Patent ID: 8322399
Filing Date: 2012-12-04
Classification: B22D,H01M,Y02E

Abstract:
1. A continuous casting machine for forming a lead alloy strip of large thickness, the continuous casting machine comprising: a support structure resting on the ground; a rotating drum mounted rotatably on said support structure, being rotated by a drive about a horizontal axis of rotation, said rotating drum comprising an outer peripheral surface having, formed therein, an annular seat defined by a bottom surface and by two side shoulders, depending on a shape of a continuous strip to be obtained and with a thickness in a range of 8-18 mm; a vat for containing a molten lead alloy bath, which vat receives said molten lead alloy from a supply, is directly sealingly engaged on the peripheral surface of said rotating drum in a first angular position around said rotating drum, is provided with at least one through-opening for a flow of molten lead alloy into said annular seat, and which is continuously filled during the rotation of said rotating drum; a cooling device, acting on said rotating drum so as to keep said rotating drum at a temperature below a melting temperature of said lead alloy, said molten lead alloy solidifying inside said annular seat before reaching a second angular position around said rotating drum, where said lead alloy is extracted from said annular seat in a form of a continuous strip of solidified lead alloy; a fixed shoe rigidly connected to said support structure, extending from said vat along an arc around said rotating drum, with an inner surface directed towards said arc-shaped rotating drum with a concave curvature corresponding to a convex curvature of an outer surface of said rotating drum and sealingly engaged, in a sliding relationship, on the shoulders of said annular seat; and a heater acting on said shoe along at least an initial section thereof which extends from said vat, said heater heating, to a temperature higher than the melting temperature of the lead alloy, a free surface of the lead alloy contained in said annular seat so as to allow flowing thereof with low friction on the inner surface of said shoe; wherein said vat introduces said flow of molten lead alloy into said annular seat via two openings formed in its bottom, whereby a first opening is situated near an upstream wall of said vat, and a second opening is situated near a downstream wall of said vat.