US3039627A - Mechanisms for dumping hot-metal cars - Google Patents

Description

June 19, 1962 P. L. SAYRE ETAL 3,039,627

MECHANISMS FOR DUMPING HOT-METAL CARS Filed April 22, 1959 Tia. l.

3 SheetsSheet l INVENTORS 2401 4. 54m: 2055mm D/EC/(M/M/ BY M/TCHH rfZf/lVM/M/ June 19, 1962 P. SAYRE ET AL 3,039,627

MECHANISMS FOR DUMPING HOT-METAL CARS Filed April 22, 1959 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 JNVENTORS P401 1. 54m:-

meszr W. D/EOK/WAA/ BY M/TCWEL A! E/A/MAN June 19, 1962 P. L. SAYRE ET AL MECHANISMS FOR DUMPING HOT-METAL CARS 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 Filed April 22, 1959 INVENTORS P401 1.

United States 3,039,627 MECHANISMS FOR DUMPING HOT-METAL CARS Paul L. Sayre, Wilmette, Ill., and Robert W. Dieckman, Garden City, and Mitchel Kleinman, Brooklyn, N.Y.,

assignors to M. H. Treadwell Company, Inc., New

This invention relates to hot-metal cars such as are used to transport molten metal. Such cars are mobile, enabling them to be utilized, for example, to transport molten metal between remote points as, for example, between iron and steel furnaces and between such a furnace and a point where the molten metal is to be poured from the car in a casting or other operation. More particularly, this invention relates to improved hot-metal cars and to an improved method and improved means for rotating the tank or ladle of such a car about a horizontal axis. Such rotation may be through 360 to facilitate servicing, but such rotation usually would occur between a charging position in which the mouth of the ladle faces upwardly to receive molten metal thereinto and a discharging or dumping position wherein the ladles mouth faces downwardly toward one side of the car to discharge molten metal therefrom. Such means for rotating the tank or ladle of the car are sometimes hereinafter referred to for convenience as dumping means or mechanisms.

Hot-metal cars hitherto have been provided having a hollow elongate tank (hereinafter referred to as a ladle) for receiving and transporting hot metal, said ladle being mounted at its opposite ends upon car trucks, somewhat like the trucks utilized on railway cars. Thus, the ladle constitutes the body of the hot-metal car. By providing trunnions at opposite ends of the ladle and by providing bearings on each of the trucks to receive the trunnions and thus support the ladle, the latter is rendered rotatable about a horizontal axis to bring the mouth of the ladle either into an upper or charging position to receive molten metal or into a somewhat lower or dumping position to discharge metal. The metal carried in such cars constitutes a very substantial weight so that the car itself must be more or less correspondingly heavy and sturdy.

Prior to the present invention, however, it has also been customary to provide, on one of the trucks of the car, a motor and gear mechanism for the purpose of rotating the cars ladle about its longitudinal axis to facilitate servicing of the car and to enable molten metal to be charged thereinto or therefrom. Such motors and gear arrangements, in themselves, are of very substantial weight and thus considerably aggravate the weight problems attendant upon the use of such a hot-metal car.

Also, the motor and gear-dumping mechanisms heretofore provided on hot-metal cars have been usable, of course, only with the particular car of which they were an integral part; so that the cost of producing each of such cars included, in addition to other factors, the cost of producing the dumping mechanism. Additionally, as with all machinery, the mentioned dumping mechanism requires occasional service and such service costs have been a part of the total cost of maintaining each of the described prior types of hot-metal cars. Often, also, a

"atent Patented June 19, 1962 need for servicing of the dumping mechanism would put the car as a whole out of service for some time.

An important object of the present invention is the provision of a combination of apparatus wherein only a single dumping mechanism need be provided for use with a plurality of hot-metal cars.

Another important object is the provision of hot-metal cars of substantially reduced weight or which, if of about the same weight as prior hot-metal cars, would be capable of carrying a materially greater amount of hot metal.

Another important object is the provision of separate dumping apparatus which may be brought very quickly into dumping coaction with the ladle of a hot-metal car.

These and other objects are achieved by the present invention of which two embodiments are shown in the accompanying drawings without, however, limiting the invention to those particular embodiments.

In the drawings:

FIGURE 1 is a fragmentary, side elevatoinal view of somewhat more than one-half of a hot-metal car usable as a part of apparatus according to this invention, the end of the car which is not shown being substantially similar to the end of the car which is illustrated in the drawing.

FIG. 2 is a vertical, cross-sectional view of said hotmetal car substantially on the line 2-2 of FIG. 1 but showing, also, in the same plane, dumping apparatus, according to a first embodiment of this invention, disposed within a pit beneath the tracks upon which the hot-metal car rides and comes to rest to permit dumping.

FIG. 3 is an enlarged, vertical, sectional view of said tank-dumping apparatus substantially on the line 3- -3 of FIG. 2.

FIG. 4 is a vertical, cross-sectional view of such a hot-metal car, together with dumping apparatus, according to a second embodiment of this invention, disposed alongside the tracks supporting the hot-metal car; this figure being substantially on the line 4-4 of FIG. 5.

FIG. 5 is a side elevational view of the dumping apparatus shown in FIG. 4 as viewed from the right side of the latter figure.

FIG. 6 is a horizontal, sectional view substantially on the line 6-6 of FIG. 5.

FIG. 7 is a fragmentary, perspective view of a mechanism for locking a hot-metal cars ladle in its upright or charging position.

The principal part of the dumping mechanism of the first embodiment, illustrated in FIGS. 1-3, is designed for disposition beneath a track upon which the hot-metal car runs. In this arrangement, the dumping mechanism, disposed almost entirely in a pit 10 beneath tracks '12 on which the car rests, comprises a suitably driven spur gear 14 which is adapted to mesh with and drive a rotary transmission member shown as a ring gear 16 suitably fixed upon and about an intermediate portion of a hotmetal tank 18. This tank constitutes the body or (as it is more generally known) the ladle of the car. The opposite ends of the ladle are provided with trunnions 20 (only one being shown) suitably supported, similarly, in bearings 22, 24 on a horizontal plate 26, suitably pivoted at a point 28, upon a more or less conventional car truck 30 which, of course, runs on the tracks 12.

The spur gear 14 is a part of a transmission train driven by a suitable motor 32, said train consisting of a first sprocket 34 suitably keyed upon a power take-01f shaft of said motor, a continuous driving chain 36 working upon the sprocket 34 and on a second sprocket 38 to drive the latter. The sprocket 38 is suitably keyed to a fixed-axis shaft 40 suitably borne in a bracket or stand 42. Keyed to the same shaft 40 is a third sprocket 44 which, through a sprocket chain 46, is adapted to drive a fourth sprocket 48 which is keyed to a shaft 50 borne at an intermediate point of a pair of swing arms 52 or, more specifically, in lower or base portions of brackets 54 which are rigidly fixed to and extend upwardly from the arms 52. Also keyed to the shaft 50 is a fifth sprocket 56 which, through a sprocket chain 58, drives a sixth sprocket 60 which is suitably keyed to a shaft 62 borne in and toward the upper ends of brackets 54.

The spur gear 14, which meshes with and drives the ring gear 16, is also keyed to the shaft 62, whereby the spur gear 14 actuates the ring gear 16 and thereby rotates the ladle 18 between an upright or charging position as shown in FIG. 2, in which the mouth 64 of said ladle is in an uppermost position for reception of hot metal, and an angular or dumping position in which the mouth 64 is approximately at the position indicated at X in FIG. 2 to enable hot metal to be discharged by flowing from the ladle through said mouth. Obviously, the ladle can be rotated throughout 360 by the described mechanism, for servicing purposes.

Toward the right ends of the arms 52 (as viewed in FIG. 2) are integral brackets 66 which are mounted upon and freely pivotal upon the shaft 40, thereby enabling said arms and the spur gear 14 carried thereby, to be lowered, as indicated in broken lines in FIG. 2, to a point below and clear of the ring gear 16 on the ladle or to be raised to bring the spur gear 14 into meshing engagement with said ring gear, as indicated in full lines in 'FIG. 2.

The actuation of the arms 52 may be accomplished by any suitable means, the means shown in the drawings, however, comprising a double-acting fluid-pressure cylinder 68 having therein a piston 70 which, through a piston rod 72, pivoted to the ends of arms 52, gives rise to the mentioned pivotal movement of said arms for the stated purpose.

Actuation of the piston 70 to operate the arms 52 arises from the introduction into and exhaustion of fluid from the opposite ends of cylinder 68 through pipe connections 68a and 68b in a well-understood manner, a hydraulic or pneumatic circuit to said cylinder being no part of this invention and, hence, not being shown in the drawings.

The ring gear 16 may advantageously be formed of opposing, spaced, circular pieces of angle-iron suitably riveted or otherwise fixed to the ladle 18 as shown at 16a and 16b in FIG. 1, and the equivalent of teeth may be provided in said gear in the form of a series of similar studs 160, located between the angle pieces 16a and 16b, the ends of the studs being suitably riveted or fixed into the radial flanges of said angle pieces.

Suitable means are preferably provided to lock the cars ladle in an upright or charging position to prevent rotation of the ladle when the car is remote from or disconnected from the dumping mechanism. Thus, for example, a locking device 174, suitable for use in both embodiments disclosed herein, but shown only in FIGS. 1 and 7, comprises a locking finger 176, integral with an enlarged end 178 of one of the hot-metal cars trunnions, and a locking fork 180 disposed between hearing lugs 182 which are rigidly associated with bearing 24 of the cars trunnion. The locking fork 180 is integral with a cross-shaft 184 which extends to opposite sides of the truck 30 and is provided at opposite ends with hand levers 186 by means of which the shaft 184 and the locking fork 180 may be rotated manually from a release position in which the fork 180 extends upwardly, clear of engagement with the finger 176 as shown in broken lines in FIG. 7, and a locking position in which said fork engages the finger 176 therewithin as shown in full lines in FIG. 7 to lock the ladle against possible rotation.

Ladle-dumping apparatus according to this invention would be located at a point where molten metal would be poured or dumped from the car. In practice, the car is loaded with the mouth 64 of the ladle in its upright or charging position. If it is desired to pour some or all of the metal from the car by the use of'apparatus according to the first embodiment, the car is moved, by suitable engine or other propulsion means, along the tracks 12 to a position, above the pit 10, wherein the ring gear 16 is in alignment with the spur gear 14. Then, by operation of the cylinder 68, the arms 52, therefore in their retracted or lowermost position, are pushed up wardly to bring the spur gear 14 into proper meshing engagement with the ring gear 16. Then, the lock 174 is released, whereafter the motor 32 is operated to tilt or rotate the ladle 18 to bring the mouth 64 low enough to achieve the desiredpouring of molten metal from the ladle. Upon pouring of molten metal to the extent desired, the motor 32 is reversed to rotate the ladle back to its charging position. The lock 174 is then locked to hold the ladle against possible rotation, whereafter the cylinder 68 is operated to lower the gear 14 to its retracted position. The car is then in condition to be moved to a charging point or to another discharge or dumping point.

The second embodiment of this invention, illustrated in FIGS. 46, operates on the same broad principle as the first embodiment except that the dumping mechanism is disposed alongside rather than underneath tracks 12. The second embodiment also includes means enabling the principal operative parts of the dumping mechanism to be shifted longitudinally of the track to a limited extent to facilitate alignment of the hot-metal car with the dumping mechanism. Other differences will appear from the following description:

In the second embodiment, the ladle 18 may be provided with a ring gear such as gear 16 of the first embodiment, but is shown as being provided, instead, with an arcuate gear 16x; and a spur gear 14 is provided, to coact with the arcuate gear 16x to rotate the ladle sufficiently to permit the loading and discharging of molten metal therefrom. In the second embodiment, also, the means by which the spur gear 14 is rotated, as well as the means by which said spur gear is moved into and from meshing engagement with the arcuate gear 16x, are somewhat different. Thus, the dumping mechanism of the second embodiment comprises an upright frame or stand preferably of suitable structural steel. The lower ends of upright members 81 of said frame and of stays or struts 84 (only one being shown) of said frame are embedded in a concrete slab 82.

Disposed between the uprights 81, and of a width materially less than the distance between said uprights, is an upright mounting plate 86 supported for sidewise sliding motion upon crossrods 88 which extend through suitable bearings 90 at the top and bottom of the mounting plate so that the latter is supported firmly against any movement, excepting limited, translational sliding movement on the rods 88. Two rather long, horizontally disposed, similar screws 92 are suitably borne at their ends in the uprights 81 and arranged for rotation but held against material endwise movement. These screws thread crosswisely through the mounting plate 86 toward the top and bottom of the latter and are constrained to turn in unison by a sprocket chain 96 working on sprockets 98 and 100 which are keyed to said screws. A handcrank 94 is keyed to the lowermost screw 92, enabling the screws to be turned manually to shift the plate 86, and the apparatus which it supports, sidewisely between the uprights 81.

The spur gear 14, in the second embodiment, is keyed to a shaft 102, which is rotatably carried within bearings 104 at the outer or free ends of a pair of spaced swing arms 106 which at their inner ends are both keyed to a common shaft 108 which is rockably carried in spaced bearings 110, 112 and 114, all of which are suitably fixed rigidly to the side of the plate 86 nearest to the tracks 12. On the side of the mounting plate 86 farthest from the tracks 12 is rigidly mounted a suitable reversible motor 116. The mounting plate 86 is provided with a cut-out portion 118 permitting coaction of gears as hereinafter described, which gears are located some at one side and some at the other side of the plate 86.

A spur gear 120 keyed to the power take-01f shaft of motor 116 meshes with and drives a larger spur gear 122, which is keyed to a sleeve shaft 109 mounted for independent rotation on an intermediate portion of shaft 108 which extends between the swing arms 106, and the rotation of the sleeve shaft 109, derived from the turning of the gear 122, operates through plural similar sprocket chains 124 to turn shaft 102 and thereby turn spur gear 14. The sprocket chains 124 work on sprockets 126 keyed to sleeve shaft 109 and sprockets 128 keyed to shaft 102.

The swinging of the arms 106' to move spur gear 14 into and from meshing engagement with arcuate gear 16x, is accomplished by a gear arrangement which is disclosed herein as being manually operated. This gear arrangement comprises a spur gear 130 located toward the bottom of a cut-out portion 132 in the mounting plate 86. This spur gear is keyed to a shaft 134 supported in a suitable :bore or bearing in the plate 86 and provided at its exposed outer end with a handcrank 136 keyed thereto. Keyed to shaft 108, between bearing brackets 110 and 112, is a segmental gear 138, the teeth of which mesh with gear 130. Thus, by manual operation of handcrank 136, the gears 130 and 138 operate in conjunction with arms 106 to move the spur gear 14 into and out of meshing engagement with arcuate gear 16x to rotate the ladle 18.

Suitable means are provided to assure that the gear 14 Will not unintendedly fall away from meshing engagement with gear 16x and, for that purpose, the apparatus, as illustrated in the second embodiment herein, includes a pawl-and-ratchet arrangement wherein a ratchet wheel 140 is keyed to shaft 134 and a releasable pawl 142 is pivoted to mounting plate 86 adjacent to said ratchet wheel in position to coact with the teeth of the ratchet wheel to hold the arms 106 against retraction when the gears '14 and 16x are in mesh. Releasing of pawl 142 from engagement with ratchet wheel 140 permits retraction of the arms 106 by reverse operation of the crank 136. If it is desired to avoid using such a pawl-and-r-atchet arrangement, the gear 130 may be in the form of a worm and gear 138 may be in the form of a segment of a wormwheel driven by such a worm, the pitch of the worm being such as to strongly oppose reverse drive from the segment to the worm-wheel.

If the hot-metal car is not moved to a precise position on tracks 12 in which the arcuate gear 16'x will be in alignment with the spur gear 14, such alignment may be achieved by operation of handcrank 94 which, through the medium of the screws 92, will cause the mounting plate 86, with all the mechanism carried thereby, to shift in one or the other direction to bring about such alignment between the gears 16x and 14.

Obviously, the second embodiment may be provided with a ring gear such as 16 or the first embodiment may be provided with an arcuate lgear such as 16x; the choice depending largely upon the nature of car-servicing facilities which may be available.

It should be understood that a given hot-metal car may be designed to have its ladle rotated by either of the two embodiments disclosed herein, for it may be desirable to have said two embodiments installed in different places in a given plant. To that end, the ladle would be equipped with a ring gear 16, rather than a mere arcuate gear such as 16x, thereby enabling the ladle to be rotated for servic- 6 ing and dumping either by the apparatus illustrated in FIGS. 2 and 3 or by the apparatus illustrated in FIGS. 4, 5 and 6.

It should be apparent from the foregoing that the present invention makes possible the realization of the several important objects hereinbefore set forth; also, that this invention may be embodied in structures somewhat different from those disclosed herein without, however, departing from the invention as set forth in the following claims.

We claim:

1. Apparatus, in a metal-treating plant, for transporting and dumping hot metal, comprising, in combination, a stationary track resting upon the ground in the metaltreating plant, a hot-metal car supported upon said track and movable thereon between remote points, a rotary ladle, constituting an essential part of the car, adapted for rotation about a horizontal axis extending longitudinally of the 'car for laterally discharging the ladles contents, a rotary transmission member on said car and drivingly connected to said ladle for imparting such rotation to the latter, and rotary driving means, separate from said car, supported on the ground adjacent to said track, and shiftable transversely of said car between a non-driving position, in which it is clear of interference with the car in the latters movement along said track, and a driving position in which it is in driving engagement with said transmission member to rotate the latter and the ladle, said rotary driving means being disposed below said track and being shiftable upwardly to bring it into driving engagement with said transmission member.

2. Apparatus, in a metal-treating plant, for transporting and dumping hot metal, comprising, in combination, a stationary track resting upon the ground in the metaltreating plant, a hot-metal car supported upon said track and movable thereon between remote points, a rotary ladle, constituting an essential part of the car, adapted for rotation about a horizontal axis extending longitudinally of the car for laterally discharging the ladles contents, a rotary transmission member on said car and drivingly connected to said ladle for imparting such rotation to the latter, and rotary driving means, separate from said car, supported on the ground adjacent to said track, and shiftable upwardly transversely of said car between a non-driving position, in which it is clear of interference with the car in the latters movement along said track, and a driving position in which it is in driving engagement with said transmission member to rotate the latter and the ladle; said combination further including a stand disposed below said' track, said rotary driving means being supported on said stand, and shifting means carried by said stand, for shifting said rotary driving means upwardly into driving engagement with said transmission member.

3. Apparatus, in a metal-treating plant, for transporting and dumping hot metal, comprising, in combination, a stationary track resting upon the ground in the metaltreating plant, a hot-metal car supported upon said track and movable thereon between remote points, a rotary ladle, constituting an essential part of the car, adapted for rotation about a horizontal axis extending longitudinally of the car for laterally discharging the ladles contents, a rotary transmission member on said car and drivingly connected to said ladle for imparting suoh rotation to the latter, and rotary driving means, separate from said car, supported on the ground adjacent to said track, and shiftable transversely of said car between a non-driving position, in which it is clear of interference with the car in the latters movement along said track, and a driving position in which it is in driving engagement with said transmission member to rotate the latter and the ladle; said combination further including a stand disposed adjacent to said track, a mounting plate, carried by said stand and shiftable in parallelism to said track, said rotary driving means being mounted on said mounting plate, first shifting means coacting between said stand and mounting plate 7 for thus shifting the latter to align said rotary driving means with said transmission member, and second shifting means carried by said stand, for shifting said rotary driving means into driving-engagement with said transmission member.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 8 'I heimann Jan. 13, 1914 Lane May 21, 1918 Brassert Apr. 10, 1934 Randolph Mar. 21, 1939 Brassert June 3, 1952 Hackney Nov. 1, 1955 'Hohne July 8, 1958 FOREIGN PATENTS Great Britain 1908 Switzerland Feb. 1, 1933

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