molds are sprayed with milk of lime (in order to prevent the copper from sticking) and are readied again for pouring. Rotary casting machines for wirebars operate similarly to those designed for anode production, differing only in that the ingots are removed by tipping over the molds into a water-filled sump. The wirebars proceed from the sump to a discharge conveyer. Machines for casting lead and zinc are equipped with an ingot-stamping mechanism, stackers, and a device for removing the oxide film from the surface of the zinc melt.

In the USSR the output of rotary casting machines is as high as 50 tons of ingots per hour. In a number of zinc plants the machines are equipped with an automatic device for laying the zinc ingots in stacks and binding them.