GB429687A - Improvements in heat treating furnaces - Google Patents

Abstract

429,687. Conveying furnace charges. BRITISH DRIVER-HARRIS CO., Ltd., Gaythorn Mill, Albion Street, Manchester-(Driver-Harris Co. ; Harrison, New Jersey, U.S.A.) Dec. 5, 1933, No. 34137. [Class 51 (ii)] In a furnace having a conveyer consisting of driven rollers 8 carrying charge - supporting discs 10, the rollers 8, which rest on one or more bearings 12 within the furnace chamber, terminate, at one end, short of the side wall 2 and, at the other end, have extensions 38 which pass through apertures in the opposite wall 2 and are connected by flexible couplings 42 to driving shafts 44. The latter are driven through bevel gearing 48, 50 from a shaft 52, and the apertures through which the roller extensions 38 pass are sealed by heat-insulating material 54 enclosed in sheet metal containers 56. Each bearing 12 comprises a pair of rollers supported in bearers 14 secured to the upper end of a pedestal 16 which is adjustably mounted in the furnace floor 6. As shown in Fig. 1, the pedestal has secured to its lower end a wedge-shaped part 30 resting on a similarly shaped member 57 which is moved horizontally, to raise or lower the pedestal, by a shaft having a crank handle 61 at its outer end. The roller 8 is retained in position on the bearing rollers 12 and access of dirt and scale to the latter is prevented by a two-part hood 26 which is welded at 28, Fig. 3, to the supports 14. Fig. 7 shows a modified form of bearing in which, in addition to the rollers 60, there is provided an additional " floating " roller 64 which rests on top of the roller 8 and is mounted for free vertical movement in recesses 66 in a yoke 68. The arrangement of bearings shown in Fig. 1 is modified for exceptionally narrow or wide furnaces ; in the former case one bearing is disposed within and another outside the furnace, while for wide furnaces each roller 8, which is formed in two sections connected by a flexible coupling, is supported by three bearings within and one outside the furnace chamber. Fig. 13 shows, in plan view, a further construction in which the rollers 8 are arranged in groups, the rollers of each group being connected by driving chains 106 and the end roller only of each group extending through the furnace wall 2 for connection through a flexible coupling 42 to the driving gear 48, 50. The main driving shaft 110 is formed in sections between which are provided change-speed mechanisms 114 to enable the speed of the several groups of rollers to be varied as desired. In this construction each roller 8 is supported within the furnace by two bearings, one being of the form shown in Fig. 3 and the other as shown in Fig. 7.