TECHNOLOGY FOCUS - INSTRUMENTATION AND TESTING - Preferred Method: The simultaneous removal of the multicrystalline silicon ingot with the heating equipment set and the supply of another heating equipment set together with another movable bottom is done by a 180 degrees rotary turn. Preferred Components: The apparatus comprises two heating equipment sets installed on the platform symmetrical around an axis of rotation. EXAMPLE - The chamber was vacuumized and filled with argon. In the melting space of the water-cooled crucible, high-frequency electromagnetic field was created using the inductor. Lump silicon charge material was loaded into the melting space from a charging bin, and a start-up heating device in the form of a graphite disk was inserted. The start-up heating device was heated up, and under the influence of heat emission and electromagnetic field, lump silicon starting material was heated to 800-1100 degrees C, and started melting. The start-up heating device was removed from the inductor electromagnetic field. A melt-pool was formed inside the melting space, which expanded and reached the walls of a cold crucible, i.e. the pool was cast in the form of the water-cooled crucible. At the same time, a skull was formed and prevented the pool from spilling and contained the melt-pool. Lump silicon starting material comprising metallurgical-grade bulk silicon with boron, phosphorus, iron and aluminum, was then supplied continuously onto the pool surface from the charging bin. The lump silicon starting material was melted, the movable bottom was steadily moved down, and a multicrystalline silicon ingot was formed. As the multicrystalline silicon ingot was melted, cast and formed, it was moved down into the heating space of the first heating equipment set, where the controlled cooling and removal of thermal stresses was carried out by warming up the multicrystalline silicon ingot-already crystallized and chilled mainly in the corners of the ingot. The temperature was raised up to 1200 degrees C with the following decrease of a temperature with the gradient of not greater than 7 degrees C over the ingot length. Once the content of impurities in the pool becomes critical when the ingot was approximately 2.2 m long, the supply of lump silicon starting material was stopped, the inductor was shut down, and induction melting and pool casting were ceased. As a result, the melt-pool was crystallized. The obtained multicrystalline silicon ingot, 2.2 m long, was removed from the water cooled crucible and completely inserted into the heating space of the first heating equipment set. Then the first heating equipment set was disconnected from the current controllers, and by 180 degrees turn of the platform round its axis, the multicrystalline silicon ingot was shifted together with the movable bottom and the first heating equipment set. Upon completion of the platform turning, the heating equipment sets were exchanged, the second heating equipment set together with the other movable bottom turned out to be underneath the water-cooled crucible, where the first heating equipment set with the multicrystalline silicon ingot located inside its heating space occurred in the place where the second heating equipment set used to be. Then both heating equipment sets were connected to the current controllers, the second heating equipment set located under the water-cooled crucible was connected using the melting algorithm, and the first heating equipment set located out of contact with the water-cooled crucible using the algorithm for the controlled cooling of the multicrystalline ingot. After the multicrystalline ingot had been cooled to below 250 degrees C, it was lifted on the movable bottom into the discharge device. The movable bottom located inside the heating space of the second heating equipment set, after completion of the platform turning, was transferred to the water-cooled crucible, and the process steps were repeated starting from supplying and start-up heating of the lump charge until obtaining the next ingot.