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US 5,346,359 AGranted
Method of adjusting a wicket gate
OwnerCharles W. Propstinventor
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The invention relates to a method to calculate optimum wicket gate positions based on only the initial face-to-face readings comprising the steps of measuring the initial gate openings, determining an optimum unit opening, and rotating each gate to the optimum opening. The method results in a one time adjustment that is more accurate and faster than conventional methods.
Claims18
A method for adjusting a unit of wicket gates comprising the steps of:
- (A) measuring initial gate openings;
- (B) fixing a position of a gate;
- (C) sequentially rotating all other gates to a common selected opening;
- (D) incrementing the common selected opening if the common selected opening is not equal to a final gap between a last rotated gate and the fixed gate;
- (E) repeating step D until the common selected opening is equal to the final gap between the last rotated gate and the fixed gate, the optimum opening for the fixed gate being the common selected opening when the common selected opening is equal to the final gate between the last rotated gate and the fixed gate;
- (F) repeating steps B through E until the optimum opening for each gate has been determined;
- (G) determining an optimum unit opening for the unit;
- and
- (H) rotating each gate to the optimum unit opening.
6 more elements
A method for adjusting a unit of wicket gates comprising the steps of:
- (A) measuring initial gate openings;
- (B) determining an optimum unit opening for the unit;
- (C) determining a maximum positive and maximum negative gate rotation necessary to adjust from the initial gate opening to the final optimum unit opening for all the gates;
- (D) equalizing the values of maximum positive and negative gate rotation by equally increasing or decreasing all of the gate openings, prior to rotating the gates to the optimum unit opening;
- and
- (E) rotating each gate to the optimum unit opening.
3 more elements
A method for adjusting a unit of wicket gates comprising the steps of:
- (A) measuring initial gate openings;
- (B) determining an optimum unit opening for the unit;
- (C) rotating each gate to the optimum unit opening in an every-other-gate sequence while examining a toe and heel clearance of a gate to be adjusted, if the clearance is less than an amount of rotation needed to rotate the gate to an optimum unit opening the gate is skipped, if the clearance is equal to or greater than the amount of rotation needed to rotate the gate to the optimum unit opening the gate is rotated to the optimum unit opening;
- and
- (D) rotating all skipped gates to the optimum unit opening.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.