Abstract: There is provided an apparatus and method for selectively coiling a hot steel transfer bar or allowing the bar to pass uncoiled through the apparatus. A frame supports a number of rollers which can transfer a bar in one direction, and conventional bend roller means are located above the rollers, adapted to apply a down curvature to a transfer bar. Pivotal ramp means upstream of the bend roller means can either direct a transfer bar through the bend roller means, or allow the transfer bar to pass along the rollers under the bend roller means. A sub-frame downstream of the bend roller means carries at least one roller, and is mounted for movement between a raised position and a lowered position. In the raised position, the roller on the sub-frame defines, with a further roller upstream thereof and with a coil-guide roller located under the bend roller means, a cradle in which the initial convolutions of a coiling transfer bar can be contained.

Abstract: This invention provides a composite electrode having a metallic, water cooled upper portion and a consumable lower portion. The portions are secured together, and the upper one includes conduit means within it to permit cooling water or other liquid to move along a path which brings the cooling liquid into intimate contact with substantially all of the inside surface of the outer wall defining the periphery of the upper portion.

Abstract: An apparatus is provided for transferring packs of elongated flat bars in a direction normal to their length. The apparatus includes a first and second set of stationary arms, which are interleaved, and which all extend in the same direction. Both sets of arms are notched at their upper edges and means are provided to move one set of arms in a closed loop. Movable arms each have a modified notch at the downstream end with respect to flat bar travel, and this modified notch includes a dog member on at least some of the movable arms, the dog member defining a notch and pivoted to its respective arm adjacent the apex of the notch. The dog member is counterbalanced to retain the dog member with its notch oriented the same as the other notches of the arm so long as no flat bars are supported in the notch, but to allow the dog member to pivot when a pack of flat bars is supported in the dog member notch, the pivoting causing the bars to lean in the direction opposite the direction in which the flat bars are moving.

Abstract: This invention provides a method and apparatus for transferring heat to a cooler gas from a hotter gas which contains tri-atomic molecules with good infra-red energy absorption characteristics, for example CO.sub.2. The hotter gas is passed in a first direction along a conduit, and simultaneously the cooler gas is jetted through and across the hotter gas in a direction transverse to the hotter gas direction. This allows the tri-atomic molecules minimally entrained in the cooler gas jets to provide heat to the cooler gas firstly through transferring their initial kinetic energy to the cooler gas molecules by way of collision, and secondly by absorbing infra-red energy radiated from the hotter gas and passing this absorbed energy to the cooler gas molecules also through collision.

Abstract: This invention provides a composite electrode having a metallic, water cooled upper portion and a consumable lower portion. The portions are secured together, and the upper one includes conduit means within it to permit cooling water or other liquid to move along a path which brings the cooling liquid into intimate contact with substantially all of the inside surface of the outer wall defining the periphery of the upper portion.

Abstract: Mild steel strip is galvanized in selected areas only, typically on one side only of the strip, by pretreating the areas selected for absence of galvanizing to form thereon a readily chemically strippable coating of chemically hydrated compounds non-wetting in molten zinc. Preferably, the pretreatment is carried out using phosphoric acid solution to form thereon a thin coating of a composite of hydrated iron phosphates and iron hydroxides. After passing the thus-treated steel strip through the molten zinc bath and solidification of the zinc coating, the composite coating is removed by dilute mineral acid. Mild steel strip galvanized on one side using this procedure has particular utility in the automotive industry.

Abstract: This invention provides a process and apparatus for determining the energy absorbed by a test-piece of material during its fracture. The test-piece is supported horizontally between two separated anvils, and a dropweight is released from a position above the test-piece so that the same can be struck and fractured. Means are provided for determining, by measuring a determining characteristic of the motion of the dropweight after the test-piece has been fractured, the theoretical height from which the dropweight would have had to be released in order to have that post-fracture motion if the test-piece had not been in the way. The difference between this calculated theoretical height and the actual height of release, multiplied by the weight of the dropweight, provides a measure of the energy absorbed by the test-piece during its fracture.

Abstract: This invention provides a sucker rod scraper having two main portions. An inner portion is constituted by a plastic body member affixed to and surrounding the sucker rod, the body member including an elongated cylindrical portion with a plurality of longitudinal fins extending radially outwardly therefrom and spaced angularly therearound. The second part is a plastic ring member adapted to encircle the central body adjacent the fins, the ring member having an inner diameter greater than the outer diameter of the adjacent part of the inner portion, whereby to allow a passageway for fluid or liquid to flow past the sucker rod scraper. Means are provided for retaining the ring member adjacent the fins, this being constituted in the preferred embodiment by the provision of inward recesses along the outer edges of each fin, with the ring member being dimensioned so as to permit it to register within the recesses, whereby the ring can rotate in position but cannot move longitudinally.

Abstract: This invention provides a method and apparatus for expanding spiralweld pipe. The expander head is cantilevered at a fixed location and the spiralweld pipe is advanced in stages around the expander head, moving in the direction of the pipe axis. At each stage, the pipe is stopped, and the expander head is expanded to cause expansion in the pipe. The expander head has on its surface a helically arranged recess matching the main weld of the pipe. As the pipe is moved between adjacent expansion locations, it undergoes axial and rotational motion so that the main weld tracks in registry with the recess.

Abstract: This invention provides a method and apparatus for use with the rolling of hot metal strip. The first step in the rolling of hot metal strip is to roll a transfer bar of about 1 inch thickness, and this is ordinarily then passed through a series of finishing mills which reduce the thickness of the transfer bar to the desired final stage. The method and apparatus of this invention provides for the coiling up of a transfer bar after it has been rolled but before it passes to the finishing mill, the transfer of the coiled transfer bar from the coiling location to an adjacent uncoiling location where uncoiling can be completed or completely carried out, and initiating the coiling of a further transfer bar while the first transfer bar is still uncoiling.

Abstract: This invention provides a method of reducing the content of a particular substance in molten steel, which includes placing the molten steel and a quantity of slag in a refractory container, submerging a refractory rotor into the molten steel beneath the slag, and rotating the rotor about its axis at a speed sufficient to draw part of the interface between the molten steel and the slag down to the upper face of the rotor. The rotor has downwardly and outwardly extending passageways through which the slag is pumped during rotation of the rotor, whereby the interface area between the slag and the molten steel is increased. During such rotation, the slag is treated from above with a material which preferentially reacts with said particular substance to remove the same from the molten steel.

Abstract: This invention provides a method and apparatus for use with the rolling of hot metal strip. The first step in the rolling of hot metal strip is to roll a transfer bar of about one inch thickness, and this is ordinarily then passed through a series of finishing mills which reduce the thickness of the transfer bar to the desired final stage. The method and apparatus of this invention provides for the coiling up of a transfer bar after it has been rolled but before it passes to the finishing mill, the transfer of the coiled transfer bar from the coiling location to an adjacent uncoiling location where uncoiling can be completed or completely carried out, and initiating the coiling of a further transfer bar while the first transfer bar is still uncoiling.

Abstract: This invention provides for the ultrasonic testing of hot, moving metal plate, to detect faults therein. A testing shoe has a surface intended to be juxtaposed against the metal plate, and includes an ultrasonic probe member with an adjacent face parallel with but slightly recessed from the shoe surface. An internal cooling chamber encircles the probe member and has an outlet adjacent the generating face. Cooling liquid is conveyed to the cooling chamber, and exits across the generating face and along a pre-cooling channel in the shoe surface extending away from the probe member in the direction opposite the direction of movement of the metal plate with respect to the shoe.

Abstract: This invention provides a fastener which includes a shank having a head on one end and a conical portion on the other, the apex of the conical portion constituting a piercing point for the fastener. The shank includes a smooth cylindrical portion adjacent the conical portion and a threaded portion adjacent the head. The axial section of the fastener exhibits an abrupt, angled transition between the conical portion and the smooth cylindrical portion. The thread diameter of the threads on the threaded portion is greater than the diameter of the smooth cylindrical portion, which is the same as the base diameter of the conical portion. The thread angle of the threads is between about 35.degree. and about 55.degree., and the included cone angle of the conical portion is between about 23.degree. and about 35.degree..

Abstract: This invention provides a method and apparatus for increasing interface contact between two immiscible liquids. A rotor with internal pumping passages is immersed beneath the interface and rotated to draw the interface down to the rotor, whereby the upper, less dense liquid is pumped into the lower, more dense liquid.

Abstract: This invention provides a self-drilling screw and a method of making the screw. The screw comprises a shank tapering to a substantial point at one end, a head on the other end, at least one spiral thread, and a flat facet on the point end, the facet being at an angle to the axis of the screw. The method of making the screw includes the steps of heading and roll-threading a blank to provide a screw having a head, a point, and at least one spiral thread, and grinding a flat facet on the point at an angle to the axis of the screw. In a preferred form, the screw is surface-hardened either before or after the grinding.