Experimental Analysis of the Aluminium Melting Process in Industrial Cold Crucible Furnaces

Abstract

One of the promising technology that guarantee the high-purity of the processed metal is induction skull melting. The quality of the melting process within such a system strongly depends on the cold crucible design. Hence, the experimental investigation of the cold crucible melting was performed. The experimental investigation was performed for various initial mass of the load. The results of that analysis were used for the assessment of the alloy temperature during the process, free surface shape and the area as well as the liquid metal emissivity. The collected results of the thermal analysis showed that the temperature of molten metal increased within the power input increase. Moreover, results of that analysis showed that the characteristic tooth-shaped jags were created mostly at the centre of the cold crucible segments. In addition, experimental results are suitable for the numerical models validation and further investigation of the cold crucible design.