Delivery system for hot-rolled workpieces

A delivery system to process a hot workpiece discharged from a rolling mill or the like at a high speed by cutting it into finished lengths, decelerating the pieces and cooling the pieces, said delivery system including the combination of:

• shear means including a drive coupled to a movable shear knife to subdivide a workpiece into sections having desired lengths, said shear means having an entry side, a delivery side and a passageway for a workpiece to pass by said movable shear knife,
• entry guide means including a position controller to cyclically position a segment of a moving workpiece at said entry side of the shear means between a first position wherein the workpiece is directed for subdivision by contact with said movable shear knife and a second position wherein a workpiece is directed along a path spaced from said movable shear knife to the delivery side of said shear means,
• run-out transfer means closely spaced from and adjacent the delivery side of said shear means to receive successive sheared sections of a hot workpiece guided essentially by said entry guide means for cooling and transfer in a lateral direction of the length of the sheared sections, said run-out transfer means including radially-extending channel walls defining longitudinal and spaced-apart retardation channels to receive a sheared section of a workpiece by dropping vertically into one channel directly from said shear means for deceleration by sliding friction, said second position of the entry guide means directing the leading end of a sheared workpiece through the space between the shear means and the run-out transfer means at an elevation generally above said retardation channels, and
• drive means to advance said channel walls of the run-out transfer means in a direction transversely to the length of said sheared sections while supported thereby.