Uop Lcc

Raymond A Koehler

Gregory A Gryskiewicz

Henry E Benson

Bernard M Hanson

Apparatus for making plastic screen panels, and especially abrasion-resistant mining screens, includes a large rotary screen drum member on which an extruded, profiled cross-section screen surface-forming wire is helically wound at a pitch which will produce the desired screen slot width. Immediately adjacent the drum member is a rod-positioning mechanism from which a plurality of screen panel support rods are sequentially fed from a stack and welded to the wires on the drum surface in a direction parallel to the drum axis and transverse to the surface wires. The welding is done with a double-edged heater bar which is temporarily placed in contact with the rod and drum before the rod is forced against the drum. The screen drum is indexed after each support rod is attached to it by an angular amount sufficient to provide the desired spacing on the finished panel. After all the rods are attached to the wire-covered drum, the wires are severed along a line parallel to the drum axis and the now-finished panel is removed and used as is or preferably is cut to form several smaller panels.

Method and apparatus for making plastic screen panels

End fitting assembly for a spiral wire wound well screen includes a fitting portion which is internally threaded at one end to threadedly engage with a plurality of external wire wraps of the well screen which are wound around a plurality of longitudinal support rods at a greater pitch than the main body of the screen. Preferably, the longitudinal support rods are welded at their tips to the interior surface of the fitting. The assembly technique greatly increases the tensile strength of the joint between the screen and fitting and can be equal to a combination of the individual strengths of a conventional welded fitting and a threaded fitting. Where utmost joint strength is not necessary and welding would not be desirable for reasons such as corrosion prevention, the wire wrap threads can provide all of the joint strength.

Well screen end fitting assembly and method of making same

Screen member for use in fixed or rotating screen support devices and in either a vibrating or non-vibrating mode for grading or dewatering comprises a first plurality of elongated, parallel surface wire members which are formed by extruding a resilient, abrasion resistant layer of elastomeric material completely around a core portion which is more rigid than the elastomeric layer. A second plurality of elongated, parallel support rod members arranged transverse to the first plurality are also formed by extruding a layer of elastomeric material completely around a more rigid core portion. The first and second plurality of wire members are bonded to each other at every intersection by a partial melting together of the contacting elastomeric layers under pressure. The melting is preferably insufficient to permit the core portions of the respective first and second wire members to bond to each other and produces a resilient joint at each intersection which enhances the ability of the screen to remain relatively free of lodged particles. The core portions of each of the first and second sets of wire members have a flexural modulus of at least 100,000 p.s.i. Blinding of the screen is minimized by having the open space between adjacent support rods at least 10 times greater than the slot width between adjacent surface wires.

Abrasion resistant, reinforced screen panel member

Improved method of attaching sleeve-like fittings to a wrapped wire well screen by welding is faster and stronger than prior methods, provides better mechanical sealing, and eliminates changes in the width of the screen slots. The fitting is axially slotted where it is intended to telescopically overlie several wraps of the well screen. The application of weld beads in the axially directed slots causes the fitting to shrink into tight mechanical contact with the well screen and prevents the enlargement of the slots in the well screen which is possible when a circumferentially oriented weld bead is applied.

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Anoka, MN, United States of America

Raymond A Koehler