Improvements in Pig-iron Handling and Breaking Machinery.
Year: 1899

page_text: Date of Application, 25th Apr., 1899 -Accepted, 27th May, 1899
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Pig-iron Handling and Breaking Machinery.
I, ALEXANDER EPHRAIM BROWN, of 1151, Prospect Street, Cleveland, Cuyahoga
County, Ohio, U.S.A., Mechanical Engineer, 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:-
My said improvement belongs to that class or system of pig-bed breaking appa-
ratus wherein the breaking machine proper consists of an upright, U-shaped.
housing or frame for hydraulic or other type of plungers adapted to operate against
the pig-bed when brought into position for the purpose by over-head carriers, and
my invention consists in the construction and combination of parts hereinafter
more fully pointed out and claimed, whereby the pig-beds are grappled and sus-
pended from the carrier in a manner to secure, during the process of breaking, a
simple and uniform bearing for the bed, no matter how irregular and variable is
its surface, and not only at all the points by which the same is held beneath the
carrier, but also against the dies, themselves.
In the accompanying drawings, like letters denote like parts in every instance.
Fig. I is a diagramatic sketch of a pig-breaking apparatus, showing the pig-
bed in position for breaking.
Fig. II. is an enlarged, partial, sectional view of a similar apparatus through
the line r, y, of Fig. I.
Fig. III. is a front view of a pig-bed when grappled and swung from the carriet
before a breaker, as herein claimed and described by me.
Fig. IV. is a sectional detailed view of one of the series of hooks shown in
Fig. III.
Fig. V. is a front sketch of the die-field of the said frame or housing, showing
the relative distribution therein of the several dies or teeth.
In the several drawings, wherever appearing, A, represents a plunger and die-
breaking machine available for use in the connection under consideration. It
consists of two upright steel arms, arranged oppositely to each other, and contain-
ing, and serving as a housing, in the one, for suitable plungers for B, B' and, in
the other, for the corresponding dies or teeth, D, and D¹.
Said plungers may be operated by any effective power but, in the present case,
are assumed to be hydraulically controlled. The plungers B, 131 are provided with
the heads b, b, of which heads bis plain-faced, while b, is preferably projected,
in the manner shown, throughout its lower face, in advance of the upper portion
of its face, to gain breaking efficiency when operated in connection with dies
located with respect thereto in the special manner I have also shown in the
drawings.
Referring to Fig. V., the stationary die D), is of tool steel, set in the said

page_text: frame or housing, opposite to the upper portion of the plunger face b. As indi-
cated in the drawings, this die D), is dovetailed into the frame or housing at the
point thereof above specified. The lower die, D¹, is located in said frame at a
point midway between the operative field of the said plungers. It has a contact
face of sufficient dimension to receive two adjacent pigs at the same time thereon
and, unlike the upper die D, D' is pivoted within its housing so as to enable it
to rock therein and thereby adjust itself to any superficial inequalities of the pig.
bed at the several bearing points of the dies, and equalize the several bearings.
P, is the pig-bed to be broken, which is of the class composed of a sow S, and
pigs p, p, p, etc. In the several drawings C, indicates the carrier, which is to feed
the pig-bed P, to the breaker proper A, in the interspace between the upright
arms of the said frames or housing and the said plungers and dies. Manifestly,
the said carrier must be of the overhead type, but otherwise it is not material
what kind of carrier is employed in the combination. As will be seen (Fig. III.)
I have, preferably, made use of two trolleys, instead of one, in order to thereby
gain greater steadiness, in the vertical plane for the load carried. The system
of tramways, in connection with which the carrier is used in the combination
claimed by me is also not an essential element thereof, and any form of carrier
that is preferred and that will administer to the needs of a particular cast house
may equally be used in the said connection.
Referring now more particularly to Figs. III, and IV. H, H, H are a series of
hooks having arms or prongs h, h, h of suitable proportions to grapple a pig-bed
beneath its sow and support the same thereby. Each of said hooks H, is curved
at its upper extremity to form a hook or bail, by which it is hung and can swing
freely around a pivot G, passing through and supported by two upright and
parallel channel pieces F, F. Said pieces F, F, on the other hand, are each riveted
through the upper portions of their respective flanges to the exterior surfaces of
two other channel beams M, M, which are arranged parallel to one another and
at right angles to the pieces F, F.
The series of hooks are coupled, in the above described manner, to and vertically
hung from a single continuous hoisting beam made up of the two parts or
pieces M, M, so joined together. Said hoisting beam is connected in any convenient
manner with the carrier or carriers by which the pig-bed is brought into the posi-
tion for breaking when grappled or supported by the series of hooks pertaining
to the said hoisting beam in the manner hereinafter described. A flexible or
similar connection, however, between said beam and its supporting carrier or car-
riers, especially in conjunction with the freely swinging hooks H, H-permits
the pig-bed to adjust itself to such a position as will allow the pigs being broken
to be brought into solid bearing with the dies, without other portion of the pig-
bed being, at such time, in solid contact with the machine, and a fracture of the
pigs or sow, at any other points than immediately before and against the dies, is
thus avoided. At the same time, such portion of the bed as is not in contact
with the dies, is enabled to adjust itself without undue horizontal resistance,
according as the bending and breaking of the pigs in front of the dies require. I
have, accordingly, claimed such a flexible or similar method of connection as an
essential element of the more specific forms of the invention and improvement I
have herein disclosed. One form of the connection last above referred to is repre-
sented in Fig. II. and III., as by the swivel connection L, and the flexible hoisting
cable K, which passes under the sheave cand thereby supports the frame C¹, con-
nected with the beam M, by the swivels L.
I have found it desirable to have such a number of hooks in the entire series
pertaining to a given hoisting beam as will suffice to permit a grapple to be made
beneath the sow between each second pig belonging to the same.
Journaled upon the pivot G, on either side of the upper extremity of the hook H,
when hung in its said position upon said pivot, are two plates, extending above
and below the pivot G, and united at their tops and bottoms by the respective
bolts m, n, to constitute the hook-lever N. The bolt n, in said hook-lever N,

page_text: serves as a stop and bearing for the hook H, in its vibration around the pivotal
connection (, and the corresponding upper bolt m, serves as a stop and bearing
for and against the arm of a spring V, which is fastened to one of the horizontal
channel beams M, in position to bear under tension upon said bolt m. As will be
evident, the office of the above described spring hook-lever X, is to force the hook,
to which it is applicable, to assume a position in advance of the vertical and to
thereby insure that, whenever, by reason of superficial irregularities in a sow, the
load no longer rests upon the hook in question, such hook shall, nevertheless, retain
a position to regain a bearing the moment when, by the breaking of the sow in
some part, a readjustment of bearings occurs.
Although in these specifications I show a specific form of the hook employed
and of its connections to the hoisting beam, as well as other structural details in
respect to the apparatus representing my invention, I by no means intend to limit
my invention to these special forms and details. The number of parts, also, are
not material, or the precise form and location of plungers, dies or other features
I have disclosed, so far as the same are not made the subject of specifie claims
herein.
My said invention broadly extends to and covers any form or mechanism for
bringing a pig-bed before the breaking device in such manner that the same is
presented between the plungers and dies with the pigs in a vertical position, and- -
in the more limited constructions herein shown and claimed--to any form or
mechanism which provides for the flexible connection or suspension of said pig-
bed referred to, or for an automatic arrangement, by which each of said hooks or
supporting devices assumes a position to regain a bearing upon the load suspended
thereby from its carrier when, for any reason, during the operation of breaking
pig-bed, such hook, for the time being, has lost or has failed to gain a bearing
upon the same.
し
Having now explained my said invention in detail, its mode of operation is mani-
fest. Assume the breaking machine used in the combination is located at one
end of the cast house, the carrier to which the said hoisting beam and its
hooks H, H, are connected may then be located and travel upon an overhead
tramway transverse to said house, and which is, itself, adapted to travel-like a
crane upon trusses and tracks extending longitudinally to said house. Or, the
carrier or trolley that is to immediately feed the breaker may travel on a fixed
tramway that spans the cast house transversely above said breaker, and
is, itself, fed by another carrier or trolley on a tramway that extends
longitudinally above the house to and over the casting beds. In either
or any such arrangement with respect to the carriers employed, the said
hoisting beam and the hooks H, H, may be used either to grapple and carry the
pig-bed directly from the place of casting to the position for breaking, or it may
relieve and supplement some other form of grappling device that is used for pick-
ing up the loads and bringing them to the vicinity of the breaker. Or pig-beds
may be brought in the first instance, by any manner preferred, beneath or within
the predetermined limits of an overhead carrier and deposited, and thereafter be
grappled directly by said hooks connected with a carrier mounted on a fixed truss
tramway over the breaker and be carried to their destination. However, the pig-
bed is brought from the casting beds when finally delivered upon my said hooks
in the manner described the pigs will be brought by the carrier in combination
with which said hooks are to be employed before the plungers, in a vertical posi-
tion, and in such relative position with respect to the plungers and dies when
located as I have shown in the drawings in a particular case, that at one stroke
of the plungers B, B1, two adjoining pigs will be broken near their middle
points,,, across the lower die or tooth D, by the plunger B, and at their
junctures with the sow // across the die 1, by the stroke of the lower and
more projecting portion of the face of the plunger B, and the sow, itself, at the
point at the same stroke, by the upper and less projecting portion of said face
as the plunger B, finishes out its stroke.

page_text: As each set of two vertical pigs, and their portion of the sow are broken, the
fragments fall and can be cleared away by gravity chutes, or be otherwise dis-
posed of. The operator then advances the carrier with the remaining and unbroken
portion of the bed until two other vertical pigs are in position for breaking and
the same operation is repeated until the entire pig-bed is broken and the carrier,
with its pendant hooks H, H, can return and receive a second bed to be disposed
of accordingly.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed,
declare that what
I consider novel and desire to claim is:
1. In a pig-handling and breaking machine, the combination of a carrier for
bringing the pig-bed to the position for breaking, and means for suspending the
same vertically from the carrier during the process of breaking, substantially as
shown and described.
2. In a pig-handling and breaking machine, the combination of an overhead
carrier for bringing the pig-bed to the position for breaking the same, and means
for suspending the pigs vertically from the carrier during the process of handling
and breaking the said pig-bed, substantially as shown and described.
3. In a pig-handling and breaking machine, the combination of a carrier for
bringing the pig-bed to the place for breaking the same and a series of hooks con-
nected to said carrier and adapted to grapple beneath the sow and thereby suspend
the pigs of the same vertically from said carrier when being brought to the place
for and during the process of breaking the same, substantially as shown and
described.
°
4. In a pig-handling and breaking machine, the combination of a carrier for
bringing the pig-bed to the place for breaking the same and a series of hooks
connected to said carrier and adapted to grapple beneath the sow and support the
pigs of the same vertically during the handling and breaking thereof, the said
hooks being adapted to automatically assume a position in advance of the vertical
whenever out of bearing with the load to which they are applied, substantially
as shown and described.
5. In a pig-handling and breaking apparatus, having one or more plungers for
reaking the pigs adapted to operate horizontally across a space or passage extend-
ing openly above, the combination of an overhead carrier, adapted to carry the
pig-bed into said space or passage in front of said plunger when the same is sus-
pended from said carrier for the purpose, and a series of hooks, or supporting
devices, connected to said carrier and adapted to grapple the said pig-bed at
various points between the pigs thereof, and to thereby hold the said pigs verti-
eally suspended from the said carrier when thereby carried into said space or
passage before the said plungers, substantially as shown and described.
6. The combination with a pig-breaking machine, having horizontal plungers,
an overhead carrier adapted to bring the pig-bed in front of said plungers, and
means for suspending the same from said carrier with the pigs thereof vertical,
when brought thereby in front of said plungers, substantially as shown and
described.
7. In a pig-handling and breaking machine, the combination of an overhead
carrier and suitable means for suspending a pig-bed from said carrier with the
pigs thereof extending downwardly, the said means being further adapted to permit
the said pig-bed, when so suspended, to be swung around or beyond the vertical
axis or plane, with respect to said carrier, substantially as shown and described.
8. In a pig-handling and breaking machine, the combination of an overhead
carrier, a series of sustaining hooks, as described, and means for connecting said
series to said carrier, which said means are also adapted to permit said series, and
the load sustained thereby, to be swung around or beyond the vertical axis or
plane with respect to said carrier, substantially as shown and described.

page_text: 9. In a pig-handling and breaking machine, the combination, with an overhead
carrier, of a series of sustaining hooks, as described, and means for flexibly con-
necting said series to said carrier, substantially as shown and described.
Dated this 24th day of April 1899.
H. D. FITZPATRICK,
100, Wellington Street, Glasgow, Agent.