ETAGHENE BRIAN EJOVI

A crucible furnace is an equipment used in the foundry workshop or industry for melting metals for casting operations. They are the oldest type of melting furnaces used for melting and holding small batches of non-ferrous alloys for which a refractory crucible filled with metal is heated through the crucible wall. This paper focuses on the development of a 38-kilogram capacity LPG butane gas-fired crucible furnace used to melt aluminium metal. Drawings were produced to aid the fabrication of the furnace using a mild steel sheet while the other components needed for the fabrication were selected based on functionality, durability, availability of local materials and cost. The test was carried out on the furnace to evaluate the performance and the results obtained showed that it took the furnace 24minutes to completely melt 38kg of aluminum scrap between 630 0C to 700 0C. The heating rate is 56.110 C/min, melting rate of 1.58kg/min and a 39.6% maximum efficiency, which is quite impressive when compared with the conventional crucible furnace.