US3852988A - Machine for marking identification marks on billets, blooms and slags - Google Patents

Abstract

The machine for applying an identification mark on a billet comprises a marking roll carrying the impressions for making the identification marks, said roll being rotatably mounted on a swivel block, said swivel block being carried at the end of a vertical pre-loaded spindle, said spindle capable of deflecting if load is excessive thus relieving the machine from overload, said swivel block having a balancing system so that if the billet at its marking end has a camber then the swivel block with the marking roll will adjust itself to align with the inclined surface of the billet at the marking end so that the marking roll is able to uniformly apply the identification mark on the billet. The said marking roll rotates due to friction as it contacts the advancing billets and thus the mark is made on the successive billets as they advance.

Description

United States Paten [191 Singhal MACHINE FOR MARKING IDENTIFICATION MARKS ON BILLETS,

BLOOMS AND SLAGS [76] Inventor: Dinesh Chandra Singhal, 5, North Ciruit House Area, Bihar, India [22] Filed: June 5, 1973 21 Appl. No.: 367,247

[52] US. Cl 72/197, 72/250, 101/5 [51] Int. Cl B21b 45/00 [58] Field of Search 72/190, 197, 250; 101/5, 10'1/6, 36

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 110,623 1/1871 Bement 101/5 2,351,519 6/1944 Jonsson 101/5 2,471,452 5/1949 Rosen 10l/36 2,497,386 2/1950 Zarobsky 101/5 2,580,574 l/l952 Miller 101/5 [451 Dec. 10, 1974 Primary ExaminerLowell A. Larson Attorney, Agent, or Firm-Burns, Doane, Swecker & Mathis [5 7] ABSTRACT The machine for applying an identification mark on a billet comprises a marking roll carrying the impressions for making the identification marks, said roll being rotatably mounted on a swivel block, said swivel block being carried at the end of a vertical pre-loaded spindle, said spindle capable of deflecting if load is excessive thus relieving the machine from overload, said swivel block having a balancing system so that if the billet at its marking end has acamber then the swivel block with the marking roll will adjust itself to align with the inclined surface of the billet at the marking end so that the marking roll is able to uniformly apply the identification mark on the billet. The said marking roll rotates due to friction as it contacts the advancing billets and thus the mark is made on the successive billets as they advance.

3 Claims, 9 Drawing Figures P I EI] um: 10 m4 3.852.888

- sax-:21 1 or 4 Fig PATENTED DEC 10 I974 SHEEI 2 [IF -4 PATENTEDUEB 10 m4 SHEET 30F 4 BEL-.4.

MACHINE FOR MARKING IDENTIFICATION MARKS ON BILLETS, BLOOMS AND SLAGS OBJECT It is necessary to have an identification mark on each billet, bloom or slab as it leaves a continuous casting plant or rolling mill in order to identify at a later date its chemical composition physical properties and history of manufacture.

GENERAL REMARKS This description, although written from the point of view of marking on red hot steel billet in continuous billet mills and continuous casting plants, covers the marking of billets, blooms or slabs of steel or other metal using the machine described below.

PRIOR ART Several methods are hitherto known for marking the billets such as fixing a tag, painting or stamping. Fastening of a tag has the obvious disadvantage of its possibility of getting detached whereas marking by paint or chalk is likely to peel off or fade away. Stamping, however, enable a permanent mark on the material. Besides manual methods, stamping has also been effected by pneumatically operated impact-marking guns or other impacting devices. In this case each billet is stopped and the mark is applied by the gun or the impacting device. Reference is made-for example to the following publications:

l.Shah, R Improved methods expedite slab and strip marking Iron Age Metalworking International, April l969 2. Speicher, F. S. Marking systems for continuous casting lines" Iron and Steel Engineer, No-

vember l969.

3. Heddaeus, W. W. Copperweld Steels Continuous Casting line Utilises Automated Marking Iron and Steel Engineer, October, 1967.

The known stamping means are time consuming, and require expensive machinery and human effort for marking each billet.

The invention will hereinafter be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings in which: I

FIG. 1 shows the schematic layout of the machine according to the invention;

FIG. 2 shows the details of the machine shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 shows the schematic layout of another embodiment with different means for adjusting the position of the main spindle and the swivel block;

FIG. 4 shows the details of the machine shown in I FIG. 3;

PRINCIPLE or OPERATION For convenience in understanding the invention, it will be described hereinbelow with reference to a continuous billetrolling mill. Reference is first made to FIGS. 8 and 9. As in the known practice, the billets 3 are delivered in the direction of arrow A on to a roller table 1, having a stopper 2. The billets are then pushed from the table 1 by a pusher 6which is actuated by ropes 5 and rope drums 4 driven by motor 8, the ropes 5 passing over pulleys 7, 9 shows the gear box.

When the pusher 6 is moved, it pushes the billets 3 which are lined up side-by-side in front of it on to the cooling bed 10 made of skids. After pushing the billets the motor is reversed to return the pusher 6 for next operation. The pusher is moved in direction B or C. This arrangement is well known. It can be seen in FIG. 8 that a portion x of the billets 3 overhangs the cooling bed 10. The marking will be done when the billets are moved in the direction B.

The marking roll M is arranged in the over-hanging region x" to clear the moving pusher 6. The gap set for the billets 3 under the marking roll is slightly less than the thickness of billets. As the billets 3 are moved by the pusher 6, the movement of billets itself causes the roll M to rotate due to friction and impress the identification marks on to the moving billets. As an example the roll M will mark the identification mark G39370 on all the billets passing therebelow (FIG. 7). The impressions on the marking roll are so made that the distance p (FIG. 9) between two successive marks of G39370 on the rolls is less than the minimum width w (FIG. 9) of the billet to enable at least one clear impression ofG39370 on the billet of minimum width.

DESCRIPTION OF MACHINE Now reference is made to FIGS. 1 and 2. The marking device comprises an externally threaded main screw 14 having an internal bore in which a main spindle 15 is held. The screw 14 is held in vertical position by the upper guide 16 extending from a frame 17 of the machine. The guide 16 has a key to permit axial but non-rotary movement of the main screw 14. Above the guide 16 is a top wheel nut 18 in threaded engagement with the screw 14 and below the guide 16 is a lower wheel nut 19 also in threaded engagement with the screw 14. The spindle 15 passes through a lower guide 20 extending from the frame 17. The guide 20 has a key to permit axial but non-rotary movement of the spindle 15. Between the shoulder ofthe main spindle 15 for the guide 20 and the screw 14 is disposed a main loading spring 21 which can be pre-loaded by nuts 24. The spindle 15 carries by means of swivel pin 23 a swivel head 22 in which the marking roll M is rotatably mounted on a pin 55. The marking roll M rotates about pin 55 due to friction when it contacts the moving billets. Below the marking roll M is a support roll S which also rotates due to friction on contact with the moving billets.

i The over hanging portion x of billets 3, as these are pushed by the pusher 6, moves in the gap between the rolls M and S. This gap should be adjusted depending upon the height of the billets 3 and such that the gap is slightly less than the height of the billet 3. In practice it has been found that better impressions are made by theroll M if the gap is 3 to 5 mm less than the height of the billet.

The adjustment of the gap to suit various billet thicknesses is achieved by rotating wheel nuts 18 and 19. The force of the impression of the marks is afforded by the spring 21, which permits the marking roll to deflect upwards in case of overload. The tension of the spring 21 can be set by the lock nuts 24.

The purpose of arranging roll M on a swivel head instead of in a fixed manner shall be described herein in detail. It has been found that the ends of the billets 3 on the side of the roll M (FIGS. 7 and 8) may be slightly inclined or cambered in either direction 4 or i 4 (FIG. 2). If the roll M is held rigid, then some portion of the mark is not impressed. In order to apply the com- I plete mark uniformly, the roll M is mounted on a swivel head so that the roll M will also incline in the direction i i or i 4 thereby causing a uniform and positive impress'ion on the billet end.

For the swivelling arrangement reference is made to FIGS. 5 and 6 which show the balancing system for the swivel block. In FIG. 5, the pin 23, spindle and the swivel head 22 which swivels on pin 23 are shown. The

- head 22 is connected to a swivel spindle 63 by means of a clevis 60 and bolts 61 and 62. The spindle 63 is loosely engaged by a bore in a support block 64 which is rigidly connected to the main spindle 15. Two springs 65, one above the block 64 and another below the block 64 are arranged. The tension of the springs can be set by lock nuts 66.

When the billet end has a camber i.e. has an inclined surface, the head 22 also tends to incline in the same direction when the billet is pushed between rolls M and S. This will cause swinging of the clevis 60 which in turn causes an axial movement of the spindle 63. This axial movement causes compression on one spring 65 and reliefof the other spring 65. These two springs consequently tend to return to their original position thus keeping the head 22 in a balanced position before the billets are passed.

Reference is now made to FIG. 7. The marking roll M consists of a number of circular discs 50, each disc bodiment the axial position of the main screw 14 and carrying a number of impressions for a specified mark.

The circular distance p (FIG. 9) between impressions on each disc is less than the width w (FIG. 9) of the minimum billet size to be marked so that at least one clear impression will be made when marking the product of minimum width. The discs 50 are arranged side by side to make up a desired mark say 639370 and are held on a disc holder 51 by means of bolts 52. This assembly of discs 50 and holder 51 is mounted in the swivel head 22 by a pin 55 which passes through the central bore 54 in the disc holder 51. Since each disc has a specified mark, say 3", cut at circular spacing p" on its circumference and the assembled marking roll is so arranged that the desired mark say G39370 is spaced at distance p" on the roll circumference, the impression G39370 on the billet surface will be repeated at spacing p" (FIG. 9) as the marking roll rolls, without slipping over the billet surface. Note that since spacing p is less than the minimum billet width w,

' wider billets may have more than one impression of DEVELOPMENTS Reference is made to the embodiments shown in FIGS. 3 and 4. The device according to this embodiment is similar to the one shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 in respect of the provisions of the main screw, main spindle,

hence the position of the roll M is adjusted by wheel nuts, the gap between the rolls M and S being manually measured by scale and calipers or templates while setting the machine to mark a given billet size, whereas in the new embodiment shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, the position of roll M is adjusted by a worm and wormwheel operated screw down-system, the roll gap is automatically being measured and indicated on a roll gap indicator.

In the embodiment shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, there is provided a worm wheel and main worm 31. The worm 31 is mounted on the spindle 32 of a hand wheel 33 so as to rotate therewith. Worm 31 meshes with wheel 30 which has internal threads engaging with the external threads of the main screw 14. Thus, when thehand wheel 33 is rotated the main worm wheel 31 also rotates, thereby raising or lowering the main screw 14 which is prevented from rotating. The raising or lowering of the main screw varies the roll gap as in the case of embodiment shown in FIGS. 1 and 2.

The roll-gap in the new embodiment is automatically measured by a roll gap indicator (FIG. 4). The spindle 32 is connected to an auxiliary spindle 35 through intermediate gears 36 and 37. The spindle 35 carries a dial worm 38 which meshes with dial worm wheel 39 mounted on a dial spindle 40 carrying a pointer 41. The pointer 41 rotates against 'a calibrated dial 42. Thus the rotation of the hand wheel 33 raises or'lowers the roll M and at the same time indicates on the dial 42 the extent to which the roll M has been raised or lowered. In other-words, the dial 42 is calibrated to directly indicate the gap between the roll M and roll S for the passage of the billets.

4 can be more advantageously arranged by the side ofthe cooling bed 10 as shown in FIG. 8. It should however be noted that the support roll S can be dispensed with so that the cooling bed itself serves as the support for the billets as they pass below the roll M. It should also be noted that the roll M need not be necessarily arranged above the top surface of the billet 3 and that the same can be arranged below bottom surface of the billets so that the indentification mark is pressed on the bottom face of the billet. It should further be noted that the marking according to the present invention need not be carried out only in the region of the cooling bed 10, but at any location on the mill where the billets are caused to move in a direction transverse to their length.

What I claim is:

l. A marking machine for stamping identification mark on a billet, bloom or slab as the billet, bloom or slab advances across a cooling bed, said machine comprising a pre-loaded main vertical spindle, a marking roll rotatably mounted in a swivel head, a swivel pin connecting said swivel head to said vertical spindle, a clevis connected to said head, a vertical swivel bolt mounted at its lower end in said clevis, a block rigidly connected to said main vertical spindle, said swivel bolt passing freely through said block, an upper tension spring and a lower tension spring around said swivel bolt on either side of the said block so that when the said swivel head is inclined in one direction due to contact of the marking roll with the inclined surface of the billet to be marked, then one of the said springs is compressed while the other spring is correspondingly relieved thereby enabling the swivel head to incline itself to cause the marking roll to have uniform contact with the billet to be marked.

2. A marking machine as claimed in claim 1 in which within the said block is fitted a fixed sleeve through which said swivel bolt freely passes and the upper tension spring around the swivel bolt is held between said sleeve and a nut on the said swivel bolt while the lower tension spring is held between said sleeve and said clevis, and the said sleeve is externally threaded and by means of worm and worm wheel arrangement, the initial inclination of the swivel head and consequently the marking roll is adjusted to reduce the excessive drag of the marking roll on the inclined surface.

3. A machine as claimed in claim 2 including a frame, an externally threaded main screw slidably arranged within guides extending from said frame, means cooperating with the threads of said screw in order to effect selective variation of the axial disposition of the said screw, said screw having an axial bore in which the said main spindle is slidably but not rotatably arranged, means for lateral movement of said main screw comprising worm and worm wheel arrangement, said means also operating a dial carrying a pointer for measuring and indicating the position of the said main screw.

Claims (3)

1. A marking machine for stamping identification mark on a billet, bloom or slab as the billet, bloom or slab advances across a cooling bed, said machine comprising a pre-loaded main vertical spindle, a marking roll rotatably mounted in a swivel head, a swivel pin connecting said swivel head to said vertical spindle, a clevis connected to said head, a vertical swivel bolt mounted at its lower end in said clevis, a block rigidly connected to said main vertical spindle, said swivel bolt passing freely through said block, an upper tension spring and a lower tension spring around said swivel bolt on either side of the said block so that when the said swivel head is inclined in one direction due to contact of the marking roll with the inclined surface of the billet to be marked, then one of the said springs is compressed while the other spring is correspondingly relieved thereby enabling the swivel head to incline itself to cause the marking roll to have uniform contact with the billet to be marked.

2. A marking machine as claimed in claim 1 in which within the said block is fitted a fixed sleeve through which said swivel bolt freely passes and the upper tension spring around the swivel bolt is held between said sleeve and a nut on the said swivel bolt while the lower tension spring is held between said sleeve and said clevis, and the said sleeve is externally threaded and by means of worm and worm wheel arrangement, the initial inclination of the swivel head and consequently the marking roll is adjusted to reduce the excessive drag of the marking roll on the inclined surface.

3. A machine as claimed in claim 2 including a frame, an externally threaded main screw slidably arranged within guides extending from said frame, means co-operating with the threads of said screw in order to effect selective variation of the axial disposition of the said screw, said screw having an axial bore in which the said main spindle is slidably but not roTatably arranged, means for lateral movement of said main screw comprising worm and worm wheel arrangement, said means also operating a dial carrying a pointer for measuring and indicating the position of the said main screw.

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