US3645844A - Mounting means for foil type and similar elements - Google Patents

Abstract

The disclosure describes a support for a stationary drainage element for a paper machine extending across the Fourdrinier wire. The support comprises a flaring tenon for a dovetail slide incorporating means to adjust the distance between the flaring walls. The drainage element has a mortise slot for cooperating with the slide. The flare of the slide is adjusted by means of an actuator mounted at one end of the support. This abstract is intended neither to define the invention of the application, which is to be measured by the claims, nor in any way to be limiting as to the scope of the invention.

Description

United States Patent Grenier 51 Feb. 29, 1972 [54} MOUNTING MEANS FOR FOlL TYPE AND SIMILAR ELEMENTS [72] Inventor: John E. Grenier, Cherry Valley, Mass.

[73] Assignee: Lodding Engineering Corporation, Au-

burn, Mass.

[22] Filed: Apr. 22, 1968 [21] Appl. No.: 722,960

[52] US. Cl ..l6 2/352, 162/374 [51] Int. Cl. ..D211 1/48 [58] Field ofSearch ..l62/352, 354, 353, 374;

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,535,204 l0/l970 Truxq ..l62/352 Primary Examiner-Reuben Friedman Assistant Examiner-T. A. Granger Attorney-Alfred H. Rosen [57] ABSTRACT The disclosure describes a support for a stationary drainage element for a paper machine extending across the Fourdrinier wire. The support comprises a flaring tenon for a dovetail slide incorporating means to adjust the distance between the flaring walls. The drainage element has a mortise slot for cooperating with the slide. The flare of the slide is adjusted by means of an actuator mounted at one end of the support.

This abstract is intended neither to define the invention of the application, which is to be measured by the claims, nor in any way to be limiting as to the scope of the invention.

4 Claims, 9 Drawing Figures PATENTEDFEB29 I972 SHEET 2 BF 3 John A. firelzz'er lauenbr PATENTEmwze m2 SHEET 3 OF 3 ezziel John A. Gr

weak! wraey MOUNTING MEANS FOR FOIL TYPE AND SIMILAR ELEWNTS BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Foil-type drainage apparatus for papermaking machines involves one or more drainage elements disposed in fixed relationship to the Fourdrinier wire and extending across the machine transversely to the direction of wire travel. Depending on the width of the paper being made, the drainage elements can be as long as thirty feet, or more. Examples of two different types of such drainage elements are found, respectively, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,928,465 and 3,323,982. The elements are subject to wear, and for this and other reasons it is desirable that they be exchangeable and hence removably mounted on supports. U.S. Pat. No. 3,165,440 proposes a solution incorporating a dovetail slide on the support and a mating mortise slot in the element for removal and installation of the element by sliding it lengthwise, across the direction of wire travel. The utility of this solution for exchanging elements while the machine is running is obvious, but the problem of maintaining a tight fit on the slide, without binding the element to it so tightly that it cannot be moved, limits the length of the foil element that can be mounted in this manner. Other solutions employing an adjustable gib, which can be tightened by one or more bolts to lock a long element in place on a dovetail tenon, can indeed hold a long (e.g.: 30 feet) element in place on its support, but obviously such solutions will not allow the element to be changed while the machine is operating. The problems of maintenance and replacement of these elements has been recognized in U.S. Pat. No. 3,337,394, which proposes a structure for mounting each element on a supporting rail in a slidably removable manner. This structure, however, relies on springs to take up slack between the tenon and the mortise slot, and does not positively lock the element in place on its support, or hold it rigidly against the forces present to it by a Fourdrinier wire moving at high speed. There is need for a mounting structure for strip-shaped elements like drainage foils for Fourdrinier paper machines which will enable long elements to be mounted and removed while the machine is running, which will positively lock the element in place on its mounting, and which will readily release it for removal when desired.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The principal object of the invention is to provide in apparatus for papermaking machines having replaceable stripshaped elements, such as foils, sealing ribs, wear strips and the like, a support for such elements on which the element can be locked in position and when desired released and readily removed while the machine is in operation. Another object is to provide locking and releasing means which do not interfere with the removal or location of an element on its support. Another object is to provide a support incorporating locking and releasing means in a structure which is not complex or expensive to construct, which is durable and will retain its ability positively to lock and release without fatiguing over a long period of time, and which will not adversely affect the production of paper.

The invention contemplates, in general, the provision of a support or mounting means incorporating a dovetail slide having a flaring tenon and locking means within the tenon to alter the distance between at least a part of its flaring walls, and cooperating therewith a strip-shaped element having a mortise slot shaped to slide on the tenon, the slot being so dimensioned that when the locking means is in the locking position the tenon expands in the slot to bind the element firmly in place, and when the locking means is in the releasing position the tenon contracts so that the element slides loosely on it.

DESCRIPTION OF AN EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENT The following description of an exemplary embodiment of the invention refers to the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a side elevation showing the relationship between drainage apparatus incorporating the invention and the Fourdrinier wire of a papermaking machine;

FIG. 2 is an enlarged end view, in greater detail, of one of the drainage elements shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a plan view, partly broken away, of FIG. 2, showing the locking and releasing mechanism;

FIG. 4 is a section on line 44 of FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a section on line 55 of FIG. 3;

FIG. 6 (A-C) shows an alternative operating mechanism for the locking and releasing mechanism; and

FIG. 7 is an isometric view of the operator used in the operating mechanism of FIG. 6.

FIG. 1 schematically illustrates a papermaking machine of well-known form employing a Fourdrinier forming wire 10 which travels around rolls 11 and 12. A drainage apparatus generally designated 13 is located beneath the upper run 10A of the forming wire. The drainage apparatus is supported on the side rails of the machine, one of which is partially shown at 14, and incorporates a plurality (in this example five) of drainage foils 15, each of which is mounted on a dovetail slide 16, which in turn is supported on a mounting rail 17. The rails 17 are supported on one or more frames 18 (one of which is shown at an end of the drainage apparatus), and the entire apparatus is supported on the side rails 14 by means of threaded studs 19 mounted at one end thereon, and end flanges 21 (one only being shown) held in place on the studs by nuts 22. It will be appreciated that the details of mounting drainage apparatus on a papermaking machine are not material to the invention, which is concerned only with securing a foil element 15 on its mounting rail 17 in a manner which firmly locks the element in place, and which allows the element to be unlocked and removed by sliding it lengthwise along the dovetail slide 16 while the machine is running and the forming wire 10A is moving across the drainage apparatus. Reference is now made to FIGS. 2-5 which show these parts 15, 16 and 17 in greater detail, together with other parts and components associated in combination with them.

The dovetail slide 16 is made of two elongated strips 16A and 16B of flexible material, such as stainless steel, which are fastened to the rail I7, as by bolts 23, of which one is shown in FIG. 4. Each strip has a base, a side wall bent from the base at an obtuse angle, and a flange at the far edge of the sidewall, bent at an acute angle to the sidewall so that it is approximately parallel to the base. The bases are apertured for passage of the bolts 23 and are bolted to the rail 17, and the sidewalls flare outwardly from the base to the flanges. The flanges confront each other, and are spaced apart. A locking slide 24 is supported between the strips 16A and 16B, in the acute-angled corners formed between the sidewalls and the flanges of the respective strips. The locking slide is a sheet of flat stock, which may also be stainless steel. A plurality of indented dimples 25, one of which is shown in FIG. 3, are formed in the acute-angled corner of at least one of the strips 16A, and the locking slide 24 has a plurality of inwardly curving cam edges 26 (one shown in FIG. 3) along the edge confronting that corner, located to register with the dimples when the slide is in a first position for releasing the foil element 15. When the locking slide 24 is moved lengthwise within the dovetail slide 16, in either direction as represented by the double-headed arrow 27, the cam edges push against the dimples and thereby increase the distance between the strips 16A and 168 in the vicinity of the flanges, or the wider portion of the dovetail slide. There is thus provided a flaring tenon for a dovetail slide having within it means for altering the distance between at least a portion of its sidewalls.

The drainage element I5 has a mortise slot 15A which mates with the dovetail slide 16. This slot is so dimensioned, relative to the slide, that when the locking slide is in the unlocked position (shown in FIG. 3), the drainage element slides loosely on the tenon, and when the locking slide is in the locked position (not shown), the drainage element is tightly bound on the tenon, and hence on the rail 17. A convenient mechanism for moving the locking slide between these two positions includes a key 30 having a finger 31 engaging an aperture 32 at one end of the locking slide 24. The key has a threaded shaft 33 which runs in a threaded sleeve 34, which in turn is mounted in a threaded bore 35 in a post 36 supported by bolts 38, 35 in a collar 37 mounted to an end of the rail 17. The sleeve 34 has an enlarged end 41 with a keyhole 42 in it, for cooperation with a wrench to turn the sleeve and thereby move the key 30 in one of the directions of the double-headed arrow 27. It will be seen that the entire operating mechanism described above is organized so that it can be made small enough to fit within the mortise slot A of the foil element 15, so that the element mayslide on or off the dovetail slide 16 passing without interference over the operating mechanism for the locking slide 24. This mechanism can be located at either end of the rail 17, depending on which side of the papermaking machine has room to allow the removal or installation of the element 15.

In FIG. 6 (A-C) the operating mechanism for the locking slide 24 employs a separate operate 51, to pull or push on a key 30.5 having a finger 31.5 in the aperture 32. The key has a bifurcated fitting 52 affixed to its end outside the tenon, the two arms of 52.1 and 52.2 of which have slots 53.1 and 53.2 collinearly disposed in one side of the fitting. A pivot-platform member 61 is afiixed to the end of the rail 17 at which the key is located, as by a bolt 62. This member has a pivot socket 64 in its pivot platform 63, to receive a pivot pin 55 located at one end of the operator 51. The pivot platform 63 is affixed to an upright member 65 which is bolted to the rail 17, and which has a slot 66 in its top end, through which the shaft of the key 30.5 passes. The operator has a pair of fingers 56, 57 extending one from each side perpendicular to the pivot pin 55, which respectively engage in the slots 53.1 and 53.2 of the arms 52.1 and 52.2 when the pivot pin is located in the pivot socket 64 and the operator 51 is positioned between the arms 52.1 and 52.2 of the bifurcated key fitting 52. The pivot socket 64 is large enough to allow the pivot pin to pass through it, and is countersunk at both sides of the pivot platform 63, to allow the pivot pin to be wobbled in the socket. The fingers 56 and 57 are cylindrical in cross section and can rotate in the slots 53.1 and 53.2. Thus, one can engage the operator 51 in the pivot socket 64 and the slots 53.1 and 53.2 and, using the pivot pin 55 as a fulcrum, one can force the locking slide in either direction, lengthwise, within the dovetail slide 16 Le, in either direction of the double-headed arrow 27), to lock or unlock the drainage element 15.

While the invention has been illustrated in connection with drainage foils, it is obviously not limited to that use. Thus, it is contemplated to use the invention in suction boxes, forming boards, felt conditioners, sealing ribs, and wear strips generally, to cite but a few examples. Nor is the invention tobe limited to the operating mechanism or other details illustrated or described in the exemplary embodiment. It will be obvious to those skilled in the art that changes and modifications can be made, and it is therefore intended to define the invention only in the appended claims.

lclaim:

1. A stationary drainage element for a paper machine disposed in fixed relationship to the Fourdrinier wire and extending in a first direction across the machine transversely of the direction of wire travel comprising support means for said element having a dovetail slide extending in said first direction, said slide having a tenon flaring transverse to said first direction, said element having a mortise slot extending in said first direction and converging transverse to said first direction toward its open side for sliding in said first direction to interlock with said slide, characterized by adjustable locking means within said tenon for locking said element in said relationship on said slide, and when unlocked for releasing said element to be removed from said relationship by sliding motion off said slide in said first direction to one side or the other of said machine.

2. A drainage element according to claim 1 in WhlCh said tenon is hollow and has sidewalls which diverge from a narrow part to a wide part and is open at said wide part, and said adjusting means is operable between said sidewalls in said wide part to force said sidewalls apart against confronting walls of said slot to lock said element on said slide, said sidewalls when not forced apart by said adjusting means being sufficiently closer together to allow freely sliding motion of said element on said slide.

3. A drainage elementaccording to claim 1 including operator means located at one end of said support for adjusting said locking means.

4. A drainage element according to claim 3 in which said operator means is located in the path of said mortise slot when said element is in said sliding motion, and the dimensions of said operator means transverse to said first direction are smaller than corresponding dimensions of said slot, whereby said element can pass said slot over said operator means.

Claims (4)

1. A stationary drainage element for a paper machine disposed in fixed relationship to the Fourdrinier wire and extending in a first direction across the machine transversely of the direction of wire travel comprising support means for said element having a dovetail slide extending in said first direction, said slide having a tenon flaring transverse to said first direction, said element having a mortise slot extending in said first direction and converging transverse to said first direction toward its open side for sliding in said first direction to interlock with said slide, characterized by adjustable locking means within said tenon for locking said element in said relationship on said slide, and when unlocked for releasing said element to be removed from said relationship by sliding motion off said slide in said first direction to one side or the other of said machine.

2. A drainage element according to claim 1 in which said tenon is hollow and has sidewalls which diverge from a narrow part to a wide part and is open at said wide part, and said adjusting means is operable between said sidewalls in said wide part to force said sidewalls apart against confronting walls of said slot to lock said element on said slide, said sidewalls when not forced apart by said adjusting means being sufficiently closer together to allow freely sliding motion of said element on said slide.

3. A drainage element according to claim 1 including operator means located at one end of said support for adjusting said locking means.

4. A drainage element according to claim 3 in which said operator means is located in the path of said mortise slot when said element is in said sliding motion, and the dimensions of said operator means transverse to said first direction are smaller than corresponding dimensions of said slot, whereby said element can pass said slot over said operator means.

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