BASICS OF FOUNDRY LADLES

In a foundry shop between lots of engineered equipment, a ladle is

a vessel used to transport and pour out molten metals in casting moulds. It is
made of thick steel sheets, beam section and the crucible where molten metals
stored is made of refractory castable lining. Here in our foundry shop, we use
ladles of carrying capacity of 1ton to 2ton. After reaching correct temperature of
molten metal, metal is tapped into ladle by tilting the furnace and positioned on
the moulding line trolley car by EOT crane, from there ladle is took up by
moulding line hoist crane and metal is poured in the moulds after cleaning of
slag materials and checking the required temperature.
Depending on the driving medium, ladles are separated into two types-
1. Manually operated ladles: These ladles doesn’t have any mechanism for
tilting ladles. It is manually operated by a tilting handle precisely.
2. Geared driven ladles: These ladles have a geared driven mechanism,
which is powered by rotating hand wheel. The gearbox fitted to it is speed
reducing gearbox, where two types of gearbox are used – 1) Worm and
worm gear wheel type gearbox, 2) Planetary gearbox.
Because of cost effectiveness and easy to maintain, we use worm and worm
gear wheel type gear box ladle in our foundry.
In our foundry shop there are three types of ladle used in three particular
purposes. These are-
i. Transfer ladles: These ladles are mainly used to transfer molten metals
from one place to another.
ii. Treatment ladles: These types of ladles are used for magnesium
treatment of very high temperature cast iron molten metals to change it
into ductile iron. There are two separate spaces at the bottom inner part of
ladle. One is smaller than another. This separation is done for placing
magnesium in a separate place from molten metal for the purpose of
starting the treatment process after ending of metal tapping period.
iii. Pouring ladles: These ladles are used only for pouring the metals into
casting moulds. Here in the shop we use Tea-pot spout pouring ladles, in
which a separate vertical channel of refractory castables is done for
pouring the metals from lower portion of ladle.
 TRANSFER LADLE TREATMENT LADLE POURING LADLE
Depending on the international standard, a full sectional view of ladle with its
dimension is given below-

LADLE DIMENSIONS IN INCHES

 LADLE PARTS - THEIR SPECIFICATION AND SAFETY
MEASURES :-
 Body: The sides and the bottom of the ladle shall be constructed by
welding. The bottom plate shall be cut from a single plate. If more
than one plate is used for the sides, the vertical joint should be
staggered. There shall be no circumferential joint below the trunnion.
All welded joints on side plates should be a double ‘V’ Butt joint.
Vertical joints on the side plates should not be in the zone of 30° of
the trunnion axis. The axis of the ladle should be perpendicular to the
trunnion axis. The bottom shall be adequately secured by means of
angle iron ring welded into position. A detailed chart is provided for
the metal plate thickness, dimensions of pouring lip and body holding
ring dimensions required to construct ladle body varies by the tonne
capacity of metal can be poured inside-

The ladle body shall be suitably vented with 6mm diameter

drilled holes at 250 mm2 pitch. All welding shall be done in
accordance with IS 9595: 1980. A thick layer of proper refractory
castables should be provided on the inner portion of the ladle
cauldron. Here is some regulations on thickness of refractory lining
should be done with various capacity of ladles-
Safety arrangements –
i. Before lining process of ladle a heat protective mica sheet
should be attached on inner layer to protect ladle body from
metal heat.
ii. Proper installation of safety catch should be analysed to
prevent the ladle body from moving respect to Bail part,
when it is in hanging position.
iii. A thin layer of graphite can be provided on the surface of the
ladle body from metal clotting.
The internal body shell of a ladle should have to undergo with some
dimensional regulation, which is given to this following chart-
  Bail: The bail comprising of the top beam supporting members and
side arm supporting members and hook shall be so constructed as to
permit the ladle to be turned through 360” at its horizontal axis. The
top member shall be formed of rolled fabricated steel sections or steel
plates, separated by the hook-eye in order to leave an air gap. The side
member shall be either a solid forging’ or made of rolled steel formed
sections and shall be adequately secured. The side members shall be
provided with T-heads for load bearing on the top member.
The trunnion carriers shall be bolted, riveted or welded with the
load carrying side member. The hook-eye shall be forged from a
single piece of steel or fabricated from the plate conforming to IS 226
: 1975. The hook-eye shall be sufficiently large to accommodate
the lifting hook in use and shall have an adequate factor of safety.
Safety arrangements –
i. To fix the bail arm supporting members with respect to
ladle body at hanging position safety catch should be
carefully locked.
ii. A thin layer of graphite mixture should be applied on the
bail supporting arm surfaces to prevent the effect of metal
spattering.
iii. Bolts, rivets or other joints of top and side supporting arm
should be routine checked if any damage occurred by the
molten metal.

 Trunnion: Trunnion of a ladle is the main axial shaft, around which,

ladle body can rotate at the time of metal pouring. It should be made
of steel forging and should be riveted, bolted or welded to the ring,
which is also bolted or riveted with the body.
This trunnion shaft should be mounted on anti-friction bearing
should be protected from external dust and metals and lubricated with
in schedule.
Safety arrangements –
i. Proper guard should be fitted over the trunnion shaft on both
side of the ladle body to protect those places from metal
spattering.
ii. It should be checked properly that, for that position of
trunnion shaft, ladle body is in its balanced condition when it
is filled with metal.
  Safety catch: Safety catches when engaged prevents the movement of
the ladle and cross member srelative to each other when the ladle is
hanging. It shall be supplied either either as hinged forks or as pegs.
Safety arrangements –
i. Safety catches should be located on both side supporting
members at a distance more than 150mm below the top level
of the ladle.
ii. Locking rod should be lubricated properly to prevent
jammed situation at the time of operating.
iii. A bent metal plate should be attached with side members
above the safety catch, to protect it from inclusion of metal
at the time of spattering of metal.

 Lip spout: Different ladles of different purposes has different spout

designs. As example, pouring ladles used here has Teapot-spout
design for better pouring quality. And others two types ladles has
general spout design.
Safety arrangements –
i. Spout of pouring ladles should be checked as if it is
damaged, the quality of pouring should be affected.
ii. Cleaning of spout face and any blockage should be done
within time, to prevent any slag inclusion at the time of
metal pouring.
iii. If lining of spout face breaks, it should be quickly fixed with
new castables and when it is largely damaged, the ladle
should be sent for repairing.

 Tilting gear: The tilting motion of ladle body is controlled by a

suitable arrangements of gears and the rotating direction of hand
wheel is in same direction of tilting of ladle. As stated before, our
foundry ladle tilts by a worm shaft and worm gear wheel arrangements
situates inside of a sealed container. It also holds lubrication of grease
or lube oil and protects the arrangements from dirt and other external
shocks.
These gears gets rotating movement from hand wheel.
Rotational force comes from hand wheel rotates worm geared shaft
connected 90° with each other by a set of bevel gears. Then worm
geared shaft rotates and turns the large worm gear wheel connected
with trunnion, rotates the trunnion and ladle tilts. Parts of gear
arrangements are –
a) Bevel edged gears
b) Roller bearing
c) Woodruff key
 d) Bushing
e) Worm and shaft assembly
f) Worm gear wheel.

PARTS OF GEAR ASSEMBLY

There is also a standard dimensions of gear assembly parts which depends upon
the hand wheel diameter charted below-
Safety arrangements –
i. Inside of gearbox bearings for all rotating parts shall be
readily replaceable for quick activity of any type of bearing
failure.
ii. All keys shall be secured in such a manner as to prevent
them working loose accidentally.

 Hand wheel: It is a rotating member manually operated by hand to

drive the gear assembly to tilt the ladle. the gear box output shaft shall
be either tapered square or of some other equally effective design. The
hand operating wheel and shaft shall be firmly located on the gear box
shaft by method, which permits them to be readily detachable.
Hand operating wheels shall be not less than the minimum diameter
specified in the table –
Safety arrangements –
i. Hand wheel should be kept protected from any kind of
external shocks, otherwise if it bends it will be hard to rotate
the wheel for tilting the ladle body.
ii. There should be a hand wheel locking system to lock the
rotation of wheel, which gives an extra safety beside of
safety catch device.