Sliding gate valve with orifice-encircling spring
AssigneeUSS Engineers and Consultants, Inc.
InventorRobert D. Hind
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Apparatus for applying a clamping force to slide gate valve plates to prevent leakage of molten metal therebetween. The apparatus applies the force uniformly about the annulus of the orifice of the plates and at a location close to the orifice itself, thus providing more effective clamping of the parts together. The apparatus may be either an annular mechanical spring mounted about the orifice of the plates or an annular chamber filled with gas under pressure.
Claims4
In a sliding gate valve for controlling the flow of molten metal from the pour opening of a bottom pour teeming vessel including means forming a valve frame suspended from the bottom of said vessel about the pour opening thereof, said frame containing a pair of vertically spaced orificed refractory plates having their orifices vertically aligned with said vessel pour opening, a gate formed of an orificed refractory plate movably disposed between said vertically spaced plates and means for moving said gate relative to said spaced plates to displace the orifice in said gate into and out of registry with the orifices in said spaced plates, the improvement comprising means for spring biasing said refractory plates into mutual face-to-face sliding contact, said means including:
- (a) a fixed plate suspendedly attached to said frame;
- (b) a thrust transmitter operatively positioned between said fixed plate and the lowermost of said pair of refractory plates and engaging the same annularly about the orifice therein;
- and
- (c) spring means seated on said fixed plate and operative to provide an upward bias seriatim to said thrust transmitter, said lowermost refractory plate and said gate.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.