Slag Pot and Ladle Transfer Trolleys for Melt Shops

A slag pot or ladle transfer trolley is a rail-mounted car that carries a slag pot, hot metal ladle or teeming ladle between the furnace, the casting bay and the slag yard, so the overhead crane is freed from the slowest, hottest part of the hot-side cycle.

Why a trolley rather than the crane

In most melt shops the crane is the bottleneck. Every slag pot pulled from an EAF, BOF or induction furnace and every ladle sent to the caster ties up the crane for the whole trip, and a crane carrying molten metal down the length of a bay is a slow, deliberate movement for good reason. A slag pot and ladle trolley takes over the horizontal leg: the crane lowers the pot into the trolley beside the furnace, the trolley drives to the slag yard or the casting bay, and the crane there lifts it out. Each crane lift is now a few metres, and the two cranes work in parallel instead of one doing everything.

What the machine looks like

The frame is an open U so a crane can lower a pot in and lift it out without repositioning the trolley, and a heavy grating deck keeps the load and any spill clear of the running gear. A geared motor drives each corner wheel through a chain coupling, giving four-wheel traction on the grade changes and slag-dusted rails typical of a slag yard. Travel speed is 0 to 20 m/min under a VFD, slow enough to avoid sloshing a full ladle and fast enough for a 100-metre run to take a few minutes.

Heat is the design driver

A pot of liquid slag radiates enough heat to cook cabling, motor windings and hydraulic hoses within a few cycles. The structure sits below and to the sides of the pot with heat shields between the load and the drives; cabling runs inside the box section; and the drive is electric because there is no oil to keep away from the heat. Power comes from a cable reel, a festoon or a low-voltage busbar, and control is by pendant, wireless remote or the plant PLC, so nobody has to stand beside the pot to move it.

Sizing the trolley

Capacity is the full pot plus its contents, not the pot alone. A 30 ton SWL unit covers most induction and small EAF shops; integrated plants with 60 to 150 ton ladles need the heavier frame and eight-wheel bogies. Wheels are forged, double-flanged and cut to the plant's rail section and gauge, which is why every trolley is built to the buyer's rail drawing rather than from stock. Send us the rail section and the route and the drawing follows. The same rail car approach, sized for cold loads, is the basis of our motorised transfer trolley, and the comparison in motorised trolley vs pillar-type coil car explains the rail-car layout choices that apply here too.

Frequently asked questions

Export Availability

For export, a slag pot or ladle trolley is shipped as a bolted frame with the wheel sets, drives and cable reel packed separately, then reassembled on the buyer's rails by our commissioning engineer. Drawings are issued to the customer's rail section and gauge, motors to the local supply voltage, and the heat shielding to the pot temperatures declared at enquiry.

Manufactured at Pragya's Pithampur (Indore) works and exported to steel mills worldwide — 22+ countries across 5 continents to date. Every export order ships with mill test certificates, ocean-freight packing, and full customs documentation, quoted FOB or CIF.