GB2044152A

GB2044152A - Workpiece processing plant

Info

Publication number: GB2044152A
Application number: GB8007882A
Authority: GB
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1979-03-24
Filing date: 1980-03-07
Publication date: 1980-10-15
Also published as: GB2044152B

Abstract

A workpiece processing plant (such as a rolling mill or tube mill or extrusion plant) of the kind which includes a furnace or oven for heating workpieces, apparatus for operating on the heated workpieces and a cooling bed (10) on which the processed workpieces are subsequently cooled, incorporates a conveyor (13) for transporting unprocessed workpieces above the cooling bed (10) in order that they may be pre-heated by previously processed workpieces disposed on the cooling bed. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Workpiece processing plant This invention relates to a workpiece processing plant of the kind comprising a furnace or oven for heating workpieces, apparatus for carrying out one or more operations on the heated workpieces and a cooling bed on which the processed workpieces are subsequently cooled. Examples of such workpiece processing plant are rolling mills, tube mills and extrusion plant. The function of the cooling bed is to dissipate to the atmosphere the heat energy remaining to the workpieces after the desired operations have been carried out on them but such an arrangement is of course wasteful and the object of the present invention is to provide an improved workpiece processing plant of the aforementioned kind in which at least some of the heat energy possessed by the processed workpieces is not wasted.

In accordance with the invention there is provided a workpiece processing plant of the kind specified wherein there is provided means for transporting unprocessed workpieces above the cooling bed before they are inserted into the furnace or oven, said means being arranged so that in use said unprocessed workpieces will receive heat from other, previously processed workpieces disposed on the cooling bed.

Conveniently, said workpiece transporting means comprises a conveyorwhich is arranged in its travel to pass over the cooling bed. Such a conveyor may be arranged so that its speed of travel is variable in order that the degree of pre-heating imparted to the unprocessed workpieces may also be varied.

The invention will now be more particularly described with reference to the accompanying drawings wherein Figure 1 is a schematic plan view of a part of one example of a workpiece processing plant constructed in accordance with the invention, parts of the plant being broken away, Figure 2 is a schematic elevation of the arrangement seen in Figure 1 and Figure 3 is a schematic plan view of an alternative example of a workpieces processing plant in accordance with the invention.

Referring firstly to Figures 1 and 2 of the drawing the workpiece processing plant of which a part is shown therein is of the kind which includes a furnace or oven (not shown) for heating workpieces, apparatus (also not shown) for carrying out one or more operations on the previously heated workpieces and a cooling bed 10 on which the workpieces 11 are cooled after they have been processed. The plant is thus of the kind where it is necessary to heat the workpieces before the required operations are carried out and examples of such plant, as previously mentioned, are rolling mills, tube mills and extrusion plant. The furnace or oven, and the apparatus which will actually carry out the desired operations, and the cooling bed 10 itself are of any convenient and known form.

There is also provided, in accordance with the present invention, means for transporting unproces sedworkpieces (indicated by reference gila) above the cooling bed 10 before they are inserted into the furnace or oven so that the unprocessed workpieces will in use receive heat from other, previously processed workpieces which are disposed on the cooling bed. Thus in the example shown there is provided adjacent to one end of the cooling bed feeding means such as a feeding table or a feed conveyor 12 for incoming unprocessed workpieces 1 la and such feeding table or feeding conveyor is adapted to feed these workpieces onto a further workpiece heating conveyor 13 in the form of an endless conveyor having its upper run so disposed that it extends above and travels across the length of the cooling bed.The arrangement of such workpiece heating conveyor 13 is such that heat rising from the previously processed workpieces 11 deposited on the cooling bed 10 will serve to heat the unprocessed workpieces 1 lea travelling along the workpiece heating conveyor 13. Said workpiece heating conveyor is then arranged to deliver the pre-heated but unprocessed workpieces 1 lea to a further conveyor 14 namely a workpiece delivery conveyor which is disposed at that end of the cooling bed 10 opposite to said end where the feeding table or feeding conveyor 12 is disposed, said workpiece delivery conveyor 14 then being arranged to deliver the pre-heated unprocessed workpieces 11 a to the fur- nace or oven for further heating.

The cooling bed 10 may itself be provided, in known fashion, with an input conveyor 15 which is arranged to deliver heated processed workpieces 11 to the input end of the cooling bed and an output conveyor 16 which is designed to take away said workpieces 11 from the output end of said cooling bed, the latter itself being provided with means which effect movement of the workpieces 11 from the input end of the cooling bed to the output end thereof.Desirably the feeding table or feeding conveyor 12 for the unprocessed workpieces 1 1a is disposed adjacent to the output end of the cooling bed and the aforesaid workpiece delivery conveyor 14 is disposed adjacent to the input end of the cooling bed so that the flow of workpieces 1 1a along said workpiece heating conveyor 13 will be in a direction which is opposite to the direction of flow of the processed workpiece 11 along the cooling bed. In this way the unprocessed workpieces will be gradually heated as they pass over the cooling bed since the highest pre-heating temperatures will be achieved over the input end of the cooling bed.

Conveniently the speed of the workpiece heating conveyor 13 is variable by any convenient means in order that the heating effect provided by the cooling bed can also be varied. As an alternative or in addition, arrangements may be made for varying the speed at which the heated processed workpieces 11 will pass along the length of the cooling bed 10.

In the alternative arrangement shown in Figure 3, the cooling bed is divided into two sections, namely a high temperature cooling portion 17 and a low temperature cooling portion 18. The conveyor 13 then extends over the high temperature cooling portion 17 only. This reduces the length, and therefore the cost of said conveyor 13, in cases where it is required to provide a cooling bed of relatively long overall length for large throughput rates, the low temperature cooling portion 18 (which can be of any desired length) forming of course the remainder of the cooling bed. The positioning of the conveyor 13 above the high temperature cooling portion 17 still takes advantage of the higher workpiece temperatures and heat emissivity rates occurring during the early part of the cooling cycle and any convenient means are provided for transferring the hot proces sedworkpiecesfrom portion 17 to portion 18 of the cooling bed. Conveyors 12,14, 15 and 16 are provided as before.

Claims

1. Aworkpiece processing plantofthe kind specified wherein there is provided means for transporting unprocessed workpieces above the cooling bed before they are inserted into the furnace or oven, said means being arranged so that in use said unprocessed workpieces will receive heat from other, previously processed workpieces disposed on the cooling bed.

2. A workpiece processing plant as claimed in Claim 1 wherein said workpiece transporting means comprises a conveyor which includes a portion which is disposed above the cooling bed.

3. A workpiece processing plant as claimed in Claim 2 wherein means are provided to vary the speed of travel of said conveyor.

4. A workpiece having plant as claimed in Claim 1 or Claim 2 wherein said conveyor comprises an endless conveyor having an upper run which is disposed above the cooling bed.

5. A workpiece processing plant as claimed in any one of the preceding claims wherein the cooling bed comprises two sections, namely a high temperature cooling section and a low temperature cooling section, said workpiece transporting means being disposed above the high temperature cooling section.

6. Aworkpiece processing plant of the kind specified and substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to and as shown in the accompanying drawing.