IMPROVEMENTS IN CASTING PITS AND CRANES THEREFOR
Year: 1871

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Brierley Denham Healey at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 14th September 1871.
I, BRIERLEY DENHAM HEALEY, of Swansea, in the County of
Glamorganshire, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
" to be as
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN CASTING PITS AND CRANES THEREFOR,'
follows:-
My Invention has reference to an improved construction and
arrangement of casting pits and cranes therefor, whereby the cost of
producing steel ingots from the open hearth furnaces used in the
Siemens-Martin process will be greatly reduced, and which are applicable
not only to the Siemens-Martin process but also to all other processes
using the open hearth or other furnaces where the tap hole can be
placed in a fixed position during the time of tapping into the ladle.
I construct a ladle crane arranged in a somewhat similar manner to
an ordinary swing bridge, that is to say, it consists of a horizontal
framing turning at an intermediate point of its length on a pivot or
round a pillar, while at the front end it carries the casting ladle hung in

page_text: bearings thereon, and at the tail end it carries a balance box or weight
At an
and a pair of rollers for supporting the same on the floor.
intermediate point between the pivot and the ladle end the framing is
provided with a second pair of rollers which are actuated by suitable
gearing worked by hand for causing the crane to revolve, or the gearing
may be independent of the rollers and made to rotate a pinion carried
by the crane in gear with a toothed rack fixed on the floor, the position
of the gearing being in either case such that the man working the same
can see the ingot moulds into which the metal. from the ladle is run.
The ladle is also provided with gearing by which it can be tipped so as
to discharge the slag from the same. The crane is so placed that the
ladle end can be turned to the tapping holes of two contiguous furnaces
from which it conveys the metal over the ingot pit which it overhangs.
The ingot pit which is sunk into the casting pit floor is of a simicircular
form corresponding in position with the sweep of the crane so that the
latter in being turned conveys the ladle over the several ingot moulds
arranged in the ingot pit. A number of such ingot pits and ladle
cranes are arranged in a line in front of the line of furnaces, one crane
and pit being by preference provided for every two furnaces.
Where there are two opposite lines of furnaces two lines of cranes
and pits are arranged opposite each other, the cranes and pits on the
one side being either opposite those on the other side, or by preference
they are arranged in intermediate or diagonal positions relative to each
other. This arrangement of pits leaves about half the floor space in the
casting pit available for the spare ladles and ingot moulds which are
ready for use or for lining and drying ladles.
.
One or more lines of railway may be laid on the casting pit floor
beyond and parallel with the line of ingot pits or between two opposite
lines of ingot pits when such are used, by which means the height to
which the ingots have to be lifted from the ingot pits is reduced to a
minimum, and as the floor is rendered clear of obstructions by the
above-described arrangement of the ingot pits and ladle cranes
locomotives may be run on the said railways for bringing in and
taking away the wagons into which the ingots are charged.
ingots may be loaded from the ingot pits into the wagons by means
of overhead cord or other cranes, which may be arranged in any known
manner to lift and to travel longitudinally at the same time, and which
The

page_text: are provided with a monkey or carrier of any known construction for
the lifting chain, so placed that the ingots may be pulled transversely
from the ingot pits to the wagons whilst the lifting is being performed
by the crane. The man in charge of this crane should be placed at one
end of the platform which carries the monkey or carrier.
.