Blaw-Knox Foundry & Mill Machinery, Inc.

White Consolidated Industries, Inc.

Blaw-Knox Corporation

Italimpianti of America, Inc.

Blau-Knox Foundry & Mill Machinery, Inc.

Blaw Knox Company

Werner W Eibe

Wilfred T Farrell

Rolling mill work and back-up rolls comprising an arbor with a sleeve shrunk thereon have circumferential grooves formed in the external surface of the arbor, through which heating or cooling liquid is supplied from external sources so as to expand or contract the sleeve and change the roll crown and contour. The fins, or material between grooves, may have higher heat conductivity than the material of the arbor and sleeve, and are proportioned to transmit rolling forces without reducing roll stiffness. A liquid supply system provides liquids of different temperatures to selected sections of the grooves along the roll working surface; and strip of different widths but of uniform gauge across the strip is rolled by suitably adjusting the temperatures of the hot and cold liquids so supplied.

Thermal crown controlled rolls

This invention relates to formation of strip or other small sections by casting of metal and passing it through a sizing die. More particularly, the invention relates to production of metal strip by casting, by extruding the strip through a die and by rolling the extruded strip to a thinner gauge.

Apparatus for extrusion casting

Method and apparatus for extrusion casting

The apparatus and method make possible the semicontinuous rolling of an extensive range of product widths from no more than three widths of slabs. The leading end of a slab is forged or upset laterally between dies tapered to reduce its width at said end gradually to a value less than the desired width at the end of the pass. The slab is then passed through grooved vertical edging rolls to reduce its width and into the rolls of a roughing stand. The edge rolling tends to move the overfilled metal into the void created by the dies. As the trailing end of the slab approaches the roughing stand the edging rolls are backed off, allowing that end of the slab to fan out laterally. As the slab leaves the roughing stand it is rolled between grooved vertical edging rolls to reduce spread and bring the fanned-out trailing end to size. That operation causes the trailing end to bulge rearwardly at its center, so compensating for fishtailing. The roughing stand is then reversed and the slab rerolled in the opposite direction in the same way.

Apparatus and method for press-edging hot slabs

An inflatable crown roll for a rolling mill is made entirely from castings and has a cavity of very small radial dimension. In one embodiment the arbor is cast in the usual way. Its surface bounding the cavity is coated with a refractory composition that will disintegrate after being heated to casting temperature. A sand mold for the sleeve is then formed around a pattern, the pattern is removed, the cast arbor is positioned vertically in the sleeve mold and the sleeve is cast around the arbor. The sleeve metal temperature is regulated so that the sleeve fuses to the arbor at its necks. The disintegrated coating is flushed out through drill holes in the sleeve by fluid, leaving a cavity between arbor and sleeve. A sleeve with a composition of metal on its working face different from that of its neck portion may be cast by positioning gates with shut-off valves and risers at appropriate positions in the sleeve mold. Another embodiment of the sleeve is cast in a vertical mold provided with a sand core on a vertical support, the core having an external surface which bounds the cavity. After the casting solidifies the core and support are disintegrated and removed. The cast sleeve is then turned end-for-end and its interior is filled with molten metal of a composition which will shrink but will not fuse with the sleeve material. The shrinkage provides the cavity between sleeve and core.

Composite inflatable crown roll

The cavity or gap between shell and arbor of a hydraulically inflatable roll also houses metal support elements which may be adjusted to fill that gap partially or wholly. The roll support elements are mating wedges, preferably a pair of sawtooth profiled metal ring assemblies with inclined faces bearing on each other. The degree of support is varied by moving one assembly axially on the other. Hydraulic apparatus for so moving an assembly is contained with the roll arbor.

Hydro-mechanical inflatable crown roll

A self-contained inflatable variable crown roll having a circumferential cavity between sleeve and arbor has means to connect that roll cavity to an external high pressure fluid pump when the roll is not rotating. The roll preferably has a reservoir within its arbor which is charged with hydraulic fluid and valved means connecting the roll cavity with the reservoir. The reservoir preferably encloses a fluid-tight bag which is inflated with a gas to maintain pressure therein as hydraulic fluid is withdrawn. A collecting chamber is preferably included within the arbor for receiving hydraulic fluid released from the roll of cavity.

Self-contained inflatable crown roll

The apparatus and method make possible the semi-continuous rolling of an extensive range of product widths from no more than three widths of slabs. The leading end of a slab is forged or upset laterally between dies tapered to reduce its width at said end gradually to a value less than the desired width at the end of the pass. The slab is then passed through grooved vertical edging rolls to reduce its width and into the rolls of a roughing stand. The edge rolling tends to move the overfilled metal into the void created by the dies. As the trailing end of the slab approaches the roughing stand the edging rolls are backed off, allowing that end of the slab to fan out laterally. As the slab leaves the roughing stand it is rolled between grooved vertical edging rolls to reduce spread and bring the fanned-out trailing end to size. That operation causes the trailing end to bulge rearwardly at its center, so compensating for fishtailing. The roughing stand is then reversed and the slab rerolled in the opposite direction in the same way.

The mill stand houses a pair of upper backup rolls and a pair of lower backup rolls between which pairs the upper and lower roll drive shafts are journalled. The overhung work rolls are affixed to the ends of the drive shafts. Apparatus is provided for automatically adjusting the work rolls longitudinally, for automatically adjusting the loading on the backup rolls and for maintaining the drive shafts parallel under load. An automatic gauge control system for making the above adjustments and capable of varying the mill stand modulus or spring continuously from a stiff or constant roll gap modulus to a soft or constant pressure modulus is also described.

Overhung bar rolling mill stand and two-axis gauge control system

A hydraulically inflatable roll for flat rolled products is formed with a constant cross section internal fluid channel spaced uniformly from its working surface and extending spirally from end to end of the roll. The channel is connected through an end of the roll to a source of hydraulic fluid under pressure and also to a pressure transducer which in turn is connected to a display device. A proximity trigger is associated with an end of the roll so as to signal the start and the end of the circumferential travel of the channel past the contact line between roll and work when the roll is rotated, and the pressure exerted on that moving area in that interval is continuously measured and transmitted to the display device. Means are also disclosed for using that signal to control gauge and shape of the rolled product.

Variable crown roll shape control systems

Coils of hot strip are conveyed in the eye horizontal position along a path travel of the coil axis normal thereto and defined by successive intersecting arcuate segments. Swinging transfer members which overlap at their free ends transfer each coil from a member to its next downstream member at a location within the path segment common to both and also transfer the coil from the downstream member to the next downstream member at the intersection of their respective path segments, so that the coils are rotated thereby but not rolled.

Method for rotating and conveying coils

The mill comprises essentially a roughing train having a reversing roughing stand or stands and a finishing train having a reversing finishing stand or in-line finishing stands, the roughing and finishing trains being disposed with pass lines parallel to each other and at different elevations, the work in the roughing train progressing in the opposite direction from the work in the finishing train. The roughing train for strip and light plate is provided with a hot upcoiler at each end positioned above the table so that slabs and breakdowns pass beneath them, but adapted to coil and payout strip of coiling gauge. The delivery end of the roughing train is laterally opposite the entry end of the finishing train and separate mechanisms are provided for transferring coils and plate broadside from roughing train to finishing train. The run-out table for strip and light plate extends in front of the slab heating furnaces, so drastically shortening the length of the mill building without greatly increasing its width. Cooling beds for plates are arraned at right angles to that table. A wide plate mill comprising a reversing breakdown stand with turn-arounds and a reversing finishing stand arranged in the same way as the strip and light plate mill may be added on the other side of the heating furnaces, so utilizing some of the cooling facilities of the strip and light plate mill.

Semi-continuous hot rolling of metal strip and plates

Coils of hot strip from a hot strip mill downcoiler are transferred broadside and set down with the coil eye horizontal on a walking beam conveyor. The conveyor comprises elongated transfer members pivoted at their lower end below the path of coil travel which swing toward and away from each other. Each transfer member has a coil-supporting platform on its upper end and coils are passed from one transfer member to the next when they approach each other, both at the intersections of their arcuate paths and at a point in each arcuate path intermediate those intersections, so that each coil is rotated about its axis during travel, but without rolling.

Coil rotating cooling conveyor system

A frame carrying one or more transducers is inserted between the work rolls of a mill stand with the transducers positioned parallel to the roll axis. The outputs of the transducers are connected to a display device which when load is applied to the rolls displays the several output signals side-by-side so that variation in loading lengthwise of the rolls is made visible. The outputs of the transducers may also be interconnected with automatic gauge and crown control circuits so as to calibrate those circuits.

Growing community of inventors

McCandless Township, PA, United States of America

Werner W Eibe