Abstract: A method and apparatus for controlling the gauge of a product, such as for example a rod or bar, as the product is passing from an upstream roll stand to a finishing block. The product is rolled under tension between successive sizing stands arranged between the upstream roll stand and the finishing block. Variable loops are introduced in the product between the upstream stand and the first sizing stand as well as between the second sizing stand and the finishing block. Cross sectional dimensional measurements are taken of the product emerging from the second sizing stand, and signals representative of such measurements are employed by a controller to vary the product tension between the sizing stands in order to correct off gauge conditions in the product emerging from the second sizing stand.

Abstract: A mass flow control system for a wire drawing machine wherein wire is drawn through a die by a rotating block driven by a variable speed motor. The thus drawn wire is accumulated as a plurality of windings on the block before being removed therefrom via a guide. The guide is arranged on a carrier ring which rotates independently of the block about the axis of block rotation when a difference exists between the rates at which wire is wound onto and removed from the block. The control system includes a motion detector for generating electrical signals representative of the direction and speed of rotation of the carrier ring. Controls associated with the drive motor and responsive to the aforesaid signals adjust the rotational speed of the block in order to reach a steady state condition where wire is being wound onto and removed from the block at the same rate, and the carrier ring remains motionless.

Abstract: A seal for use on the tapered section of a roll neck in a rolling mill. The seal has a flexible circular body with a circular lip and a circular flange at one end thereof. The lip extends axially from the body and the flange extends radially from the body and normal or perpendicular with respect to the body axis when the seal is in an unstressed condition. The seal is adapted to be axially received on and to be radially stressed by the tapered roll neck section with an accompanying radial expansion of the lip which produces a circumferential bending moment tending to angularly distort the flange from its perpendicular orientation to the seal axis. An internal circular shoulder on the seal body, coacts with the tapered roll neck section to counteract the bending moment and thereby prevent distortion of the flange.

Abstract: A circular coolant seal has a base flange arranged in a base plane perpendicular to the seal axis. A flexible resilient sealing flange is integrally joined at one edge to the base flange and terminates at its opposite edge in a sealing lip located in a sealing plane parallel to and spaced axially from the base plane. The sealing lip has a first portion extending from the base flange angularly away from the base plane and inwardly towards the seal axis to an intermediate hinge portion, and a second portion extending from the hinge portion away from the seal axis and angularly towards the sealing plane. The configuration, flexibility and resilience of the sealing flange is such that axial displacement of the sealing lip in relation to the base flange is accompanied by both axial and radial displacement of the hinge portion.

Abstract: A conveyor has successive mutually spaced driven rollers in which hot rolled steel rod is transported in the form of overlapping offset rings. The rings are rapidly air cooled by first nozzles which direct first jets of cooling air upwardly to impinge against and to flow around the conveyor rollers, and by second nozzles which direct second jets of cooling air upwardly between the rollers. The first and and second jets of cooling air produce respective first and second velocity profiles, each having an average velocity. The arrangement of the first and second nozzles in relation to each other and to the conveyor rollers is such that the velocity profiles of the first and second jets are superimposed one over the other to produce a broader combined velocity profile having an average velocity greater than that of either the first or second velocity profiles.

Abstract: A rolling mill roll stand has a housing removably mounted on a lower bridge. A pair of work rolls and their respective bearings and bearing chocks are contained within the housing. Separating devices act on the bearing chocks to maintain a gap between the work rolls. Hydraulic roll positioning cylinders are carried in the lower bridge and are arranged to act on the bearing chocks of one of the work rolls. The housing together with the work rolls, bearing chocks and separating devices is removable as a unit from the lower bridge, while allowing the hydraulic positioning cylinders to remain undisturbed.

Abstract: A method for rolling and heat treating small diameter stainless steel rod, comprising the following sequence of steps: cooling the rod prior to and during finish rolling to increase its stiffness; passing the rod through a sizing mill to achieve close tolerances; subjecting the rod to additional water cooling to thereby improve its resistance to surface scratching; forming the rod into rings which are received in an offset pattern on an open moving conveyor; subjecting the offset rings moving along the conveyor to a solid solutioning treatment by reheating and water quenching the same; and then air cooling and drying the rings before collecting them into coils.

Abstract: The dimensions of a product passing through the finishing block of a roll rolling mill are measured. Where the dimensions of the product exiting the last finishing stand are out-of-tolerance, a calculation is made to determine the extent to which the roll parting of the work rolls of one of the two last finishing stands must be adjusted to bring the product into tolerance. Based on the calculated adjustment, progressively smaller adjustments are made to the roll partings of the work rolls of the upstream finishing stands to distribute the work which must be performed on the product to bring the product into tolerance.

Abstract: Apparatus is provided whereby maximum options for the treatment of steel rod in direct sequence with rolling are available within a single piece of equipment, all on a single treatment line, and all at convenient, labor free, push-button control. Maximum application of heat to the rod is provided for heat treating, slow-cooling or intermittent reheat cooling or treating, and alternatively maximum application of cooling air is available by means of individually controllable air ducts and guides associated with each roller conveyor for applying air at different pressures both across and/or along the conveyor. Special means for applying forced air to the rod through outlets in contact with the rod assure maximum penetration of cooling air into the dense parts of the lay. Special forms of rollers are provided for applying cooling air to the rod and to the rollers as well as for supporting rod during heat treatment.

Abstract: An apparatus for assembling tubes, bars, rods and other like elongated elements preparatory to bundling the same.

Abstract: A single strand rolling mill has successive pairs of work rolls arranged to roll rod and bar products in a twist-free manner. The work rolls are carried on roll shafts included as part of roll packages which are detachably mounted to gear housings, and the gear housings contain intermediate drive shafts and intermeshed gears connected via line shaft segments and intermeshed bevel gears to a primary mill drive. The gear housings are carried on a base which is made up of a flat vertically upstanding structural member standing on edge and joined to an underlying base plate. The structural member extends beneath and in parallel relationship to the rolling line. Rib members extend laterally away from and are spaced along opposite sides of the structural member. The rib members are joined on edge to both the structural member and the base plate and have upper support edges on which the gear housings are secured.

Abstract: A level winding apparatus for coiling elongated material, such as wire or tube, into a compact coil. A non-contacting device located near a spooling arrangement for coiling consists of at least two parallel spaced-apart arm arrangements each located on either side of the material as it is wound onto a spool. Each arm arrangement is adjustable to accommodate the transverse dimension of the material and carries a photoelectric control unit having fiber optic carrying cables connected to transmitter and receiver means for creating a high intensity light field extending at least a length to accommodate a range of paths of travel the material takes from the feeding means to the spool starting from an empty spool to build-up of the coil. An undesirable approach angle of the material onto the spool is detected and a correction is made so that the formed coil contains a number of superimposed layers each with a number of evenly and closely abutting adjacent windings.

Abstract: A novel, heat curable, liquid polymer composition is disclosed which comprises a modified urethane oligomer containing terminal ethylenic unsaturation and a free radical catalyst. In a preferred embodiment, the polymer composition further includes at least one additional component selected from a reinforcing agent and a filler; the cured composition demonstrates enhanced impact properties and is particularly useful in automotive body constructions.

Abstract: An arrangement for and method of operation for threading strand-like material such as wire or tubing around a grooved type, rotatable block assembly wherein tension is needed to pull the material through a reduction die, includes a plate mounted on the same shaft as the block. This plate supports three devices used in a time sequence relationship in said threading operation for the drawing process: a gripper arm for grasping the pointed end and introducing it into the groove; a shear for severing the pointed end; and a deflector mechanism for guiding the material away from the block assembly. Clutch assemblies are selectively operated to place the plate into and out of engagement with the drawing block for the plate's rotation therewith and it's non-rotation.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for quenching steel rod in a high speed rolling mill is provided wherein a liquid coolant is preliminarily applied to the rod prior to its exiting from the mill finishing train in order to increase the column strength of the exiting rod by lowering the surface temperature thereof to less than about 950.degree. C. Thereafter, as the rod progresses through additional liquid cooling devices on the way to the mill laying head, tractive forces are applied to the rod. The aforesaid increase in rod column strength acts in concert with the application of tractive force to insure that the rod has sufficient rigidity and forward momentum to pass from the finishing train through the liquid cooling devices and to and through the laying head.

Abstract: In a wire drawing machine having at least one station with upper and lower blocks and an associated spinner carrying a transfer sheave, the blocks and spinner being rotatable relative to each other about a common axis defined by a drive shaft to which the lower block is drivingly connected, the improvement comprising controllably shifting the spinner axially on the drive shaft into and out of frictional contact with the lower block.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for imparting a three-dimensionally curved configuration to a straight elongated element wherein one end of the element is removably supported with its axis coincident with a reference axis. The element is partially pre-bent away from the reference axis into conformity with a two-dimensional first guide path. Thereafter, the pre-bent element is bent into conformity with a three-dimensional helical second guide path.

Abstract: A process for rolling steel rod is provided whereby rolling rod at delivery speeds in excess of 15,000 fpm and cooling same after laying it in spread-out ring form on a conveyor is made feasible with less risk of cobbles and improved rod quality especially in the medium to high carbon content range by entering the rod after rolling into the laying head and thereafter cooling same non-uniformly through a grain size growing phase and a transformation phase with the non-uniformity of cooling rate during the transformation phase being kept in substantially inverse proportion to the differences in effective grain size established in the first phase.

Abstract: A coolant seal for use in a rolling mill wherein the neck of a roll is rotatably supported in an oil film bearing contained within a bearing chock, with a seal assembly located between the roll end face and the bearing chock to retain oil in the bearing and to exclude contaminants such as cooling water, mill scale, etc. from the bearing. The seal assembly includes a circular seal end plate fixed relative to the bearing chock at a location surrounding a circular flanged seal mounted on the roll neck for rotation therewith. The coolant seal is circular, with a radially disposed mounting flange integrally joined at its inner edge to a sealing flange extending angularly and flexibly therefrom. The mounting flange is secured to a mounting surface on the seal end plate at a location placing the sealing flange in frictional contact with the roll end face.

Abstract: Apparatus is provided whereby maximum options for the treatment of steel rod in direct sequence with rolling are available within a single piece of equipment, all on a single treatment line, and all at convenient, labor free, push-button control. Maximum application of heat to the rod is provided for heat treating, slow-cooling or intermittent reheat cooling or treating, and alternatively maximum application of cooling air is available by means of individually controllable air ducts and guides associated with each roller conveyor for applying air at different pressures both across and/or along the conveyor. Special means for applying forced air to the rod through outlets in contact with the rod assure maximum penetration of cooling air into the dense parts of the lay. Special forms of rollers are provided for applying cooling air to the rod and to the rollers as well as for supporting rod during heat treatment.