Apparatus for accreting molten copper on a moving core member

Claim 1

In an apparatus for the continuous casting of metals by running an elongated solid body into a molten copper bath at a point below the bath surface and running the body through the bath and into the space above the surface of the bath, which comprises a crucible having a molten metal bath-containing chamber, entrance chamber means providing an entrance chamber removed from the crucible bath-containing chamber, entrance port means disposed between the entrance chamber and the crucible bath-containing chamber and having a passageway connecting the bath-containing chamber and entrance chamber and opening into the bath-containing chamber below the normal molten metal bath surface level therein, the entrance port passage having a portion to cooperate with an elongated solid body passing through the entrance port means and providing a seal against a molten metal flow from the crucible bath-containing chamber to the entrance chamber, and means for running the elongated body through the entrance chamber and the entrance port means passageway and into and upwardly through the crucible bath-containing chamber, the improvement wherein the entrance port means comprises a centrally apertured cylindrical bushing element having a flange at one end and a reduced cylindrical extension at its other end, a thin-wall tubular element having one end secured in the central apertured cylindrical bushing element, the other end of the tubular element extending beyond the reduced cylindrical extension of the bushing element, a first apertured bushing member enclosing the extended end of the tubular element and the reduced cylindrical extension of the bushing element, a second apertured bushing element which retains within its aperture the first apertured bushing; the thin-wall tubular element constructed from a material selected from rhenium, rhenium-based alloys, tungsten and tungsten-rhenium alloys.