Patent ID: 7556766

Claim:
A scrap melter comprising: a heating section, a charge bay, and a skim bay in fluid communication to form a molten metal circuit; a shaft operably connected to a rotary power at one end of shaft and operably connected to a shrouded impeller at the other end of the shaft, wherein the shrouded impeller is immersed in a molten metal pool in the charge bay at an inclined angle relative to vertical such that the shrouded impeller produces a vortex and a whirlpool in the molten metal pool directly above the shrouded impeller and an axial thrust to cause molten metal to flow around the molten metal circuit, and wherein a center of the whirlpool being horizontally displaced from at least a portion of the shaft; and thus allowing free charging of the scrap whereby the scrap is ingested into the vortex and liquefies into molten metal above the shrouded impeller.