US3289292A

US3289292A - Built-up strip mill guide

Info

Publication number: US3289292A
Application number: US407511A
Authority: US
Inventors: Grant A Oakes
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1964-10-29
Filing date: 1964-10-29
Publication date: 1966-12-06
Anticipated expiration: 1983-12-06

Description

Dec. 6, 1966 G. A. OAKES 3,289,292

BUILTUP STRIP MILL GUIDE Filed 001;. 29, 1964 INVENTOR. GRANT A. OAKES ATTORNEY United States Patent ()fiice 3,Z$Q,Z9Z Patented Dec. 6, 1966 3,289,292 BUILT-UP STRIP MILL GUIDE Grant A. (lakes, RD. 4, near Cortland, Ohio Filed'Oct. 29, 1964, Ser. No. 407,511 2 Claims. (Cl. 29-481) This is a continuation-in-part of application Serial No. 376,943, filed June 22, 1964.

This invention relates to a guide which is adapted to contact lateral edges of strip material, such as strip steel, as the latter is processed by a rolling mill and the like.

Those skilled in the art will recognize that strip mill guides are positioned between the stands of rolls in a rolling mill and particularly adjacent the stands of rolls so as to suitably guide the traveling strip relative thereto. Such guides comprise suitable mounting means which have customarily been provided with replaceable, elongated, relatively soft metal guide members which engaged the lateral edges of the steel strip.

The present invention modifies the construction and the formation of the guide member by building up a suitable wearing surface of desirable characteristics and particularly with respect to the wearing characteristics of the material of which the guide is formed.

One of the objects of the invention is, therefore, the provision of a built-up strip mill guide presenting a relatively longer wearing surface.

A further object of the invention is the provision of a built-up strip mill guide which is formed from a worn guide member removed from a strip mill.

A still further object of the invention is the provision of means whereby the wear member in a strip mill guide may be removed and built up to comprise a new article of manufacture, particularly suited for its purposes and particularly with respect to longer life than the original article from which it is formed.

A still further object of the invention is the provision of a method of making a built-up guide for a strip mill.

It will occur to those skilled in the art that strip mill guides formed of metal relatively softer than the steel being directed to the roll stands of the strip mill have heretofore been commonly used. It will also occur to those skilled in the art that such strip mill guides have been relatively soft and have required constant replacement which interferes with the operation of the mill.

It is, therefore, a still further object of the invention to provide an improved built-up strip mill guide which has a considerably longer life in use than those guides heretofore known in the art.

With the foregoing and other objects in view which will appear as the description proceeds, the invention resides in the combination and arrangement of parts and in the details of construction hereinafter described and claimed, it being the intention to cover all changes and modifications of the example of the invention herein chosen for purposes of the disclosure, which do not constitute departures from the spirit and scope of the invention.

The invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawing, wherein:

FIGURE 1 is a perspective view of a built-up strip mill guide formed in accordance with this invention.

FIGURE 2 is a perspective view of a strip mill guide during formation of the built-up surface thereof.

FIGURE 3 is an enlarged cross section on line 3-3 of FIGURE 2.

FIGURE 4 is an enlarged cross section on line 44 of FIGURE 2.

FIGURE 5 is an enlarged cross section on line 55 of FIGURE 1.

By referring to the drawings and FIGURE 1 in particular, it will be seen that a strip mill guide has been disclosed which is of conventional size and shape, and in the example chosen for illustration the guide is approximately 33" long by 3 /2 in width and 1" in thickness. It has a T-head at one end, the guide body being indicated by the numeral 10, and the T-head being indicated by the numeral 11. The T-head is formed with a projecting extension 12 of lesser height than the remainder of the head 11 of the strip mill guide so that it will fit beneath a mounting member in a conventional mounting means positioned alongside the pass line of a strip mill, for example, and adjacent a stand of .reducing rolls therein.

The opposite end of the strip mill guide 10 has

angular end portions

13 and 14 which angle towards one another and terminate with a relatively narrow end portion 15.

As seen in FIGURE 1 of the drawings, the strip mill guide is in condition for installation in the guide means of a strip mill.

By referring to FIGURE 2 of the drawings, the same strip mill guide will be seen in perspective elevation with a longitudinally extending groove 16 therein, and which groove extends from the end portion 15 to the T-head portion 11 and through the same to terminate in the end wall 17 which defines the difference in height between the T-head portion 11 and the projecting extension 12 as heretofore referred to. The groove 16 is formed in the strip mill guide body 10 and filled in with a relatively harder metal as illustrated in FIGURE 2 of the drawings wherein a section of spooled wire W is being fed into the groove 16, melted and welded therein by a Metal Inert Gas Process electric arc torch 18 having a gas and wire delivering nozzle 19 as known in the art. The wire W is fed through the nozzle 19 by means not shown. The gas is argon and is supplied through a flexible hose 20 which includes an electrical conductor. It will be seen that the nozzle 19 of the M.I.G. torch 18 is positioned in close relation to the metal defining the sides of the groove 16 and with the axis of the nozzle 19 preferably disposed at about 45 relative to the longitudinal plane of the guide It) and moved away from the metal being deposited. As illustrated in FIGURE 2, the M.I.G. torch I8 is being moved to the right and the welded metal of the wire, indicated by the numeral 21, is deposited so as to completely fill the longitudinal groove 16 and build up a surplus above the level of the top surface of the strip mill guide 10.

The strip mill guide body 10 is preheated to a temperature between 900 1200 F. and the build up of the desirable metal in the groove 16 is accomplished while the strip mill guide 10 is within the indicated temperature range.

By referring to FIGURE 3 of the drawing, an enlarged cross sectional elevation of the strip mill guide body 10 may be seen, and it will be observed that the groove 16 therein is of irregular shape.

By referring now to FIGURE 4 of the drawings, it will be seen that the relatively harder metal 21 of the spooled wire W has been deposited at a temperature and rate so as to vaporize some of the lead and/or tin present in the metal of the strip mill guide 10 so as to form bubbles 22 in the deposited solidified metal 21. The strip mill glide is an alloy of copper, tin and lead. The metal preferred and supplied as the wire W is Siltrode; a silicon bronze consisting of 2.8% to 4% silicon and the remainder copper with a Brinell of 89 to 93. An alternate metal that may be effectively used is Phostrode, or phosphor bronze alloy with a Brinell of 89.

It will thus be seen that the critical temperature of the guide 10, and the welding temperature of the deposited metal 21 result in vaporizing some of the metal of the guide 10 to form bubbles in the deposited molten metal which quickly solidifies and traps the bubbles in random orientation therein.

The relatively harder metal 21 is deposited by filling up the groove 16 progressively in one pass of the torch 18 through which the spooled wire W is continuously fed and thereby melted and deposited.

In a typical arrangement the heat from the torch nozzle 19 will flow back over the deposited metal 21 toward the left in FIGURE 2 to form a smooth closed surface thereon. The temperature of the torch is related to the speed of the wire which is generally 2'-3' per second. The torch 18 is moved at an average rate of about 4' per second. This procedure will result in a perfect bond between the relatively harder metal 21 and the relatively softer metal of the strip metal guide body 10. When the groove 16 has been completely filled from one end to the other, as it appears in cross section in FIGURE 4 of the drawings with the bubbles 22 therein, the strip mill guide body is cooled, preferably with air although a water quench can be used, and the excess metal as appears in FIGURE 4 of the drawings is then ground off, or otherwise removed, to form the transversely flat surface as it appears in FIGURES 1 and of the drawings. The illustration in FIGURE 5 of the drawings shows the deposited relatively harder metal 21 positioned in the groove 16 of the strip metal guide body where it has bonded completely therewith and the top surface has been removed, as hereinbefore referred to, to form the uniformly transversely flat surface.

The next step in the formation of the built-up strip metal guide is to straighten the same so as to overcome the are which normally occurs during the preheating and Welding in of the relatively hard metal 21. When the straightening has been completed, the build-up rolling mill guide appears as in FIGURE 1 of the drawings, and it is then ready for installation in a strip mill where it will considerably outlast the rolling mill guides heretofore known in the art.

Those skilled in the art will recognize that such rolling mill guides as heretofore known in the art are generally formed of a copper base alloy, such as hearing bronze, or the like. The relatively harder metal which is used to build up the desirable wearing surface longitudinally of and centrally of the strip mill guide body is considerably harder than the bearing bronze of which the strip mill guide body 10 is formed, and at the same time it is relatively softer than the steel strip which is guided thereby so that it is entirely suitable for the purpose intended.

It will thus be seen that a built-up strip mill guide has been disclosed, together with the method of making the same, which produces a superior article and which may, incidentally, be produced by reworking used worn-out strip mill guides.

It will occur to those skilled in the art that the longitudinal center line built-up area of the strip mill guide body as disclosed herein is in the desirable position to receive a majority of the wear resulting from contact by the lateral edges of the strip material, such as strip steel being guided. It will also occur to those skilled in the art that the deflection of the strip material being guided will cause the same to properly enter the stands of rolls of the strip mill, while at the same time presenting suitable wearing surfaces capable of relatively long life.

It will be seen that the formation of the metal 21 in the strip mill guide body 10 with the bubbles 22 therein provides a series of desirably located grease and/or oil traps which fill with lubricant applied to the guide or to the edges of the traveling strip and continue to supply the lubricant as needed. The combination of these builtin lubricant pockets and the desirable welded in metal 21 result in the greatly extended life of the guides so formed.

The built-up strip mill guide disclosed herein has been described in connection with a continuous strip mill and a stand of rolls therein, and it will occur to those skilled in the art that the guides might equally well be applied to similar metal strip handling, Working, and fabricating operations where it is desired to guide a traveling strip in a fixed path, and having thus described my invention, what I claim is:

1. The method of making a guide for traveling strip in a strip mill and the like that comprises forming an elongated groove in an elongated metallic body member, heating said member to a temperature between 900 and 1200 F. and depositing a groove filling body of molten metal of the group including silicon bronze alloy and Phosphor bronze alloy in said groove at a temperature sufiicient to vaporize some of the metal of said body member and trap the same in said molten metal so as to form bubbles therein, cooling said body member, removing metal to form a transversely flat wearing surface and straightening said body member so that it is longitudinally fiat.

2. The method of making a guide set forth in claim 1 and wherein said metal deposited in said groove is melted by a metal insert gas process torch arranged to form a heat cover.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,255,469 2/1918 Schlieder 29-481 1,956,462 4/ 1934 Knuth 29529 1,999,599 4/ 1935 Smith 29-529 2,185,657 1/1940 Brangle et a1. 72428 2,241,789 5/1941 Queneau et al 29-529 2,250,561 7/1941 Wissler 29-529 2,258,913 10/1941 Stone 29--481 CHARLES W. LANHAM, Primary Examiner.

H. D. HOINKES, Assistant Examiner.

Claims

1. THE METHOD OF MAKING A GUIDE FOR TRAVELING STRIP IN A STRIP MILL AND THE LIKE THAT COMPRISES FORMING AN ELONGATED GROOVE IN AN ELONGATED METALLIC BODY MEMBER, HEATING SAID MEMBER TO A TEMPERATURE BETWEEN 900* AND 1200*F. AND DEPOSITING A GROOVE FILLING BODY OF MOLTEN METAL OF THE GROUP INCLUDING SILICON BRONZE ALLOY AND PHOSPHOR BRONZE ALLOY IN SAID GROOVE AT A TEMPERATURE SUFFICIENT TO VAPORIZE SOME OF THE METAL OF SAID BODY MEMBER AND TRAP THE SAME IN SAID MOLTEN METAL SO AS