Patent GB-840014-A (GB)
Title: Improvements relating to continuous casting
IPC: B22D11/126
Filed: 1958-05-28
Abstract: 840,014. Continuous-casting machines; cutting by fusion. CONCAST A.G. May 28, 1958 [June 19, 1957], No. 16986/58. Classes 83 (1) and 83 (4). [Also in Groups XXIV and XXXV] In a vertical continuouscasting plant, the casting section is received by an appliance and tilted into a horizontal position for removal by a live roller-bed &c., the appliance being brought into supporting engagement with the continuous casting before severance of the section, lowered with the casting at the speed of the continuous casting and, after the casting section has been severed, lowered at a speed greater than the casting speed. The apparatus comprises - a frame 1 mounted on a bearing 2 for movement between the vertical and horizontal positions by a chain-drive from a motor 141. The frame comprises rollers 5, and guide-rails 6 on which a shoe 8 is longitudinally movable, which shoe, in the vertical position of the frame, serves to catch the end of the issuing casting 35 and in the horizontal position of the frame serves to push-off the cut-off casting section 9 onto a live roller-bed. The shoe 8 has a spring-loaded abutment 10 for engaging the casting, and is chain-driven along the frame by either a three-phase motor 110 at a speed greater than the issuing casting, or a D.C. motor 124 in synchronism with the driven extraction roller 36. The appropriate drive is automatically selected during the operation of the apparatus, and drives through an electromagnetic clutch 113-118. The frame 1 also includes spring- loaded clamps 20 which yield to the casting 35 as the frame moves into the vertical position, and then close around the casting. Cutting by fusion.-The apparatus also includes a burner-carriage 43 suspended on chains 44, 45, vertically movable by a motor 67, and counterbalanced by a weight 54. The carriage supports two pivoted burners 30, 31 which are rocked by pistons 441, 442, so that they cut inwardly from opposite edges of the casting. The control-circuit is described in detail, and is such that a brake 68 on the burnercarriage drive motor-shaft 66 is released, and an electrically-operated hydraulic mechanism clamps the carriage to the descending casting. Electromagnetically-controlled valves 452, 467, operate to cause the burners 30, 31 to start cutting from opposite sides of the casting, and after a predetermined movement, limit switches cause the burner 31 to return to its initial position and the burner 30 to halt, before completion of the cut, until the bottom of the casting is engaged by the shoe 8. The shoe is moved upwardly on the vertical frame 1, to engage the casting at high-speed, by the motor 110, which is braked by a rotor resistance before the shoe engages the casting. On engagement with the casting, the drive of the shoe is switched to the D.C. motor 124, and the shoe descends at the same speed as the casting. At the same time the burner 30 completes the cutting-off of the section 9 and returns to its initial position. The carriage is unclamped from the casting and returned to its initial position by the motor 67, a limit-switch actuated by the counterweight 54 causing the motor to slow down towards the end of its travel. The brake 68 then locks the motor 67. On completion of the cut the shoe-drive is switched to the motor 110, and the shoe descends at high-speed with the cut-off casting section 9, the motor being braked by countercurrent towards the end of the shoe-travel. With the shoe in its lowermost position, the motor 141 causes tilting of the frame 1 into the horizontal position, and the shoe is again driven by the motor 110 to push the casting section from the frame. Thereafter, the shoe returns, and the frame is returned to its vertical position to receive the next cut-off section. Hooters give warning of over-travel of the burner-carriage 43, and excess heat at the motors 67, 110 and 141.