Operating mechanisms and method for slidable-gate closures

Claim 2

In an assembly for attachment to a bottom-pour vessel for controlling flow of liquid through a nozzle in the bottom wall of the vessel, said assembly comprising: a frame adapted to be fixed to the vessel; two rows of rocker arms pivoted to opposite sides of said frame for slidably supporting a gate at their inboard ends in alignment with the nozzle; spring means housed in said frame and acting against said rocker arms at their outboard ends; reciprocable propelling means mounted on said frame at one end thereof and a block operatively connected with said propelling means; the combination therewith of an improved gate operating mechanism comprising: pull members attached to said block and extending above said rocker arms alongside the space occupied by a gate supported thereon; gate-pulling means carried by said pull members and spaced from said rocker arms; and gate-receiving means carried by said frame in the space between said rocker arms and said gate-pulling means for temporarily suPporting gates; said gate-pulling means being freely engageable with one end of a gate supported on said gate-receiving means for pulling this gate into a position in which it is supported on said rocker arms and displacing a preceding gate from said rocker arms toward said propelling means; said gate-receiving means being accessible for having gates loaded thereon at the end of said frame remote from said propelling means.

Claim 3

The combination, with a bottom-pour vessel having a nozzle in its bottom wall, of an assembly attached to the vessel for controlling flow of material through said nozzle, said assembly being constructed as defined in claim 1.

Claim 4

A combination as defined in claim 2 in which said vessel is a refractory-lined tundish for teeming molten metal.

Claim 5

A mechanism as defined in claim 1 in which said frame includes a pair of spaced parallel rails, and said gate-receiving means are flanges integral with said rails.

Claim 6

A mechanism as defined in claim 4 in which said gate-pulling means includes a latch pivotally related to said pull members, and comprising in addition means mounted on said rails and engageable with said latch for automatically moving it between a position for engaging a gate and a position in which said rails are unobstructed to permit a gate to be loaded thereon.

Claim 7

A mechanism as defined in claim 4 in which said rails have flanges between said rocker arms and said propelling means for receiving a gate displaced from said rocker arms.

Claim 8

A mechanism as defined in claim 1 in which said gate-pulling means includes a puller block fixed to said pull members, and said gate receiving means includes a rest carried by said frame and a ledge on said puller block.

Claim 9

An assembly for attachment to a bottom-pour vessel for controlling flow of liquid through a nozzle in the bottom wall of the vessel, said assembly comprising a mounting plate, a pair of rails fixed to said plate and adapted to provide slidable support for separate blank and orifice gates, reciprocable propelling means fixed at one end of said rails, a ram block operatively connected with said propelling means and freely engageable with one end of a gate for pushing gates in one direction along said rails, pull members attached to said block and extending alongside the space occupied by gates supported on said rails, and means carried by said pull members spaced from said block and freely engageable with one end of another gate for pulling a pair of gates along said rails in the direction opposite side one direction, said rails being accessible at a location between said last named means and said nozzle for loading gates thereon in a position to be engaged both by said block and by the means carried by said pull members. 9 The combination, with a bottom-pour vessel having a nozzle in its bottom eall, and blank and orifice gates either of which can be positioned in line with said nozzle selectively to close the nozzle and permit pouring therethrough, of an operating mechanism for said gates, said mechanism comprising a pair of rails mounted on the bottom of said vessel, said gates being slidably supported on said rails, reciprocable gate-propelling means mounted on the bottom of said vessel, a ram block operatively connected with said gate-propelling means and freely engageable with one end of one gate for pushing said gates along said rails in one direction with respect to said nozzle, pull members attached to said block and extending alongside said gates, and means carried by said pull members spaced from said block and freely engageable with one end of the other gate for pulling said gates along said rails in the opposite direction said one direction with respect to said nozzle, said rails being accessible between said last named means and said nozzle for loading gates thereon in a position to be engaged both by said block and by the means carried by said pull members.

Claim 10

An assembly for attachment to a bottom-pour vessel for controlling flow of liquid through a nozzle in the bottom wall of the vessel, said assembly comprising a mounting plate, a pair of rails fixed to said plate and adapted to provide slidable support for separate blank and orifice gates, reciprocable propelling means fixed at one end of said rails, a ram block operatively connected with said propelling means and freely engageable with one end of a gate for pushing gates in one direction along said rails, pull members attached to said block and extending alongside the space occupied by gates supported on said rails, and means carried by said pull members spaced from said block and freely engageable with one end of another gate for pulling a pair of gates along said rails in the direction opposite side one direction, said rails being accessible at a location between said last named means and said nozzle for loading gates thereon in a position to be engaged both by said block and by the means carried by said pull members. 9 The combination, with a bottom-pour vessel having a nozzle in its bottom eall, and blank and orifice gates either of which can be positioned in line with said nozzle selectively to close the nozzle and permit pouring therethrough, of an operating mechanism for said gates, said mechanism comprising a pair of rails mounted on the bottom of said vessel, said gates being slidably supported on said rails, reciprocable gate-propelling means mounted on the bottom of said vessel, a ram block operatively connected with said gate-propelling means and freely engageable with one end of one gate for pushing said gates along said rails in one direction with respect to said nozzle, pull members attached to said block and extending alongside said gates, and means carried by said pull members spaced from said block and freely engageable with one end of the other gate for pulling said gates along said rails in the opposite direction said one direction with respect to said nozzle, said rails being accessible between said last named means and said nozzle for loading gates thereon in a position to be engaged both by said block and by the means carried by said pull members.

Claim 11

An assembly for attachment to a bottom-pour vessel for controlling flow of liquId through a nozzle in the bottom wall of the vessel, said assembly comprising a mounting plate, a pair of rails fixed to said plate and adapted to provide slidable support for separate blank and orifice fates, reciprocable propelling means fixed at one end of said rails, ram means operatively connected with said propelling means and freely engageable with one end of a gate for pushing gates in one direction along said rails, and gate-pulling means attached to said ram means and extending along said rails, said gate-pulling means including a latch freely engageable with one end of another gate for pulling the gates along said rails in the opposite direction, said latch being disengageable from the latter gate to permit gates to be loaded and removed from one end of said rails.

Claim 12

An assembly for attachment to a bottom-pour vessel for controlling flow of liquId through a nozzle in the bottom wall of the vessel, said assembly comprising a mounting plate, a pair of rails fixed to said plate and adapted to provide slidable support for separate blank and orifice fates, reciprocable propelling means fixed at one end of said rails, ram means operatively connected with said propelling means and freely engageable with one end of a gate for pushing gates in one direction along said rails, and gate-pulling means attached to said ram means and extending along said rails, said gate-pulling means including a latch freely engageable with one end of another gate for pulling the gates along said rails in the opposite direction, said latch being disengageable from the latter gate to permit gates to be loaded and removed from one end of said rails.

Claim 13

An assembly as defined in claim 10 in which the ends of said rails opposite said propelling means normally are unobstructed.

Claim 14

An assembly as defined in claim 11 in which said mechanism further comprises means automatically moving said latch to a position out of the way of loading and removing gates when said propelling means moves said ram means in said first-named direction.

Claim 15

The combination with a bottom-pour vessel having a nozzle in its bottom wall, and blank and orifice gates either of which can be positioned in line with said nozzle selectively to close the nozzle or permit pouring therethrough, of an operating mechanism for said gates, said mechanism comprising a pair of rails mounted on the bottom of said vessel, said gates being slidably supported on said rails, reciprocable gate-propelling means mounted at the bottom of said vessel, ram means operatively connected with said gate-propelling means and freely engageable with one end of one gate for pushing said gates along said rails in one direction with respect to said nozzle, and gate-pulling means attached to said ram means, said gate-pulling means including a latch freely engageable with one end of the other gate for pulling said gates along said rails in the opposite direction with respect to said nozzle, said latch being disengageable from the latter gate to permit gates to be loaded and removed from one end of said rails.

Claim 16

The combination with a bottom-pour vessel having a nozzle in its bottom wall, and blank and orifice gates either of which can be positioned in line with said nozzle selectively to close the nozzle or permit pouring therethrough, of an operating mechanism for said gates, said mechanism comprising a pair of rails mounted on the bottom of said vessel, said gates being slidably supported on said rails, reciprocable gate-propelling means mounted at the bottom of said vessel, ram means operatively connected with said gate-propelling means and freely engageable with one end of one gate for pushing said gates along said rails in one direction with respect to said nozzle, and gate-pulling means attached to said ram means, said gate-pulling means including a latch freely engageable with one end of the other gate for pulling said gates along said rails in the opposite direction with respect to said nozzle, said latch being disengageable from the latter gate to permit gates to be loaded and removed from one end of said rails.

Claim 17

A combination as defined in claim 3 in which said gate-propelling means is mounted at one end of said rails, and the other ends of said rails normally are unobstructed.

Claim 18

A combination as defined in claim 14 in which said mechanism further comprises means automatically moving said latch to a position out of the way of loading and removing gates when said propelling means moves said ram means in said first-named direction.

Claim 19

A combination as defined in claim 13 in which said gate-pulling means includes a pair of links attached to opposite sides of said ram means and extending along the side edges of said gates between the gates and rails, and said latch is pivoted to said links, and said mechanism further comprises means pivoted to said rails and engageable with said latch for automatically moving said latch to a position out of the way of loading and removing gates when said propelling means moves said ram in said first-named direction.

Claim 20

A combination as defined in claim 16 in which the means pivoted to said rails includes a retracting yoke and said latch has a socket receiving said yoke.

Claim 21

An assembly for attachment to a bottom-pour vessel for controlling flow of liquid through a nozzle in the bottom wall of the vessel, said assembly comprising a frame, spring-pressed means carried by said frame for slidably supporting a gate in alignment with the nozzle, reciprocable propelling means carried by said frame at one end thereof, a ram block operatively connected with said propelling means, pull links carried by said ram block and extending past said spring-pressed means, a puller block carried by said links and spaced from said spring-pressed means, and gate-receiving means in the space between said puller block and said spring-pressed means for temporarily supporting a gate, said gAte-receiving means being accessible from above to enable a gate to be loaded thereon, said puller block being adapted to pull a gate from said gate-receiving means to said spring-pressed means and displace a preceding gate from the latter.

Claim 22

An assembly for attachment to a bottom-pour vessel for controlling flow of liquid through a nozzle in the bottom wall of the vessel, said assembly comprising a frame, spring-pressed means carried by said frame for slidably supporting a gate in alignment with the nozzle, reciprocable propelling means carried by said frame at one end thereof, a ram block operatively connected with said propelling means, pull links carried by said ram block and extending past said spring-pressed means, a puller block carried by said links and spaced from said spring-pressed means, and gate-receiving means in the space between said puller block and said spring-pressed means for temporarily supporting a gate, said gAte-receiving means being accessible from above to enable a gate to be loaded thereon, said puller block being adapted to pull a gate from said gate-receiving means to said spring-pressed means and displace a preceding gate from the latter.

Claim 23

An assembly as defined in claim 18 in which said gate-receiving means is carried in part by said frame and in part by said puller block.

Claim 24

An assembly as defined in claim 18 in which said gate-receiving means includes rests carried by said frame adjacent said spring-pressed means, and a ledge carried by said puller block, the upper faces of said rests and said ledge being substantially coplanar with said spring-pressed means.

Claim 25

The combination with a bottom-pour vessel having a nozzle in its bottom wall, of an assembly attached to the vessel for controlling flow of material through said nozzle, said assembly being constructed as defined in claim 18.

Claim 28

A method as defined in claim 22 in which said gates are freely loaded and removed at a location remote from the propulsion source.