Patent ID: 6889527

Claim:
A skull crucible for melting or refining inorganic substances, in particular glass or glass ceramics, the crucible comprising: a crucible wall; a crucible base cooperating with said crucible wall to form an inner chamber; an induction coil surrounding the crucible wall and via which high frequency-energy is coupled to contents of the crucible; wherein the crucible wall is formed from a crown of metal tubes which can be connected to a coolant, with slotted interstices between adjacent metal tubes; the base has a run-off for the melt; a sleeve is assigned to the run-off and defines an inlet end; the inlet end of the sleeve protrudes into the inner chamber of the skull crucible so that the inorganic melt can be removed through a crystallized layer of the inorganic melt formed on the base in a controlled manner without the danger of impairing its quality; and a temperature regulating device assigned to the sleeve and selectively adjusting the temperature of the sleeve such that the temperature of the sleeve is lowered during melting and raised during run-off of the melt.