GB841178A - Strip accumulator - Google Patents

Abstract

841,178. Making processed strip. UNITED STATES STEEL CORPORATION. Jan. 27, 1958 [June 18, 1957], No. 2710/58. Class 83 (2). [Also in Groups XVI and XXX] An accumulator for storing strip entering a storage section at one end thereof and emerging at an opposite end comprises means for moving strip carriers successively from the entry end to the exit end of the storage section, each carrier having a horizontal arm extending over the storage section during said movement, and means for looping strip at the entry end of said storage section over the arms of successive carriers, the loops being removed from the carrier arms successively at the exit end of the storage section when the strip emerges therefrom. To keep a strip processing line in continuous operation, e.g. while two strips are joined as by welding, the strip is passed through a storage pit 68, while looped over horizontal arms 38 attached to carriers 24 which move on a closed track 4, the length 4a- 4c of the track being located over the pit. The carriers 24 are moved by a power chain 40 supported from an endless track 6 and having equally-spaced lugs 46, each of which engages a dog 28 on a carrier. A bending roller 70 orbits about a shaft 72 to loop the strip S successively over the arms 38 as the strip is fed to the pit by rolls 2. The drive motor 78 for the roller 70 being synchronized with the drive motor for the power chain 40 and the drive motor for the rolls 2. After receiving a loop of strip each carrier 24 moves on a horizontal portion of track to a point 46 where it disengages from the power chain and drifts downhill to the outlet end of the pit 68 where it is located under pinch rolls 90 which receive the strip vertically from the loop and pass it to the strip processing line. As each loop is exhausted the change in inclination of the strip moves a frame 92 to the left, thus closing a switch 98 to energize a motor which operates a carrier release device 54 (Fig. 5, not shown), which spaces the carriers and moves the next carrier under the rolls 90 for discharge of its loop of strip. The empty carriers are returned to the entry end of the storage pit by re-engagement with the power chain 40. Before reaching the entry end once again, each carrier 24 first disengages from the power chain on a downward slope of the track 4 and then is reengaged for further reception of strip. The carriers are correctly spaced for re-engagement with the power chain by the release device 56. Safety devices are provided, i.e. switches to stop the drive motors when the storage section is full and further switches serving an indicator light to warn the operator of the strip-processing line when the storage section is empty. The strip accumulator may be located before or after a processing line.