US1289917A - Furnace-cleaning door. - Google Patents

Description

C. E. ROBINSON.

FURNACE CLEANING DOOR. APPLICATION FILED FEB. 28. 191B.

Patented Dec. 31, 1918.

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4 TTOR/VEYS CHARLES ELDON ROBINSON, OF WILLIAMSPORT, PENNSYLVANIA, ASSIGNOR TO E. KEELER COMPANY, OF WILLIAMSPORT, PENNSYLVANIA, A CORPORATION OF PENNSYLVANIA.

Specification of Letters Patent.

FURNACE-CLEANING DOOR.

Patented Dec. 31, 1918.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that 1, CHARLES ELDoN Roe- INsoN, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of l/Villiamsport, county of Lycoming, and State of Pennsylvania, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Furnace-Cleaning Doors, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to a gravity actuated door closure of general application and specifica'lly relates to such a type of door construction designed for sealing the clean out openings in water tube boilers.

In boiler practice it is desirable that a blow pipe or other cleaning apparatus be inserted from time to time into the boiler setting through the several clean out openings to blow ofl the soot and dust which accumulates about the water tubes. The boiler is usually hot, for the cleaning should take place daily and as cheap labor is employed for this purpose it is desirable to provide such a construction that the numerous doors can be pushed or quickly jerked into open position and restored into an air tight closed position without the necessity of the operator exercising any particular care in the operation.

Various attempts have been made to take air tight closing doors from other arts and adapt them to boiler work but the conditions incidental to their use in such high temperatured and dust accumulating constructions have not proven satisfactory. For instance, it has been proposed to guide the clean out doors in their movements to and from their open position by vertically inclined pin and groove guideway connections at opposite sides of the door openings. It has been found in practice that this type of door guide, even when carefully machined and positioned in place at great expense does not work smoothly after the grooves have been in use for awhile, for they become distorted by the heat conditions present and by warping of the masonry setting. Further, the guide-ways quickly become clogged with the furnace dust and even when care is taken to keep them free of dirt and dust, the frictional resistance to the door movement in dropping into place is almost sure to become greater on one side than on the other thus causing the door to cant to one side in falling and jam against the side cheeks of the door frame or against the groove in either case holding the door partially open thus giving rise to objectionable air leakage.

In order to close the door when so jammed the operator hammers the door into closed position and frequently breaks off one or both of the guide pins and otherwise damages the guiding means.

Even if this guiding groove and pin construction were entirely satisfactory in its operation the cost not only of the initial construction but also of the necessary repairs required due to the careless handling to which such devices are subjected, would make the use of such a refined construction almost prohibitive in boiler work.

Not only is it desired to secure thesealing of the door when dropped into closed position but it is also desired that the door, when moved into open position, shall remain in its fully opened position and shall be secured in this position against any accidental closing down on the cleaning apparatus.

Accordingly, the primary object of the invention is to provide a simple, inexpensive form of door closure for clean out furnace openings, which closure can be quickly and positively moved to a secured open position clear of any possible engagement with the cleaning apparatus and which will move automatically into an air tight closed position' simply by pulling the closure away from its open position and allowing it to fall gravitationally.

The object is attained in general by utilizing the advantages of the vertically inclined guidew-ay for moving the door laterally into closing position as it falls vertically but to eliminate the known grooved constructions and providing an open incline thereby avoiding the possibility of dust accumulations. Further the invention con-' templates an engagement with this open incline which will provide a loose connection between the door and frame opening such as will permit the positioning of the door on top of the frame and which will be free of the incline until the door is approximately but capable of withstanding the strains in cidental to the careless use to which such doors are subjected. j j

A still further object of the invention is to provide a construction which may be adapted readily to installation in conventional forms of clean out door openings and which can-be readily replaced when damaged without materially reorganizing the door frames now in general use and which at thesame time will reinforce the door'frame and door without adding material intentionally for this purpose.

Various other objects and advantages of the invention will be in part obvious from an inspection of the accompanying drawings and in part will be more fully set forth in the following particular description of one form of mechanism embodying my invention, and the invention also consists in cerwin new and novel features of construction construction slightly modified from the showing of Fig. 1; v V

Flg. 3 1s a view in rear elevation and which'may be considered as a rear view of the device shown either in Figs. 1 or 2.

In the accompanying drawmg, there 1s shown a conventional form of boiler front 10, provided with one of the clean-out openings 11 usually found in tubular boiler constructions. The opening is outlined by a forwardly projecting frame 12, which frame includes oppositely disposed side cheeks 18 and 14:,a top plate 15 and a bottom plate 16 coacting to form a box-like construction, the forward edge 17 of which is vertically disposed and constitutes a door abutting surface.

The opening is closed 'by meansof a door; 18 of any conventional form and provided on its rear side with a frame abutting surface 19. designed to fit flush against the abutting surface 17 to form an air-tight closure for the opening.

The top plate projects forwardly fromjthe boiler front with its upper surface flat and. designed to provide a seat for the door when in the open position shown in Fig.2. A pro jection 20 is positioned on the back side of the door adjacent its forward orv lower edge and having adepth' transversely of the plane of the door at least equal to the thickness of.

the top plate so that the projection can extend into the opening when the door is on its seat. The-projection is disposed below the center of mass of the door so that the'center of mass will be over the seat when the door is in its open position, thus insuring the positive seating of the door on top of the frame and removed from any accidental displacement by the cleaning tool.

The inner side of the projection is defined by a wedge member 21 of relative massive construction projecting laterally beyond opposite sides of the portion of the projec tion adjacent the door and having a relatively close fit between the side cheeks Opposite ends of the wedging projection are reduced and formed into small cylinders 22 and 23 constituting pivoting pins adapted when the door. falls to engage rearwardly facing guiding surfaces 24 on guide members 25 defining opposite sides ofthe open- When the device, disclosed constitutes an attachment for old clean out door construction these guide members may be simply right triangular plates, as shown in Fig. 1, riveted to the inner sides of the cheeks with one edge-26 disposed flush with the surface 17.

Where the entire construction is designed to include the illustrated form. of closure the plates are cast integrally with and form in effect a major portion of each of the cheeks. It may be considered that in the showing of Fig. 2 theside plates are formed integrally with the side cheeks. In either case these members may be utilized to reinforce the side cheeks and to present additional abutting surfaces for the door. The guiding surfaces 24 are downwardly and rearwardly inclined, face into the interior of the furnace andare free of any oppositely facing flange which might coact therewith to collect dust. As the pivoting pins engage the incline over a relatively short length thereof during the final closing movement of the door, it is obvious that the guiding surface of the guide plates need have a length merely sufficient to engage the pins in all possible closing positions of the same, but in the device illustrated these plates are of full depth of the interior of the frame to provide a deep bracing tothe side cheeks.

Inorder to prevent the pins from moving forwardly out of the. frame during the opening movement of. the door, the upper portion ofthe guide members'are utilized as stops and to insure an easy swinging of the door I into its fully opened position, rearwardly facing sockets 27 are formed in the upper, portion of the guide surfaces. The front of the door is provided with a curved lifting I finger 28. a

When the separate plates are utilized,

the door can be disposed in the fully opened position shown in dotted lines in Fig. 2 and then the plates can be riveted in place. However, when the plates are cast integrally with the side cheeks it is necessary to provide means for permitting the mounting of the door. In one form of construction this is accompanied by recessing one of the cheeks to provide a horizontally disposed groove 29 having a depth sufficient to permit the insertion therein of the pin 23 and arranged so that the pin could be moved rearwardly along the groove until the other pin 22 is positioned back of its guiding surface 24.

In operation and assuming that the door is in the closed position shoWn in Fig. 1, the operator simply engages the door by the finger 28 and jerks the same upwardly. As the projection contacts with the underside of the top 15 the lower portion of the door is held thereby and'the top portion falls back on the seat provided by the top 15. Atthe same time the pins on the projection move forwardly and engage in the sockets thus insuring a square turning of the door about the axis of the pivot pins. When set the lower portion of the door projects forwardly of the front edge of the top 15 which constitute-s a turning edge for the door in its closing movement.

While in this open position even if the cleaning tool should scrape against the downwardly extending projection the door will not be closed for it is held by the socket against forward movement and is held bv the engagement of the projection against the forward edge of the top 15 from any rearward movement. As this projection provides a long bearing against the top 15 the door is held approximately in position to insure a square turning of the door about the forward edge of the top.

When it is desired to close the door the operator can pull the same forwardly by means of the cleaning tool until the door begins to drop. This will happen as soon as the center of mass of the door is moved forwardly of the supporting seat. The operator need not give the door any further attention for it will drop automatically into closing position. During the first part of the falling movement of the door the pins will be free of the inclined guiding surfaces so that the door can acquire considerable momentum to overcome any caked dust which may have accumulated in the path of its final closing movement. Perhaps in falling one pin will be in advance of the other but this will in no way interfere with the actuation of the device for the forward pin will merely engage its surface permitting the other pin to swing freely about the advance pin as a pivot and into engagement with its coacting surface. The momentum acquired by the falling door will cause the pins to snugly wedge against the guiding surfaces thus forcing the door. laterally of its plane of falling movement and firmly against the bearing surface 17.

As the surfaces 2% are inclined almost perpendicularly the possibility of dust accumulating on these exposed surfaces is reduced to a minimum and even if dust did cake on the surfaces the pins are free to ride over any such formation.

The projection is purposely formed ruggedly so that the possibility of the pins breaking off is practically eliminated. Further advantage is taken of this projection to brace the door across its rear face against warping. This projection tends to form a rigid door capable of withstanding the strains imposed thereon incidental to the forcing of the edges of the door against the bearing surfaces of the frame.

As the engaging surfaces of the pin and guiding surfaces wear away, the door does not lose its sealing efficiency for it merely drops down a little farther than originally and in order to insure this function the interengaging surfaces of the frame and door are initially constructed to give some material length of bearing surface vertica-lly.

Having thus described my invention. I claim 1. In a water tube boiler, a clean out door construction including a supporting member, a box-like structure including side cheeks, and a top plate projecting forwardly from said supporting member to form a clean out opening, said cheeks pro vided with rearwardly exposed inclined guiding surfaces facing away from the front of the box-like structure, a closure for said opening provided with a projection on its inner side at least as deep as the thickness of the top plate and a wedge engaging member defining the inner side of said projection and adapted to engage said guiding surfaces to move the door laterally as it falls by gravity.

2. In a water tube boiler, the combination of a door frame having a vertically extendin front constituting a door abutting surface, guiding members at oppositesides of said frame and coacting to outline a part of the door opening, said members each having a bearing surface inclined slightly from the vertical and facing rearwardly. away from said door abutting surface. a door designed to contact with said abutting surface to close the door opening, a wedging member bridged across the door opening, fixed to the rear side of the door and with opposite ends adapted to engage and slide down said bearing surfaces to draw the door laterally into firm closing contact with said abutting surface as the door falls gravitationally) cheeks, and a top plate, triangular shaped plates engaging said cheeks "to brace the same, said plates provided with guiding surfaces 'on their inner sides and exposed rearwardly to the interior of the boiler, a door for closing said opening and adapted to be moved into open position resting on and supported by said top plate, a wedge member fixed to and extending across the rear side of the door and adapted to slide down said inclined surfaces to draw the door laterally into closing engagement with the too plate as the door falls gravitationally.

i. In a device of the class described, the combination with a frame outlining an opening and providing a'vertically disposed door abutting surface, the upper portion of said frame providing a door supporting seat, of a door having an open position supported on said seat and a closing position abutting said surface, and means for guiding the door in its final movement into its closing posi tion.

5. In a device of the class described, the combination-with a frame outlining an openi119. and providing a vertically disposed door abutting surface, the upper portion of said frame providing a door supporting seat, of a door having an open position supported on said seat and closing position abutting said surface, a member having a guiding surface inclined downwardly away from said door abutting surface, said member having a socket at the upper end of said guiding surface, a pivot member fixed to the door and slidable down said guiding surface thereby to draw the door laterally into bearing engagement against said abutting surface and movable into said socket as the door is raised thereby to hold the pivot member as the door is lifted and thus cause the door to swing into position resting on said seat.

6. A furnace construction provided with a door opening frame including side cheeks and a top member constituting a door seat for the door when in open position, a door adapted when in substantially vertical position to close the opening, downwardly and rearwardly inclined guiding members positioned at opposite sides of the opening and exposed to the inside of the furnace, a wedge member spaced from said guiding members when the door is opened and adapted to fall into engagement with said members as the door moves into its final closing position.

7. In a device of the class described, a door adapted to fall vertically into closed position, a seat for supporting the door in open position and means operatively inde pendent of the door during the initial part of its closing movement andcoacting with the door in its final falling movement to move the same laterally into closed position.

8'. In a device of the class described, a door adapted to fall vertically into closed way and a projection from the door spaced from the guideway when the door moves off its seat and said guideway disposed in the path of movement of the projection as it falls with the door.

9. In a water tube boiler, the combination.

of a frame provided with a vertically disposed door abutting surface, a door adapted to fit snugly against said surface, meansfproviding a downwardly and rearwardly inclined guiding surface positioned within said frame and back of said abutting surface, a wedge member fixed to the rear side of the door and adapted to engage said inclined guiding surface to move the door laterally of its falling direction into engagement with said abutting surface, said wedge. being free to move with the door vertically away from said inclined surface thereby to clear the surface as the door is lifted into open position.

10. In a water tube boiler, the combination of a frame provided with a vertically disposed door abutting surface, a door adapted to fit snugly against said surface, means providing a downwardly and rearwardly inclined guiding surface positioned within said frame and back of said abutting surface, a

wedge member fixed tothe rear side of the door and adapted to engage said inclined guiding surface to move the door laterally of its falling direction into engagement with said abutting surface, said wedge being free to move with the door vertically away from said inclined surface thereby to clear the surface as the door is lifted into open position and means for intercepting the rising move ment of the wedge thereby to assist in a swinging of the door into open position.

11. In a water tube boiler, the combination of a frame provided with a vertically disposed door abutting surface, a door adapted to fit snugly against said surface, means providing a downwardly and rearwardly inclined guiding surface positioned within said frame and back of saidabutting surface, a wedge member fixed to the rear side of the door and adapted to engage said inclined guiding surface to move the door laterally of its falling direction into engagement with said abutting surface, said wedging member extending across the door to brace the same against any'distortion incidental to the forcing of the door against said abutting surface.

'12. In a device of the class described, the combination with a member provided with a clean out opening, means providing a'ver-' tically disposed door abutting surface about said opening, a door for closing said opening, a support for the door when in open position, means for holding the door When in open position loosely connected to said member, said last named means including mechanism for moving the door laterally of its falling direction When moved off its sup port and into engagement with said abutting surface.

13. In a device of the class described, the combination of a door frame including side cheeks, side plates formed integrally With said cheeks, and each provided With a down- Wardly and rearwardly extending guiding surface, a door provided with a Wedging member fitted between said cheeks and adapted to engage and slide down said guiding surfaces to move the door laterally into closing position against said frame.

14. In a device of the class described, the combination of a door frame including side cheeks, side plates formed integrally with said cheeks, and each provided with a downwardly and rearwardly extending guiding surface, one of said cheeks provided With a recess in rear of the guiding surface, a door provided With a Wedging member fitted between said cheeks and adapted to engage and slide down said guiding surfaces to move the door laterally into closing position against said frame, one end of said Wedging member designed to be inserted in said recess so as to permit the other end to be disposed back of its coacting guiding surface when the door is mounted in place.

Signed at Williamsport, in the county of Lycoming and State of Pennsylvania, this 14th day of February, A. D. 1918.

CHARLES ELDON ROBINSON.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. 0.

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