Continuous horizontal caster

Claim 1

In apparatus for continuously casting lengths of metal including a coolable mold, a source of melt coupled to the mold for continuously supplying melt to the mold during casting, a block of insulating material disposed between said mold and said source for substantially thermally isolating said mold from said source, and an orifice through said block for passing melt from said source to said mold, the improvement wherein said source comprises: a container having a plurality of walls defining a reservoir for containing said melt; a standpipe affixed to one of said walls and extending into said reservoir; an inlet at the lower end of said standpipe for withdrawing melt from said reservoir; a port in said standpipe adjacent said orifice and intermediate said lower end and the upper end of said standpipe for passing melt from said standpipe to said orifice; control means at the upper end of said standpipe for maintaining a substantially constant level of melt in said standpipe above said port during casting, said level serving to establish a metalostatic head of melt pressing on the melt at the orifice and corresponding to the height of said level above said orifice; pump means affixed to said standpipe for lifting melt from said reservoir to said level within said standpipe during casting and for rapidly dropping the melt level in said standpipe to beneath said orifice at the end of casting; and means associated with said standpipe and said one wall for readily detaching said standpipe from its associated wall for removal from said container, said means being located above said melt in said reservoir for easy access and such that said standpipe can be readily removed from said reservoir for servicing without emptying said reservoir or otherwise significantly disturbing the melt in the reservoir.