Patent ID: 8703043

Claim:
A non-ferrous metal melting furnace comprising: a substantially tubular melting furnace including an opening through which non-ferrous metal as a raw material is input; a non-ferrous metal melt pump, comprising a vortex chamber body that makes a non-ferrous metal melt flow into a vortex chamber from an inlet, and that discharges the non-ferrous metal melt from the vortex chamber to an outlet by applying a driving force to the non-ferrous metal melt in the vortex chamber; a magnetic field device formed of permanent magnets that is disposed outside the vortex chamber and below a bottom plate of the vortex chamber, to apply the driving force to the non-ferrous metal melt, wherein, in the vortex chamber body, the inlet and the bottom plate face each other along an up-and-down direction, the outlet is opened in a horizontal direction that is substantially perpendicular to the up-and-down direction, the bottom plate forms a flat surface extending along the horizontal direction, a first electrode is disposed substantially at a center of an inner surface of the bottom plate, a plurality of second electrodes are disposed on the inner surface of a top plate of the vortex chamber, whereby a current flowing between the plurality of second electrodes and the first electrode, flows along the inner surface of the upper plate of the vortex chamber facing the inner surface of the bottom plate in the up-and-down direction, and wherein the second electrodes are radially positioned around an axis line so that each current flows between each of the plurality of second electrodes and the first electrode, the axis line extending along the up-and-down direction and passing through the first electrode, the magnetic field device formed of permanent magnets is disposed outside the bottom plate of the vortex chamber of the vortex chamber body so that the magnetic field device faces the bottom plate, and the flow-in direction of the non-ferrous metal melt that flows into the vortex chamber, and the direction of the magnetic lines of force that are generated by the magnetic field device formed of permanent magnets both follow the up-and-down direction, wherein the non-ferrous metal melt pump is disposed so that the inlet faces the upper side, and a bottom opening of the melting furnace communicates with the inlet.