US444555A - Mechanism for operating stuff-gates - Google Patents

Description

(No ModeL) v A. A. KELLOGG.

MECHANISM FOR OPERATING STUFF GATES.

Paten ted Ja n. 13, 1891.

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' UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ALBERT A. KELLOGG, OF HOLYOKE, MASSACHUSETTS.

MECHANISM FOR OPERATING STUFF-GATES.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 444,555, dated January 13, 1891.

4 Application filed January 30, 1889- 'Serial No. 298,153. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, ALBERT A. KELLOGG, of Holyoke, in the county of Hampden and State of Massachusetts, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Mechanism for Operating Stuff- Gates, of which the following is a specification, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming part thereof.

My invention relates tothe gate which governs the passage of pulp from the regulating-box to a paper-machine. v These gates, which are usually made of copper to prevent corrosion, are mounted in ways upon one side of the regulating-box insuch manner as to be capable of vertical movement and cover an opening in the side of the box at or near the bottom thereof, through which when the gate is raised the semi-liquid pulp flows through a trough or other conductor to the machine. The height to which the gate is raised governs the thickness of the web of paper made by the machine, and so delicate is the adjustment which must be made in raising the gate that a variation of the one one-hundredth part of an inch in the height of the gate will cause a difference of more than onefourth of a pound in a team in the weight of the finish ed paper. It thus becomes necessary to provide means for raising and lowering the gate which will secure this extremely delicate adjustment of the latter, and the means heretofore employed has consisted of a simple screw-rod turning in fixed bearings above the gate, the threaded end of which rod enters a nut secured to the gate. It has been found in practice that this meansof raising and lowering the gate is not entirely reliable because of the lost motion incident to a screwrod however carefully made, and, again, because the amount of lost motion is being constantly increased by the wear of the threads I have discovered that this objection can be entirely overcome by combining with the screwrod and gate means for exerting a constant elastic pressure against the lower side of the nut, whereby its threads are pressed upwardly against the threads on the rod continuously, thus preventing lost motion between said threads regardless of the wear of the latter.

My invention therefore consists in the mechanism for operating stuff-gates embodying such feature, hereinafterfully described, and particularly pointed out in the claims.

In the accompanying drawings I have illustrated the construction which I prefer to use in the practice of my invention, wherein- Figure 1 shows a portion of a regulatingbox having my improved operating mechanism applied to the gate thereof. Fig. 2 is a central vertical sectional view thereof. Fig. 3 is a plan view of the hand-wheel which operates the screw-rod. Fig. 4 is asimilar view of the upper cylinder-head. Fig. 5 isacrosssection of the nut, taken upon line y of Fig. 2.

Like letters designatelike parts in the several figures.

In Fig. l, the letter A designates a portion of a regulating-box having in one side, at the bottom thereof, an opening communicating with a trough A, by which the pulp is conducted to the paper-machine.

The letter B designates the gate, mounted in vertical ways 17 upon each side of said opening, whereby said gate is adapted by a vertical movement to open and close said opening and to govern the flow of the pulp to the machine.

The gate B is provided with a lateral extension 5, which has hitherto formed the nut to receive the screw-rod by which the gate has been operated.

The novel means shown herein for operating the gate B are as follows: A cylinder G, preferably made of brass and having the upper and lower heads 0 c, is suitably supported in a vertical position above the gate, as shown in Figs. 1 and 2. W'ithin said cylinder is located a piston-head D anda nut E, the latter being connected to the former by the ribs 6, which are preferably three in numher, as shown in Fig. 5, and which bear against the inner surface of the cylinder, and there by serve to guide and steady the movement of the piston-head and nut. Two lugs e, se-

cured upon theinner surface of the cylinder, receive between them one of the ribs 6 and preventrotary movement of the nut and piston-head,while permitting them to move freely lengthwise of the cylinder. As shown, the guiding-lugs e are located upon the inner end of aplug 0 screwed into a tapped orifice in the cylinder; but such construction is not material. The piston-head D is provided with a suitable packingdisk d, whereby a light joint with the bore of the cylinder is secured, and seated centrally within said piston-head is one end of a rod D, which extends downwardly through the lower head 0 of the cylinder and through a stufflng-box 0 secured to or formed integral with said head, and which red at its lower end is screwed into or is otherwise securely connected to the extension Z) of gate 13. A collar (1 upon said rod within the cylinder stops the downward movement of the rod by its contact with head a when the gate is in position to entirelycut off the flow of the pulp from box A to the machine. A screw-rod F, mounted in the upper head of the cylinder in such manner as to revolve without endwise progression, enters nut E at its lower end, and at its upper end carries a hand-wheel f or other device by which it can be revolved manually. By revolving said screw-rod, therefore, nut E, piston-head D, and gate B will be simultaneously raised or lowered as the rod is turned in one or the other direction.

For the purpose of facilitating accurate adjustment of the gate, I provide head (2 of the cylinder with aperipheral flange, as shown, and locate in said flange a series of vertical orifices, as shown in Fig 4. Hand-wheelf is provided with one or more orifices, as shown in Fig. 3, through which a pinfis inserted,its lower end entering one of theorifices in the flangeon head 0. The distance between the orifices in the flange \villbe so gaged that movement of pin f and the hand-wheel from one of said orifices to the next one will cause an ascertained amount of movement of the gate, and thus an accurate adjustment of the gate can be effected irrespective of actual observation of the gate itself. The pin f, moreover, securely locks the hand-wheel from accidental movement. A pipe G, leading from the primary source of pressure, enters the cylinder at the bottom thereof. The steam, compressed air, or other fluid enters the cylinder through said pipe and by its pressure against the piston-head serves as an elastic cushion to retain the threads of nut E against the lower side of the threads on the screw-rod in such manner that lost motion is avoided, notwithstanding the wear of said threads. It will thus be seen that I secure an accurate adjustment of the gate at every point in its range of movement, a result which is of the highest importance in the manufacture of paper. As hereinbefore stated, the same result can be secured by the use of one or more springs so located as to exert an upward pressure against the piston or directly against nut E; but owing to the liability of springs to break and to lose their tension I prefer to utilize fluid pressure, as herein shown and described.

The operation of the mechanism thus con-- structed will be obvious from the foregoing description. It being known how high the gate must be raised to secure the desired weight to the paper to be made by the machine, and how many revolutions of handwheel f will raise the gate to such height, pin f is withdrawn from engagement with the flange on the cylinder, and the hand-wheel is given the desired amount of movement, the orifices in the cylinder-flange enabling the adj ustment thereof to be made with perfect accuracy. Pin f is then inserted in the orifice beneath it and securely locks the wheel in such position. The pressure exerted by the fluid against the piston insures instant movement of 'nut E and the gate with every movement of hand-wheelfin either direction, so that there is no lost motion to impair the accuracy of the adjustment.

I do not wish to limit myself to the exact details of construction herein shown and described, as the same can be modified in various ways without departing from the spirit of my invention.

Having thus fully described my invention, what I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. The stuff gate operating mechanism herein described, comprising a cylinder, at piston-head located within said cylinder, a screwrod operatively connected with said pistonhead, a rod connecting the piston-head with the gate, and means for admitting fluid under pressure to said cylinder, combined and operating substantially as set forth.

2. The combination, with a stuif-gate, of a cylinder located adjacent thereto, a screwrod supported at one end of said cylinder, a piston-head located within said cylinder and having connected therewith a nut to receive said screw-rod, a pipe for admitting fluid under pressure to said cylinder, and a rod connecting said piston-head with the gate, arranged and operating substantially as set forth.

3. The combination, with a stuff-regulating box having an outlet-opening at or near the bottom thereof, and a vertically-movable gate for closing said opening, of a screw-rod and nut operatively connected with said gate for raising and lowering the latter, and means, substantially as described, for exerting a constant fluid or liquid pressure against said nut in a plane parallel with the axis of said screw-rod, whereby lost motion between said nut and rod is prevented, substantially as set forth.

4. The combination, with gate 13, having the lateral extension I), of cylinder 0, pistonhead D, located within said cylinder, red D, I mounted in one end of said cylinder, substanconnecting said piston-head with the gate, t-ially as described. nut E, also located Within said cylinder and having positive connection with the piston- ALBERT KELLOGG' head, a guide to prevent rotary movement Witnesses: of said nut, and screw-rod F, entering said W. 1-1. CHAPMAN,

nut at one end and having its opposite end J. E. CHAPMAN.

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