Abstract: To enable a segment of a cluster of bottom and top guide rolls to be readily replaced in a curved guide rack of a continuous casting installation, two fixed guide rails extend generally radially with respect to the curved guide rack at the two opposite sides of the guide roll support, rollers at opposite sides of the support engaging the guide rails for movement therealong, each guide rail including at least one portion inclined in relation to the generally radial direction of the guide rail and so disposed that, when the support is displaced along the guide rails, the support is pivoted into a skewed position which permits the support to pass between the two outer top guide rolls of two like segments adjacent thereto.

Abstract: An installation for the thermal treatment of a pulverulent mineral product by gases has a support frame at a first level, a furnace for the thermal treatment of the pulverulent mineral product in suspension in hot gases generated by the combustion of air and a fuel, two groups of series-connected cyclones connected to the furnace, one of the groups of cyclones being arranged upstream of the furnace and the other group of cyclones being arranged downstream of the furnace, and conduits connecting the cyclones to each other and to the furnace so that exhaust gases from the furnace pass successively through all the cyclones of the one group while a current of air passes through all the cyclones of the other group before entering the furnace to serve as the combustion air, the exhaust gases heating the product before it enters the furnace and the air current cooling the treated product.

Abstract: To cut building and operating costs, a heat exchange apparatus for thermally treating a pulverulent material by a countercurrent flow of gas comprises a series of superposed successive separators, each separator having a cylindrical body with a horizontal axis and the cylindrical body having two ports at respective ends and another port at a mid-point thereof. Gas ducts connect the successive separators in series so that the smoke gas flows from a furnace in a current through the successive separators in a first direction. Respective gas ducts lead to and from the ports of respective separators tangentially with respect to the cylindrical body thereof.

Abstract: An apparatus for deburring a product of continuous casting, which comprises a support frame including two vertical side plates defining respective guides in alignment with each other in a direction transverse to the longitudinal extension of the product and the guides having open ends, the guides extending downwardly from the open ends in a direction substantially perpendicular to the surface of the product, and crossbeams extending in the transverse direction and interconnecting the side plates. A girder having two ends is glidably mounted in two transversely aligned ones of the guides and a burr cutter is mounted on the girder. Two superposed rollers defining a nip therebetween for passage of the product are rotatable for displacing the product in the longitudinal direction and have journals glidably mounted in two additional ones of the transversely aligned guides.

Abstract: To permit a method of controlling the cooling of a cast product in a continuous casting installation to be effected at the beginning of casting, it is proposed to calculate periodically the value of the quantity of cooling water delivered at the start of casting to one of the cooling sections between the moments when an end of the cast product enters and leaves the one cooling section, the latter value being calculated by integrating the values of the quantities of cooling water calculated for the elements in the one cooling section and a fictitious portion of the cast product occupying a part of this one section between a downstream end thereof and the end of the cast product, said fictitious portion having a fictitious age determined as a function of the position of said portion in the casting installation and a fictitious extraction speed equal to the average of the average extraction speeds of the fictitious elements of the cast product in the one cooling section.

Abstract: An apparatus for controlling and guiding oscillations of a mold having an outlet for a continuous casting, comprises a fixed support, a first connecting rod pivotally connected to the mold at one end thereof, a first cam shaft carried by the fixed support, the first cam shaft having an axis extending perpendicularly to the axis of the continuous casting or to the direction of a tangent on the axis at a point adjacent the mold outlet and parallel to a vertical plane containing the axis, an end of the first connecting rod opposite to the one end being mounted on the first cam shaft, a second connecting rod pivotally connected to the mold at an end thereof, and a second cam shaft carried by the fixed support, the second cam shaft having a horizontal axis extending perpendicularly to the axis of the first cam shaft, an end of the second connecting rod opposite to the one end being mounted on the second cam shaft, the mounting of each connecting rod on a respective one of the cam shafts being arranged to prevent a

Abstract: A process for the calcination of a solid pulverulent material comprises the steps of gasifying a solid fuel in a fluidized bed to produce an ascending current of gaseous fuel, and injecting the material in an oxidizing carrier gas into the ascending gaseous fuel current above the fluidized bed of solid fuel to disperse the pulverulent material in the gaseous fuel current, the flow velocity of the gases in the zone of injection of the material into the current being sufficient to entrain the material in the gases and to prevent them from falling into the fluidized bed. An apparatus for the calcination comprises a calcination chamber whose bottom is a grid carrying a bed of solid fuel through which air is blown to produce the ascending current of gaseous fuel in the chamber. An array of nozzles in an upper portion of the chamber is used to inject the pulverulent material suspended in the carrier gas into the chamber above the fluidized bed.

Abstract: To permit the utilization of high-sulfur content solid fuels in the production of cement clinker in rotary kilns, the solid fuel is gasified and the gasified fuel is contacted with a fraction of the raw material used for the production of the cement clinker to desulfurize the gasified fuel, the desulfurized gasified fuel being delivered to a calcination stage and/or the rotary kiln for furnishing calories thereto.

Abstract: The cooling of a cast steel slab in a continuous casting installation is controlled by dividing the cast product into successive fictitious elements and periodically calculating the water flow values of the cooling water delivered to the successive cooling sections in the secondary cooling zone of the installation as a function of the age of the elements in these sections. The quantity of heat extracted in the mold is taken into account by periodically determining the water flow values in the different zones by means of a computer on the basis of a first curve giving the variations of the quantity of heat extracted from a unitary mass of the cast product as a function of the time while the cast product passes from the point of emergence from the mold to at least the zone of solidification, and a second curve giving the variations of the surface temperature of the cast product during this passage as a function of time.

Abstract: An installation for the dry manufacture of cement comprises a preheater heat-exchange unit of series-connected cyclones, a precalcination kiln and another cyclone associated therewith, a clinkerization kiln and a clinker cooling chamber associated with this kiln. To distribute the hot air coming from the cooling chamber suitably between the precalcination and clinkerization kilns, a device is provided for creating a gas pressure loss in the circuit between the last cyclone of the preheater and a point where a smoke gas outlet conduit of the cyclone associated with the precalcination kiln is connected to the circuit downstream of the last cyclone.

Abstract: To permit the utilization of high-sulfur content solid fuels in the production of cement clinker in rotary kilns, the solid fuel is gasified and the gasified fuel is contacted with a fraction of the raw material used for the production of the cement clinker to desulfurize the gasified fuel, the desulfurized gasified fuel being delivered to a calcination stage and/or the rotary kiln for furnishing calories thereto.

Abstract: Sulfur is readily and efficiently removed from solid fuel in a boiler installation which comprises a hearth for burning and thereby gasifying the solid fuel, the hearth including a grid supporting a fluidized bed of the solid fuel spread thereover, and a tubular boiler body superimposed on, and integral with, the hearth, the boiler body including a lower portion receiving the gasified fuel from the hearth, an upper portion, a common transverse wall dividing the tubular boiler body into the lower and upper portions, and a burner extending into the upper boiler body portion near the dividing transverse wall and receiving a supply of secondary combustion air. A conduit connects the lower boiler body portion to the burner for feeding the gasified fuel therefrom to the burner, and dust removing and desulfurization cyclones in the conduit remove dust and sulfur from the gasified fuel.

Abstract: A downflow evaporator for concentrating a descending stream of liquid containing solids comprises a bundle of downflow tubes having open upper ends affixed to an upper tube sheet and open lower ends affixed to a lower tube sheet, the tubes receiving the stream of liquid through the upper ends and discharging it through the lower ends. The liquid is caused to cascade over the entire surface of the upper tube sheet whereby the liquid is distributed thereover and over the open upper tube ends. A covering is placed over the upper end of each downflow tube and spaced therefrom so as to prevent the liquid from dripping into the central portion of the tube whereby the stream of liquid descends peripherally along the inner surface of the tube.

Abstract: To increase the percentage of crystallized lactose obtained from lactoserum substantially without noticeably increasing investment costs or energy consumption, the first phase of crystallization is effectuated in a continuous crystallization stage wherein seeds of crystallization are added to the lactoserum to initiate crystallization, the lactoserum is concentrated, the concentrated lactoserum is brought to a supersaturated state and maintained at this stage by evaporation to obtain a mixture of mother liquor and lactose crystals, which is subjected to two centrifugal drying stages to obtain a first portion of large lactose crystals and a second portion of such crystals grown by cooling.

Abstract: Cement clinker is produced from cold, dry, finely divided raw material by causing hot flue gases to flow in a first direction out of a rotary kiln and suspending a major portion of the finely divided raw material in the hot flue gases until the raw material has been preheated and at least partially decarbonized. The preheated and at least partially decarbonized raw material is introduced into the kiln. A fraction of the cold, dry, finely divided raw material is pneumatically injected into an end of the kiln to flow countercurrently to said first direction approximately parallel to the axis of the kiln to form a dust cloud of the raw material occupying substantially the entire cross section of the kiln at said end, the end being upstream with respect to a second direction of flow of the raw material into the kiln.

Abstract: The invention is an apparatus for removing a dummy bar from a casting line and reintroducing the dummy bar into the mold. The apparatus comprises a handling system for moving a basket from an end station where the dummy bar is separated from a continuous casting to a position above the mold of the casting installation. The system includes a lifting frame capable of holding the basket, a raising device having one end attached to the lifting frame for vertically raising the lifting frame, a travel frame supporting and end of a raising device opposite to the one end, the travel frame having vertical runways capable of receiving and guiding the raised lifting frame, and a horizontal pathway supporting the travel frame for movement to and from the position above the mold.

Abstract: A protective device for a discharge end of a tubular rotary kiln comprises a flange extending radially outwardly of the metal kiln shell, a metallic ring affixed to the flange and arranged concentric with the shell at the discharge end, and a refractory ring covering the metallic ring and the front face of the flange. Two sleeves concentrically surrounding the external surface of the metal shell to define respective inner and outer annular chambers through which cooling air is circulated to cool the rear face of the flange, a space between the metallic ring and the internal surface of the metal shell communicating with the outer annular chamber through a passage between the rear face of the flange and the discharge end, and with the inner annular chamber through a port in the metal shell spaced inwardly of the discharge end.

Abstract: One end of the mobile jaw of a jaw crusher is supported on the crusher frame by an eccentric shaft and a connecting rod supports the other mobile jaw end on a crossbeam pivotally mounted on the frame. The crossbeam has a rear extension accessible from outside the frame and a control wedge is positioned on a bracket affixed to the frame between the bracket and the crossbeam extension. A safety system acts on the crossbeam extension for preventing pivoting thereof when the force applied by the mobile jaw to the crossbeam remains below a predetermined value, the safety system pressing the crossbeam extension against the control wedge.

Abstract: In a bucket elevator having two traction members guided in parallel loops by upper and lower guide wheels, and buckets spacedly mounted between the traction members, the rim of at least one of the upper guide wheels defines a free space about its axis of rotation, and one or more rollers mounted on the supporting structure in the free space engage the rim for supporting and/or driving the wheel so that the material discharged from the buckets during travel over the upper guide wheels can be conveyed further by a chute extending axially through the one upper guide wheel.

Abstract: A centrifugal drier comprises a conical bowl mounted in a housing for rotation about a vertical shaft. A circular wall concentrically surrounds the bowl and separates the housing chamber into a first compartment receiving the liquid from the rotating bowl and a second compartment receiving the separated solids therefrom. A skirt surrounds an upper part of the bowl and is affixed thereto. An annular baffle is affixed to the circular wall and extends between the wall and a lower skirt part. The circular wall, the skirt and the baffle define an annular space in communication with the first chamber. Rotation of the bowl and skirt affixed thereto causes the liquid to be forced centrifugally from the bowl into the first chamber and liquid droplets to be suspended in an air current in the annular space. A fibrous mat is disposed in this space and surrounds the skirt to trap the suspended liquid droplets and permit the liquid to run by gravity into the first chamber.