Claims
- 1. In a magnetic brake apparatus for providing a magnetic field in molten steel passing from a submerged entry nozzle into and through a generally vertically oriented mold for casting steel, the mold having a pair of opposed wide faces, the magnetic brake comprising cores terminating in opposed poles immediately adjacent mid-portions of the wide faces of the mold and forming part of a magnetic circuit also including a yoke interconnecting the poles and the molten steel within the mold, the poles extending generally across the width of the mold faces, the apparatus including energizing coils about the cores or selected portions thereof, the improvement characterized in that the faces of the poles are formed substantially as a generally horizontal array of discrete fingers, wherein each finger comprises a stack of laminar elements, at least some of said laminar elements being removable and replaceable.
- 2. Apparatus as defined in claim 1, wherein the laminar elements include elements made of ferromagnetic material.
- 3. Apparatus as defined in claim 2, wherein the laminar elements include elements made of non-magnetic material.
- 4. Apparatus as defined in claim 2, wherein the laminar elements are formed as rectangular plates, and the fingers are formed as rectangular parallelepipeds.
- 5. Apparatus as defined in claim 2, wherein the fingers are dimensioned and configured to accommodate structure in the vicinity of the mold faces while generally facilitating the establishment of an efficient magnetic circuit.
- 6. Apparatus as defined in claim 2, wherein each finger comprises a lowermost projecting support upon which laminar elements may be vertically stacked.
- 7. Apparatus as defined in claim 2, additionally including a plurality of discrete coils for individually energizing discrete portions of the cores.
- 8. Apparatus as defined in claim 7, wherein the coils and discrete portions of the cores are arrayed in a generally horizontal array.
- 9. Apparatus as defined in claim 8, wherein the coils correspond to the fingers in a one-to-one relationship.
- 10. Apparatus as defined in claim 7, wherein the coils and discrete portions of the cores are arrayed in a matrix array extending both horizontally across the width of the mold and vertically over a central portion of the mold.
- 11. Apparatus as defined in claim 10, wherein the fingers are arrayed in a matrix array extending both horizontally across the width of the mold and vertically over a central portion of the mold, and the coils correspond to the fingers in a one-to-one relationship.
RELATED APPLICATION
This is a continuation-in-part application of application Ser. No. 09/108,466 filed on Jul. 1, 1998, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,006,822.
US Referenced Citations (33)
Foreign Referenced Citations (6)
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Mar 1992 |
JP |
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Continuation in Parts (1)
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Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
09/108466 |
Jul 1998 |
US |
Child |
09/404902 |
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US |