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 exterior surface of the cold end hood, a weight at one end of the lever, a bolt slidably mounted through an aperture in the cold end hood at an opposite end of the lever, connected between the lever and the frame, and a spring engaged between the bolt and the cold end hood for increasing the biasing force urging the seal shoe toward the stator flange.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.