US1309149A - Opeu-hearth furnace - Google Patents

Description

A. MILLER.

OPEN HEARTH FURNACE.

APPLICATION man APR.29, 1918.

1,309, 149. Patented July 8, 1919.

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A MILLER.

OPEN HEARTH FURNACE APPLICATlON FILED APR.29.1918.

l ,309, 1 49, Patented July 8, 1919. Z 2 2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

F4002 LEVEL 6 7 m I 2 5472 1; 12 P /J Kim Z w wk I u77'70772Q5/5 UNITED STATES PATENT onnron ALBERT MILLER, 0F BUFFALO, NEW YORK.

OPEN-HEARTH FURNACE.

Application filed April 29, 1918.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, ALBERT MILLER, a citizen of the United States, residing at Buffalo, in the county of Erie and State of New York, have invented new and useful Improvements in Open-Hearth Furnaces, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates more particularly to openhearth furnaces.

As commonly constructed, the ilues and slag-pockets of such furnaces gradually become plugged with slag, requiring their walls as well as parts of the hearth to be taken down and rebuilt about every six months. This work involves considerable expense and entails great loss of time, as it requires from five to six weeks.

It has been proposed to overcome this objection, as regards the renewal of the air and gas fines and slag-pockets, by providing at the lower ends of such flues chambers adapted to receive slag-ladles or receptacles mounted on trucks running upon tracks in such chambers. The bottoms of these chambers were on a level with the furnace-floor or yard, with the result that the slagdadles were subjected. to the intense heat of the air and gases passing through the lines and were practically melted and fused to the walls of the surrounding chambers or lines, necessitating the breaking out of the walls to remove the ladles or cars.

The objects of my invention are to im prove the construction and arrangement of the slag-receiving and removing means with a view of overcoming the above objection; to materially reduce the extent of renewal of the parts required from time to time and the incidental expense, and at the same time to permit a nractically continuous operation of the furnace during the removal of the slag.

In the accompanying drawings:

Figure l is a longitudinal section of about one-half of an open-hearth furnace embodying the invention, theother half being identical therewith and therefore not shown in the drawings. Fig. 2 is a fragmentary transverse section on line 22, Fig. 1. Figs. 3 and 4 are horizontal sections on the correspondingly numbered lines in Fig. 2.

Similar characters of reference indicate corresponding parts throughout the several views.

1 indicates the hearth which may be of any suitable or ordinary construction. 2 indicates the usual gas flue located at one Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented J uly. 8, 191%).

Serial No. 231,345.

end of thefurnace and communicating with the hearth by the customary gas-port 3, while i indicates the corresponding air flue which communicates with the hearth by a similar port 5, shown by dotted lines in Fig. 1. A pair of similar gas and air fines is located at the opposite end of the furnace in communication with the hearth. These air and gas fines are connected with the customary checker chambers, and the usual valves, not shown, are employed for reversing the gas and air currents through the hearth from time to time, in a manner common to this class of furnaces. A portion of one of these checker chambers is indicated at 6.

In the preferred construction, the bottom of each of the gas and air fines is hopper-shaped or inclined and slopes toward a slag-discharge throat or passage 7 formed in said bottom. This passage leads into a pit or chamber 8 preferably arranged wholly below the floor level of the furnace and extending laterally beyond the walls of said fiues, as shown in Fig. 2. Arranged in each pit underneath the corresponding slagpassage 7 is a portable slag-ladle or wheeled receptacle 9 adapted! to receive the slag therefrom and carried by suitable trucks 10 which run upon tracks or rails 11 laid on the bottom of the pit, lengthwise thereof, or in other words, transversely of the furnace as a whole. These rails preferably slope toward the front or exit end of the pit, as shown by dotted lines in Fig. 2, and a suitable buffer 12 is applied to the front wall of the pit in the proper position to receive the impact of the ladle. The front portion of each pit is provided in its top with an opening of suflicient size to receive the slagladle, which opening is normally closed by a lid 13 which is opened to remove the filled slag-ladle from time to time. In practice, these ladles are hoisted and dumped into steel cars or any other suitable place of deposit, by a crane not shown in the drawings.

As shown at 8 in the drawings, the front portion or compartment of each pit is preferably widened or enlarged to leave spaces or places of safety for the operatives.

Preferably located transversely in each pit or chamber 8 is a suitable upright door or damper 14 adapted to be closed to cut oil the outer atmosphere from the pit and the flue connected therewith during the operation of the furnace, or opened to permit in the drawings.

It may be desirable to regulate the temperatnre of the air in the ladle-pits from time to time. To permit this, appropriate air fiues 15 are extended from the interior of the pits to points accessible at or above the ground, where they are provided with lids or dampers 16 of any suitable constrnction. As shown, these fiues extend vertically through the side walls of the pits and thence horizontally, their exitends being comparatively wide, as shown at 15. These air fines are however not essential and may be omitted, if desired.

In the operation of the furnace, the slagladles or receptacles 9 are moved underneath the discharge throats 7 of theair and gas fines, being held in place on their inclined rails by blocking their wheels or otherwise, and the dampers 14 are lowered and the lids 13 closed. The slag dropping from the hearth into the fines fiows into the ladles and when the latter are filled they are allowed to roll down the tracks into the enlarged compartments of the pits 8, whence they are removed and emptied, as hereinbefore described, and then replaced. During the operation of the furnace, the outer air is excluded from the pits by the doors l3 and dampers 14L, preventing chilling of the slag and its adhesion to the walls of the fines.

It will be noted that the slag-ladles are a considerable distance below the lower ends or inclined bottoms of the air and gas fines, where they are remote from the intensely heated air and gas in the latter. They are therefore protected from destruction by the heat and not liable to melt or become dis torted, greatly prolonging their life and avoiding the danger of their adhering to the walls of the furnace and the necessity of cutting out the latter. This important advantage is attained by placing the pits which receive the slag-ladles a considerable distance underground or below the yard-level or floor-level of the furnace, as shown in the drawings. Pits having their bottoms located about ten feet below that level and ladles having their upper ends located about two and a half feet below said level are satisfactory for this purpose, the

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five'cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents.

sloping, bottoms of the fines being preferably located a few feet above the yard level, as shown in Fig. 2.

By this construction and arrangement of the parts, the ladles are located wholly outside of the intense heat currents or zones in the bottoms of the air and gas fines, protecting the ladles, as above described, and keeping them intact for a relatively long period of time.

This construction also insures the free discharge of the slag from the fines into the slag-ladles and the fines therefore remain comparatively clear or unclogged for a considerably longer period than the fiues of ordinary furnaces of this type. Their renewal is therefore-required much less frequently, effecting a very important saving in time and money every six months, at which intervals other parts of the furnace, such as the hearthwalls, require renewal.

lVhile possessing these advantages, the improvement affords the additional important one of permitting the uninterrupted operation of the furnace by the provision of the door or damper 14.

I'claim as my invention:

1. The combination with a furnace hav ing a hearth and a down-fine arranged to receive slag therefrom, of a pit located be low the floor-level of the furnace and eX- tending laterally beyond said fine, a wheeled slag-receptacle movable into and out of said pit and adapted to receive the slag from said fine, and retractable means for excluding air from said pit, located between its front and rear portions.

2. The combination with afurnace having a hearthand a down-fine arranged to receive slag therefrom, of a pit located below the floor-level of the furnace, a wheeled slag-receptacle movable into and out of said pit and adapted to receive the slag from said fine, said pit having an opening in its top for the entrance and exit of said receptacle, a lid applied to said opening, anda vertically-sliding door arranged in said pit between said lid and the rear portion of the pit.

3. The combination with a furnace having a hearth and a down-fine arranged to receive slag therefrom, a pit located under neath said fine and arranged below the fioorlevel of the furnace, a slag-receptacle movable into and out of said pit, an air-fine leading from the interior of said pit to the outer atmosphere, and a regulating damper applied to the last-named flue.

ALBERT MILLER.

Washington, 1L0.

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