Air heater with automatic sealing
AssigneeThe Babcock & Wilcox Company
InventorDouglas A. Huston
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A sealing arrangement for a regenerative air heater having a stator with a peripheral flange and hot and cold end hoods mounted for rotation over respective opposite surfaces of the stator, includes a seal frame which is connected to the cold end hood over an expansion joint assembly. A plurality of cast iron seal shoes are connected to the frame and positioned at selected gaps from the stator flange. A wheel rotatably mounted to the frame near each seal shoe rolls against the stator flange to maintain the selected gap while a counter weight on a lever acts to urge the seal shoes toward the flange. The arrangement is automatic in its maintenance of the selected gap.
Claims6
A sealing arrangement for a regenerative air heater having a stator with a peripheral flange, and hot and cold end hoods mounted for rotation over respective opposite surfaces of the stator, the arrangement comprising:
- a seal frame for extending adjacent at least part of the stator flange;
- an expansion joint assembly connected between the cold end hood and the seal frame for movably mounting the seal frame to the cold end hood;
- at least one seal shoe connected to the frame and positioned at a selected gap from the stator flange;
- at least one wheel mounted for rotation to the frame and near the shoe, the wheel rolling along the flange for maintaining the selected gap;
- and
- biasing means connected between the cold end hood and the frame for urging the seal shoe toward the stator flange for reducing a size of the selected gap against the influence of the wheel for maintaining the selected gap, said biasing means including a lever pivotally mounted to an interior surface of the cold end hood, a weight at one end of the lever and a bolt at an opposite end of the lever connected between the lever and the frame for urging the seal shoe toward the stator flange.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.