Patent ID: 8656984

Claim:
A mold for aluminothermic welding of metal beams or rails including at least two essentially identical components in rigid refractory material and able to be temporarily fitted opposite each other around two beam or rail ends to be welded, each of the components comprising: a lower part including a face defining a mold cavity including, toward a top, an upper opening and arranged to receive, by casting, welding metal in liquid state, the face being able to surround the ends at least at a level of a foot and a core of the beams or rails, and a recovery channel for gas and welding metal in liquid state leading downward in a lower zone of the mold cavity and having, toward the top, an opening; and an upper part, adjacent and topping the lower part, including a chamber downwardly communicating with the upper opening of the mold cavity and open toward the top, arranged to receive, by casting, welding metal in liquid state and able to contain the ends at a level of a head of the beams or rails; wherein the chamber is a slow cooling chamber forming a non-compartmentalized volume arranged such that the welding metal in liquid state flows directly from a crucible to the mold cavity along a vertical direction without obstruction, in which the opening of the recovery channel leads, and bounded by an external wall of each of the components of the mold and by a lower opening able to be situated under the head; the recovery channel being located in the vertical direction and without obstruction, directly below a portion of the slow cooling chamber where the opening of the recovery channel is located, and directly above a portion of the lower zone of the mold cavity.