US3609786A

US3609786A - Apparatus for cleaning the sealing surfaces of doors and door jambs of by-product coke ovens

Info

Publication number: US3609786A
Application number: US865637A
Authority: US
Inventors: Walter Stanke; Gottfried Mertens
Original assignee: Heinrich Koppers GmbH
Current assignee: Heinrich Koppers GmbH
Priority date: 1968-10-26
Filing date: 1969-10-13
Publication date: 1971-10-05
Anticipated expiration: 1988-10-05
Also published as: NL6915948A; DE1805388A1; GB1253312A; BE739106A; NL165209B; JPS4813322B1; NL165209C; DE1805388C3; DE1805388B2; FR2021626A1

Abstract

THE CLEANING APPARATUS INCLUDES A CLEANING TOOL WITH A BASE PORTION HAVING A PAIR OF SPACED SCRAPERS EXTENDING THEREFROM IN DIVERGING RELATION TO EACH OTHER. AN ARM MEMBER EXTENDS REARWARDLY FROM THE CLEANING TOOL BASE PORTION. A ROD MEMBER IS PIVOTALLY SECURED TO THE REAR END PORTION OF THE ARM MEMBER AND EXTENDS FORWARDLY THEREFROM TOWARD THE CLEANING TOOL BASE PORTION. AN INTERMEDIATE TUBULAR SUPPORT MEMBER IS COAXIALLY POSITIONED ON THE ROD MEMBER AND HAS A TRANSVERSE CONNECTING PORTION ADJACENT THE FRONT END. A PAIR OF LEVERS ARE CONNECTED TO THE TRANSVERSE CONNECTING MEMBER AND EXTEND REARWARDLY THEREFROM AND THE OTHER ENDS OF THE PAIR OF LEVERS ARE PIVOTALLY CONNECTED TO A FIXED FRAME MEMBER. A DRIVE MECHANISM IS PROVIDED TO RECIPROCALLY MOVE THE CLEANING TOOL ALONG A SEALING SURFACE OF A COKE OVEN DOOR OR DOOR JAMB. A SPRING BETWEEN THE ROD AND TUBULAR SUPPORT MEMBER URGES THE CLEANING TOOL AGAINST THE SEALING SURFACE AND THE FRICTION BETWEEN THE SCRAPER PORTION OF THE CLEANING TOOL AND THE SEALING SURFACE PIVOTS THE CLEANING TOOL AND ARM MEMBER RELATIVE TO THE LEVER MEMBERS SO THAT ONLY ONE SCRAPER CONTACTS THE SEALING SURFACE DURING THE CLEANING OPERATION.

Description

Oct. 5, 197i w. STANKE EVAL 3,609,736

APPARATUS FOR CLEANING THE SEALING SURFACES OFDOORS AND DOOR JAMES OF BY-PRODUGT COKE OVENS Filed Oct. l5, 1969 7 2a l 50 Il 60 70 Il 76 46 ,1 42 x 38 22 /00\ II 11H1 M /02 9a I l I] a lmjj?Lum d] /o Il It' 54 \\\jll lyf\ #if Z752 /04 l l I 72 74 66 x i 64 f sa so f' 2o I /NVENTORS WALTER STA/VIVE and GOTTFR/EQ @E RTENS fha/'r Attorney United States Patent O 3,609,786 APPARATUS FOR CLEANING THE SEALING SURFACES F DOORS AND DOOR JAMBS OF BY-PRODUCT COKE OVEN S Walter Stanke and Gottfried Mertens, Essen, Germany,

assignors to Heinrich Kappers Gesellschaft mit beschrankter Haftung, Essen, Germany Filed Oct. 13, 1969, Ser. No. 865,637 Claims priority, application Germany, Oct. 26, 1968, I 18 05 388.8 Int. Cl. Clb 43/04 U.S. Cl. -93 8 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE The cleaning apparatus includes a cleaning tool with a base portion having a pair of spaced Scrapers extending therefrom in diverging relation to each other. An arm member extends rearwardly from the cleaning tool base portion. A rod member is pivotally secured to the rear end portion of the arm member and extends forwardly therefrom toward the cleaning tool base portion. An intermediate tubular support member is coaxially positioned on the rod member and has a transverse connecting portion adjacent the front end. A pair of levers are connected to the transverse connecting member and extend rearwardly therefrom and the other ends of the pair of levers are pivotally connected to a fixed frame member. A drive mechanism is provided to reciprocally move the cleaning tool along a sealing surface of a coke oven door or door jamb. A spring between the rod and tubular support member urges the cleaning tool against the sealing surface and the friction between the scraper portion of the cleaning tool and the sealing surface pivots the cleaning tool and arm member relative to the lever members so that only one scraper contacts the sealing surface during the cleaning operation.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION (l) Field of the invention This invention relates to apparatus for cleaning surfaces and more particularly to apparatus for cleaning the sealing surfaces of doors and door jambs of by-product coke ovens.

(2) Description of the prior art A conventional by-product coke oven battery includes a series of horizontal coke oven chambers with openings on opposite ends thereof. Coke oven doors seal the openings during the coking operation and are removed during the pushing or removal of the coke charge. It is essential during the coking operation that a positive seal exist between each coke oven door and the door jamb in which it is positioned. The conventional self sealing coke oven doors include a frame with a raised knife edge portion and adjacent planar portions extending around the periphery of the door. The door jamb on the coke oven chamber also includes peripheral planar surfaces that mate with the knife edge portion of the door and other portions of the door to provide a seal therebetween. During the operation of the coke ovens the sealing surfaces on the coke oven door and door jambs become encrusted with a carbonaceous material of a pitchy nature and this material must be completely removed from the sealing surfaces before the door can be replaced with a positive seal between the door and the underlying door jamb.

The known scraper type cleaning tools used to remove the encrusted carbonaceous material have scraping edges arranged at the same angle to the sealing surfaces and all the scraping edges are in abutting relation with the sealing surfaces during the cleaning operation. The known Scrapers are suitable for scraping off the deposits and pushing the dislodged deposits in front of the scraper as it moves linearly along a sealing edge or surface. When the direction of movement of the scraper or cleaning tool is reversed, the dislodged carbonaceous material, because of its pitchy nature, adheres to the sealing surface on either the dor or the door jamb. This is especially true where a horizbontal sealing surface forms a corner with a vertical sealing surface. Because of the above difficulty, after the termination of the cleaning process, most of the sealing surface is free from deposits. Small accumulations of the adhered deposits remain, however, at the locations where the direction of the cleaning tools was reversed and also in the recessed corners. To obtain a reliable seal it is now necessary in many instances to manually remove the remaining adhered deposits. This reduces substantially the advantages of mechanical cleaning apparatus.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The hereinafter described door and door jamb cleaning apparatus eliminates the above discussed problems in that only one of the scrapers is in abutting scraping relation with the sealing surface. Upon reversal, the scraper is lifted from the sealing surface in a manner that the deposits adhering to the scraper and the sealing surface are removed from the sealing surface with the scraper.

The cleaning apparatus includes a cleaning tool with a pair of spaced forwardly extending and diverging cleaning surfaces. The cleaning tool has a rearwardly extending arm member that is pivotally connected to a forwardly extending intermediate support. A pair of spaced levers are pivotally secured adjacent one end to the intermediate support and at the other end to a frame member. The pivot axis between the intermediate support and arm member is located between the pivot axes for the opposite ends of the lever member. A resilient means urges the cleaning tool against the sealing surface so that the friction between the scraper and the sealing surface during movement of the cleaning tool causes the arm and cleaning tool to pivot relative to the pair of lever members and engage only the front scraper in the direction of movement of the cleaning tool. When the direction of the cleaning tool is reversed, the trailing scraper is liftedfrom the sealing surface with the dislodged material adhering thereto. The cutting tool may also comprise several scraper blades positioned in overlying vertical relation to each other and arranged to clean sealing surfaces of different elevation at different cleaning pressures.

Accordingly, the principal object of this invention is to provide scraper-like cleaning apparatus for the sealing surfaces of coke oven doors and door jambs that removes the dislodged carbonaceous material adhering to both the scraper and the sealing surface upon reversal in the direction of the cleaning tool.

Another object of this invention is to provide cleaning apparatus that effectively removes the dislodged carbonaceous material from corners between vertical and horizontal sealing surfaces.

These and other objects and advantages of this invention will be more completely disclosed and described in the following specification, the accompanying drawings and the appended claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. is a top plan view of the cleaning apparatus for cleaning the upper horizontal sealing edge of a coke oven door.

FIG. 2 is a View in section taken along the line 2-2 of FIG. 1.

3 DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Although the hereinafter description is, for illustrative purposes, directed to apparatus for cleaning the upper horizontal sealing edge of a coke oven door, apparatus similar to that illustrated in FIGS. l and 2 may also be used for cleaning both the vertical and horizontal sealing surfaces of doors and door jambs of coke ovens and it iS not intended to be restricted to the Specific embodiment illustrated.

Referring to the drawings there is illustrated schematically in FIGS. 1 and 2 a coke oven door generally designated by the numeral that includes a refractory plug 12, an upper horizontal sealing strip |14 and a pair of

vertical sealing strips

16 and 18 illustrated by dotted lines in FIG. l. The sealing strips 14 include a planar surface 20 and a forwardly extending knife edge type sealing Surface 22. The junction between the

vertical portions

16 and 18 and the horizontal portion 14 forms recessed corners 24.

The planar surface 20 and the knife edge portion 22 of door 10 accumulate carbonaceous sticky material thereon during the coking process and it is essential that the carbonaceous material be cleaned and removed therefrom vbefore the door is again repositioned in the door jamb so that there is an effective seal therebetween. The coke oven door jamb has similar surfaces that accumulate carbonaceous material thereon that also has to be removed before an effective seal can be accomplished between the door and the door jamb.

Apparatus for cleaning the sealing surfaces is illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2 and the cleaning apparatus is generally designated by the numeral 26. Secured to the front end of the cleaning apparatus 26 adjacent the sealing surfaces of the coke oven door 10 is a cleaning tool generally designated by the numeral 28. The cleaning tool 28 has a first body portion 30 with a pair of forwardly extending Scrapers or

scraper blades

32 and 34. The Scrapers 32 and 34 are spaced from each other and are in diverging relation to each other. The Scrapers 32 and 34 are arranged to remove the carbonaceous deposits from the horizontal planar surface 20. The cleaning tool 28 also has a second body portion 36 that is secured to the iirst mentioned body portion 30. A pair of Scrapers 38 and 40 extend forwardly from the body portion 36 and are in diverging relation to each other. The Scrapers 38 and 40 are positioned above the

Scrapers

32 and 34 and are arranged to abut the knife edge sealing surface 22 and remove the carbonaceous material therefrom. The upper portion of cleaning tool 28 comprising body portion 3.6 and

Scrapers

38 and 40 may be fabricated of a more resilient material than the

Scrapers

32 and 34 so that a predetermined scraping pressure is exerted on the selected

sealing surfaces

20 and 22.

The cleaning tool body portion 30 is secured to a transverse member I42 that forms a portion of the arm member generally designated by the numeral 44. The arm member 44 extends rearwardly from the cleaning tool 28 and has an upper plate member 46 and a lower plate member 48 that are arranged in parallel relation to each other and have a pair of aligned

apertures

50 and 52 adjacent the rear end portion. A cylindrical bearing 54 extends between the

aligned apertures

50 and 52 and bolt 56 secures the

plates

46 and 48 in spaced relation adjacent the rear end portion.

An intermediate support generally designated by the numeral 60 is positioned between the

plates

46 and 48 of arm member 44 and includes a rod member 62 that is threadedly secured in a transverse sleeve 64. The sleeve 64 is coaxially positioned around the bolt 56 so that the axis of bolt 56 provides a pivot axis between the rear end of the arm 44 and the rear end of the intermediate support 60. The rod member 62 with sleeve 64 is free to rotate about the bolt 56 to thereby provide a pivot connection therebetween. The rod 62 extends forwardly from the sleeve 64 and is positioned within a horizontal slotted portion 66 of the member 42. A tubular member 68 is coaxially positioned on the rod member 62 and has an end portion 70 with an aperture 72 therethrough for the rod 62. The rod 62 has an annular clamp 74 thereon and spring 76 is positioned between the claimp 74 and the tubular end portion 70. The spring 76, as later explained, is arranged to urge the cleaning tool 28 into abutting relation with the sealing surfaces.

The tubular member 68 has a pair of

transverse channel members

78 and 80 secured thereto and extending transversely beyond the edges of the

members

46 and 48. The

channel members

78 and 80 have vertical aligned apertures therethrough for receiving

bolts

82 and 84.

Positioned above the arm member 44 and intermediate support 60 are a pair of

levers

86 and 90. The front end of

levers

86 and 90 are pivotally secured to the transverse mem-

bers

78 and 80 of intermediate support .60 by means of

bolts

82 and 84. The opposite ends of the

levers

86 and 90 are pivotally secured t0 the frame member 92 by bolts 94 and 96. With this arrangement the

levers

86 and 90 are operable to move the cleaning tool 28 in a generally arcuate path relative to the sealing surfaces 20 and 22. As later explained, the spring 76 compensates for the arcuate path and maintains the scraper blades in abutting relation with the sealing surfaces 20 and 22.

The apparatus for pivoting the

levers

86 and 90 includes an arcuate gear Segment 98 nonrotatably connected to the lever 86 through a flexible coupling 100. A pinion gear 102 meshes with the gear segment 98 and is driven through a suitable reducer i104 by motor 106. With this arrangement the gear segment 98 rotates

levers

86 and 90 so that the levers pivot about the pivot axes of bolts 94 and 96 to follow the arcuate path illustrated in phantom lines in FIG. l. Upon reversal the levers 86 and move the cleaning tool 28 in the opposite direction to thereby move the cleaning tool 28 reciprocally along the sealing surfaces to thereby remove the accumulation of carbonaceous material by the Scrapers extending forwardly from the cleaning tool 28.

OPERATION The cleaning apparatus 26 operates in the following manner. The frame member 92 is moved into the position illustrated in FIG. 2 relative to the coke oven door 10. The frame is `advanced so that the

Scrapers

32, 34, 38 and 40 abut the

respective surfaces

20 and 22 and the frame 92 is advanced further to compress the spring 76 between the

abutments

72 and 74 to thereby continually urge the scraper blades against the sealing surfaces.

When the motor 106 is energized, the

levers

86 and 90 are pivotally moved, for illustrative purposes, toward the phantom illustration of the arm 44. Before linear movement of the cleaning tool is initiated, there is frictional contact between the front edge of the Scrapers and the sealing surfaces. The force exerted by the

levers

86 and 90 is opposed by the frictional force between the scraper blade and the sealing surface. The frictional force pivots the arm 44 about the pivot axis of bolt 56 to lift the rear scraper blade away from the sealing surface, as is illustrated in phantom in FIG. l. With this arrangement the only scraper blade in contact with the sealing surface is the front scraper blade, determined by the direction of movement of the cleaning tool. The Same is true for the

blades

38 and 40. It should be noted that the

transverse members

78 and 80 are movable between the

plates

46 and 48 of the arm 44 to compensate for the arcuate movement as illustrated in FIG. l.

When the scraper blade moves to the end of the sealing strip, as illustrated in phantom in FIG. 1, the ilexible coupling retains a pressure on the

levers

86 and 90 to maintain the cleaning tool 28 in the position illustrated in phantom. When the direction of motion of the cleaning tool 28 is reversed, the

Scrapers

32 and 38 are first lifted from the sealing surfaces 20 and 22 before the cleaning tool 28 begins movement in the opposite direction. The frictional resistance between the

scraper blades

34 and 40 and surfaces 20 and 22 rst pivots the arm 44 in the direction opposite to that illustrated in FIG. l to thereby first lift the

scrapers

32 and 38 from the sealing surfaces. The lifting of the

Scrapers

32 and 38 from the sealing surfaces removes the dislodged sticky deposits that were transported to this location from the sealing surfaces. The

Scrapers

34 and 40 that were simultaneously applied when Scrapers 32 and 3S were lifted, now scrape the sealing surfaces to the other end of the sealing strip. This motion may be repeated several times to thereby remove all of the carbonaceous material.

With this arrangement, where the pivot axis for the arm 44 and the intermediate support 60 is positioned behind the pivot axis for the

levers

86 and 90 and the front portion of the intermediate support 60, the arm 44 will automatically pivot so that only one scraper blade in the direction of movement of the cleaning tool is in abutting cleaning relation with the sealing surface. It should be noted that the cleaning tool has a pair of scraper blades that diverge away from each other at an obtuse angle to the body portion. This arrangement facilitates the removal of the sticky carbonaceous material when the scraper blade is removed from the sealing surface.

According to the provisions of the patent statutes, we have explained the principle, preferred construction and mode of operation of our invention and have illustrated and described what we now consider to represent its best embodiment.

We claim:

1. Apparatus for cleaning the sealing surfaces of a byproduct coke oven comprising:

a cleaning tool having a body portion with a pair 0f spaced scraper members,

a pair of levers pivotally secured adjacent one end portion to a frame member,

an intermediate support member pivotally connected adjacent one end to said cleaning tool body portion and adjacent the other end to said levers adjacent said lever other end portions,

said cleaning tool body portion and said intermediate support being pivotally connected to each other at a location between the opposite end portions of said levers,

drive means to pivot said levers and move said cleaning tool in a generally reciprocal path along a sealing surface, and

resilient means to urge said cleaning tool against said sealing surface so that upon movement of said cleaning tool relative to said sealing surface said cleaning tool body portion pivots relative to said intermediate support member and only one of said pair of spaced scraper members engages said sealing surface.

2. Apparatus for cleaning the sealing surface of a byproduct coke oven as set forth in claim 1 in which:

said cleaning tool body portion is movable longitudinally relative to said intermediate support.

3. Apparatus for cleaning the sealing surfaces of a byproduct coke oven as set forth in claim 1 in which:

said scraper members extend divergently from said body portion at obtuse angles to said body portion.

4. Apparatus for cleaning the sealing surfaces of a by-product coke oven as set forth in claim 1 in which:

said cleaning tool includes a second body portion positioned above said first body portion and having a pair of spaced scraper members extend forwardly therefrom,

said second body portion and Scrapers extending therefrom formed of a resilient material to thereby control the force exerted on a second sealing surface.

5. Apparatus for cleaning the sealing surfaces of a by-product coke oven as set forth in claim 1 in which:

said cutting tool body portion includes a rearwardly extending arm member having a pair of spaced plate members with a pivot pin adjacent the rear end thereof. 6. Apparatus for cleaning the sealing surface of a by-product coke oven as set forth in claim 5 in which:

said intermediate support member includes a rod member secured to a transverse sleeve member,

said sleeve member positioned coaxially on said pivot pin between said arm plate members,

a tubular member positioned coaxially on said rod member and having transverse members secured to the front end thereof.

7. Apparatus for cleaning the sealing surfaces of a by-product coke oven as set forth in claim 6 in which:

said tubular member and said rod member each have abutment members thereon,

said resilient means is positioned between said abutment members and urges said cleaning tool against said sealing surface.

8. Apparatus for cleaning the sealing surfaces 0f a by-product coke oven as set forth in claim 6 in which:

said pair of levers are pivotally secured to said transverse member on opposite sides of said arm member, and

said arm member being movable longitudinally relative to said intermediate support.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 12/1941 Hawkins 15-93B 6/1961 Randell et al 15-93A 8/1968 Spindeler 15-93A U..S. Cl. X.R.