Vesuvius Crucible Company

Yesuvius Crucible Company

Alan Wells Daily

John Dodsworth

The invention includes an end cap that can be securely mounted to the end of a ceramic spool. The end cap comprises a locking plate adapted to fit into a groove in the ceramic spool. A plurality of angularly offset holes in the locking plate align with similar holes in the end cap. Screws or pins are placed in the holes and welded in place to prevent backing out or loosening. In use, the locking plate is secured by the pins, the groove and the inside surface of the end cap, the combination of which inhibits misalignment. Thermal cycling does not loosen the end cap, cause eccentric rotation or crack the ceramic spool.

Conveyor roll end cap

A conveyor roll for conveying heated glass sheets along a conveyor assembly is provided that comprises a fused silica roller having opposing cylindrical ends, a pair of end caps formed from a machinable steel which may be heat resistant for rotatably mounting the ceramic roller within a conveyor assembly, wherein each end cap has a tubular wall for receiving and surrounding one of the cylindrical ends of the roller, and a spring retainer for non-rotatably mounting each of the end caps to the roller. Each spring retainer includes a coil spring formed from flat sided coils helically wound around a cylindrical end of the roller, each of which coils includes bent portions and straight portions for resiliently and frictionally inter-engaging the tubular wall of the cap and the cylindrical end of the roller, respectively, despite the thermal differential expansion that occurs between the tubular wall of the cap and the cylindrical end of the roller as the roll is exposed to elevated temperatures. Each end cap includes a screw thread around its open end that threadedly engages the coils of the retainer spring and axially secures the end cap to its respective cylindrical roller end.

Growing community of inventors

Beaver County, PA, United States of America

Alan Wells Daily