US3466883A - Overhead brick laying apparatus - Google Patents

Description

p 6, 1969 M. E. DRENKEL 3,466,883

OVERHEAD BRICK LAYING APPARATUS Filed Dec. 21, 1967 2 Shea:cs-Shemv l MAURICE E. DRENKEL INVENTOR.

@JQ @w ATTORNEYS p 5, 1969 M. E. DRENKEL 3,466,883

OVERHEAD BRICK LAYING APPARATUS Filed Dec. 21, 1967 2 Sheets-Shee 2- MAURICE E. DRENKEL INVENTOR.

FIG

AT TORNE Y5 United States Patent 3,466,883 OVERHEAD BRICK LAYING APPARATUS Maurice E. Drenkel, 12905 74th Place NE., Kirkland, Wash. 98033 Filed Dec. 21, 1967, Ser. No. 692,592 Int. Cl. E04g 15/00, 21/00; F27d 1/00 U.S. Cl. 61--84 6 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE This invention relates to systems that facilitate placement of brick on an overhead curved surface and more particularly to systems that facilitate the placement of brick in cylindrical drums for rotary kilns.

Cylindrical drums for rotary kilns are lined with circumferential rows of brick that must be self-supporting until keyed in place. When each circumferential brick row is built up beyond the horizontal midpoint, some means must be used to hold the overhead brick in that row into position until the row is keyed in with brick, thereby becoming self-sustaining.

One means in the past has been to lay the brack lining up to the horizontal midpoint of the drum, brace the thus-laid brick with timbers and screw jacks, and then rotate the drum 180 to position the thus-laid brick overhead. The timber reinforcing is supposed to hold the overhead brick in place until brick is laid onto the remaining lower half of the drum wall and keyed. However, there is a constant and real danger of brick becoming dislodged and falling on the workers laying the remaining brick because of faulty-positioned timbers or because of accidental dislodgement of timbers by the Workers or radical temperature change. In addition, the timbers obstruct the drum interior and make passage therethrough cumbersome.

Another means has been to brace each brick laid above the horizontal midpoint of the drum with a diametertraversing bamboo stick. This method has the same problems as the timber reinforcing method described above.

The primary object of this invention is to provide a semi-circular overhead frame that conforms closely to the curvature of the cylindrical kiln drum being lined and that is provided with a plurality of independently-operable cylinders that can clamp the brick against the drum ceiling as the brick are positioned and can be easily retracted from the brick after a brick row is keyed and becomes self-sustaining. When using this invention, a cylindrical drum for a rotary kiln would normally be lined with brick up to its horizontal midpoint and then the device of this invention advanced longitudinally in the drum from one row to the next as the overhead installations of brick in each row is completed.

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a front elevation view of the overhead brick installing apparatus of this invention shown within a phantom-lined cylindrical drum with a partially installed circumferential row of brick also shown by phantom lines;

FIG. 2 is a detail view of a typical brick clamp taken along the line 22 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a detail view of means for joining the overhead brick supporting frame to a base frame taken along the line 3-3 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is an exemplary diagram of a pneumatic actuating and control system for the FIG. 1 device;

Patented Sept. 16, 1969 ice FIG. 5 is a side elevation of FIG. 1 device taken along the line 55 of FIG. 1;

FIGS. 6-9 are diagrammatic views showing the operation of the FIG. 1 device during the overhead installation of brick on a curved surface;

FIG. 10 is an enlarged detail of a segment of FIG. 9; and

FIG. 11 is a perspective view of the horizontal cylindrical drum of a rotary kiln with a section broken away to show the installation of the FIG. 1 device within the drum.

Referring to FIGS. 1, 2 and 5, a preferred embodiment of this invention comprises a lower base or supporting frame 10, an upper brick retaining frame 12, and a plurality of pneumatically operable cylinder clamps 14 mounted on the clamping frame 12. The supporting frame 10 is a semicircular inwardly opening aluminum channel or U bar, the ends of which mount rectangular plates 1616 secured thereto by welds and reinforced by gussets 1818. The clamping frame 12 is a semicircular aluminum Z bar having outer and inner rims 12a and 12b interconnected by a perpendicularly-oriented web 120. As viewed in FIG. 1, the outer rim 12a extends out of the plane of the drawing and the inner rim 12bhidden by web 12cextends into the plane of the draw ing. The ends of frame 12 mount rectangular plates 20--- 20. The two frames 10 and 12 constitute half circles and are edge-connected by means of bolts extending through the abutting plates 16 and 20. The ends of the lower frame 10 are interconnected by means of a chain and turnbuckle 22 bolted to the gussets 1818.

Each brick clamp 14, as shown in FIG. 2, comprises a double-acting pneumatic air cylinder 24 bolted to the web on the same side thereof as the inner rim 12b. A piston rod 26 extends radially outward from the air cylinder 24 and mounts a foot 28. The foot 28 may be fabricated of hard rubber, as shown, wood or any other desired material, may be cylindrical, as shown, or any other desired configuration, and may be of a width to contact only one brick or to span and contact several bricks. Air flow to the cylinder 24 head end or rod end, in the alternative, is regulated by a four-Way rotary valve 30, the handle 31 of which is positioned on the same side of the web 120 as the outer rim 12a. Valve 30 is provided with two inlet ports and two outlet ports, the outlet ports being interconnected to the head and rod ends of the cylinder by flexible hoses 27 and 29.

The outer rim 12a is covered with a nonabrasive layer 32, such as Micarta, to prevent scarring brick which may come into contact therewith. The inner rim 12b mounts tubular air manifold tubes 34 and 36 which are interconnected to the inlet ports of each valve 30 by flexible hoses 38 and 40, one set of two hoses being provided for each such valve 30.

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 4, the manifold tubes 34 and 36 are connected by flexible hoses 33 and 35 to outlet ports of a four-Way rotary override control valve 42, mounted on frame 12 and aetuatable by a handle 44. Valve 42 is provided with an air inlet port fed through feed hose 41 containing an intake-only check valve 46 and is also provided with an exhaust port 43.

Referring to all of the figures in general and FIGS. 6-1l in particular, the preferred embodiment of the invention is operated in the manner now described. With a circumferential ring or row r of brick placed in the bottom half of a kiln shell (FIG. 6) the apparatus of this invention is installed against the brick ring r by cinching up on the turnbuckle 22 so that the lower frame 10 clears the brick ring r, positioning the lower frame 10 opposite the brick ring r, and then uncinching the turnbuckle to allow the lower frame 10 to expand outward against the brick ring r thereby clamping itself into position (FIG. 7). As installed, the outer rim 12a of the upper frame 12 and the valve handles 31 face the brick installer. The installer can place a brick b in position at the top of the frame 12 (FIG. 7) and clamp it into position by turning the appropriate valve handle 31, thereby extending the appropriate piston rod to force the brick b up against the kiln shell s to further ensure that the upper frame 12 is properly positioned for the installation of the top half of the brick ring r. After the lower frame 10 is firmly contacted against the brick ring r, the brick b can be removed by turning the appropriate handle 31 to retract the appropriate piston from its clamping position. The remaining brick are then installed, building up from either side (FIG. 8), with the valve handles 31 being sequentially turned to sequentially activate the valves 30 and extend the piston rods to clamp the brick against the kiln shell s as they are positioned. When brick ring r is keyed, the override control valve handle 44 is turned to actuate valve 42 to reverse the air flow to all of the cylinders 24 thereby retracting the piston rods 26 from their brick clamping position and the apparatus moved onto the next partially assembled brick ring r (FIG. 11).

Because the outer rim 12a faces the brick installer, it may be used as a platform for the brick from which the installer may push the brick into position between the shell s and the feet 28. This rim 12a thus eliminates the need for the brick installer to hold the brick overhead while clamping it into position. As shown in FIG. 2, the foot 28 presents an outer surface even with the lined outer surface of the rim 12a to facilitate the brick installer in positioning the brick prior to clamping it against the shell s.

It is believed that the invention will have been clearly understood from the foregoing detailed description of my now-preferred illustrated embodiment. Changes in the details of construction may be resorted to without departing from the spirit of the invention and it is accordingly my intention that no limitations be implied and that the hereto annexed claims be given the broadest interpretation to which the employed language fairly admits.

The embodiments of the invention in which an exclusive property or privilege is claimed are defined as follows.

I claim:

1. An overhead brick laying apparatus which comprises a semicircular brick clamping frame; a semicircular supporting frame rigidly attached to the ends of said brick clamping frame; a plurality of separate and independent lamp means, each comprising a cylinder and cylinder rod assembly radially mounted on the brick clamping frame; and means for extending and retracting the rods of the cylinder and cylinder rod assembly to and from brick engaging positions, including a plurality of separate and independent manually-actuable cylinder control valves, each cylinder control valve being in fluid communication with the head and rod ends of one cylinder and being communicable with a source of pressurized fluid, and each cylinder control valve having an actuating handle mounted on the brick clamping frame.

2. Apparatus according to claim 1 wherein said means for extending said clamp means includes an override manually actuable directional control valve in fluid communication with each cylinder control valve adapted to actuate the cylinder control valves in unison.

3. An overhead brick laying apparatus which comprises a semicircular brick clamping frame Z cross section with radially displaced inner and outer rims separated by an interconnected web aligned perpendicularly to said rims; a semicircular supporting frame rigidly attached to the ends of said brick clamping frame; a plurality of separate and independent clamp means, each comprising a cylinder and cylinder rod assembly radially mounted on the side of said web from which said inner rim extends; means for extending and retracting the rods of the cylinder and cylinder rod assemblies to and from brick engaging positions including a plurality of separate and independent manually-actuatable cylinder control valves, each cylinder control valve being in fluid communication with the head and rod ends of one cylinder and being communicable with a source of pressurized fluid, and each cylinder control valve having an actuating handle mounted on the side of said web from which said outer rim extends.

4. Apparatus according to claim 3 including means mounted on each of the cylinder rod assemblies having an outer surface even with the outer surface of said outer rim when in its retracted position for facilitating positioning of the brick prior to clamping.

5. Apparatus according to claim 3 wherein a nonabrasive covering is provided on the outer surface of said outer rim.

6. Apparatus according to claim 3 including means for contracting the distance between the ends of said supporting frame.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,382,668 6/1921 ORourke 61-84 3,075,359 1/ 1963 Clark 52749 3,208,795 9/ 1965 Schultz 525 15 3,383,824 5/ 1968 Linnemann 52749 FOREIGN PATENTS 7,845 ll/ 1838 Great Britain. 1,081,912 5/ 1960 Germany.

HENRY C. SUTHERLAND, Primary Examiner US. Cl. X.R. 52749

Images