US3291322A - Manipulator for rolled stock - Google Patents

Description

l. L. zAJATs 3,291,322

MANIPULATOR FOR ROLLED STOCK 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Dec. 13, 1966 Filed May 7, 1964 United States Patent Ofiice 3,291,322 MANIPULATOR FOR ROLLED STOCK Iosif Lvovich Zajats, Elektrostal, U.S.S.R., assignor to Elelrtrostalsky ordena Lenina Zavod tjazhelogo Machinostroenia, Elektrostal, U.S.S.R.

Filed May 7, 1964, Ser. No. 365,732 7 Claims. (Cl. 2141) The present invention relates to manipulators for turning stock during rolling in rolling mills and particularly in roughing stands. During the rolling of metal it is often required to turn the stock by being rolled about its longitudinal axis (usually 90) so :as to ensure delivery of the stock to the rolls in the proper position.

A large number of manipulators of various designs for rolled stock is known. In roughing stands, where it is required to turn short stock with relatively large cross sections, primarily rectangular sections, a so-called fingerlift is utilized which accomplishes the turning by lifting one of the sides of the rolled stock with the aid of fingers. Here the stock is tilted about one of its edges, and thus turned 90. With the lengthening of the stock and corresponding reduction of its cross section, the reliability and effectiveness of this method of turning decreases, and i at a definite ratio of the cross section of the rolled stock to its length, the use of the finger lift becomes impossible.

For such conditions of operation a large number of manipulator designs, based on the principle of grip turning, are known. The working elements of such manipulators effect the turning by gripping the rolled stock and turning it about its longitudinal axis.

The known grip turning manipulators have a disadvantage that not only the turning parts (tongs, rollers, heads), but part of the transfer and driving elements as well, undergo a rotary, or nearly rotary motion, together with the gripped stock being turned about the longitudinal axis of the latter, thereby requiring a considerable space in front of the roll stand serviced by the manipulator.

As a result of the above deficiency, manipulators of this type have a complicated design and are considerably oversized.

The inventor has established that the overall size can be considerably reduced and reliability and higher speed of turning attained if the turning of the gripped stock is effected by rotating substantially cylindrical turning rollers about respective axes which are inclined relative to the axes of said rollers whereby rolled stock between the rollers, and in contact therewith, is rotated about its longitudinal axis upon rotation of the rollers about said inclined axes.

Inasmuch as the turning rollers, which grip the stock, turn it without rotating about the axis of the stock and pass line, it is obvious that the space occupied by the manipulator in front of the roll stand will be the smallest possible.

It is an object of the invention to provide a manipulator for rolled stock which will ensure reliable turning of such stock through angles of up to 90, said stock having a large ratio of length to cross section area, and thereby not being able to be turned by the usual finger lift (main) manipulator when rolled on roughing mill.

A further object of the invention is to use this manipulator in association with the usual finger lift or main manipulator of the roughing mill, so that the turning of short rolled stocks as received from the first passes is accomplished by the fingers and turning of the long rolled stocks as received from subsequent passes, which can no longer be turned by the finger lift (main) manipulator, is carried out by the manipulator in accordance with this invention which is built-in in the side guard. In this case the range of stocks of various sections rolled on the mill is 3,291,322 Patented Dec. 13, 1966 considerably increased while the production potentialities of the mill are also increased.

A still further object of the invention is to provide a manipulator of such a design in which the edges of two stock gripping members remain substantially parallel when considerable changes in the cross sections of rolled stock take place.

This is attained through the use of shafts, carrying the turning elements, which may be of great length without impairing the compactness or increasing the overall dimensions of the manipulator since the above shafts do not rotate together with the gripped stock about its longitudinal axis.

It is yet a further object of the invention to provide turning elements in the form of profiled rollers, the design of which will assure simplicity of their manufacture and convenience in replacing them in working conditions.

This object is attained by making said profiled rollers from sets of thin substantially cylindrical disks fixed on the shaft in such manner that each subsequent disk in the set is spaced with respect to the previous one by an amount equal to the thickness of a disk so that the disks .abut one another.

The above and further objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the following description of a manipulator which is illustrated in the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a cross section of a roughing mill table showing diagrammatically a preferred embodiment of the manipulator according to the invention mounted on the end face of the side guard.

FIG. 2 is a section taken along line IIII of the manipulator of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3a is a perspective view of the manipulator shaft showing in detail the construction of the turning roller.

FIG. 3b shows the shaft and the turning roller of FIG. 3a with some of the disks removed.

FIG. 4-7 are fragmentary diagrammatic views showing four successive positions of the rollers and stock of rectangular section in the process of turning.

Two shafts 1, located in the vertical plane perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the stock being rolled, carry rollers 2 fixedly on their ends. The shape of such rollers corresponds to a geometrical body formed by cutting a substantially circular cylinder with planes parallel to the base into a large number of extremely thin layers. The axes of the roller bores are perpendicular to the bases and intersect the end planes of each roller near the diametrically opposed edges of these end planes. The generatrices of the cylindrical rollers 2 are inclined with respect to the axes of shafts 1 and thereby with respect to the axes of rotation of the rollers.

The rollers may be either of solid one-piece con struction, or may be built up of a set of thin substantially cylindrical disks fixed on each shaft in abutting relation with one another as is evident in FIGS. l3.

When the manipulator is in its operating position, i.e. during turning, shafts 1 are substantially parallel to one another and are inclined to the horizontal at an angle of 45. At the same time, rollers 2 mounted on the ends of shafts 1 align on the same level as the rolled stock 3 in position on the roughing mill roll table 4-, their location being such that the side surfaces of two rollers 2 respectively contact the top and bottom surfaces of the stock 3 being rolled. FIGS. 4, 5, 6 and 7 show that when shafts 1 are parallel to each other the surfaces of rollers 2 will also be parallel and straight.

Further, FIGURES 4, 5, 6 and 7 show that the side surfaces of rollers 2 remain mutually parallel and straight in any intermediate position during rotation of shafts 1 in opposite directions at the same angular speed.

The mutually opposite rotation is imparted to the shafts 1 from an electric motor, not shown on the drawing, through a common reducer 5, which assures the required coordination of speeds and directions of rotation of both shafts. The drive is transmitted from reducer 5 to shafts 1 through two separate bevel gearings 6 and 7 mounted together with the shafts in pivotally fixed housings 8.

- Due to the pivoted fixing of housings 8 having the builtin shafts 1 which carry on their outer ends rollers 2, the housings 8 can swing in the vertical plane about the axis of driving bevel gear 6, hence the angle of inclination of shaft 1 with respect to the horizontal may vary, changing accordingly the location of rollers 2 with respect to the lead of the roll table.

In order to attain such movement, each driving bevel gear 6 of each housing 8 is designed so that the outer cylindrical surface of its hub serve as its bearing trunnions, with the aid of which the gear is mounted in housing 8 and the center inner bore i used, firstly for pivoted fixing of the housing, and, secondly, for connecting bevel gearings 6 and 7 with the drive for rotating the rollers.

With the aid of a pneumatic, or other suitable drive 9 and lever system 10, which links the two pivotally fixed housings 8, and a movable element of pneumatic drive 9, rollers 2 are moved toward one another, which assures steady gripping of the rolled stock 3 by rollers 2 during the entire proces of turning. The drive 9 is .also effective for moving of rollers 2 away from one another to bring them out of the zone of rolled stock movement, which in turn ensures shifting of the manipulator to the disengaged position. The disengaged position of the rollers is shown in FIG. 1 in dotted outline.

A suitable control system of the pneumatic drive 9 assure the fixed position of rollers 2 also when the .grip is released and the gap between rollers 2 is slightly increased for free delivery of the turned stock 3 to the rolls of the roughing stand.

The manipulator is installed on the side guard 11, at the rear end thereof, i.e. at the end remote from the mill. In this case, the swinging housings 8 are disposed beyond the side guard 11 above the middle of the space between the two adjacent rollers of the roll table 4, so as to permit lowering of a roller 2 below the level of the roll table 4.

This embodiment is preferred in case the manipulator of this invention is used in conjunction with the finger lift or main manipulator on the mill. The installation of said additional manipulator on the old side guards requires practically no reconstruction of the mill and permits increased production capability of the mill.

The manipulator permits the use of practically an unlimited ratio of the length of shaft 1, carrying the turning rollers 2, to the cross-section of the rolled stock 3, and 7 this in turn makes the deviations from parallelism of the turning surfaces of rollers 2 quite imperceptible when considerable changes in the cross sections of rolled stocks take place.

A preferred embodiment of the invention has been described and is shown in the accompanying drawings, but it should be understood that other embodiments based on the spirit of this invention are possible as defined by the following claims.

What I claim is:

1. A manipulator for rolled stock adapted for being mounted on the side guard of a roughing mill, said manipulator comprising a pair of spaced rollers having cylindrical surfaces adapted to engage opposite sides of rolled stock passing there-between, the said rollers being mounted for rotation about parallel axes inclined relative to the generatrices of the surfaces of said rollers, whereby the rolled stock passing between the rollers in contact therewith is rotated about its longitudinal axis during rotation of said rollers, means for rotating said rollers about their longitudinal axes in opposite directions at the same angular speed, and means for swinging said rollers between an operative position for gripping said stock and in inoperative position for releasing the rolled stock.

2. A manipulator for rolled stock according to claim 1, wherein the means for rotating the rollers includes rotatable shafts supporting the rollers, said shafts in said operative position having a 45 inclination with respect to the horizontal and the rollers are aligned at the level of the stock being rolled.

3. A manipulator for rolled stock comprising a pair of rollers each including a plurality of adjacent disks defining a cylindrical surface, a rotatable shaft for each roller supporting the disks thereof for common rotation such that the longitudinal axis of the shaft passes adjacent diametrically opposite edges of the roller at their end faces and extends substantially perpendicular to such end faces, drive means for rotating said shafts about their longitudinal axes, two pivotally mounted housings supporting a respective shaft and the drive means therefor, a lever system and rods, linking said housings to permit swinging of the housings for moving said shafts toward and away from each other.

4. A manipulator for rolled stock according to claim 3, in which said cylindrical disks are fixed on the respective shafts in abutting relation.

5. A manipulator for rolled stock as claimed in claim 3, wherein said drive means comprises bevel gearing in said housing.

6. A method of turning rolled stock comprising clamping rolled stock between two parallel members having cylindrical surfaces, and rotating said members in opposite directions at substantially equal speeds each about an axis inclined relative to said surfaces to thereby rotate the surfaces in parallel relation with the stock therebetween.

7. Apparatus for rotating rolled stock comprising a pair of parallel substantially cylindrical members in spaced relation adapted for clamping rolled stock therebetween, and means for rotating said members in opposite direction at equal speeds about parallel axes which are inclined with respect to the axes of the cylindrical members to change the orientation of said members and thereby turn the rolled stock clamped therebetween.

No references cited.

CHARLES W. LANHAM, Primary Examiner.

H. D. HOINKES, Assistant Examiner.

Claims (1)

1. A MANIPULATOR FOR ROLLED STOCK ADAPTED FOR BEING MOUNTED ON THE SIDE GUARD OF A ROUGHING MILL, SAID MANIPULATOR COMPRISING A PAIR OF SPACED ROLLERS HAVING CYLINDRICAL SURFACES ADAPTED TO ENGAGE OPPOSITE SIDES OF ROLLED STOCK PASSING THEREBETWEEN, THE SAID ROLLERS BEING MOUNTED FOR ROTATION ABOUT PARALLEL AXES INCLINED RELATIVE TO THE GENERATRICES OF THE SURFACES OF SAID ROLLERS, WHEREBY THE ROLLED STOCK PASSING BETWEEN THE ROLLERS IN CONTACT THEREWITH IS ROTATED ABOUT ITS LONGITUDINAL AXIS DURING ROTATION OF SAID ROLLERS, MEANS FOR ROTATING SAID ROLLERS ABOUT THEIR LONGITUDINAL AXES IN OPPOSITE DIRECTIONS AT THE SAME ANGULAR SPEED, AND MEANS FOR SWINGING SAID ROLLERS BETWEEN AN OPERATIVE POSITION FOR GRIPPING SAID STOCK AND IN INOPERATIVE POSITION FOR RELEASING THE ROLLED STOCK.

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