Hot kiln alignment system

Abstract

The location of the rotational center line of a long, cylindrical body having a number of support bearings spaced along its length, is determined during the rotation of the body. The apparatus used particularly lends itself to the re-alignment of hot kilns, during their operation, without requiring shut down and the consequent disruption and loss of product. The system utilizes a base line or datum on each side of the kiln for locating the measuring instrument. The distance measuring instrument is a radiant beam instrument such as a diode laser providing an electronic readout, to enable accurate determination of the distance of the outer surface of the kiln shell from the instrument, and hence the location of the rotational center relative to the established baseline datum, for the longitudinal station being measured. A series of lateral center line determinations thus made along the length of a kiln, and including a like determination of the height of the center line at each measuring station, permits adjustment to selected ones of the kiln support bearings to align the rotational center line along the length of the kiln, including the correction of center line elevations.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.