Continuous contact gage for strip rolling process having floating mechanism

In a continuous contact gage for measuring the thickness of a rolled strip of the type comprising:

• a main support frame, a floating frame supported on the main support frame and a gage head assembly, having upper and lower gage rollers, mounted on the floating frame, and two guide roll assemblies mounted on the sides of the floating frame, the improvement comprising:
• a plurality of support springs interconnecting the floating frame and the main support frame such that the floating frame is spaced from the main support frame whereby the floating frame can translate in any direction and pivot about any horizontal axis:
• the gage head assembly being mounted for axial sliding movement upon the floating frame to enable the gage head assembly to move vertically with respect to the floating frame;
• at least one spring interconnecting the gage head assembly and the floating frame such that the gage head assembly is biased in an upward direction whereby the lower gage roller may firmly engage the undersurface of the rolled strip;
• and
• a rotation preventing structure mounted on the main support frame and adapted to prevent rotation of the floating frame about a vertical axis while permitting translation thereof in any direction and pivoting thereof about any horizontal axis.