Patent GB-881518-A (GB)
Title: Wind box sealing construction for sintering machines
Inventor: ROWEN HAROLD EARL
IPC: F27B21/06
Filed: 1958-02-21
Abstract: 881,518. Sintering machines. McDOWELL CO. Inc. Feb. 21, 1958, No. 5738/58. Class 82(1). A sintering machine has pallets 10 (Figs. 1 and 2) a hood above them and a lower wind box 20, means for supporting and means for moving said pallets 10 in a path, including sealing means at each side thereof to effect a seal against gas or airflow at the upper and lower pallet margins at the sides, an air-tight tunnel-like chamber extending coextensively with the length of the machine at each side and embracing the sealing means and the pallet supporting means, to the ends of which chamber yieldable closure means is sealingly connected. At each side the pallets 10 have parallel sealing surfaces with wear strips 39 between which are wheel supports, and one of which surfaces is engaged by a supporting sealing bar 37 to form the chamber with a seal bar 40, plate 41a, angle member 43 on a wall 25 and extensions 50, 55 of the wall. The chamber is formed so as to have sealing strips 60, e.g. of metal, (within packing material 62, 63) at each end (Fig. 3), shaped to fit the contour of the wheels 11 on entering and leaving each sufficiently long simultaneously to embrace two wheels 11 for closing the chamber to passage of gas fired to the trackway of supporting seal bars 37 and coacting with the sealing surfaces of the pallets 10. To make the upper and lower sides of the chamber and their points of attachment to the hood and wind box 20 self-supporting and somewhat flexible, the contours of the portions 50 and 55 as in Fig. 2 may be modified. The pallets 10 return on rails 12 and the ends of the chamber may be sealed by divided flexible flaps 65 (Fig. 5), meeting at their edges, separated by passage of the wheels 11, and spaced for engagement of only one by one wheel at a particular time. The machine may include an adjustable means for yieldingly supporting the hood weight between a frame and the hood, the chamber being made up of one member secured to the upper and lower seal bars at the ends. The pallets 10 may have walls 26 with flanges thereon (Fig. 11), a seal bar 140 at each side of a pallet 10 carrying a sealing strip 139 slidably coacting with a flange, being fixed to a seal plate 141 secured to the hood wall 125, lower sealing means being made up of bars 37 on angle bars 135 and a plate 155 extending to the wall 125. The wall 125 has access openings, e.g. 128, and the plate 155 has clean-out openings, e.g. 156. In a modification (Fig. 12) a seal bar 162 is fixed at each side to the inner edge of a plate 160 joined to the wall 25 of the hood aligned vertically with the pallet walls 26 on which are wear strip sections 163 which contact the seal bar 162. The hood may include side walls sloping outwardly from above the pallets to form the vertical outer side of the chamber, with no upper seal bar, an inwardlysloping plate forming the top of the chamber being positioned for sliding sealing connection with each side wall of the pallets. In an arrangement with narrow pallets the lower wind box has a laterally-extending pipe for leading air or gas to or from the wind box. The air or gases may enter or leave the top of the hood at the side through a manifold-like conduit, the chamber extending from the roof to a bottom seal plate structure, with its upper portion closed by a sealing plate, depending from the roof.