The Works Of Messrs. Schneider And Co.

84 MESSES. SCHNEIDER AND CO.’S WORKS. housing. With this arrangement but few bars deviate in the course of rolling, and they engage direct in the grooves without it being necessary to guide them with tongs. The rolis are driven by two pinions set in a special- shaped housing, placed at the end of the train, with a view to serve for a rollina miil for laree sections now being designed. These pinions are of cast steel ; their original diameter is 1.220 metres (4 ft.); they have double- helieal teeth of 191.637 millimétrés (71 in.) pitch ; length between bearings 1.050 metres (3 ft. 5f in.) ; diameter of coupling ends .500 metre (19|^- in.). The section is made tapering for the movable roil and ils coupling-bar. The top roil is balanced by two hydraulic cylinders, which cause it to rest always on the two setting screws ; these are slacked or tightened after every pass of the ingot, and they allow a total vertical travel for this movable roli of 100 millimétrés (3ff in.), Its coupling-shaft is also balanced hydraulically. The roll-setting screws are put in motion by a two-cylinder hydraulic device, the two plunger- pistons of which are United by a rack which operates direct the toothed pinions keyed on the roll-setting screws. The travel of the rack is 2.360 metres (7 ft. 9 in.) ; the two piunger pistons are respectively .165 and .105 metre (6| in. and 4^ in.) in diameter; the smaller one is in constant communication with the accumulator, the pressure in which is 35 kilometres per square centimetre (497.81 Ib. per square inch). Above the right-hand housing frame is a platform, from which both the front and the rear of the mili can be seen. At one time this platform was fitted with levers for work- ing the roll-setting screws, the carrying rollers, the shifting apparatus, and the shifting lift. Now, however, the roll- setting sci'ews and the carrying rollers only, are operated from the platform. The man in charge of the rolis has in sight a special table which shows him how the top roli has to be set for each groove. The ingot, after being turned over, is often passée! four times through the lirst grooves. The positions are given on the table by an indicator which works in conjunction with the two roll-setting screws. The two Jevers may be worked by one man, but in regulär work it is préférable to put a boy in charge of the lever regulating the carrying roller mechanism. The shift- ing of the bar opposite each groove is effeeted with great facility by means of a tilter worked by a hydraulic piston having a long travel ; this piston acts on three double- branched forks which slide between the carrying rollers. These forks are hinged on a cross-piece; they roil on the rails of a hydraulic lifting platform, and disappear entirely when the ingot or bar is being rolied. In com- bining the two actions of these forks, the driver causes the ingot to make a quarter of a revolution, and places it opposite the next groove. The total travel of the forks is 2.800 metres (9 ft. 2| in.). The hydraulic piston of the shifting apparatus is .170 metre (6^J in.) in diameter. The piston-rod is .120 metre (4f in.) in diameter. One side of the piston is in constant communication with the accumu- lator, while the larger area of the other side is only put intermittently under pressure by means of a distributør. The driver who works the distributor formerly stood on the platform above the miil ; but as he could not ascertain exaetly the position of the bars with regard to the grooves, his station has been altered to the ground level, opposite the larger grooves, from where he can reaclily work the apparatus. When a bar stops in the guides owing to burrs, the shifting forks are used to disengage it. Two groups of seven large feed-rollers .590 metre (23J in.) in diameter, of hard cast iron, are placed in front and at the rear of the miil. These rollers are of the same length as the body of the rolis ; the first ones, which. a.re lodged between the housings, are larger in diameter (.640 and .740 metre (25T^- and 29^- in.), in order to raise tlie bar and assist in guiding it between the small grooves. Cast- steel pieces placed level with the works fill up the interval between each roller. The two groups of feed-rollers are operated simultaneously by a small reversing engine placed beneath. The diameter of the two cylinders is .240 metre (9tV in.), and the stroke .300 metre (llff- in.). The engine runs at a speed of 100 revolutions per minute. This engine also works part of the series of rollers 1 metre (3 ft. in.) long and .520 metre (204- in.) in diameter, which connect the rolling mili to the hot-bloom shearing manhinft. Rollers turning free in their bearings have been added at the rear opposite the smaller grooves. Shearing Machines.— Rolied bars of all sections and lengths, when they are to be used for making smaller biooms, are carried by the conveying apparatus opposite the line of small rollers to the hot-shearing machine. As a rule, the biooms are rolied out direct in the other milis. When, however, it is not convenient that they should be used immediately, they are covered with a layer of ashes until the time when they can be put in a reheatino' fur- nace. By this means a large economy in fuel consumption is effeeted, and the output of the furnaces serving the finishing roils is inereased. The hot-shearing machine for biooms is 26 metres (85 ft.) distant from the blooming miil. A paît of the line of rollers between the two was formerly worked by the shearing machine itself, through toothed gearing with elutehes to reverse their motion. As this device did not give füll satisfaction, a small two-cylinder reversing engine has been erected on a suitable spot ; the cylinders are .165 metre (6| in.) in diameter, the stroke being .300 metre (ll^f in.). This engine works the rollers by friction, the speed varying according to the needs of each case. The small rollers which serve to free the blades from the cut biooms, are alone worked by the shearing machine. The maximum section which can be cut is 300 by 200 millimétrés (ll^f in.) by in.)- The tool-holder moves horizontally, its length of travel being .250 metre (9| in.) ; it is engaged and thrown out of gear hydraulically. The shearing machine is driven by a vertical engine with a single cylinder .350 metre (13J in.) in diameter, and .400 metre (15| in.) length of stroke ; the normal speed is 160 revolutions per minute. It is fitted with a regulator.