The Babcock & Wilcox Company

Diamond Power International, Inc.

Don W Smith

James H Hipple

Dean C Ackerman

Clinton A Brown

Jesse C Johnston

John C Matthews

Ronald E Sherrick

Kamal Kassouf

Steven P Carpenter

Dean E Draxton

Francis L Brown

Neil E Reed

John G Stevens

A drive assembly for a sootblower which provides a non-constant rate of rotational motors of the lance tube through the use of non-circular gears in the drive assembly. The drive assembly is used to provide a uniform or near uniform rate of progression of a jet of cleaning medium ejected from the lance tube along a surface to be cleaned.

Sootblower mechanism providing varying lance rotational speed

A self-adjusting joint packing for a sootblower of the type having a stationary feed tube gland with an overfitting lance tube which is moved within the combustion device to emit a blowing medium for cleaning purposes. The joint packing gland mechanism causes the axial loading on the joint packing which forms a seal between the lance tube and the feed tube to be automatically adjusted upon each sootblower actuation cycle. The joint packing gland includes an actuator which engages the sootblower frame upon actuation of the sootblower causing relative rotation between the actuator and lance tube. A friction clutch is interposed between the actuator and a threaded gland to transmit rotation only when a packing preload force is below a predetermined level, thus adjusting packing force when needed.

Self-adjusting packing gland for sootblower

A sootblower hub having packing for sealing between a sootblower feed tube and lance tube. A packing gland is used which provides a live loading feature for exerting an axial force on the packing. The packing gland is comprised of elements which can be separately assembled in a manner which maintains a preload on the packing loading spring, even when it is disassembled from the sootblowing mechanism. Once the packing gland is installed into a sootblower carriage a preload maintaining member can be actuated to enable the axial loading force created by the spring to be transferred to the packing.

Hub assembly for sootblower

An anti-drift mechanism for a downwardly oriented port rodder for cleaning a port opening of a recovery boiler. The anti-drift mechanism prevents a cutter of the rodder from accidentally drifting from a retracted holding position into the port upon the loss of holding power to the actuator. Two embodiments are disclosed. The first is a frictional engagement with the port rodder while the second involves the use of a valve in conjuction with the actuator to trap fluid pressure and maintain the rodder in the holding position.

Port rodder with anti-drift feature

A long retracting sootblower for boiler cleaning of the type having a lance tube which is advanced into and out of a boiler and simultaneously rotated, and having one or more nozzles discharging a jet of blowing medium which trace helical paths. An indexing mechanism is provided to change the positioning of the helical paths traced by the nozzles between successive actuation cycles to minimize boiler erosion and mechanical stress caused by repeated blowing medium impact against surfaces within the boiler. the indexing mechanism includes relatively slidable longitudinal advancement rack sections which cause the engaging pinion gears to index by one or more teeth upon each actuation cycle. A movable rack portion is biased by a compliant element to remain in a normal position until initial advancement of the lance carriage which causes the movable portion to be indexed with respect to the fixed portion of the rack. The movable rack portion returns to its normal position during other periods of the actuation cycle thereby providing said indexing.

Indexing sootblower

A panel indicator (10) which includes a light transmitting indicator rod (16) in engagement with the end (40) of a fiber optic cable (14). A portion of the rod protrudes beyond a retaining housing (12) and has a conical depression (28) formed axially thereof to provide maximum radial dispersion of light from the rod for lateral viewing thereof.

Panel indicator

A local display of a fluid level is provided in connection with a fiber optic illuminating system in which a side by side, bi-color light is passed through the fluid in a level gauge having transparent viewing ports. Diverging light passing from the level gauge, refracted in response to the fluid and gauge material, is masked and one color is passed to a focusing lens and a local readout in a plane above or below the focusing lens.

Local display technique for fiber optic illuminator/hood system

An accessory transmission conversion mechanism of the type disclosed in the U.S. Pat. No. 4,177,539, to Elting, for causing the lance tube of a long retracting soot blower to oscillate about its longitudinal axis, is provided with a lost motion driving connection between the yoke driving gear and the crank of the Scotch yoke which generates the oscillating motion. A holding portion on the gear permits locking out such lost motion when desired. When lost motion is present, the blowing path is automatically changed when the blower reverses. When locked out, the blowing pattern is changed so that the jet traces the same path in each direction of movement.

Growing community of inventors

Lancaster, OH, United States of America

Don W Smith