Patent ID: 8221675

Claim:
A direct smelting vessel including a refractory lined hearth, side walls extending upwardly from the hearth, and a plurality of cooling panels disposed around the side walls so as to form an interior lining on those side walls, wherein an inner surface of an upper part of the hearth extends upwardly and outwardly to the side walls of the vessel and said upper part of the hearth incorporates a cooler disposed outwardly behind the refractory lining of that part of the hearth and below the cooling panels on the side walls of the vessel; and wherein: (a) the cooler is formed as a ring by a plurality of cooler elements with the cooler elements each shaped as a segment of that ring with their side walls extending radially of the ring; and (b) each cooler element comprises a hollow open backed cast shell structure having a base wall, a pair of side walls, a front wall and a top wall formed integrally in the cast shell structure and incorporating coolant flow passages for flow of coolant therethrough.