Patent ID: 7282172

Claim:
An apparatus for use in a vertical shaft melting furnace having a shaft configured to receive stacked metal pieces that together comprise a load that may have a vertically extending void, and further having a plurality of burners that are configured to fire into the shaft in a bottom region of the shaft, the apparatus comprising: a device that is configured to direct a jet of hot gas into the shaft in an upper region of the shaft in a non-radial direction, whereby the non-radial jet of hot gas can induce a swirl to disperse a concentrated channel of combustion products rising from the bottom region to the upper region through a void in unmelted portions of a load of stacked metal pieces in the shaft; wherein the device is an upper burner and the non-radial jet of hot gas comprises an upper jet of combustion products generated by the upper burner, and further comprising a plenum that communicates the upper burner with the shaft such that the upper burner is configured to fire into the plenum, and multiple upper jets of combustion products are directed from the plenum into the shaft in the upper region of the shaft, when the upper burner is fired.