Guiding and supporting means for continuously cast metal strand

A roll segment for supporting and guiding continuously cast metal strands fed therethrough, said segment comprising opposing rolls for contacting the opposite sides of a continuously cast metal strand cast through a mold and passed from said mold between said rolls, first support means for supporting the roll in contact with one of said opposite sides of said strand, second support means for supporting the roll in contact with the other of said opposite sides of said strand, linkage means at the opposite ends of said rolls for interconnecting said first and second support means and for maintaining said rolls in substantially parallel alignment at the opposite sides of said strand, said linkage means each including a first linkage member pivotally connected at one of its ends to one of said support means, a second linkage member pivotally connected at one of its ends to the other of said support means and pivotally connected at its opposite end to said first linkage member, and means for applying a restraining force to said linkage means, said support means and said rolls for permitting restricted, limited movement of said rolls away from each other when force in excess of said restraining force is applied to said rolls by a continuously cast strand passing therethrough, said restraining force means and said linkage means applying a restraining force of substantially constant magnitude to said support means and said rolls as said rolls are moved away from each other.

A roll segment for supporting and guiding continuously cast metal strands fed therethrough, said segment comprising opposing rolls for contacting the opposite sides of a continuously cast metal strand cast through a mold and passed from said mold between said rolls, first support means for supporting the roll in contact with one of said opposite sides of said strand, second support means for supporting the roll in contact with the other of said opposite sides of said strand, linkage means at the opposite ends of said rolls for interconnecting said first and second support means and for maintaining said rolls in substantially parallel alignment at the opposite sides of said strand, said linkage means each including a first linkage member pivotally connected at one of its ends to one of said support means, a second linkage member pivotally connected at one of its ends to the other of said support means and pivotally connected at its opposite end to said first linkage member, and means interconnecting the linkage means at one end of said rolls with the linkage means at the other end of said rolls for applying a restraining force to said linkage means, said support means and said rolls for permitting restricted, limited movement of said rolls away from each other when force in excess of said restraining force is applied to said rolls by a continuously cast strand passing therebetween.

A method for supporting and guiding a continuously cast metal strand between a plurality of rolls acting at opposite sides of the strand surface, comprising the steps of:

• urging under spring-load having a spring-load characteristic line at least one of the rolls towards the strand surface;
• applying said spring-load to said one roll by means of a bell crank having a bell-crank characteristic line;
• and
• compensating the spring-load characteristic line by means of the bell-crank characteristic line in a manner to thereby produce a substantially constant load along the length of roll movement.