摘要:
A maintenance safety cage for ladles used in dispensing molten metal wherein the cage is lowered into the ladle which is still hot after having discharged all of the metal therein into molds. The cage is heat insulated and is used for replacing the usual stopper rod and valve plugs and repairing the nozzle in the bottom of the ladle. The cage has a stopper well which extends from the top to about the midpoint thereof and the well has a movable cover located at its bottom for opening and closing the well. The cover is hinged to a wall of the well and is movable to open position by a chain which passes through an opening in the wall and extends upwardly through a pipe-like conduit. The conduit operates to control the angle of pull upon the cover so as to hold it firmly against the wall of the well without creating any off-set pulling force and where it will minimize any scraping of the refractory around the stopper rod as the cage is being lifted out of the ladle.