To provide a vacuum melting and
casting apparatus, which can improve its
availability factor by making the apparatus compact and by increasing the number of cycles of melting and
casting, and further can cope with a variety of requirements by selecting each process of melting,
casting, and collecting of castings among a plurality of processes. The apparatus is divided into a melting chamber 1, a casting chamber 2, and a collecting camber 3, and the volumes of the respective chambers are reduced. The melting chamber 1 and the casting chamber 2 are connected via a first closed passage 13 having a first
gate valve 12, which can be vacuum-sealed even when a degree of vacuum in any chamber is high. A
flap valve 99, which opens and closes the end portion of the downstream side of a second closed passage 23 in the collecting chamber 3, is provided between the casting chamber 2 and the collecting chamber 3. When the
molten metal is to be poured, the opened first
gate valve 12 and the first closed passage 13 are advanced, and the
molten metal is poured from a
melting furnace 11 of the melting chamber 1 into a rectangular
pipe shape rounder 41 provided to pour the
molten metal to a
tundish 61 of the casting chamber 2. When the molten
metal is not to be poured, the first
gate valve 12 and the first closed passage 13 are retracted, and then the first gate valve 12 is closed. (C)2004,JPO.