Patent Application
20100132908
1. Field of the Invention
The invention is directed to a device for hydraulic positioning of structural component parts, in particular rollers of strand guide segments of a continuous casting installation having hydraulic cylinders, each of which is divided into a cylinder space and an annular cylinder space by a piston having a piston rod, the cylinder spaces being connectable to a pressure source by control members.
2. Prior Art
The invention is based on a device such as that known from EP 1 105 235 B1.
In continuous casting installations, the casting process starts in a mold. The superficially solidified strand exits from this mold and is subsequently guided through strand guide segments to a horizontally arranged straightening driver. The strand is guided through guide rollers which are positioned against the strand by hydraulic cylinders.
It is the object of an invention to achieve at least one of a reduction in hydraulic connection lines and a reduction in components used, e.g., pressure sensors in a device for hydraulic positioning of structural component parts.
In the device mentioned above having hydraulic cylinders, each cylinder is divided into a cylinder space and an annular cylinder space by a piston having a piston rod, wherein the cylinder spaces are connected to a pressure source by control members. According to the invention the annular cylinder space is acted upon by a pressure which is adjustable but which then remains constant while the pressure applied to the piston in the cylinder space is position-controlled or pressure-controlled.
According to a preferable construction, the piston in the annular cylinder space is acted upon by a single-edge-controlled control valve.
A pressure sensor is preferably provided between the control valve and cylinder, or a position transducer is located at the cylinder for position control.
Accordingly, the invention presents a novel concept for hydraulic control of strand guides in continuous casting installations. A single-edge control is used for the positioning or adjustment of force in the strand guide elements (adjustment of the roller gap of strand guide elements for an LCR method, soft reduction, hard reduction, thickness adjustment, or adjustment of a required positioning force) instead of known control valve technique or switching valve technique (both techniques require regulation of both cylinder chamber pressures for adjusting and/or regulating the desired cylinder position or cylinder force).
This novel concept accomplishes a reduction in hydraulic connection lines and hydraulic couplings compared to the known techniques. The use of the indicated single-edge control is correspondingly advantageous especially for controlling segments (usually 4 or more cylinders in one segment). In so doing, the lines (cylinder chambers), which are under the same pressure, are brought together. This concept makes it possible to reduce hydraulic pressure lines, in some cases also the required quantity of hydraulic couplings which is otherwise high. In the event that pressure detection is required for determining or regulating force, the required pressure sensors may also be omitted for the annular cylinder chambers which are brought together at one pressure level. Pressure acquisition need only be carried out once in a combined pressure region.
The invention will be described in the following with reference to the drawings.
In the drawings:
Only one guide roller 2 of the strand guide is shown in
Two control valves for the cylinders are designated by 6 and 7. Further, two pressure sensors 8 and position transducers 9 are shown in the general view according to
As shown in
In contrast to
For the position control according to
The constant pressure acting on the annular cylinder spaces 4 which, however, is adjusted in a defined manner beforehand, is designated by P1 in the constructions according to
To determine the acting force of a cylinder unit, only the controlled cylinder (4 or 5) chamber is outfitted with a pressure sensor 8. The constantly acting second pressure, as preset quantity, is known and used for calculating the resulting total force, preferably taking into account the effective piston surface.
The single-edge controlling of position and/or pressure regulation is be carried out with switching valves according to the embodiment of the invention.
Thus, while there have shown and described and pointed out fundamental novel features of the invention as applied to a preferred embodiment thereof, it will be understood that various omissions and substitutions and changes in the form and details of the devices illustrated, and in their operation, may be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit of the invention. For example, it is expressly intended that all combinations of those elements and/or method steps which perform substantially the same function in substantially the same way to achieve the same results are within the scope of the invention. Moreover, it should be recognized that structures and/or elements and/or method steps shown and/or described in connection with any disclosed form or embodiment of the invention may be incorporated in any other disclosed or described or suggested form or embodiment as a general matter of design choice. It is the intention, therefore, to be limited only as indicated by the scope of the claims appended hereto.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 2007 016 045.5 | Mar 2007 | DE | national |
This is a U.S. national stage of application No. PCT/DE2008/000236, filed on Feb. 5, 2008, which claims Priority to the German Application No.: 10 2007 016 045.5, filed: Mar. 30, 2007; the contents of both being incorporated herein by reference.
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/DE2008/000236 | 2/5/2008 | WO | 00 | 2/2/2010 |
