Radial cutter type cleaning apparatus for coke oven door bottom surface

Any type of door bottom surface can be completely cleaned by the cleaning apparatus of this invention which comprises a carriage which is driven along a pair of horizontal platforms per se forming therebetween a passage for the carriage, a pair of supporting plates pivotably mounted on the carriage, a radial cutter device rotatably held by the supporting plates at the latter's frontward ends, said radial cutter device being cylindrical and having thereon several cutting blades radially extending and longitudinally aligned in parallel, a pair of coil springs charged between said front ends of the supporting plates and front portions of the carriage, and drive means for moving the radial cutter device and the carriage itself.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
This invention relates to a radial cutter type cleaner to be used for 
cleaning the bottom surface of a coke oven door. Tar and the like which 
are produced in the coke oven chamber stick on the coke oven doors which 
are removably put on the door openings of both the pusher side and 
quencher side of the coke oven chamber, and thus are apt to hamper sealing 
efficiency of the door and both door removal and reinstallation 
operations. Therefore, frequent cleaning operations of the door have been 
required to scrape off the tar and the like so stuck on the door. However, 
on the bottom surface, or the brick holding frame of the door, there are 
gathered much tars and the like including those dropped from side surfaces 
and thus there are formed thick, persistent tar layer. Conventional plate 
type or disc wheel type cleaners are apt to ride and pass on such thick, 
persistent tar layer without scraping them. 
Further, while the height of the door bottom surface or brick holding frame 
to be cleaned varys with types of the door, conventional clearners have 
had insufficient height adjustment means. Thus, in case where the bottom 
surface of the brick holding frame to be cleaned is situated fairly high, 
the scraper cannot or insufficiently reach the bottom surface. This 
invention is directed to provide a new, efficient cleaning apparatus 
particularly for scraping the door bottom surface without the 
above-mentioned defects. 
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
The door bottom surface cleaning apparatus of this invention 
characteristically comprises a carriage which is driven along a pair of 
horizontal platforms per se forming therebetween a passage for the 
carriage, a pair of supporting plates pivotaly mounted on the carriage, a 
radical cutter device rotatably held by the supporting plates at the 
latter's frontward ends, said radial cutter device being cylindrical and 
having thereon several cutting blades radially extending and 
longitudinally aligned in parallel, a pair of coil springs charged between 
said front ends of the supporting plates and front portions of the 
carriage, and drive means for moving the radial cutter device and the 
carriage itself. The radial cutter device is forcibly lifted by pressure 
of the coil springs. 
Constructed as above, the door bottom surface cleaning apparatus of this 
invention can completely scrape off all the tar and the like persistently 
stuck on the door bottom surface, since the horizontal surface is 
powerfully scraped by radial cutter rotating perpendicularly thereto. 
Further, the cleaning apparatus of this invention can be used for various 
types of doors having various height of bottom surface because the radial 
cutter device is previously set at a position somewhat high and contacting 
pressure between the bottom surface and the cutter can be reduced by the 
coil springs.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
Referring to the drawings, more particularly to FIG. 2, a pair of channels 
11, 11' are fixed to each bottom surface of a pair of horizontal platform 
12. The platforms 12 are placed in parallel to form a passage therebetween 
for a carriage 14 which is movable to and from by means of wheels 13 
thereof. As shown in FIGS. 1 and 3, the carriage 14 has a pair of fitting 
means 15, 15' fixed on the upper plate thereof and extending upward at 
places somewhat rear from the center. 
The fitting members 15, 15' are rotatably pivoted thereto with a pair of 
elongated supporting plates 16, 16' respectively. The supporting plates 
16, 16' are longer than the upper plates of the carriage 14. Both front 
ends of the supporting plates 16, 16' are associated with connecting 
plates 17. As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, beneath both somewhat sideward end 
portions of the connecting plates 17 are fixed a pair of upper spring shoe 
members 19, 19' which have transverse pivot rods 18, 18' therebetween. 
On a plate 20 extending outwardly from the front center of the carriage 14, 
there are fixed lower spring shoe members 21, 21' in opposition to the 
upper shoe members 19, 19'. A pair of coil springs 22, 22' are charged 
between the upper and lower spring shoe members 19, 19' and 21, 21' 
respectively in order to forcibly lift the front ends of the supporting 
plates 16, 16'. A plurality of liners or shims 23, 23' are inserted 
between the lower spring shoe members 21, 21' and the plate 20. By adding 
or reducing said liners 23, 23', height of the front ends of the 
supporting plates 16, 16' can be adjusted. In FIGS. 1 and 3, reference 
numbers 24, 24' indicate spring pressure adjustment screws for the coil 
springs 22, 22'. 
A rotation shaft 25 is installed over both frontward ends of the supporting 
plates 16, 16' and several blocks of cutter devices 26 are fitted thereon 
side by side. (In FIG. 2, five blocks are shown). Each block of radial 
cutter devices 26 comprises cylindrical sleeve 27 to be fitted on the 
rotation shaft 25, plural base plates 28 (in FIG. 3, six plates are shown) 
secured radially to and longitudinally over whole length of the peripheral 
surface of the sleeve 27, cutter blades 29 each replaceably bolted to the 
base plate 28 with their outer ends shifted out. 
The radial cutter devices 26 are previously set in such position well 
higher than standard height of the bottom surface 31 of brick holding 
frame of a door 30 to be cleaned. For cleaning the door 30, it is brought 
to the middle portion of the platform 12 and the carriage 14 is driven 
while rotating the radial cutter devices 26. When the carriage 14 is 
driven to the middle of the platform 12 and the radial cutter 26 abut 
against one end corner position of the bottom surface 31, the radial 
cutter devices are driven beneath the bottom surface 31 while pressing 
down the coil springs 22, 22'. By so driven while rotating radially to the 
bottom surface 31, the radial cutter devices 26 can effectively scrape tar 
and the like stuck on the bottom surface 31. Referring now to FIG. 3, 
there is illustrated an example of a drive means for both the radial 
cutter devices 26 and the carriage 14. 
The carriage 14 has a hydraulic motor 32 fixed on the rear wall thereof, a 
shaft 33 of the hydraulic motor laterally extends through the carriage 14 
to the front wall thereof and a bevel gear 34 is secured on the shaft 33 
at a position near to the rear wall. Another bevel gear 35 is provided to 
engage with said bevel gear 34. A transmittion gear 36 associated with the 
bevel gear 35 engages with a second transmission gear 37 which engages in 
turn with a third transmission gear 38. The radial cutter devices 26 are 
driven by the third transmission gear 38. 
Likewise, on the shaft 33 is secured a worm 39 at a center portion somewhat 
near the front end thereof. The worm 39 engages with a worm gear 40 which 
in turn engages with gears 41, 42. A rack gear 43 associated with the gear 
42 engages with a rack rail 44 fitted beneath the horizontal platform 12. 
Thus, the carriage 14 can be driven by the rotation of rack gear 43. The 
hydraulic motor is so designed that when the carriage 14 reaches to the 
end of frontward movement rotation of the motor is reversed automatically. 
Reversed rotation of the motor results in backward movement of the 
carriage 14 and also reversed rotation of the radial cutter devices. The 
radial cutter devices rotate in such direction as opposite to that of the 
carriage 14 since it is driven by one more transmission gear than the 
carriage. Thus, the power for scraping the bottom surface of the door is 
largely enforced. 
In FIG. 4, a second example of the drive means for the carriage is 
illustrated. A gear 46 enages with the gear 37 which is fitted on a shaft 
45 which drives the radial cutter device. It engages through an 
intermediate sprocket wheel 47 with a sprocket wheel 48 fitted on the 
carriage wheel shaft by chains 49. A third example of the drive means for 
moving the carriage 14 is shown in FIG. 5. In this case, the carriage 14 
is driven to and from by means of a hydraulic cylinder 52 and a rod 53 
thereof. In any case, the radial cutter devices forcibly lifted by the 
pressure of coil springs.