Patent ID: 7383767

Claim:
A yoke assembly for connecting and securing an upper roll and a lower roll together, the upper and lower rolls forming a nip in an extended-nip press, whereby at least one of the rolls of the extended-nip press includes loading means for loading an endless-loop blanket of one of the rolls against the other of the rolls of the extended-nip press so as to establish the nip, wherein the lower roll and the upper roll are dismountably connected to each other and the yoke assembly connecting the upper and lower rolls of the extended-nip press to each other includes rotatable connecting members by means of which the extended-nip press rolls are detachably connected to each other by a pair of bearing blocks, wherein each of the connecting members comprises a first clamping surface adapted to be slidably rotatable on a respective mating surface of a first roll bearing block so that each of said first clamping surfaces and said respective mating surface of said first roll bearing block to be connected therewith form a pivotal joint about which the respective connecting member is adapted to be rotatably disengaged and engaged from a respective mating surface of a second roll bearing block, wherein the connecting members are adapted to connect the bearing blocks of roll heads of the upper and lower rolls to each other and the connecting members are linked to each other and are connected to one of the bearing blocks at an end portion of the first clamping surface via a link plate, whereby the connecting members thus linked to each other are pivotally rotatable about the pivot points by a pressurized-medium-driven actuator adapted to cooperate therewith, wherein the mating surfaces of the first roll bearing block have shapes that are different from shapes of the mating surfaces of the second roll bearing block.