Ladle (foundry)

A ladle metallurgy, a container for the casting of liquid metal into a mold. There are three types of ladles.

Open pan

Open pans ladles are the most commonly used. They have a so-called Krangießgehänge to strike the pan to a crane. Thereby the center of gravity of the cup is balanced so that a tilting means of a handwheel and thus a pouring the ladle is possible. The pan is open and has a spout through which its contents are poured out.

Drum pan

Drum pans are closed ladles, what their heat loss is minimized. You only have a small spout, exiting through this lying when slight tilting pan of the content.

Plug socket

Plug sockets are closed pans whose discharge opening is located at the bottom of the pan. This spout is provided with a plug that is opened for pouring by pulling the plug connected to the stopper rod. Thereby preventing the floating of the molten metal passes during the casting slag into the metal. Plug sockets are used mainly in steel castings. With the disappearance of the stopper rod on the pan slider plates is closed under the spout, which can be opened and closed by hydraulics. Pans thus constructed are called slide pans and replace the plug socket when the liquid decanted material directly, but will be processed in secondary metallurgy aggregates on.

Some ladles can be heated electrically to compensate temperature loss between furnace and Vergießbereich. This is often more economical and associated with a lower risk of damage to the material as a previous higher heating in the melt.