US 7,628,677 B1Granted

Automated insulation milling machine

OwnerH. T. Branton, Steven J. Stair +1inventors

InventorsH. T. Branton, Steven J. Stair, Dean S. Shelton

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Abstract

An automatic insulation block milling machine is disclosed. The machine combines a series of operations into a single, automatic, production-line machine. Blocks of rigid insulation material, such as cellular glass blocks, are fed into the automated machine. The blocks are first placed on an automatic programmed moving conveyor belt and are first cut on a pre-determined angle developed from the horizontal and vertical centerline of the block. This cut is made by an angled, vertical band saw mounted with its blade in the center of the moving conveyor, thus producing one angled side on each of the two cut blocks. The remaining three primary sides of the cut blocks are machined to create curved sectional blocks that are used to cover the outer surface of large bore pipe systems or other cylindrical items such as tanks.

Claims17

Dependent claims

An insulation block milling machine, comprising:

a) a feed conveyor;
b) an adjustable angle vertical band saw positioned adjacent to the feed conveyor, such that insulation blocks are fed to the band saw by the feed conveyor to be cut into a pair of cut blocks;
c) a cut block conveyor positioned adjacent to the adjustable angle vertical band saw, such that the pair of cut blocks may be moved away from the adjustable angle vertical band saw for further processing;
d) a lateral separation assembly positioned adjacent to the cut block conveyor and configured to laterally separate the pair of cut blocks such that a first cut block of the pair is positioned on a first grinding line and a second cut block of the pair is positioned on a second grinding line that is separated by a lateral distance from the first grinding line, wherein the lateral separation assembly further comprises at least two lateral drive belts configured to laterally separate the pair of cut blocks;
e) an upper carriage positioned above the cut block conveyor and the lateral separation assembly, said upper carriage operatively connected to a transport ram, wherein the transport ram is configured to move the upper carriage assembly and the upper carriage assembly is configured to move the pair of cut blocks from the cut block conveyor into the lateral separation assembly and, following lateral separation of the pair of cut blocks, to move the first cut block along the first grinding line and the second cut block along the second grinding line;
f) a first adjustable angle side grinder positioned to grind an uncut side of the first cut block moving along the first grinding line;
g) a second adjustable angle side grinder positioned to grind an uncut side of the second cut block moving along the second grinding line;
h) a convex upper grinder positioned to grind an upper surface of the first cut block moving along the first grinding line;
i) a concave lower grinder positioned to grind a lower surface of the first cut block moving along the first grinding line;
j) a concave upper grinder positioned to grind an upper surface of the second cut block moving along the second grinding line;
and,
k) a convex lower grinder positioned to grind a lower surface of the second cut block moving along the second grinding line.

9 more elements

An insulation block milling machine, comprising:

a) a powered feed conveyor;
b) a vertical band saw positioned to receive insulation blocks fed to the vertical band saw by the powered feed conveyor and configured to cut each incoming insulation block into a pair of side-by-side cut insulation blocks;
c) a lateral separation assembly positioned to receive each pair of side-by-side cut insulation blocks from the vertical band saw and to laterally separate the pair of cut blocks and to position each cut block on either a first milling line or a second milling line, where the first and second milling lines are separated by a lateral distance, and wherein
i) the first milling line further comprises a first angled side milling tool, an upper curved milling tool, and a lower curved milling tool;
and,
ii) the second milling lines further comprises a second angled side milling tool, a second upper curved milling tool, and a second lower curved milling tool.

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.