US3037227A - Apparatus for cleaning the sealing surfaces of the doors and door frames of horizontal coke ovens - Google Patents

Description

June 5, 1962 E. c. RANDELL ETAL 3,037,227

APPARATUS FOR CLEANING THE SEALING SURFACES OF THE DOORS AND DOOR FRAMES OF HORIZONTAL COKE OVENS Filed Deo. 22, 1960 '7 Sheets-Sheet 1 [n ven fors. Geoff/:Pfr En w49@ CHAPLEsPqA/DELL L: c/hfoL ME, v By tlorneyf,

'June 5, 1962 G. E. c. RANDELL ETAL 3,037,227

APPARATUS FOR CLEANING THE SEALING SURFACES OF THE DOORS AND DOOR FRAMES OF' HORIZONTAL COKE OVENS 1960 '7 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Deo. 22,

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June 5, 1962 G. E. c. RANDELL ETAL 3,037,227

APPARATUS FOR CLEANING THE SEALING SURFACES OF THE DOORS AND DOOR FRAMES OF' HORIZONTAL COKE OVENS 1960 7 Sheets-Sheet 3 Filed Dec. 22.

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June 5, 1962 G. E. c. RANDELL ETAL 3,037,227 APPARATUS FOR CLEANING THE SEALING SURFACES OF THE DOORS AND DOOR FRAMES OF HORIZONTAL COKE OVENS Filed Deo. 22, 1960 y '7 Sheets-Sheet 4 n u en lo rs, GEQFF/QEVE'DWQD @A QLESQqA/DELL.

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June 5, 1962 G. E. c. RANDELL ETAL 3,037,227

APPARATUS EOR CLEANING TRE sEALING sUREAcEs OE TRE DOORS ANO DOOR FRAMES OE HORIZONTAL CORE ovENs Filed Deo. 22, 1960 7 Sheets-Sheetl 5 li/ y 92 9/95 55:5@7874 Y 0^ A 74 55M 75 June 5, 1962 G. E. c. RANDELL ETAL 3,037,227

APPARATUS FOR CLEANING THE SEALING SURFACES OF THE DOORS AND DOOR FRAMES OF HORIZONTAL COKE OVENS Filed Dec. 22, 1960 7 Sheets-Sheet 6 Inventors @EOF-FPE YE@ mq @D CHHQL g5* PAA/DEL L.

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3,037,227 NG THE SEALING sURFAcEs 0F T June 5, 1952 G. E. c. RANDELL ETAL APPARATUS FOR CLEANI HE DOORS AND DOOR FRAMES OF HORIZONTAL COKE OVENS Filed DGO. 22, 1960 '7 Sheets-Sheet 7 United States Patent @hice 3,037,227 Patented .lune 5, 1962 APPARATUS FOR CLEANING THE SEALING SUR- FACES F THE DOORS AND DOOR FRAMES 0F HORZONTAL COKE OVENS Geoffrey Edward Charles Randell and Jack Holme, London, England, assignors to Woodall-Duckham Construction Company Limited, London, England, a British company Filed Dec. 22, 1960, Ser. No. '77,631 Claims priority, application Great Britain Dec. 31, 1959 8 Claims. (Ci. 15-93) This invention concerns a new or improved apparatus for cleaning the sealing surfaces of the doors and the door frames of the ovens of horizontal coke oven batteries and especially oven door frames adapted to receive doors of the so-called self-sealing type.

Self-sealing doors for horizontal coke ovens each have a sealing strip extending therearound and presenting a knife-edge to the door frame for sealing therewith. It is well known that the effectiveness of the seal made between a self-sealing coke oven door and its frame depends upon the sealing surfaces being initially clean and that, because of the formation yof deposits, which are largely of a pitchy nature and become encrusted on the sealing surfaces it is necessary periodically to clean these surfaces. This cleaning is at present performed manually and is tedious and arduous work which it is not easy efficiently to perform because of the prevailing heat conditions in the vicinity of a coke oven door frame.

Various proposals have been made in the past for mechanically effecting the cleaning of the sealing surfaces of coke oven doors and door frames and in our co-pending U.S. patent applications Nos. 780,782, and 780,799, now Patent No. 2,986,758, certain methods and apparatus are disclosed for mechanically cleaning the sealing surfaces of the doors of horizontal coke ovens and the door frames of such ovens. However the present invention provides alternative mechanical means for effecting these cleaning operations yand especially but not exclusively, for cleaning the sealing surfaces of the door frames at the pusher ends of the ovens.

When a charge of coal has been coked in an oven, the doors of the oven are removed from the opposite ends of the oven and the coke is pushed from the oven from the so-called pusher side to the coke side of the battery, this pushing being veffected by a ram carried on a pusher machine at the pusher side of the battery and which ram is registered with the oven to be discharged and is then propelled through the oven to push the charge of coke therefrom. The pushing operation usually takes a matter of l to 2 minutes and it has hitherto not been possible mechanically to clean the sealing surfaces of the door frame through which the pusher ram passes during this pushing operation. If the coke oven battery is working on a fast schedule, a saving of l or Z minutes in any cycle of operations can be of considerable importance.

It is an object of this invention to provide apparatus for mechanically cleaning the sealing surfaces of the oven door frames -at the pusher side of ya horizontal coke oven battery whilst the pushing of such ovens is being effected.

According to a further feature of the invention the said supporting structure may include an open or unobstructed framework through which, when the apparatus is used for cleaning the sealing surfaces of a door frame at the pusher side of the battery, the pusher ram may pass to effect a pushing operation whilst the sealing surface cleaning apparatus is in operation.

According to a still further feature of the invention the said supporting structure may be mounted upon a carrier (which may on the pusher machine side of the battery conveniently be provided by the carriage of the pusher machine of the battery installation) traversable alongside the battery and in such an radjustable manner that the supporting structure may be advanced (transversely of the length of the battery) towards, or withdrawn from, any selected coke oven door frame on its side of the battery.

Preferably the said Scrapers may be advanced, relatively to their respective carriages towards and may be urged into scraping contact with, the sealing surfaces to be cleaned by such scrapers, or may be alternatively withdrawn from such surfaces 'at the end of a cleaning operation, by fluid pressure operated ram and cylinder assemblies or jacks.

In one arrangement according to the invention at least two vertically traversable Scrapers may be provided for cleaning each of the said side portions of the sealing surface to be cleaned, the said two Scrapers being arranged one above the other and `One being adap-ted to effect the downward scraping of at least the upper part of the side portion of the sealing surface and the other scraper being adapted to commence scraping said side portion of the sealing surface at an intermediate position and to continue to the bottom of such portion, said scrapers preferably being presented obliquely to the surface being cleaned so as to propel in a downward direction the deposits encountered yand removed by the scrapers.

Preferably the side Scrapers for each of said side portions of the sealing surfaces to be cleaned may be arranged so as to scrape paths which overlap, the lower Scrapers commencing to scrape at positions higher than those at which the upper Scrapers terminate their downward scraping strokes.

Desirably means may also be provided for Causing the carriages on which the side Scrapers are mounted temporarily to reverse their downward movements and then again to reverse their movements to continue the descents of the carriages thereby effecting the said overlapping scraping of the side portions of the sealing surface of the door frame.

All the said scraper carriages may be traversed by fluid pressure operated, and preferably double-acting hydraulically operated, ram and cylinder assemblies or jacks. Moreover the Scrapers may be advanced towards and withdrawn from the surfaces to be cleaned by uid pressure operated jacks preferably hydraulic jacks of the double-acting type and similar means may be employed for advancing the said supporting structure carrying the scraper mechanism towards and withdrawing it from the surfaces to be cleaned.

Conveniently remote control means may be provided for controlling the operation of the various Scrapers of Ithe apparatus and for advancing the whole cleaning apparatus towards and withdrawing it from the door frame to be cleaned. Moreover means may be provided whereby all the operations of the scraping apparatus may be effected automatically sequentially in the proper order.

Door frame sealing surface cleaning apparatus mounted on an open or unobstructed framework according to this invention is particularly suitable for cleaning the door frames at the pusher machine side of a battery whilst pushing operations are being performed, and when the apparatus is so used each door frame cleaning operation may be initiated very shortly after the removal of the coke oven door at the pusher side of the battery so that the cleaning of the sealing surfaces of the door frame may be achieved while these are still hot and before the deposits thereon have hardened and become encrusted and so removable only with great difficulty. However, wherever it is deemed desirable, the cleaning operation may be assisted by the application of heat to the surfaces to be cleaned and/or to the Scrapers themselves as described, for example, in our said co-pending U.S.

patent application No. 780,782.

In order that the nature of the invention may be more readily understood, certain embodiments of the same will now be described with reference to and as shown in the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIGURE 1 is a part vertical medial section through an oven of a coke oven battery and a door frame at the pusher machine end of such oven and an end elevation of oven door frame sealing surface cleaning mechanism constructed in accordance with this invention;

FIGURE 2 is a plan of the mechanism shown in FIG- URE 1;

FIGURE 3 is a fragmentary view similar to FIGURE 1 but illustrating, on an enlarged scale, part of the mechanism shown in FIGURE l;

FIGURE 4 is a section on line IV-IV, FIGURE 3;

FIGURE 5 is a section on line V-V, FIGURE l drawn to an enlarged scale;

FIGURE 6 is a section on line VI-VI, FIGURE 5.

FIGURE 7 is a diagram showing the hydraulics circuit for operating the mechanism shown in FIGURES 1 to 6;

FIGURE 8 illustrates a modified form of scraper assembly including a carriage having an auxiliary carriage thereon and applied to scraping the vertical side sealing surface of an oven door frame; and FIGURE 9 is a similar view to FIGURE 8 illustrating the said modified form of scraper assembly applied to the scraping of the sealing surface of a self-sealing coke oven door.

In the embodiment of the invention shown in FIG- URES 1 to 6, 1 represents the pusher side of a horizontal coke oven battery, 2 is the pusher machine end of an oven and 3 is the door frame at the pusher end of the oven 2, said door frame having transverse horizontally arranged vertical sealing surfaces 4 and 5 at its upper and lower ends respectively and vertical side sealing surfaces 6 arranged in the same vertical plane as the sealing surfaces 4 and 5. 7 represents a carrier in the form of a pusher machine which is traversable alongside the battery 1, and 8 represents the pusher of this pusher machine.

The pusher machine 7 is furnished on each side with two groups of rollers 9, 10 supporting a skeleton supporting structure 11 on which is mounted the door frame sealing surface scraping apparatus, this skeleton structure being movable along said rollers horizontally towards and away from the pusher side of the coke oven battery 1.

Conveniently the skeleton structure 11 includes a pair of similar vertical parallel frames 12 arranged at right angles to the length of the battery 1 and rigidly united together at the upper and lower ends thereof by transverse cross-members such as 13 and braced by diagonal or similar struts such as 14, the arrangement being such that the framework thus provided is internally unobstructed so that the head 15 of the pusher ram 8 may pass freely therethrough.

The skeleton structure 11 is adjustable to and from the pusher side of the battery 1 by means of uid-operated, e.g. hydraulic, double-acting ram and cylinder assemblies or jacks 16, 16 of which there are preferably two, one on each side of the structure 11 and each connected at one end to the latter and at the other end to the pusher machine 7. Thus, when pressure fluid is admitted to the said cylinders, the skeleton structure 11 is advanced towards or withdrawn from the pusher side of the battery 1 according to the end of the cylinders 16, 16 to which the fluid pressure is admitted.

At each side of the skeleton structure 11, and at the battery or front end thereof, is arranged a vertical I-section girder 17 forming a guide rail on which is vertically reciprocable a carriage 18 for the side Scrapers 19 and 20 for scraping the side sealing surfaces 6 of a coke oven door frame 3. Above and below these two I-section girders 17 are respectively fixed two horizontal channel section girders forming respectively top and bottom guide rails 21 and 22 for upper and lower carriages 23 and 24 for top and bottom Scrapers 25 and 26 for respectively cleaning the transverse portions 4 and 5 of the sealing surface of the door frame, these upper and lower channel members 21 and 22 constituting with the said vertical I-section girders 17, 17 an open elongated oblong frame 11 (FIGURE 6) arranged perimetrically of the front end of the structure or framework 11 and carrying all the scraper carriages and permitting the free passage of the pusher head 15 of the pusher machine 7 as it is moved into or out of the oven 2.

Each of the carriages 18 for the side Scrapers is furnished with rollers 27 and 28 engaging the front and rear vertical surfaces of the corresponding vertical I-Section girder 17 and the carriage is reciprocated up and down such girder by means of an endless chain 29 connected to the carriage and passing upwardly over a guide sprocket or pulley 30 at the upper end of the girder 17 and then over a driving pulley or sprocket 31 on the output shaft 32 of a reduction gear box 33 mounted on the top of the supporting structure 11, the chain then passing downwardly over a further guide pulley or sprocket 34 mounted on the structure 11 and vertically downwardly to the bottom of such structure where it passes over a still further guide pulley or sprocket 35 and then horizontally forwardly to yet another guide pulley or sprocket 36 which is mounted on the lower end of the vertical girder 17 on which the reciprocable carriage 18 driven by the chain is mounted, the chain then passing vertically upwardly and being again secured to the carriage.

The output shaft 32 of the reduction gear box 33 is driven through an input shaft 37 coupled to a hydraulic motor 38 fixed upon the upper part of the said supporting structure 11, the motor being reversible so that the carriages may be reciprocated by this means up and down their respective vertical girders 17.

In order automatically to retard the movement of the carriages 18 and to bring them to rest as they reach the upper and lower ends respectively of their travel, appropriate trip units 38 and 38" are provided near the upper and lower ends respectively of each guide rail 17, these trip devices being included in a hydraulic control circuit for the apparatus and which is hereinafter more fully described.

Each of the side carriages 18 has, FIG. 3, an upper horizontal forwardly extending limb 39 and a lower obliquely downwardly and forwardly extending limb 40 and to the front portions of these two limbs is respectively pivoted the rear end of a scraper arm, these arms being respectively marked 41 and 42 in the drawings and each extending forwardly and upwardly. The said scraper arms are respectively furnished at the outer or front end with the scrapers 19 and 20 which are in the form of hard steel blades extending fo1wardly and downwardly transversely of their arms 41 and 42 somewhat in the fashion of the prongs of a rake. Thus the arrangement is such that when performing their scraping operations the scraper blades are presented to the surface being scraped in a downwardly directed position, and at an acute angle of say 30 to 45 to such surface.

The scraper arms 41 and 42 are respectively connected near one end respectively to one end of a double-acting hydraulic cylinder and ram assembly or jack 43, 44, these jacks having their other ends connected to the carriage 18. The hydraulic jacks 43 and 44 are adapted to effect the movement of the Scrapers into their operative positions and to maintain them in these positions with some pressure Whilst the Scrapers are effecting their sealing surface cleaning operations, but also serve to withdraw the Scrapers from their operative positions preparatory to or during, the return movements or ascents of the side scraper carriages 18.

The horizontal top and bottom guide rails 21 and 22, FIG. 1, on which are reciprocably mounted the carriages 23 and 24 bearing the Scrapers 25 and 26 for the top and bottom portions 4 and 5 of the Sealing surface of the door frame extend at one end laterally beyond the skeleton structure or framework 11 as seen clearly from FIG- URE 5 and also have mounted thereon, so as to extend therealong, double-acting hydraulic ram and cylinder assemblies or jacks 45 and 46, each such jack having one end attached to the corresponding horizontal guide rails and the other end connected to the corresponding carriage on that guide rail, and these jacks serving to traverse the top and bottom scraper carriages 23 and 24 along their guide rails so that the Scrapers on the carriages reciprocate as they travel along the top and bottom portions 4 and 5 of the sealing surface of the door frame.

The said top and bottom scraper carries 23 and 24 respectively carrying double-acting hydraulic ram and cylinder assemblies or jacks 47 and 48, the cylinder of each jack being fixed to its carriage at right angles to the direction of travel of the latter and the ram of the jack carrying at its outer free end (which is directed towards the battery and consequently towards the door frame 3 to be cleaned), the scraper blade 25, or 26, which has the operative front end portion thereof directed transversely of the axis of the ram by4 which it is carried so as to be presented obliquely forward to the surface to be scraped with its rectilinear scraping edge (its leading edge) in a vertical or substantially vertical position, the arrangement being such that the scraper commences its scraping action at or near one end of the transverse sealing surface to be scraped and travels shovel-fashion to the other end of the said sealing surface substantially as depicted in FIGURE 5, the carriages being returned to a central position along the guides 21 and 22 at the end of each scraping operation.

The jacks 47 and 48 by which the horizontally traversable top and bottom Scrapers are carried serve not only to advance and withdraw the Scrapers with respect to the door frame but also to apply adequate pressure (which may be adjustable) to the Scrapers during the scraping operations.

The sequence of operations is preferably as follows. The door of a coke oven of which the door frame 3 is to be cleaned having been removed and the pusher machine 7 adjusted along the battery to register the pusher ram 8 with the oven and also to bring the frame 11 of the supporting structure 11 into coincidence with the door frame, the said supporting structure with the door frame cleaning apparatus is advanced (relatively to the pusher machine) towards the pusher side of the battery and to said door frame 3.

The appropriate controls (hereinafter described) `are then operated to first move the top carriage 23 from its at rest position (e.g., at the centre of its stroke) to the starting end of its cleaning stroke somewhat as indicated for the bottom carriage 24 in dotted lines at 24' in FIGURE 5. The scraper blade 25 is then advanced through the medium of the jack 47 to engage with the top sealing surface 4 near one end thereof and thescraper is then traversed (by means of the jack 45) along such surface to the other end thereof to effect the cleaning of such surface, after which the carriage is arrested, the scraper blade retracted, and the carriage returned to its at rest position.

At this stage in the operations the side carriages 1S are moved up from intermediate at rest positions (FIG. l) to their top positions (shown in FIGURE 3) when the upper side Scrapers 19 (and if desired the lower Scrapers Ztl) are swung into their operative scraping positions so that their scraper blades 19 engage the upper ends of the side portions 6 of the sealing surface of the door frame in order that, during their subsequent downward movement these upper side Scrapers will scrape over the ends of the top portions 4 of the Sealing surface.

The Scrapers 19 having been brought into their scraping positions, the side scraper carriages 18 are caused to descend either with the lower side Scrapers 20 in their scraping positions or with the latter in their retracted positions. After descending for the major part of their travel the direction of movement of the side scraper carriages 18 is temporarily reversed so that the carriages ascend for a short distance before their direction of movement is again reversed. When the carriages 18 have reached the top of this short ascent, the lower side scrapers 2d, if not 'already in their scraping positions, are moved into those positions by their jacks 44, after which the side scraper carriages 18 are caused once again to descend to complete their downward strokes from a position already scraped by the upper Scrapers 19, thus ensuring an overlap in the area of the side sealing surfaces already scraped and the scraping operation is completed by the lower side Scrapers 20 travelling tothe lower ends of the side sealing surface 6 of the door frame and across the end portions of the bottom transverse sealing surface portion 5. At this stage downward travel of the carriages 18 is automatically stopped, the side sealing surface Scrapers 19 and 29 are withdrawn, and the side scraper carriage 18 returned to their at rest position.

The bottom transverse sealing surface scraper 26 is now moved from its central or at rest position to one end of the said bottom transverse sealing surface portion 5 and is advanced into contact with and pressed against such transverse portion of the sealing surface and scraping is commenced near one end of this Sealing surface as described for the top scraper 25, the carriage 24 onwhich the bottom scraper is mounted being traversed across the apparatus by the jack 46 so as to complete the scraping of the bottom transverse portion 5 of the sealing surface after which the bottom scraper is withdrawn and its carriage 24 is returned to its original central or at rest position.

A hydraulic system for operating the mechanism shown in FIGURES 1 to 6 is illustrated diagrammatically in FIGURE 7 of the drawings.

As will be seen from this drawing, the controls are for the main part manually operated but, as hereinafter mentioned, they could to a large extent, be automatically operated, if desired.

The hydraulic fluid employed is preferably oil and the hydraulic system illustrated comprises an oil reservoir 49 from which oil is drawn through a filter 50 by a vane pump 51 driven by an electric motor 52. The oil passes from the pump 51 to an adjustable pressure relief valve 53 -which is conveniently pre-set to a pressure of 1,000 psi., the valve 53 being connected to a return line 54 by which excess oil may return to the reservoir 49.

From the valve 53 oil passes to a counterbalancing and sequence valve 55 connected by .a line 56 to the pressure inlet of a. distributor valve 57 one of the outlets of which is connected by line 5S to the pressure inlet of a control valve 59 from an outlet of which a return line 6ft' leads back to the reservoir 49;

The control valve 5911s a combination of three plungertype valves 61, 62 and 63 of which valves 61 and 62 respectivelycontrol the operation of the hydraulic traversing jacks 45 and 46 of the top and bottom scraper units whilst the valve 63 controls the hydraulic traversing jacks 16, 16 by which the structure 11 is adjusted towards and away from the pusher side of the battery 1. Movement of operating levers 64, 65 and 66 of the valves 61, 62 and 63 from Ytheir mid-positions operates the said traversing jacks whilst the direction of travel produced by these jacks is determined by the end positions to which said levers are moved. When the rlevers 64, 65 and 66 are in their mid-positions the valve 59 connects the oil feed line 58 to the oil return line 60.

Thus by manipulating the lever 66 in one direction the structure 11 can be advanced towards the door frame to be cleaned whilst appropriate subsequent operations of the control lever 64 will traverse the upper scraper carriage 23 along the length of the top sealing surface 4 of the door frame and subsequent appropriate manipulation of the control lever 65 will traverse the lower carriage 24 along the length of the bottom horizontal sealing surface 5. The side sealing surfaces 6, 6 are preferably scraped between the operations of the top scraper 25 and the bottom scraper 26.

The side scraper carriage motor 38 is controlled by the distributor valve 57. A line 67 leads from one of the outlets of this valve 57 through a non-return valve 68 to one side of the motor 38 and a further line 69 leads from the other side of this motor through a nonreturn valve 70, a flow control and motor speed regulating valve 71, and a non-return valve 72 to one port of a bottom trip unit 38". A further port of the valve 38 is connected by a line 74 and a line 75 to another outlet of the distributor valve 57. The line 75 is also connected through a non-return valve 76 to the line 69 on the trip unit side of the non-return valve 72, whilst this part of line 69 is connected through a further nonreturn valve 77 to the non-return valve 70side of the flow control and speed regulating valve 71.

A top trip unit 38' is in parallel with the non-return valve 68 in line 67, having two ports thereof connected to the line 67 on opposite sides of the non-return valve 68 by lines 78 and 79.

The trip units 3S and 38" are in the form of threeway plunger-type valves in which the plunger is urged outwardly by spring means and pushed inwardly by cams 81 and 82 respectively provided on the carriages 18 at a suitable position thereon (see FIGURES 1 and 3). When their plungers are in their outermost positions, i.e. when they are clear of the cams 81 and 82, the units provide by-passes for the non-return valve 68 and 76 respectively, movement of the plungers inwardly closing such by-passes.

The plunger of the distributor valve 57 has a control lever 80 adjustable from a mid-position to either of two alternative end positions in which it causes rotation of the side scraper motor 38 in one or the other direction to traverse the carriages 18, 18 up or down the guide rails 17, 17 as required, the speed of travel being controlled by the valve 71 and the carriages being first slowed down and then stopped at the upper and lower ends of their stroke, respectively through the medium of the trip units 38' and 38" when actuated by cams 81 and 82.

When the lever 80 is in its mid-position, oil ows from line 56 directly to line 58 and thence to the control valve 59. However, when the lever 80 of the valve 57 is in either of its two alternative end positions the direct flow of oil from line 56 to the control valve 59 is interrupted and the oil is directed from line 56 to one of lines 67 and 75, according to the position of lever 80, whilst the other of lines 67 and 75 is connected to line 58.

When the control lever 80 is in an end position permitting ilow of oil from the line 56 through the valve 57 to the line 67, the oil passes along the line 67 through the non-return valve 68 to one side of the motor 38, through the motor 38 which is thereby operated to traverse carriages 18, 1S down the guide rails 17, 17, the oil then passing successively through the non-return valve 70, speed regulating valve 71, non-return valve 72, the trip unit 38, line 74, line 75, valve 57, line 58, valve 59, line 60 and so back to the oil reservoir 49. This ilow of oil can, however, only occur when levers 64, 65 and 66 are in their mid-positions and the carriages 18, 18 are in a position other than their lower limit positions.

On the other hand, when the control lever 80 is in its other end position so that oil from line 56 is directed to line 75, oil flows through the line 75 past the non-return valves 76 and 77, through the ow control and speedregulating valve 7l1 and thence through a further nonreturn valve 85 to the motor 38, thereby operating the latter to traverse the carriages 18, 18 up the guide rails 17, 17 and then back through line 78, the top trip unit 38, line 79, line 67, valve 57, line 58, valve 59 and line 60 to the reservoir 49. For this ow to occur, levers 64, 65 and 66 must be in their mid-positions and the carriages 18, 13 must be in a position other than their upper limit positions.

It will be clear from the foregoing that the side carriages 18, 18 may be traversed up or down the guide rails 17, 17 as desired by setting the control lever 80 into one or other of its end positions as appropriate, only when the frame and top and bottom Scrapers traversing jacks 16, 16, 45 and 46 are at rest. Also the side carriages cannot be traversed beyond either of their limit positions, owing to the presence of the trip units 38 and 38 which control the flow of oil in the circuit of motor 38.

The trip units 38' and 38, as mentioned above, provide by-passes for the non-return valves 68 and 76 respectively to enable the oil which has passed through motor 38 to return, via valves 57 and 59, to the reservoir 49. As the carriages 18, 18 approach either of their limit positions, the cams 81 or 82 on the carriages 18, 18 as the case may be engage with and cause inward movement of the appropriate trip unit plunger to restrict and ultimately close the by-pass constituted by the trip unit, thereby to slow and ultimately stop the ilow of oil through motor 38.

Movement of the control lever to its mid-position automatically cuts oil? the supply of oil to either side of the motor 38.

When all the side scraper arms 41 and 42, are in their retracted positions, as they should be, at the top of the stroke of the carriages 18, 18, then before the carriages commence to descend, the upper 'scraper arms 41 require to be advanced by their double-acting jacks 43. When the Scrapers 25 and 26 of the upper and lower scraper units 23 and 24 respectively are in their retracted positions just prior to beginning their scraping movement, then before their respective traversing jacks 45 and 46 are 0perated, the said Scrapers 25 and 26 require to be advanced by their respective double-acting jacks 47 and 48. These advancing movements are effected by applying fluid pressure to the jacks from the counterbalance and sequence valve 55. This is achieved by passing the oil through line 86 and a pressure reducing valve 87 (which conveniently reduces the oil pressure from an operative pressure at the valve 55 of 1,000 p.s.i. to a pressure in the region of 200 p.s.i.). From the valve 87 a line 88 extends to the inlet of a combination valve assembly similar to the combination valve 59 and having an outlet connected by a line 90 to the reservoir 49.

This combination valve 89 comprises four separately operable valves 91, 92, 93 and 94. Valve 91 controls the jacks 43, 43, for the upper side Scrapers valve 92 controls the jacks 44, 44, for the lower side Scrapers 20 valve 93 controls the jack 47 for top Scrapers 25 and valve 94 controls the jack 48 for the ybottom Scrapers 26. Movement of operating levers 95, 96, 97 and 98 of these valves from their mid-positions operate the said jacks whilst the direction of travel of the jacks is determined by the end positions to which said levers are moved. When the levers 95, 96, 97 and 98 are in their midpositions the valve 89 connects the line 88 to the line 90.

Thus by manipulation of lever 97 in one direction the top scraper 25 can be advanced into its scraping position whilst subsequent operations of the control lever 95 will advance the upper side scrapers 19 into their scraping positions and later appropriate manipulation of control lever 96 and finally the control lever 98 will advance their respective side Scrapers 20 and bottom Scrapers 26 in turn to their appropriate scraping positions.

The temporary reversal of the side scraper carriages during their descent as hereinbefore described is eifected by appropriate manipulation of the control lever 80.

It is very desirable that the pressure that the jacks 43,

44, 47 and 48 exert on their respective scraper arms should be of a yielding character, and for this purpose an adjustable relief valve 99 is placed in the line leading to that side of each valve for supplying pressure to advance the Scrapers into their scraping positions. Each relief valve 99 has its outlet communicating with the reservo1r 49. If the back pressure in any -of the jacks 43, 44, 47 and 48 becomes for any reason excessive, fluid flows through to the relief valves 99 and the excess oil is discharged to the reservoir 49.

In the hydraulic system above described all the mechanisms may be automatically controlled. Thus means may be provided lfor automatically sequentially operating the hydraulic valve gear to effect the cleaning of the sealing surfaces in the proper order from the top sequentially downwards, an over-riding control preferably being provided for operation by the pusher ram operative when he so desires.

It will thus be appreciated that the deposits on the top sealing surfaces 4 will 'be scraped to one end of the latter, that the deposits on the side sealing surfaces 6 will be scraped down to the bottom of these surfaces and that the deposits on the bottom sealing surfaces S will also be scraped to one end of the latter and all the deposits discharged at the bottom of the `door frame.

Although the mechanism above described has been i1- lustrated as applied to the scraping of a door frame, it will be appreciated that scraper assemblies such as the top and bottom assemblies on the carriages 23 and 24 could be used for scraping the sealing strip of a selfsealing door or for merely scraping the top and bottom horizontal portions of such sealing strip whilst similarscraper mechanisms may be used for the vertical sealing surfaces of such strip or alternatively these vertical surfaces may be scraped by scraper assemblies similar to the scraper assemblies including the Scrapers 19 and 20, these Scrapers being mounted on carriages such as 18 and operated in a manner similar to these mechanisms.

Alternatively the side, vertical or top and bottom transverse sealing surfaces of a door frame or a door may be scraped by scraper mechanisms such as shown in FIG- URE 8. This figure illustrates a modied scraper arrangement as applied to the cleaning cf Vertical sealing surfaces. In this arrangement a main carriage 18 is traversable up and down vertical guide rails 17 in the same manner as the carriage 18 already described. The carriage 18 has a vertical guide 100 in which is reciprocable an auxiliary carriage 101 which carries a scraper arm 41 carrying a scraper 19 at its outer end, this scraper arm being pivotally mounted on the auxiliary carriage 101 and capable of being advanced into its `operative p0- sition or withdrawn from that position by a hydraulic jack 43 in the same way as the scraper 41 previously described.

The auxiliary carriage 101 is adapted to be adjusted vertically along the carriage 18 by a hydraulic jack 102 attached at one end to the main carriage 18 and at the other end to a slotted lever 103 by a guide block 103 mounted in the slot of such lever which is pivoted at 104 at one end to the main carriage 18', such lever receiving in its slot a guide roller 105 pivoted to the auxiliary carriage 101.

The method of scraping the vertical sealing surfaces 6 with this arrangement comprises moving the main carriage 18 to the top of its stroke with the auxiliary carriage 101 on the main carriage also at the top of its stroke, advancing the scraper 19 into engagement with the sealing surfaces 6 and then traversing the auxiliary carriage 101 down the main carriage 18 to the bottom of its stroke and thereafter traversing the main carriage (with the auxiliary carriage at the bottom of its stroke on the main carriage) to the bottom of its stroke. In this way the single scraper 19 scrapes the entire sealing surface 6 from the top to the :bottom thereof. When the scraping operation has been completed the main carriage 18 is returned to a neutral or at rest position.

Although the said main and auxiliary carriage scraper assembly has been described above with reference to cleaning the vertical side sealing surface 6 of a door frame, the same principle could be applied to the cleaning of the transverse sealing surfaces 4 and 5 if desired.

It will lbe appreciated that an additional control would be needed for effecting the adjustment of the auxiliary carriage 101 on the main carriage 18 but such control could be provided by that necessary for the lower scraper arm 42 in the arrangement shown in FIGURES l to 6.

FIGURE 9 illustrates the scraper mechanism described with reference to FIGURE 8 applied to cleaning the vertical portions of the sealing strip of a self-sealing coke oven door 106, the scraper mechanism being substantially the same as that shown in FIGURE 8 with the modication that the scraper is contoured to the shape of the sealing strip 107 of the door. In this case the guide rails 17 may form part of any appropriate supporting structure Iwhich need not necessarily be of the open type as is the supporting structure 11 previously described.

We claim:

l. Horizontal coke oven battery door frame sealing surface cleaning apparatus comprising a supporting structure carrying at least one side scraper for cleaning each vertical side portion of the door frame sealing surface o and Iat least one scraper operating independently of the side Scrapers for cleaning each of the top and bottom transverse vertically disposed portions of the door frame sealing surface, means for traversing the side scrapers along the said side portions of the sealing surfaces of the door frame and means for traversing the top and bottom Scrapers along the said top and bottom transverse portions of the sealing surfaces of the door frame.

2. Apparatus according to claim l, wherein the said supporting structure includes an open or unobstructed framework through which, when the apparatus is used for cleaning the sealing surfaces of a door frame. at the pusher side of the battery, the pusher ram may pass to effect a pushing operation Whilst the sealing surface cleaning apparatus is in operation.

3. Horizontal coke oven battery door frame sealing surface cleaning apparatus comprising a carrier traversable along the pusher machine side of the battery, a supporting structure adjustably mounted on said carrier in such manner as to be capable of advancement towards, or Withdrawal from, an oven door frame with which it is registered, such supporting structure being of open or unobstructed form so as to permit the pusher ram to pass therethrough for pushing an oven with the door frame of which said structure is registered, scraper means mounted on the open battery-end of the said supporting structure and traversable along the perimeter of such structure for scraping the transverse and side vertically disposed sealing surfaces of the door frame of an oven being pushed and with which said supporting structure is registered and to which oven frame such structure has been advanced, and means for traversing said Scrapers over said sealing surfaces.

4. Apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the Scrapers for cleaning the top and bottom transverse portions of the sealing surface of the door frame are respectively carried by independent carriages traversable respectively along horizontal guide means at the upper and lower portions of the said supporting structure, and wherein said carriages are traversed across said supporting structures by uid pressure operated jacks.

5. In or for apparatus for cleaning the sealing surfaces of the doors or door frames of the ovens of horizontal coke oven batteries, means comprising a supporting structure adapted for yalignment with the end of a coke oven or with a coke oven door, at least one carriage traversable on said supporting structure parallel to the sealing surface to be cleaned, a scraper on said carriage, fluid pressure operated means for adjusting said scraperrelatively to its carriage transversely of the sealing surface to be cleaned and towards or away from the latter respectively to move said scraper into engagement with such sealing surface or to withdraw it from such engagement, and means for traversing said carriage on said supporting structure to move said scraper lengthwise of said sealing surface.

6. Apparatus according to claim 5, wherein means are provided for causing the carriages on which the side Scrapers are mounted to reverse their downward movements temporarily and then again to reverse their movements to continue the descents of the carriages thereby eiecting the said overlapping scraping of the side portions of the sealing surface of the door frame, and wherein fluid operated jacks are provided for adjusting said scrapers into and out of their operative positions.

7. ln or for apparatus for cleaning the sealing surfaces of the doors or door frames of the ovens of horizontal coke oven batteries, a supporting structure adapted for alignment with the end of a coke oven or a coke oven door, guide means on said supporting structure for alignment with the door or door frame sealing surface to be cleaned, a main carriage traversable along said guide means, means for traversing such carriage on said gmide means, an auxiliary carriage on said main carriage and adjustable along and relatively to the latter, means for effecting such adjustment, scraper means carried by said auxiliary carriage for engagement with the sealing surface to be cleaned thereby, and means for advancing said scraper relatively to said auxiliary carriage towards, or away from, such sealing surface.

8. Apparatus according to claim 7, wherein remote control means are provided for separately controlling the separate operations of the various Scrapers of the apparatus and for advancing the whole cleaning apparatus towards and withdrawing it from the door trame to be cleaned.

References Cited in the le of this patent UNlTED STATES PATENTS 1,759,014 McIntosh May 20, 1930 1,916,021 Sherrill et al June 27, 1933 FOREIGN PATENTS 741,071 Great Britain Nov. 23, 1955

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