US3824936A

US3824936A - Basic suspended roof construction for industrial furnaces

Info

Publication number: US3824936A
Application number: US00336630A
Authority: US
Inventors: F Merkle
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Merkle Engineers Inc
Priority date: 1973-02-28
Filing date: 1973-02-28
Publication date: 1974-07-23
Anticipated expiration: 1991-07-23
Also published as: ZM4074A1; JPS517607B2; CA1004038A; JPS5025406A

Abstract

A high-temperature industrial furnace roof construction comprises a plurality of basic refractory brick assembly units depending downwardly from an elongated rod member which is suspended from a suitable frame. Each basic refractory brick assembly unit comprises a basic carrier brick of a generally rectangular configuration with flat, planar faces and having a reduced head portion and body portion. The reduced head portion is provided with a transverse aperture for receiving the elongated rod member and with a substantially planar recess normal to the axis of the aperture, and the body portion is provided with a shoulder means adjacent to the juncture of the body portion and the head portion on opposing faces of the body portion substantially parallel to the axis of the aperture. A basic filler brick of a generally rectangular configuration with flat, planar faces is suspended from the carrier brick by means of a supporting lug on one face of the filler brick which engages the shoulder means on the carrier brick.

Description

United States Patent [191 Merkle, Jr.

[ 1 July 23,1974

[ BASIC SUSPENDED ROOF CONSTRUCTION FOR INDUSTRIAL FURNACES [76] Inventor: Frank P. Merkle, Jr., R.R. 2

Farmington, Long Grove, 111. 60047 [22] Filed: Feb. 28, 1973 [21] Appl. No.: 336,630

Primary Examiner-Kenneth W. Sprague Attorney, Agent, or Firm-Alexander and Speckman [57] ABSTRACT A high-temperature industrial furnace roof construction comprises a plurality of basic refractory brick assembly units depending downwardly from an elongated rod member which is suspended from a suitable frame. Each basic refractory brick assembly unit comprises a basic carrier brick of a generally rectangular configuration with flat, planar faces and having a reduced head portion and body portion. The reduced head portion is provided with a transverse aperture for receiving the elongated rod member and with a' substantially planar recess normal to the axis of the aperture, and the body portion is provided with a shoulder means adjacent to the juncture of the body portion and the head portion on opposing faces of the body portion substantially parallel to the axis of the aperture. A basic filler brick of a generally rectangular configuration with flat, planar faces is suspended from the carrier brick by means of a supporting lug on one face of the filler brick which engages the shoulder means on the carrier brick.

4 Claims, 5 Drawing Figures PATENIEDmasmH Ef -JEN sum 2 or 2 v /a 22 24 26 2a BASIC SUSPENDED ROOF CONSTRUCTION FOR INDUSTRIAL FURNACES BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION construction for high temperature industrial furnaces.

such as reverberatory furnaces because of its cost, refractory characteristics and also the ability to withstand chemical attack from the furnace atmosphere. It is known to construct a suspended roof using basic refractory brick where the suspending means, such as castings, tabs, or pins are embedded in the body of the brick itself; however, during use foreign matter such as dirt, dust, metal concentrates, and the like accumulates on the refractory roof structure and further insulates the castings from ambient atmosphere, thereby causing the suspending means to overheat, oxidize, and fail. Frequently as a result of such failure an otherwise good refractory brick falls into the furnace and is lost. While acid refractory brick can be formed by pressing into intricate Shapes so as to provide an upwardly extending refractory suspending means, basic refractory brick are not as plastic as acid brick and cannot be formed into such shapes. Thus the support problem continues to exist.

In some metallurgical furnace designs refractory brickis suspended in part by means of exposed hangers and inpart by providing substantially self-supporting arch where a row of bricks bears against an adjacent row of bricks. One such design is illustrated by Dobie in US Pat. No. 1,738,527. However, with such a design it is difficult to repair the roof structure without completely shutting down the furnace and rebuilding the entire roof or at least a major part thereof. Moreover, the intricate brick configuration utilized in US. Pat. No. 1,738,527 cannot be achieved withbasic refractory brick.

An attempt to provide a more readily repairable roof structureis shown in US. Pat. No. 1,793,031 to Trachsel where a series of four identical refractory bricks is threaded onto a relatively short rod segment which, in turn, is suspended by hooks received into a small pocket formed in the upper portion of two adjacent bricks. However, again the heating-up problem of the hooks and the resultant early failure in use, as insulating matter accumulates on top of the refractory roof, is present and is a serious drawback to the commercial utilization of the shown design.

It is an object of the present invention to obviate the foregoing difficulties and to provide a suspended roof made of basic refractory bricks where overheating of the support means is greatly reduced.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide a readily repairable suspended roof made of basic refractory bricks.

A still further object of this invention is to provide a suspended roof structure which requires a substantially reduced number of hangers for suspension and thus permits ready access for cleaning the structure.

Yet another object of this invention is to provide basic refractory bricks having a novel configuration and which can be readily suspended to form a roof for a reverberatory furnace without enveloping or encasing a metal hanger means usedto support the basic bricks.

Still other objects of this invention will readily present themselves to the skilled artisan upon reference to the ensuing specification, the drawings, and the claims.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention contemplates a suspended high temperature industrial furnace, such as a metallurigcal furnace, including a support frame, hanger means depending downwardly from said support frame, an elongated rod member supported bythe hanger means in a spaced relationship from said support frame, and a plurality of basic refractory brick assembly units received on said elongated rod member and depending downwardly therefrom.

Each basic refractory brick assembly unit comprises a basic refractory carrier brick of a generally rectangular configuration with flat, planar faces and having a reduced head portion and a body portion, and at least one basic refractory filler brick suspended from the carrier brick. The reduced head portion of the carrier brick is provided with'a transverse aperture and with a substantially planar recess normal to the axis of said aperture. The body portion of the carrier brick is provided with a shoulder means adjacent to the juncture of the body portion and the head portion on opposing faces of the body portion substantially parallel to the axis of said aperture. The basic refractory filler brick is of generally rectangular configuration with fiat, planar faces. A supporting lug is provided on one face of the filler brick and engages the shoulder means of said carrier brick, therebysuspending the filler brick from said carrier brick so that a face of the filler brick abuts a face of the carrier brick.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS In the drawings,

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a suspended roof panel embodying the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a basic refractory carrier brick of this invention;

.FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a basic refractory filler brick of this invention;

FIG. 4 is an elevational view, partly in section, taken along line IVIV in FIG. 1; and

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of another basic refractory carrier brick of this invention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Referring to FIG. 1, suspended roof panel 10 includes support frame 11 suitably supported above furnace walls, a plurality of hanger means such as

hangers

12, 13 and 14, depending downwardly therefrom, elon out from suspension roof panel and replaced, if desired, without substantially disturbing the remainder of suspension roof panel 10. Moreover, if desired, only a few brick assembly units e.g.,

bricks

16, 17, 18 and 21, 22, 23, can be removed and replaced without disturbing the remainder of the module by merely removing hanger 12, sliding the desired assembly units off elongated rod 15, replacing the removed assembly units with new ones, and reattaching hanger 12 to elongated rod 15 as before. I

Carrier brick 16 is typical and is shown in FIG. 2. Basic refractory carrier brick 16 has a generally rectangular configuration with flat, planar facessuch as front face and side face 31. Aperture 33 is provided in reduced head portion 32 and extends transversely across head portion 32 normal to the plane of front face 30.

' Reduced head portion 32 is also provided with substantially

planar recesses

34 and 35 which are normal to the axis of aperture 33. Body portion 36 is provided with shoulder 37 on side face 31 adjacent to the juncture of head portion 32 and body portion 36 and, in a similar manner, with shoulder 38 on the side face opposite to side face 31.

Shoulders

37 and 38 are substantially parallel to the axis of aperture 33 and serve as suspending supports for

filler bricks

18 and 17, respectively, as shown in FIG. 1.

Basic refractory filler brick 17, shown in FIG. 3, has a generally rectangular configuration with flat, planar faces adapted to abut similar faces of surrounding carrier or filler bricks. Side face 39 of filler brick 17 is provided with supporting lug 40, underside 41 of which engages shoulder 38 of carrier brick 16 (FIG. 1) and thus suspends filler brick 17 from carrier brick 16 so that side face 39 abuts the respective side face of carrier brick, 16 and so that head portion 32 projects above suspended filler brick 17. In order to provide maximum life of the basic refractory brick assembly unit under operating conditions, it is important to locate supporting lug at the upper end of planar face 39.

As canbe seen in FIG. 4, complementary

planar recesses

35 and 42 of the respective head portions of

adjacentcarrie'r bricks

16 and 21 projecting above the adjacent, suspended

filler bricks

18 and 22 on one side and suspended filler bricks 17 and 23 on the opposite side def ne a groove within which hanger 12 is readily received and yet remains exposed to air circulation while permitting a considerable buildup of foreign material on the roof so that overheating and the likelihood of premature failure is greatly reduced. Similarly, complementary

planar recesses

43 and 44 of the respective head portions of

adjacent carrier bricks

27 and 29 define a groove for hanger 13. Alternatively, a single relatively deeper planar recess can be provided in a carrier brick on only one side of the head portion as shown in FIG. 5 where carrierv brick 45 is provided with single planar recess 46 in reduced head portion 47.

In the preferred embodiment of this invention a substantially planar recess is provided on one opposing face of the upwardly projecting, reduced head portion so s to define a groove between each pair of adjacent carrier bricks and to facilitate air circulation therebetween. In this manner basic brick manufacture is greatly simplified, hangers can be placed at any desired spacing on the elongated rod member and still be adequately cooled, and the elongated rod member itself is cooled by the circulating air currents.

Lil

made up of a plurality of panels 10, can be flat or it can i be contoured in any desired manner to achieve a specific heat distribution within the furnace by merely shortening or lengthening some of the hangers and/or situating some of the panels higher or lower than others. The individual basic refractory brick assembly units depend downwardly from the supporting elon gated rod member and do not interlock with each other, thus the ready removability of a module or part thereof from the roof for replacement or repair is not compromised regardless of the particular roof contour that is employed in any given instance. Similarly, an entire panel, comprising a plurality of brick assembly units, can be removed and replaced without disturbing adjacent panels.

The elongated rod member used to support the individual basic refractory brick assembly units, as well as the hangers utilized to support the elongated rod member, can be made of any metal capable of withstanding the temperatures encountered during normal operation. Preferably, the elongated rod member is made of stainless steel and is supported by preformed hangers made of carbon steel or alloy steel. Joints between individual brick assembly units need not be sealed. However an expansion material, such as corrugated metal expanders, or the like, is usually inserted between assembly units so as to build in sufficient expansion into a cold basic suspended roof.

Basic refractory brick suitable for the purposes of the present invention are composed of magnesia and chrome ores in varying proportions. A typical composition' of chemically bonded basic refractory brick is about to weight-percent magnesia and about 40 to 30 weight-percent chrome ores. A typical composition of direct bonded basic refractory brick is about 50 to 60 weight-percent magnesia and. about 50 to 40 weight-percent chrome ores.

While in the foregoing specification this invention has been described in relation to certain preferred embodiments thereof, and many details have been set forth for purpose of illustration, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the invention is susceptible to additional embodiments and that certain of the details described herein can be varied considerably without departing from the basic principles of the invention.

I claim:

l. Suspended roof construction for a high temperature furnace including a support frame, hanger means depending downwardly from said support frame, an elongated rod member supported by said hanger means in a spaced relationship from said support frame, and a plurality of basic refractory brick assembly units received on said elongated rod member and depending downwardly from said elongated rod member, each basic refractory brick assembly unit comprising a basic refractory carrier brick of a generally rectangular configuration with flat, planar faces and having a reduced head portion and a body portion; said reduced head portion being provided with a transverse aperture and with a substantially planar recess normal to the axis of said aperture, and said body portion being provided with shoulder means adjacent'to the juncture of the body portion and the head portion of opposing faces of the body por- I opposing faces of the reduced head portion.

3. The suspended roof construction of claim 1 wherein the reduced head portion of said basic refractory carrier brick is provided with a substantially planar recess normal to the axis of said aperture on each of two opposing faces of the reduced head portion.

4. The suspended roof construction of claim 1 wherein a basic refractory filler brick is suspended from each shoulder means of said basic refractory carrier brick and the flat, planar faces opposite the face having said supporting lug abuts the similar face of an adjacent assembly unit.

Claims

1. Suspended roof construction for a high temperature furnace including a support frame, hanger means depending downwardly from said support frame, an elongated rod member supported by said hanger means in a spaced relationship from said support frame, and a plurality of basic refractory brick assembly units received on said elongated rod member and depending downwardly from said elongated rod member, each basic refractory brick assembly unit comprising a basic refractory carrier brick of a generally rectangular configuration with flat, planar faces and having a reduced head portion and a body portion; said reduced head portion being provided with a transverse aperture and with a substantially planar recess normal to the axis of said aperture, and said body portion being provided with shoulder means adjacent to the juncture of the body portion and the head portion of opposing faces of the body portion substantially parallel to the axis of said aperture; and at least one basic refractory filler brick of a generally rectangular configuration with flat, planar faces and having a supporting lug on one face thereof, said supporting lug engaging one of said shoulder means and suspending said filler brick from said carrier brick.

2. The suspended roof construction of claim 1 wherein the reduced head portion of said basic refractory carrier brick is provided with a substantially planar recess normal to the axis of said aperture on one of two opposing faces of the reduced head portion.