Furnace hearth

A furnace hearth formed by elements including interlocking links, which are all identical to one another, and edge pieces, each comprising a horizontal portion and a vertical edge, each link and edge piece horizontal portion including a plate having at one end a female pivot and at the other end at least one male pivot, the male pivots ef each element engaging within an end of the female pivot of neighboring elements;

• pins engaged inside the male pivots of the assembled elements;
• the plate of each link and edge piece having an upper surface which passes through a point tangent to the upper generatrix of the associated male pivots and, at a position parallel to the axis of the associated female pivot, through a point situated at a distance from the lastmentioned axis which is equal to the outside radius of the female pivot plus the thickness of the plate, the plate extending foward of the axis of the female pivot in a portion having a bottom surface in a plane parallel to the upper surface of the plate forward of the male pivots, the planes of the said bottom surface and of the said upper surface being spaced from a plane defined by the axes of the male and female pivots by a distance equal to the radius of the male pivots.