Stockline armor construction for blast furnaces

In a blast furnace, said furnace including a shell, courses of brickwork forming a lining within said shell, and stockline armor apparatus for protecting said brickwork, said apparatus including rows of plates adapted to be placed over each course of brickwork in an area susceptible to being struck by material charged to the furnace, said plates extending longitudinally in a radial direction inward from said shell and having flanges for overlying the otherwise exposed face of said brickwork, and anchoring means for holding said plates in position in the furnace, said anchoring means permitting some vertical movement of the plates as well as pivotal movement about a horizontal axis,

• the improvement in said apparatus which comprises:
• said plates each having a downward depending tongue adjacent the end thereof near said shell, said tongue being of length sufficient to abut said shell when said refractory beneath the plates erodes away and said plates therefore start to pivot downward about said horizontal axis, so as to limit the extent of pivotal movement of said plates and thus protect the furnace shell from overheating.