Improvements in Grates for Steam Boiler and other Furnaces.
Year: 1898

page_text: Date of Application, 4th Aug., 1898-Accepted, 29th Oct., 1898
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
[Communicated from abroad by JOSEPH H. NEEMES and SPENCER NEEMES, both
of 206, First Street, Troy, New York, United States of America, Manu-
facturers.]
Improvements in Grates for Steam Boiler and other Furnaces.
I, HENRY HARRIS LAKE, of the Firm of Haseltine, Lake & Co., Patent Agents,
45, Southampton Buildings, in the County of Middlesex, 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 state-
ment-
This invention relates to that class of grates which employ rocking-bars.
Fig. 1 of the drawings is a top plan view of the improved grate, detached.
Fig. 2 is a side view in elevation of the same with one end partly broken away
and shown in vertical section on a plane cutting the bars transversely.
Fig. 3 is a vertical section taken on the broken line 3-3, in Fig. 2.
Fig. 4 is a side elevation of a bearing-box which supports one end of a rocking
grate-bar.
The stationary grate-bars are indicated by the letter A, and the rocking bars
by the letter B.
These bars all have end-supports in the rectangular frame C.
The stationary bars are preferably wedge-shaped on their lower side, as seen
in cross-section in Fig. 2, and have their ends inserted in openings C in the
frame, which openings are tapered downwardly to receive and fit the ends of
the bars.
Longitudinal movement of the bars in their bearings C may be prevented by
means of the side plates C extending along the sides of the grate-frame and upon
which the opposite ends of the bars abut.
The stationary bars are preferably cut away at their inserted ends, as shown,
one of such ends being cut away for a considerable distance, as at C³, whereby
such end, when the locking plate C on that side of the frame has been removed,
can be projected a sufficient distance through its bearing aperture C¹ to permit
the other end of the bar to be entirely withdrawn from its bearing aperture on
the opposite side of the frame, whereupon the bar can be inclined upwardly,
as indicated by dotted lines in Fig. 3, and withdrawn from the grate.
Such a construction, while effectually preventing the escape of the stationary
bars in use, affords a convenient means for the insertion and removal of such
bars for repairs and renewal.
The rocking bars are severally provided on each end with a trunnion B' which
has its bearings in a detachable box B2 which dovetails into an opening or recess
in the upper edge of the sides of the frame, adapted to receive and fit the box,
the sides of the frame being provided with depending strengthening flanges C
. 077

page_text: The rocking bars are severally provided with a double series of oppositely
projecting teeth D.
These teeth are preferably rounded or curved on their upper surfaces D¹ and
are undercut on their projecting ends to form thereon the beveled surfaces D³
and the cutting edges D at the intersection of the rounded and beveled surfaces.
The cutting edges extend nearly to the stationary bars, and, together with the
trunnions of the rocking bars are in the same plane with the stationary bars,
the cutting edges being located a short distance above the axes of movement
of the rocking bars, and so that a rocking movement of the bars will cause the
cutting edges to move to and fro along the sides of the stationary bars without
contact therewith, as indicated by the curved dotted line F in Fig. 2, which
indicates the line of movement of the cutting edge.
The dotted lines F2 show a relative position of the teeth after a rocking move-
ment has been imparted to the rocking-bar.
It is thus possible to crush or shear off a portion of any clinker or other solid
object which may be interposed between a stationary bar and the cutting edge
of a rocking-bar-tooth and force the crushed or sheared-off portion down between
the bars beneath the grate, which prevents the grate from becoming clogged to
render the rocking bars inoperative, as would be the result if the teeth were
only movable toward and from, and not past or along the side of, a stationary
bar.
By having the stationary bars in alternate order and parallel with the rock-
ing bars, the rocking-bar-teeth afford the only support for the contents of the
furnace in the intervening spaces between the stationary bars, which reduces the
stationary support to a minimum, and affords a minimum resistance to the gravita-
tion of clinkers and other foreign substances down to a position between the
teeth and stationary bars where they can be sheared and ground to pieces which
will pass through the grate.
By having the ends of the teeth undercut or beveled, as shown, ample clearance
is afforded for the sheared-off portion of a clinker to pass down below the grate.
It is thus possible, by rocking the movable bars, to wholly clean the grate and
force all the clinkers, ashes lumps of coal and foreign substances down beneath
the grate.
Any well known means may be employed for communicating rocking move-
ments to the movable bars.
Each rocking bar is shown provided with a depending lug B which is pivoted
at B5 to a common rod Be broken away at one end.
By imparting to this rod a reciprocating movement, a rocking movement
will be imparted to each rocking bar.
This invention is not limited to any specific form in the construction of the
various parts, the essential feature of the invention being the combination with
a rocking bar having a series of transversely projecting curved teeth, of a
stationary or resistance bar parallel with the rocking bar so as to provide only
shear-cutting supports along the entire side of the resistance bar, and means for
causing clinkers and other solid products of combustion to gravitate toward the
cutting edges.
Heretofore, rocking bars, having rows of oppositely projecting fingers, have
been used in grates in connection with a stationary support, but they were not
provided with shear-cutting edges and adapted to cooperate with each other to
feed the clinkers down to the cutting edges and slice off and force down through
the grate successive portions to quickly clear the grate of clinkers and other
solid products of combustion.
In this improved grate, there is a separate independent cutting edge on each
projecting tooth, at the junction of its curved and beveled surfaces, that cooperates
with a resisting support consisting of the stationary bars, which may be termed
resistance bars to distinguish their cooperative function in relation to the rocking

page_text: bars furthermore, the teeth are short, which not only gives them more advan-
tageous leverage and power, but permits a greater rocking movement of the
rocking bars without projecting the ends of the teeth up into the fire to disturb
the partially consumed coal; also the stationary or resistance bars have their
upper surfaces lower than the upper surfaces of the teeth and tapered trans-
versely so that the clinkers gravitate to the lower surface on the bars and will
tip on the thin tapered edge toward the uplifted teeth, either on one side or
the other, or alternately on both sides, to be engaged by the cutting edge of a
descending tooth as the bar is rocked.
And, as a further aid to the operation, the oppositely projecting teeth on a
rocking bar are connected in pairs, a tooth on one side with the opposite tooth
on the other side of the bar by a raised and rounded web which has an upper
or top surface forming an unbroken curve from the cutting edge of a tooth on
one side of a bar to the cutting edge of the opposite tooth on the other side of
the bar, whereby the highest upper surfaces of the rocking-bar tooth do not
change appreciably in height or materially in position relatively to the resis-
tance bars when the toothed bar is rocked, so that the maximum degree of rota-
tion can be safely imparted to the rocking bars without disturbing the fire,
either by direct contact or by forcing clinkers up into it.
The longitudinally rounded form of the teeth permits them to be rocked with-
out materially changing the form of the clinker-receiving channels along the
resistance bars, and, as the cutting edges of the teeth move upward during their
rocking movement, they slide along beneath superimposed clinkers without
materially disturbing their position: but on their downward movement these
cutting edges engage the clinkers and force them against the resistance bars.
The movements of the rocking bars, therefore, always tends to urge the
clinkers, or other solid products of combustion down into one of the oppositely
located channels against the resistance bars, from which they are forced, by the
shearing process, down through the grate as before explained.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, as communicated
to me by my foreign correspondents, I declare that what I claim is :-
1. In a grate, the combination with a series of rocking bars, of a corresponding
series of resistance bars, with the individual members of one series alternating
with those of the other series and parallel therewith, and the axes of the rocking
bars in approximately the same plane with the resistance bars, a series of teeth
projecting laterally from each of the opposite sides of the several rocking
bars almost to the neighboring resistance bars and having their upper surfaces
in a plane higher than the plane occupied by the upper surfaces of the resistance
bars, and curved downwardly toward the resistance bars, and means for rocking
the toothed bars, whereby the points of the teeth can be moved toward from.
and along the side of, a resistance bar without being projected above the general
level of the upper grate-surface, substantially as described.
2. In a grate. the combination with a resistance-bar tapered transversely on
its upper side surfaces and beveled transversely on its lower side surfaces, of a rock-
ing bar having its axis of movement in approximately the same horizontal plane
with the resistance bar, a series of teeth projecting from the rocking bar approxi-
mately to the resistance bar, having the upper surface of the several teeth curved
and the projecting end surfaces undercut or beveled, and means for rocking the
toothed bar, whereby a cutting edge formed at the junction of the curved and
beveled surfaces of a tooth is adapted to cooperate with a resisting edge at the
junction of the upper and lower beveled surfaces on the resistance bar, substan-
tially as described.
3. In a grate, the combination with a pair of rocking bars each provided
with a row of teeth projecting horizontally toward the other bar, having the

page_text: teeth severally curved on their upper surfaces, of a resistance bar beveled or
tapered transversely on its upper side surfaces and cooperatingly interposed be-
tween the rocking bars but with its uppermost surface on a lower plane that the
uppermost surface of the teeth, whereby a clinker-receiving channel is formed
on the opposite sides of the interposed bar between the tapered bar and the
curved teeth of the rocking bars, substantially as described.
1
J
1000
5
HASELTINE, LAKE & Co.,
45, Southampton Buildings, London, W.C.,
Agents for the Applicant.