Golde, Karl-heinz (Ratingen, DT)
Schuler, Ernst (Dusseldorf, DT)

05/193686

01/08/1974

10/29/1971

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164/420

164/448, 164/484, 164/459

B22D11/128; B22D11/12

164/82,273M,282,283 266/13 16/96D

Annear, Spencer R.

Kleeman, Werner W.

We claim

1. In an apparatus for replacing the roller guide sections of a strand guide assembly of a continuous casting installation incorporating a carriage, a trackway including rails disposed alongside the strand guide assembly of the continuously cast strand, said carriage being guided for travelling movement along said rails and possessing support surfaces for the strand guide sections of the strand guide assembly, the improvement comprising a respective pair of rails forming a respective trackway associated with each strand guide assembly of each of a plurality of continuously cast strands of the continuous casting installation, said carriage serving as a common carriage for each of the trackways for replacing the strand guide sections of the strand guide assembly of each of the continuously cast strands, said common carriage being selectively shiftable between each of the pairs of rails of each of the trackways, deflecting roller means provided for said carriage, drive means incorporating a cable drive trained about said deflecting roller means, means for detachably connecting said deflecting roller means with said common carriage, a respective shaft member guided at the pair of rails of each trackway, said deflecting roller means being secured to said shaft member, and said common carriage being provided with at least one hook-like projection for releasably engaging said shaft member to establish a driving connection between said drive means and said common carriage for displacing said common carriage along the rails of the associated trackway.

2. The apparatus as defined in claim 1, wherein each of said pairs of rails is provided with means for releasing the carriage from said rails.

3. The apparatus as defined in claim 2, wherein said releasing means comprises a recessed portion provided at each of the rails of each trackway to permit lift-off of said common carriage from said rails.

4. The apparatus as defined in claim 1, wherein said rails of each trackway for said common carriage possess an arcuate extension and the center of the radius of curvature thereof substantially coincides with the center of the radius of curvature of the associated strand guide assembly.

5. In a continuous casting installation for the plural casting of continuously cast strands, wherein a strand guide assembly formed of individual strand guide sections is provided for each of the plural continuously cast strands, mechanism for replacing said individual strand guide sections of each of the strand guide assemblies, said mechanism embodying a respective trackway disposed alongside each strand guide assembly, and a single travelling carriage movable along each trackway and selectively shiftable from any one given trackway to any other trackway, a drive means provided at each trackway for displacing said carriage when placed upon the associated trackway in the lengthwise direction thereof, said drive means and said carriage having cooperating means for establishing a releasable driving connection between said drive means and said carriage when placed upon the associated trackway, said cooperating means comprises a shaft member displaceably supported at each trackway, deflecting roller means carried by said shaft member, and cable means engaging with said deflecting roller means for displacing said carriage lengthwise of the associated trackway, and wherein said carriage is equipped with hook-like engaging means for releasably engaging with said shaft member to establish a releasable positive driving connection between said drive means and said carriage.

6. In a continuous casting installation as defined in claim 5, wherein each trackway comprises a pair of rails, and cooperating means provided for said pair of rails and said carriage for permitting lift-off of the carriage from each associated trackway.

7. In a continuous casting installation as defined in claim 6, wherein said cooperating means of said pair of rails and said carriage comprises said carriage being provided with rollers and said pair of rails each possessing a substantially U-shaped configuration interrupted by recess means at a predetermined location for lift-off of the carriage from said U-shaped rails, said carriage rollers normally engaging with said U-shaped rails of the trackway in non-releasable positive fashion during travel of such carriage lengthwise of said rails, said carriage rollers when disposed at said predetermined location being withdrawable through said recess means in a direction away from said pair of rails, to permit lift-off of the carriage from said pair of rails during transfer of such carriage to the rails of a different trackway.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is in the field of continuous casting and, more specifically, relates to a new and improved apparatus for replacing the roller guide sections of the strand guiding assemblies of continuous casting plants or installations.

In commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 3,527,286, granted Sept. 8, 1970, and entitled "Continuous Casting Apparatus Having A Strand Guiding Assembly With A Trackway Alongside", there is disclosed a continuous casting plant or installation which is equipped with apparatus for disassembling and assembling the individual guide sections forming a strand guide assembly. This apparatus embodied a carriage which travels along the rails of a trackway located externally of the strand guide assembly. The carriage is equipped with supporting surfaces for the strand guide sections. The rails of the carriage trackway extend through an arcuate-shaped path of travel alongside the strand guide assembly, and the center of the radius of curvature of the trackway rails coincides with the center of the radius of curvature of the strand guide assembly. By means of this apparatus it is possible to carry out in a very short time the exchange of unusable guide sections without having to perform reconstruction work at the continuous casting installation. Although this system provides notable advantages with regard to the repair and replacement of the guide sections of the strand guide assembly certain limitations exist in that the apparatus is not specifically designed such that the same carriage can be used for servicing a number of strand guide assemblies in continuous casting plants where multiple strands are cast, usually simultaneously.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Therefore, it is a primary objective of the instant invention to render more versatile such type apparatus.

Another and more specific object of the present invention is to provide a change apparatus of the mentioned type capable of servicing the guide sections of a number of strand guide assemblies for multiple continuously cast strands located adjacent one another.

Still a further significant object of the present invention relates to a novel construction of apparatus for the assembly and disassembly of the guide sections of the strand guide assemblies of continuous casting plants where a plurality of strands are cast adjacent one another, relying upon the use of a common carriage capable of tending the plural continuously cast strands of the continuous casting plant.

Now in order to implement these and still further objects of the invention, which will become more readily apparent as the description proceeds, the invention contemplates providing a carriage for the exchange of the guide sections of the guide assemblies of such plural cast strands, and wherein such carriage can be selectively shifted to each pair of rails of the trackway associated with each such cast metal strand. In this way it is possible to employ only a single carriage for exchanging or otherwise servicing the guide sections of all of the continuous cast strands.

According to a further important aspect of this invention when using a change carriage at which there are mounted deflecting rollers over which there is trained a traction cable or equivalent pulling device serving as the carriage drive it is advantageous to construct the deflecting rollers so as to be detachably connectible with such carriage.

In accordance with a further facet of the invention the deflecting rollers are secured to a shaft guided at the rails of the trackway, the carriage having operatively engaging means for such shaft, such engaging means being preferably in the form of hook-like projections or hook members for grasping such shaft.

It is possible to complete the operable connection between the traction cable and the carriage by simply placing the carriage, by means of a crane or other hoist device, onto the rails of the relevant trackway, the hook-like projections of the carriage engaging with the shaft carrying the deflecting rollers. Hence, cumbersome handling or manipulation of the heavy cable is completely avoided.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING

The invention will be better understood and objects other than those set forth above, will become apparent when consideration is given to the following detailed description thereof. Such description makes reference to the annexed drawing wherein:

FIG. 1 is a schematic side view of the change carriage of the inventive guide section-change apparatus of this development depicting such carriage in a position engaging with the shaft carrying the deflecting rollers for the traction cable drive; and

FIG. 2 is a fragmentary plan view of the apparatus construction depicted in FIG. 1 as utilized in conjunction with a continuously cast metallic strand .

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Referring more particularly to the drawing, it is here remarked that only enough of the construction of the inventive apparatus for the exchange of the guide sections of the strand guiding assemblies of continuous casting plants or installations has been depicted in the drawing so as to enable one versed in this art to fully understand the underlying concepts of this development. As a matter of simplicity in the illustration and since each strand guide assembly would have associated alongside thereof a trackway and carriage drive only one trackway arrangement and its associated components have been depicted in the accompanying drawings. However, since the concepts of this development advantageously find particular utility in conjunction with a continuous casting plant wherein a number of strands are cast, each strand having associated therewith its own strand guide assembly formed of the individual roller guide sections and alongside thereof the trackway and associated cable drive, it need only be imagined that the system depicted in FIGS. 1 and 2, with the exception of the carriage proper, is duplicated for each strand casting station of the plural strand-continuous casting plant. Furthermore, again for the purpose of preserving clarity in illustration the hardware used for the actual casting of the molten metal by open-ended molds, for withdrawing the cast strand from such mold and for guiding such strand between the mold and the withdrawing means has not been particularly shown herein since such does not constitute subject matter of this invention, yet such environment of use can be readily appreciated by referring to the previously mentioned, commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 3,527,286.

Hence, considering now the showing of FIG. 1 it will be seen there is provided a strand guide section-change carriage 8 for exchanging the strand guide sections 4, also referred to herein as roller guide sections, of a conventional strand guide assembly. This carriage 8 is provided with rollers 23 which are guided for travelling movement upon the track rails 7 of a trackway T situated alongside a strand guide assembly composed of such strand guide sections 4. It need only be imagined that a number of the illustrated strand guide sections 4 of FIG. 1 are arranged adjacent the trackway T of FIG. 2 so as to form a strand guide assembly. The pair of rails 7 forming each such trackway T may extend through a curved or arcuate path and the center of curvature of this trackway then advantageously coincides with the center of curvature of the strand guide assembly. As would be readily understood by those versed in the art, for the purpose of replacing, repairing, adjusting or carrying out some other necessary work on the individual strand guide sections 4 of the strand guide assembly such should be transferred onto and then supported by the mobile carriage 8. To that end, the carriage 8 is advantageously provided with lower support surfaces 11 and side support surfaces 10 for the individual guide sections 4. It will be observed from the illustration of FIG. 1 that the support surfaces 10 and 11 are disposed in respective planes which are substantially perpendicularly oriented with respect to one another.

By the same token, in order to transfer or shift an individual guide section 4 from its strand guide assembly onto the carriage 8 and the same or a new guide section back into the correct position at such strand guide assembly the carriage is advantageously provided with any convenient lifting and/or displacing means, generally designed by reference character L. The specific construction of such lifting and/or displacing means L does not actually form part of the subject matter of this development, any suitable construction thereof capable of carrying out these functions could be provided. However, by way of example, in the embodiment under consideration, there is provided for the purpose of transferring such guide sections 4 onto and off the carriage 8 a traction or pull rod 24 which is located between the aforesaid lower support surfaces 11 and guided at the rollers 25. This traction rod 24 is operatively connected with an actuation or drive cylinder 26 arranged beneath such rod, as best seen by referring to FIG. 1. A head member 27 is displaceably arranged on the traction rod 24 and is intended to be conveniently coupled with the guide section 4 to be shifted. A pawl or detent 28 mounted within the head member 27 and subjected to the force of a suitable spring 35, following the shifting of the strand guide section 4 onto the carriage 8, successively engages into recesses of the traction rod 24 so that the operating stroke of the actuation cylinder 26 can be limited to the spacing of such recesses.

Mechanism is also provided for transporting or driving the carriage 8 and in the embodiment under consideration such is constituted by drive cables 14 which, for the purpose of reducing the necessary traction force, are advantageously trained about suitable deflecting rollers 13. In the exemplary embodiment under consideration there is provided a pair of such deflecting rollers 13 which are secured to a shaft 29, the ends of which shaft extend up to the region of the rails 7 of the associated trackway T. To establish the necessary driving connection between the cable drive 14 and the carriage 8 the invention further contemplates the provision of means which operatively positively engage the shaft 29 carrying the cable rollers 13 with the carriage 8. To this end, there is advantageously provided at the carriage 8 a pair of hook-like projections or hooks 30 which releasably engage about the shaft 29 in the operative position of the equipment. At the lower end of the rails 7 of the associated trackway there are provided suitable impact members or stops 31 cooperating with rearwardly extending projections or arms 32 of the carriage 8 for limiting the range of travel of the carriage.

It will be recalled that one of the important advantageous features of this development was the possibility of being able to get by with only a single carriage 8 for servicing a number of guide section-change apparatuses for plural cast strands. To that end, the invention contemplates easy selective transfer of the common carriage 8 to any one of a number of trackways arranged alongside each strand guide assembly for the plural strands cast at the continuous casting plant. The rails 7 of each trackway T advantageously possess a substantially U-shaped configuration which ensures that the carriage 8 will be positively secured to such trackway during the time it is moving lengthwise of the trackway rails 7 alongside of the associated strand guide assembly. Yet, for the purpose of permitting easy lift-off of the carriage 8 from the trackway T the upper web 7a of each of the U-shaped rails 7 is removed or cutaway at the region of the stops 31, as best seen by referring to FIG. 2. In this way it is possible to conveniently and easily lift the carriage 8 at such location off of the rails 7 by means of any suitable hoisting device, such as an overhead crane for instance, and to then again place the thus lifted carriage 8 onto a different pair of rails of another trackway arranged alongside another strand guide assembly. The hardware for lifting the carriage and placing it onto the other trackway has been conveniently omitted from the drawing since the construction thereof is not part of the teachings of this invention and can be of any suitable conventional design.

Now it should be apparent from the above that upon liftoff of the carriage 8 the drive connection previously established between the hooks 30 and the shaft 29 is released, and the shaft 29 together with its deflecting rollers 13 and associated cable drive 14 remains seated upon the trackway rails 7. Now a similar shaft equipped with similar deflecting rollers is provided alongside the other strand guide assembly to which this carriage 8 has been transferred so that upon placement of the carriage 8 onto the rails thereof the hooks 30 of carriage 8 will engage with such shaft and establish the aforedescribed positive driving connection for selectively displacing the carriage along such trackway. It should be equally apparent that this operable driving connection between the cable drive arrangement and the carriage can be established in a most simple and easy fashion, without having to lift the cables 14 from the cable guide or deflecting rollers 13 and to again place such thereon.

While there is shown and described present preferred embodiments of the invention, it is to be distinctly understood that the invention is not limited thereto but may be otherwise variously embodied and practiced within the scope of the following claims. Accordingly,