Device for tilting rolled stock

A simple, robust and rationally operable device for tilting rolled stock comprises a tilting head comprising a gripping device for the rolled stock, which defines a tilting axis, and a first drive for rotating the tilting head about a tilting head axis extending parallel to the tilting axis to adjust the tilting head in respective tilted positions. A lifting device supports the tilting head, and a second drive is arranged to raise and lower the lifting device to adjust the lifting device in respective lifting positions. A carriage supports the lifting device, and a third drive is arranged to displace the carriage transversely to the tilting axis to adjust the carriage in respective transverse positions. A numerical control is connected to the first, second and third drives and is arranged to receive control signal components respectively corresponding to the respective tilted, lifting and transverse positions to control the drives in response thereto to adjust the tilting of the rolled stock.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
1. Field of the Invention 
The present invention relates to a device for tilting rolled stock, which 
comprises a tilting head comprising grippers for gripping the rolled 
stock, the grippers defining a tilting axis, a lifting device supporting 
the tilting head, and a carriage supporting the lifting device and 
displaceable transversely to the tilting axis. 
2. Description of the Prior Art 
Tilting devices are manipulators for rolled stock mounted in front, or 
rearwardly, of rolling mills to grip rolled stock, such as a rod or a 
billet, coming from the mill, to hold it, to tilt it about the axis of the 
rolled stock over a selected angle, to reverse it, to displace it 
laterally for the next pass through the mill, and to position it for 
introduction into the mill. 
To enable these manipulations of the rolled stock to be effectuated, the 
tilting devices have tilting heads which are rotatable into adjusted 
positions and which are supported on a lifting device on a transversely 
displaceable carriage. The tilting heads usually have gripping means 
comprised of a pair of clamping rollers which may be driven towards each 
other and apart in opposite directions to grip the rolled stock 
therebetween and to release it. Since the rolled stock is to be tilted 
about its longitudinal axis, the gripping means for the rolled stock 
defines the tilting axis, i.e. the axis about which the rolled stock is 
tilted by the tilting head. In the known tilting devices, the tilting head 
is therefore mounted on the lifting device for rotation about this tilting 
axis, which requires very complicated support structures requiring a 
considerable amount of space, such as interacting pairs of rocking levers 
or the like which may be moved towards each other and apart. This support 
structure is mounted on the lifting device so that the tilting head may be 
lowered below the rolling axis and under the rolled stock while the 
transverse displacement of the carriage enables the lifting head to be 
transversely adjusted between rolling stock gages. This functionally 
separated arrangement of lifting device and transversely displaceable 
carriage for vertically adjusting and transversely displacing the tilting 
head, on the one hand, and the support structure for tilting the tilting 
head, on the other hand, increase the complexity of the construction and 
its space requirements even further. This results in a complicated 
operation of the device and tends to cause malfunctions. 
Accepted German patent application No. 1,101,329 discloses a tilting device 
for rolled stock, which comprises tongs supported on a transversely 
displaceable carriage and pivotal 90.degree. about an axis extending below 
the rolling plane. A ratchet-and-pinion drive connects the drive for 
transversely displacing the carriage and the pivoting drive for the tongs 
so that the tongs are pivoted simultaneously with the transverse 
displacement of the carriage to compensate for the transverse displacement 
of the axis of the rolled stock due to the pivoting of the tongs. Such a 
tilting device cannot tilt the rolled stock about its longitudinal axis, 
and the transverse carriage displacement used to compensate for the 
transverse rolled stock axis displacement can be adapted to different 
dimensions of the rolled stock only by changing the ratchet-and-pinion 
drive. This considerably reduces the usefulness of this tilting device. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
It is the primary object of this invention to obviate the indicated 
disadvantages and to provide a tilting device for rolled stock of the 
first-described type, which has a relatively simple structure, enables the 
tilting head to be freely moved in various directions, and thus is useful 
for a large number of applications and marked by its compactness and 
functional dependability. 
The above and other objects of the invention are accomplished with a device 
for tilting rolled stock, which comprises a tilting head comprising means 
for gripping the rolled stock, the gripping means defining a tilting axis, 
first drive means for rotating the tilting head about a tilting head axis 
extending parallel to the tilting axis to adjust the tilting head in 
respective tilted positions, a lifting device supporting the tilting head, 
second drive means for raising and lowering the lifting device to adjust 
the lifting device in respective lifting positions, a carriage supporting 
the lifting device, and third drive means for displacing the carriage 
transversely to the tilting axis to adjust the carriage in respective 
transverse positions. A numerical control is connected to the first, 
second and third drive means and arranged to receive control signal 
components respectively corresponding to the respective tilted, lifting 
and transverse positions to control the drives in response thereto to 
adjust the tilting of the rolled stock. 
Because the tilting motion is split into three individual components, it is 
not necessary for the tilting head to execute its rotation about the 
tilting axis separately and relative to the lifting device and the 
transversely displaceable carriage, but this rotation is effectuated in 
combination with the lifting and transverse displacement motions. There is 
no need for complicated support structures, and it is sufficient to mount 
the tilting head at a suitable location spaced from the tilting axis and 
rotatable about a tilting head axis extending parallel thereto to orient 
the gripping means radially to the tilting axis when the head is tilted. 
The revolution of the tilting head axis about the tilting axis during the 
rotation of the tilting head is effected by superimposing the lifting and 
transverse displacement motion components of the lifting device and 
carriage. This requires only a suitably programmed numerical control for 
operating the three drive means. Since it is easy to split up the motions 
of the tilting head, the lifting device and the transversely displaceable 
carriage into respective motion components and to program the numerical 
control correspondingly, the required movements of the tilting device may 
be rationally effected. It is even possible to obtain special movements, 
such as elliptical or selected radially oriented motions, in addition to 
the usual pivoting of the tilting head, its up-and-down movement and 
transverse displacement. Since no complicated support structure is 
required for the tilting head, and the tilting head, lifting device and 
transversely displaceable carriage are operated together, the construction 
of the tilting device is relatively simple, the device can be viewed from 
all sides, it functions very dependably, and is compact and robust. 
According to a preferred embodiment, the tilting device further comprises 
respective transmitters of the control signal components, the transmitters 
picking up the respective positions and transmitting the corresponding 
control signal components to the control. The transmitters are preferably 
a rotary encoder. By reading the existing positions of the tilting head, 
the lifting device and the transversely displaceable carriage, it is 
possible not only to control the tilting device motions in a desired 
manner but to use one of the existing positions, preferably that of the 
tilting head, as the reference value for controlling the two other drive 
means, which permits the numerical control to be provided with different 
programs. 
The lifting device may take any suitable form. It could be, for example, a 
support frame linked to pivotal arms, or an elevator platform supported on 
scissors levers. According to a preferred feature of the present 
invention, however, the transversely displaceable carriage comprises a 
rectilinear guide for the lifting device, and the lifting device is an 
elevator carriage supporting the tilting head. The guides for the elevator 
carriage and the transversely displaceable carriage provide simple 
coordinate devices for splitting up the motion components of the tilting 
device movement. The paths of the two carriages intersect, which permits 
the direct determination of any point in a plane defined by the guides 
within the range of the carriage movements.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
Referring now to the drawing, there is shown device 1 for tilting rolled 
stock W. Tilting device 1 comprises tilting head 2 comprising means for 
gripping rolled stock W, the gripping means defining tilting axis I. The 
illustrated gripping means comprises two clamping rollers 3 mounted on 
pivotal arms 4 which may be swung towards each other and apart to clamp 
the rolled stock therebetween and to open the pair of clamping rollers for 
release of the rolled stock. Reversible hydraulic motor 5 actuates the 
closing and opening movements of the pivotal arms carrying the clamping 
rollers. 
Tilting head 2 is supported on lifting device 6 for rotating the tilting 
head about a tilting head axis II extending parallel to tilting axis I to 
adjust the tilting head in respective tilted positions, and a first drive 
means comprising pivoting motor 7 and transmission gearing 8 is provided 
for rotating tilting head 2 through at least 180.degree.. Illustrated 
lifting device 6 supporting tilting head 2 is an elevator carriage 
displaceable in vertically extending rectilinear guide 9 of transversely 
displaceable carriage 10. Second drive means 11 comprised of a hydraulic 
cylinder-and-piston jack is connected to elevator carriage 6 for raising 
and lowering the same to adjust it in respective lifting positions. 
Carriage 10 supports lifting device 6, and third drive means 14, also 
comprised of a hydraulic cylinder-and-piston jack, is connected to 
carriage 10 for displacing the carriage transversely to tilting axis I to 
adjust carriage 10 in respective transverse positions. The transversely 
displaceable carriage runs on rollers 12 engaging a horizontally extending 
rectilinear guide of guide frame 13. 
Numerical control 15 is connected by respective control signal transmission 
lines (indicated in phantom lines) to first, second and third drive means 
7, 11 and 12 respectively operating tilting head 2, lifting device 6 and 
transversely displaceable carriage 10. The numerical control has 
incorporated therein a suitable computer program which permits splitting 
up each tilting motion of clamping rollers 3 relative to tilting axis I 
into three motion components, i.e. the movement about tilting head axis 
II, the vertical movement along guide 9 and the transverse movement along 
the horizontal guide of guide frame 13. Numerical control 15 is arranged 
to receive control signal components respectively corresponding to the 
respective tilted, lifting and transverse positions to control drives 7, 
11 and 14 in response thereto to adjust the tilting of rolled stock W. The 
superimposition of the three motion components enables the tilting of 
clamping rollers 3 to be performed exactly. 
Preferably, as shown, the existing positions of tilting head 2, vertically 
displaceable lifting device 6 and horizontally displaceable carriage 10 
are read, respectively, by transmitters 16, 17 and 18 of the respective 
control signal components, the transmitters picking up the respective 
positions and transmitting the corresponding control signal components to 
the control. Rotary encoders are preferably used as control signal 
transmitters. Signal transmitter 16 is mounted on pivoting motor 7 while 
signal transmitters 17 and 18 are coupled to carriages 6 and 10 by ratchet 
drives or the illustrated belt drives 19, 20 to read the vertical and 
horizontal displacements of these carriages. The existing positions 
generate corresponding control signals transmitted to numerical control 15 
so that the control of drive means 7, 11, 14 of tilting head 2, elevator 
carriage 6 and transversely displaceable carriage 10 may be coordinated 
exactly to obtain the desired motions of the tilting device. 
As shown, cover carriages 22 are connected to tilting device 1 by 
adjustment drives 21 and are movable parallel to carriage 10 so that the 
area occupied by the tilting device may be covered with respect to the 
rolled stock when the tilting head is in its lowered position. 
As will be noted from FIGS. 3 to 6, the tilting movements of tilting device 
1 can be controlled in three components by numerical control 15 by 
individually actuating drive means 7 for tilting head 2, drive means 11 
for lifting device 6 and drive means 14 for transversely displaceable 
carriage 10. This makes a very simple construction and rational operation 
of the tilting device possible. 
FIG. 3 shows tilting device 1 in its normal gripping position. Tilting head 
2 has been turned 90.degree. clockwise from its centered position, in 
which clamping rollers 3 are oriented upwardly, to a position in which the 
clamping rollers are positioned laterally adjacent rolled stock W. The 
clamping rollers facing tilting axis I are opened so that rolled stock W 
can move between the clamping rollers and may be gripped by closing the 
clamping rollers. 
As shown in FIG. 4, drive 4 is now actuated to lower elevator carriage 6, 
drive 14 is actuated to displace carriage 10 transversely and motor 7 is 
actuated to pivot the tilting head 90.degree. counterclockwise to turn the 
rolled stock 90.degree. to assume the centered position shown in this 
figure. If transversely displaceable carriage 10 is further moved in the 
same direction but elevator carriage 6 is raised and tilting head 2 is 
further turned 90.degree. counterclockwise, a 90.degree. counterclockwise 
turn from the centered position is obtained, i.e. a total turn of 
180.degree. of clamping rollers 3 about tilting axis I and thus a 
180.degree. tilt of rolled stock W, as shown in FIG. 5. 
FIG. 6 illustrates tilting head 2 in the centered position but elevator 
carriage 6 in its lowermost position so that, with closed cover carriages 
22, tilting head 2 with clamping rollers 3 can be located below the rolled 
stock, which makes a gripping of rolled stock W from two opposite sides 
possible. 
Obviously, the range of motions of tilting device 1 is not limited to the 
positions illustrated in FIGS. 3-6 but any composite movement can be 
readily produced, which is comprised of the motion component of the 
circular movement of idling head 2 about tilting head axis II, the motion 
component of the vertical movement of lifting device 6 along rectilinear 
guide 9, and the motion component of the horizontal movement of 
transversely displaceable carriage 10 along the rectilinear guide of guide 
frame 13.