Continuous casting machine with mold block assemblies interlinked by elastic hinges

In a continuous casting machine for casting a slab of arbitrary cross-section and length, including a pair of oppositely disposed upper and lower casting trains having plural interconnected mold block assemblies;

• each mold block assembly comprising a mold block, a carriage block and supporting and fastening means securing said mold block to said carriage block;
• said upper casting train driven synchronously with said lower casting train in upper and lower guide track means, each in a path defining a loop having opposed side bends connected by lower straight segments wherein faces of mold blocks in said mold block assemblies move together in spaced apart relationship to define a mold cavity;
• the improvement comprising, twin roller means mounted on each said carriage block, on either side thereof, each of said twin roller means comprising dual rollers coaxially mounted inboard and outboard in spaced apart relationship;
• and, said guide track means comprising off-set inboard and outboard roller-ways upon which said inboard and outboard rollers are rotatably translatable.

In a continuous casting machine for casting a slab of arbitrary cross-section and length, including a pair of oppositely disposed upper and lower casting trains having plural interconnected mold block assemblies;

• said upper casting train driven synchronously with said lower casting train, each in a path defining a loop having opposed side bends connected by lower straight segments wherein said mold block assemblies in two of said straight segments move together in spaced apart relationship to define a mold cavity;
• the improvement comprising,
• (a) elastic hinge means hingedly connecting each mold block assembly to a next-adjacent mold block assembly so as to chain-wise interlink all said mold block assemblies, each of which is pivotable on said hinge means, and is simultaneously displaceable in the direction of movement of said mold block assembly;
• (b) twin roller means mounted on each said carriage block, on either side thereof, each of said twin roller means comprising dual rollers coaxially mounted inboard and outboard in spaced apart relationship;
• and, guide track means comprising off-set inboard and outboard roller-ways upon which said inboard and outboard rollers are rotatably translatable;
• (c) asymmetric side bends in said loop, said bends having differing radii the difference between which is sufficient to ensure that the periodicity of events which occur due to block acceleraiton in transitions from a linear to an arcuate path, and vice versa, are out of phase;
• and,
• (d) each said mold block assembly comprising, a carriage block, a mold block and supporting and fastening means to secure siad mold block to said carriage block;
• said carriage block having fastened thereto, hinge block means in which hinge eyelets are secured with spring means cooperating with said hinge eyelets so as to permit said mold block to be displaceable in the casting direction, said hinge eyelets having journaled therein a hingepin which permits said mold block to be displaceable in the casting direction about 0.025".