The word tundish originates from a shallow wooden dish with an outlet channel, fitting into the

bunghole A bunghole is a hole bored in a liquid-tight barrel to remove contents. The hole is capped with a cork or cork-like stopper called a '' bung''. Acceptable usage includes other access points that may be capped with alternate materials providing ...

of a tun or

cask A barrel or cask is a hollow cylindrical container with a bulging center, longer than it is wide. They are traditionally made of wooden staves and bound by wooden or metal hoops. The word vat is often used for large containers for liquids, u ...

and forming a kind of

funnel A funnel is a tube or pipe that is wide at the top and narrow at the bottom, used for guiding liquid or powder into a small opening. Funnels are usually made of stainless steel, aluminium, glass, or plastic. The material used in its construc ...

for filling it. These were originally used in

brewing Brewing is the production of beer by steeping a starch source (commonly cereal grains, the most popular of which is barley) in water and fermenting the resulting sweet liquid with yeast. It may be done in a brewery by a commercial brewer, ...

. In general, any tundish will accept flow and store a small amount of material, while dispensing material elsewhere, similar to a funnel. In contrast to a funnel, the purpose is generally to regulate flow, and achieve a more steady output with intermittent inputs, and the tundish typically will take on a different shape.

Plumbing

The term tundish is still used today in plumbing, where a funnel or hopper is filled by an outlet pipe above it. This is often provided for intermittent overflows, or where an air gap is required, to avoid possible

back-contamination Interplanetary contamination refers to biological contamination of a planetary body by a space probe or spacecraft, either deliberate or unintentional. There are two types of interplanetary contamination: *''Forward contamination'' is the transfer ...

Metal Casting

metal casting In metalworking and jewelry making, casting is a process in which a liquid metal is delivered into a mold (usually by a crucible) that contains a negative impression (i.e., a three-dimensional negative image) of the intended shape. The metal is ...

, a tundish is a broad, open container with one or more holes in the bottom. It is used to feed molten metal into an ingot mould to avoid splashing and give a smoother flow. The tundish allows a reservoir of metal to feed the casting machine while ladles are switched, thus acting as a buffer of hot metal, as well as smoothing out flow, regulating metal feed to the moulds and cleaning the metal. Metallic remains left inside a tundish are known as tundish skulls and need to be removed, typically by mechanical means (scraping, cutting). A casting tundish is lined with

refractory In materials science, a refractory material or refractory is a material that is resistant to decomposition by heat, pressure, or chemical attack, and retains strength and form at high temperatures. Refractories are polycrystalline, polyphase ...

bricks specific to the liquid metal which is being cast. A tundish preheater may improve performance by heating the refractory before pouring metal, and may allow removal of molten oxide and skull material while preheating.

References

External links

Casting (manufacturing) {{metalworking-stub