Improvements in or connected with Hinges for Automatically Opening or Closing the Doors of Heating Furnaces.
Year: 1898

page_text: Date of Application, 19th May, 1898-Accepted, 6th May, 1899
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in or connected with Hinges for Automatically
Opening or Closing the Doors of Heating Furnaces.
I, JESS ADOLPH JENSEN, of 3, Colbjornsensgade, Kopenhagen, in the Kingdom
of Denmark, do hereby declare the nature of this invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement:-
The invention relates to arrangements for opening and closing furnace doors.
The opening is effected by raising the door to a certain extent, which when
released, rests by means of a pin or the like, on a screw surface applied to a
hinge, or a screw-surface applied to the door is supported on a pin standing
opposite thereto and slides down thereon. The closing is effected in a similar
manner, the door when fully opened resting by means of another screw surface,
whose inclination is opposite to the inclination of the first-named screw-surface,
on a pin attached to the other hinge and moving downwards under opposite
rotary motion. The reason for the changing of the pivot will be explained further
on. It is not necessary that the mechanism should effect both movements; it may
be so arranged as only to effect the opening or closing, in which case, the opposite
movement is effected in both instances by hand. The pressing of the door against
the frame is here effected by a wedge fastening; this may, however, be brought
about in some other manner.
The
When the door is opened or closed, every point is rotated and lowered.
course of any such point is a winding one, and the combined rotary and downward
movement if unrolled appears as an oblique line.
In Figs. I to V of the drawing are a number of diagrams showing the movement
of the door. Fig. I is a diagram of the automatic opening of the door and shut-
ting of the same by a fresh raising, Fig. II the automatic opening of the door
and re-shutting of the same by means of rotary motion, Fig. III the opening of
the door by turning and automatic re-shutting, Fig. IV and V automatic opening
and shutting of the door. Figs. VI and VII show two forms of the invention which
correspond with the idea of movement as per diagram I Figs. VI and VI" are
sections along the lines -- and - in Figs. VI and VII. Figs. VIII and IX
represent in two different positions a form of the invention corresponding to the
diagrams IV and V and in which for the sake of clearness, the lever 7 is turned
to the extent of 90. Figs. IX and IX" are two diagrams showing how the
mechanism should be constructed if the door is to both open and close automati-
cally. Fig. X illustrates the lower, Fig. XI the upper hinge in plan. Fig. XII
is a plan of the furnace, in which the lever 7 is shown in its proper position.
The distance ab in Figs. I to V represents that part of the raising movement
which is necessary for lifting the wedge 10 out of the wedge-hook 101 (Figs. VIII,
IX and XII). The distance ac represents in all the diagrams the full height to
which the door is raised. In the diagrams IV and V the height be is divided into
two parts and bc, the first of which represents the necessary raising for the
purpose of closing, the second that for opening, that is to say, the door, in order

page_text: that it may open, must be lowered to the extent of cb, after being fully raised,
and in order to close subsequently, must descend to the further extent of ',b,
upon which only it can slide down into the wedge fastening. The distances ce¹
and dd indicate horizontal resting surfaces between each two movements of a
different kind following one another. The oblique lines indicate rotations, the
distance cd for opening bd for closing the door.
The figures beneath the diagrams show the construction of the surfaces, which
cause the motion of the door, illustrated by means of the respective diagrams, the
upper circle representing the surface of the upper, and the lower circle the surface
of the lower hinge piece, which effects the said motion, supposing the surfaces
were executed in the way shown in Fig. VII, the plain surfaces represent the
uppermost surfaces of the fast hinge parts, the perpendicularly shaded surfaces
indicate horizontal resting surfaces, the radially shaded surfaces represent screw
surfaces, in which the sliding direction of the door is illustrated by means of an
arrow, the horizontally shaded surfaces are incisions of the depth indicated by
the line a-b of the diagrams.
In diagram TV the dotted line represents the gradual conversion of the raising
into the opening movement.
Instead of the lines in Fig. I let us suppose grooves in a perpendicular wall, in
which a body under, the influence of gravity, a small roller for instance, can move.
By means of a small rod the roller, which at first was at the point a, can be
raised above to e, then pushed to c, whereupon it rolls, by reason of its own
weight to d. In order to bring it back to a, it must be moved in the reverse
direction over d¹ to c whence it falls again automatically to a. The oblique plane
thus presents an obstacle to the roller's moving from right to left again without
being raised afresh. This obstacle also exists in the case where the roller, after
sliding down from e to d strikes against another oblique plane d-b (Fig. IX³).
This figure shows two oblique planes, down which the roller can run.
This is only
possible at first as far as d. As soon, however, as the other oblique plane is
removed, the roller can run farther along. The constructional peculiarity of the
present arrangement however only allows of the removal of the upper oblique plane
by pushing downwards. But this, in the case illustrated in Fig. IX, is
impossible. The difficulty, however, can be met in the manner shown in Fig. IX".
The two oblique planes - and d-b are put so far apart that the plane ed can
be pushed down to such an extent that upon the further running down of the
roller, or in this instance of a small rod furnished with two rollers which rod
however must only move laterally with the different positions of its axis parallel
to one another, the plane c-d will not lie in the path of the upper roller indicated
by dotted lines. If the upper oblique plane is pushed into the position indicated
by dots, the rod can move further without hindrance.
If now, it be supposed that the oblique planes in Fig. IX are wound around a
cylindrical staff and the rod which carries the two rollers is replaced by a door
turning on such cylindrical staff, the case will be that illustrated in Figs. VIII
and IX except that the oblique planes are applied to the hinge pieces 2 and 21 of
the door, and instead of the upper oblique plane itself the pivot of the same, the
pin, is brought out of the range of the oblique plane, by means of a special
mechanism. By the above examples the constructional arrangement will be easily
understood.
Figs. VI and VII illustrate the case corresponding to the diagram I. 1 is the
hinge piece fixed to the furnace wall, 2 the hinge piece of the door, 3 the pin
along which the screw-surface slides down or which pin itself, as in Fig. VII
slides down the fixed screw surface 4. 5 is the hinge pin or pivot of the door,
8 is a striking surface or lodgment for limiting the movement of the door. If the
door in the position represented in the drawing be left to itself, it will so turn by
reason of its own weight, as to come into a position perpendicular to the plane in
the drawing.
Figs. VIII and IX illustrate a construction corresponding to the diagrams IV

page_text: and V in two different positions. In Fig. VIII the door is closed and in Fig. IX
open. The pin 3 is arranged movable and attached to a bent tappet 1, which is
guided above on the hinge pin 5 and below in a hole of the rib G of the furnace
cover and serves not only as a fulcrum for the door, when it shall be opened, but
also for lifting the door and bringing it into the position, which enables it to be
opened automatically. An arm 7, which is also bent and suitably forked, is by a
pivot connected to the bent tappet and for the purpose of being better seen repre-
sented as being turned to an extent of 90 deg. If the handle of the lever 7 be
turned upwards, the bent tappet will assume its lowest position, and the pin will
just or nearly be in contact with the hinge piece 2 or more correctly the screw
surface intended for effecting the opening of the door. The lower hinge piece 21
likewise has a screw surface, this surface being intended for the closing of the
door, whilst a second sliding pin 31, on which the last named screw surface rests
during the closing of the door, engages in a recess 9, Fig. X, of the hinge piece
when the door is in its lowest position. If the handle of the lever 7 be pressed
down, the bent tamet with the pin 3 will be raised and, at the same time, the
door also. After the lever 7 has been pressed down, the door takes the position
indicated in Fig. IX, as, supported on the pin 3 by its upper screw surface, it
has already rotated to the extent of 90° during the raising, as indicated by the
dotted lines in Diagram IV. At the same time the screw surface on the lower
hinge piece has assumed such a position, that its lower part almost comes into
contact with the pin attached to the lower hinge piece 11. The door, however,
cannot move along the screw surface, being hindered from so doing by the upper
pin 3, now lying on the radial surface S. If, on the contrary, the lever be again
brought into the position shown in Fig. VIII, this hindrance is removed and the
pin moved completely beyond the area of the hinge piece 2, and, at the same
time, the door, deprived of its point of support, drops first and then slides with its
lower surface attached to the hinge piece 2, down upon the pin 3. But here,
even the door is not still, as the screw surface itself now brings about a rotary
motion, which effects the closing of the door. This motion only ceases in the
position where the door strikes against the frame. The door is then in such a
position, that the wedge piece 10 of the wedge fastening is somewhat above the
inwards obliquely formed wedge fastening hook 10', at the same time, the pin 31
is opposite to the recess 9 of the hinge piece 1, so that the former enters the latter
and the door can slide down in the wedge fastening, the position shown in
Fig. VIII being once more taken.
Instead of the pin 3 being arranged on the movable tappet 1, it may also be
provided on a disc fixed on the pivot 5, and said pivot may be so arranged as to be
either movable only at its upper part or throughout its length. The lifting and
lowering of the pivot then produces the same effect as the analogous movement of
the loose tappet 1.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what
I claim is;-
:-
1. In furnace-doors the arrangement of helical surfaces provided around the
pivot of the door; these helical surfaces being so acted upon by a sliding-pin 3,
that through the action of the weight of the door the turning thereof takes place
automatically owing either to the rotary pin sliding down a stationary helical
surface, or owing to the rotary helical surface, sliding down the stationary pin.
2. In furnace-doors in which an arrangement of helical surfaces is provided
around the pivot of the door and so acted upon by a sliding pin 3, that through
the action of the weight of the door the turning thereof takes place automatically
owing either to the rotary pin sliding down a stationary helical surface, or owing
to the rotary helical surfaces sliding down the stationary pin; the arrangement of
two helical surfaces of opposite pitch and with corresponding sliding pins 3 and 31,
so that the one helical surface is thrown into operation during the opening of the

page_text: door and the other during the closing of the same in which operation one of the
supports or sliding pins 3-when the opening movement is completed-is displaced
in downward direction in order to place the other sliding-pin 31 in contact with the
corresponding helical surface, so as not to offer an obstacle during the subsequent
rotation in an opposite direction to that of the other helical surface.
Dated this 19th day of May 1898.
WHEATLEY & MACKENZIE,
40, Chancery Lane, London, W.C., Agents.