US3317992A - Method of and apparatus for metal cladding refractory brick - Google Patents

Description

D. M. KERR METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR METAL CLADDING REFRACTORY BRICK 3- Sheets-$heet 1 Filed pct. 16, 1964 INVENTOR Iv? May 9, 1967 0. M. KERR 3,317,992

METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR METAL CLADDING REFRACTORY BRICK Filed Oct. 16, 1964 ,5 Sheets-Sheet 2 May 91 1967 D. M. KERR 3,317,992

METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR METAL CLADDING REFRACTORY BRICK Filed Oct. 16, 1964 5 Sheets-Sheet 6 United States Patent once 3,317,992 Patented May 9, 1967 3,317,992 I METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR METAL CLADDING REFRACTORY BRICK Duncan Macmillan Kerr, Carmel, Calif., assignor to The Ohio Fire Brick Company, Oak Hill, Ohio, a corporation of Ohio Filed Oct. 16, 1964, Ser. No. 404,305 3 Claims. (Cl. 29-450) This invention relates to new and useful improvements in metal cased refractory bricks used in industrial furnaces, and it is among the objects of this invention to provide a method of and apparatus for assembling the metal cladding material and the chemically bonded or burned brick in a manner to provide a maximum gripping engagement of the casing with the brick and to interlock the same in their assembled position so that there can be no relative movement between the assembled members.

It is -a further object of the invention to provide a metal casing constructed of a pair of similar symmetrical half sections of substantially U shape which, when assembled with the basic brick body, encases the latter substantially over the entire width and side faces of the brick, leaving the end faces of the basic brick material exposed and leaving a clearance space between the juxtaposed edges of the half sections to prevent abutting contact which would cause misalignment of the casing members.

It is a further object of the invention to provide dimples or recesses in the molded chemically bonded brick of inverted frusto-conical shape into which portions of the metal casing are displaced by a die of complementary shape to efiect a proper surface contact of the parts and prevent relative surface movement of the metal casing and brick body.

It is still a further object of the invention to provide for the assembly of the cladding material by feeding preformed U or channel shaped members to a hopper and arrange them with the sides of the channel in alignment with the faces of the brick to engage and then separate the side elements by means of a spreader which engages both legs of the cladding material to force them apart for receiving the molded brick.

These and other objects of the invention will become more apparent from a consideration of the accompanying drawings constituting a part hereof in which like reference characters designate like parts and in which:

FIGURE 1 is a cross-sectional view of chemically bonded basic brick taken the line 11 of FIGURE 2;

FIGURE 2 is a cross-sectional view taken transversley of the brick shown in FIGURE 1 through the center of a plurality of depressions or dimples;

FIGURE 3 is a top plan view of a basic brick with the cladding material assembled;

FIGURE 4 is a cross-sectional view thereof taken along the line 4-4 of FIGURE 3;

FIGURE 5 is a cross-sectional view of the assembled brick and cladding material showing the normal annular position of the legs of the channel members before they are assembled on the molded material;

FIGURE 6 is a view in perspective of the channelshaped cladding material;

FIGURE 7 a vertical cross-sectional view diagrammatically illustrating the assembly hopper for the molded brick and cladding material;

FIGURE 8 is a view taken along the line 88 of FIG- URE 7 through the hopper; and,

FIGURE 9 is a plan view diagrammatically illustrating the mechanism for spreading the legs of the cladding material and pushing them in position around the ,faces of the molded brick.

In the drawing, the numeral 1 designates a molded chemically bonded or burned brick having depressions 2 with preferably inclined walls 3, there being eight of such depressions in a single brick, they being spaced longitudinally and transversely in the manner shown in FIGURES 1 and 2. Obviously the depressions may be staggered to avoid stress fractures in the molded brick.

In FIGURES 3 and 4, the finished brick is shown with the cladding material 4 consisting of the channel shaped members shown in FIGURE 6 having legs 5 in place. FIGURE 5 illustrates the normal inclination of the flanges 5 'which require that they be spread before assembling them around the molded brick form, and the manner of spreading and assembling the cladding material will be described in connection with FIGURES 7 through 9 of the drawing.

With reference to FIGURES 2 and 4, it will be noted that the depressions 2 are molded in the brick, as shown in FIGURE 2, and the flanges 5 of the cladding material 4 are struck with a die to conform the metal to the depres sion 2, as shown in FIGURE 4.

By pre-forming the recesses in the molded brick, there is no strain set up in the brick when the cladding material is displaced into the recesses by a punch or die in the assembly operation.

As is diagrammatically shown in FIGURE 7, the channel-shaped cladding members 4, with their inclined legs 5, are fed to a hopper generally designated by the numeral 7. The hopper is provided with inner walls 8 and outer walls 9, the latter being inclined at 10, and flanges 11 are provided on the inner walls 8 so that when a channelshaped cladding member 4 is pushed into the hopper 7, one of the legs 5 will rest on the flange 11, causing the channel member to tilt and drop down the inclined wall, as is diagrammatically shown by the dotted line in FIG- URE 7, which position it retains when it comes to rest on the flanges 12 of a piston operated plunger 13 having a fluid pressure cylinder 14. The same supporting and pressing members are shown on opposite sides of the molded brick 1. Plungers 15 and 16, operated by cylinders 17 and 18, respectively, are movable in a vertical direction, as shown in FIGURE 7, to press the legs 5 of the cladding members against the faces of the molded brick.

It is evident from FIGURE 7 that when plungers 13 are retracted, the cladding members will drop down and come to rest on a base plate 19 in alignment with the molded brick 1, which is fitted in position by a plunger mechanism generally designated by the numeral 20, FIG- URE 8 of the drawing, which is in alignment with a molded brick, as shown in dotted lines, which is pushed forward into the assembly hopper in alignment 'with the plunger mechanisms 14.

As shown in FIGURES 5 and 6, the legs 5 of the channel members 4 are convergent and must be spread to envelop the faces of the brick with which they are assembled. This is effected by a pair of spreaders 25 and 26 that are pivotally mounted at 27 and 28 on fixed brackets 29 and 30. The spreaders are mounted on bell crank levers 31 and 32 having pins 33 and 34 that operate in guide slots 35 and 36 and guide plates 37 and 38, which are a pait of and movable with the pressure platens 1211. As shown in FIGURE 9, when the plunger 13 is actuated, the bell crank levers 31 and 32 will pivot at 27 and 28 and cause the spreader elements 25 and 26 to go in and out of the channel members timed with the movement of the channel shaped cladding element into alignment with the molded brick 1. While in the spread position, the cladding elements are moved forward to the position shown above the assembly device of FIGURE 9 with the edges of the legs 5 spread to form the space 40 to prevent abutting of the edges of the cladding members.

With reference to FIGURE 8, punches 42, 43, 44 and 45 are shown in die blocks 46 mounted above the die holder 47, fluid cylinders 48 being provided to actuate the punches to displace the metal to cause it to flow into the recesses 2 of the molded brick and effect intimate contact therewith, as shown in the assembled brick on the righthand side of FIGURE 8.

With reference to FIGURES 5 and 6, it will be evident that by pre-stressing the cladding channels to bias the legs 5 to a converging position, the legs 5 and the back portion 4 of the channels will proper surface contact of all parts of the cladding material and brick and the shaping of the recesses 2 of frusto-conical shape with the punch dies 44 and 45, etc., of a shape to form the exact shape of these depressions in the metal, any relative movement of the assembled cladding material and brick is eliminated.

Although one embodiment of the invention has been herein illustrated and described, it will be evident to those skilled in the art that various modifications may be made in the details of construction without departing from the principles herein set forth.

I claim:

1. The method of cladding brick with a pair of symmetrical steel casings of substantially U shape which consists of:

(a) feeding a pair of U-shaped casings to the feed hopper of an assembly jig with the legs of the U-shaped casings resting at the top of the hopper in a manner that when released the casings extending downwardly and will drop by gravity and turn sidewise to align the legs of the pair of casings towards one another,

(b) spreading the legs of each of said pair of casings and moving them over the side and edges of a premolded brick that has recesses formed therein,

(c) compressing said casings by bringing their legs together in intimate engagement with said pre-molded brick with the edges of the legs juxtaposed, and,

(d) simultaneously striking the legs of the casing with a die in alignment with the recesses in the molded brick to displace the metal into said recesses to interlock therewith.

2. Apparatus for cladding brick with a pair of channel shaped sheet metal casings which consists of an assembly jig and dimpling press in alignment with a transfer station, means for conveying said channel casings to said transfer station with the legs thereof extending downwardly, simultaneously feeding a molded brick to said assembly jig and dimpling press, said brick having dimples molded therein, means for feeding said pair of said channel casing simultaneously from said transfer station to said assembly station in alignment with said. brick by gravity with their legs disposed towards one another in alignment with the molded brick, means for assembling said pair of channel casings by separating the legs and pressing them around the side faces to envelop said molded brick and means for displacing portions of metal from the channel legs into the dimples of the molded brick to interlock therewith.

3. Apparatus as set forth in claim 2 in which the dimples in the brick are chamfered, having a sharp angle of approximately 30 and the striking die for the metal is of complementary shape to force the displaced metal into intimate contact with the wall and bot-tom surfaces of the dimple in the brick to interlock therewith.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,457,766 12/1948 Young 29235 X 2,682,703 7/1954 Schab. 2,736,187 2/1956 Coffman et al. 52599 2,803,870 8/1957 Uphoif 29235 X 3,083,453 4/1963 Reynolds et al. 29505 X CHARLIE T. MOON, Primary Examiner.

Claims (1)

1. THE METHOD OF CLADDING BRICK WITH A PAIR OF SYMMETRICAL STEEL CASINGS OF SUBSTANTIALLY U SHPE WHICH CONSISTS OF: (A) FEEDING A PAIR OF U-SHAPED CASINGS TO THE FEED HOPPER OF AN ASSEMBLY JIG WITH THE LEGS OF THE U-SHAPED CASINGS RESTING AT THE TOP OF THE HOPPER IN A MANNER THAT WHEN RELEASED THE CASINGS EXTENDING DOWNWARDLY AND WILL DROP BY GRAVITY AND TURN SIDEWIDE TO ALIGN THE LEGS OF THE PAIR OF CASINGS TOWARDS ONE ANOTHER, (B) SPREADING THE LEGS OF EACH OF SAID PAIR OF CASINGS AND MOVING THEM OVER THE SIDE AND EDGES OF A PREMOLDED BRICK THAT HAS RECESSES FORMED THEREIN, (C) COMPRESSING SAID CASINGS BY BRINGING THEIR LEGS TOGETHER IN INTIMATE ENGAGEMENT WITH SAID PRE-MOLDED BRICK WITH THE EDGES OF THE LUGS JUXTAPOSED, AND (D) SIMULTANEOUSLY STRIKING THE LEGS OF THE CASING WITH A DIE IN ALLIGNMENT WITH THE RECESSES IN THE MOLDED BRICK TO DISPLACE THE METAL INTO SAID RECESSES TO INTERLOCK THEREWITH.

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