Rolling mill

Details Rolling mill Rolling mill

1999-08-18

2001-04-17

Butler, Rodney A. (Department: 3725)

Metal deforming

By use of roller or roller-like tool-element

With carrier for roller-couple or tool-couple

C072S224000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06216520

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates generally to a rolling mill, and more particularly to a rolling mill to roll materials into products such as steel bars, wires, and pipes. The word of “products” used in this specification means a concept including steel bars, wires, and pipes.
A number of four-roll or three-roll rolling mills arranged in series roll material in four or three directions repeatedly, reducing its sectional area gradually, to form it into a desired shape of desired dimensions.
FIGS. 10 and 11
show a typical four-roll rolling mill used for such rolling work as mentioned above.
The rolling mill has an input shaft
101
, which drives the four rolls
102
,
103
,
104
, and
105
. Each of the four rolls
102
,
103
,
104
, and
105
has bevel gears (
102
b
,
103
b
,
104
b
, or
105
b
as the case may be) on both its sides. The driving power of the input shaft
101
is transmitted through the bevel gears
102
b
,
103
b
,
104
b
, and
105
b.
Given this structure, the size of the bevel gears
102
b
-
105
b
has to be smaller than the diameter of the rolls
102
-
105
and, hence, the torque-transmitting capacity of the bevel gears
102
b
-
105
b
is limited. Therefore, this structure can not be adopted for rolling mills of large capacity.
In
FIG. 11
, a four-roll rolling mill having the same structure as the above rolling mill is turned around the pass line by 45° so as to protrude the input shaft to the upper right. This configuration makes a reducer to be connected to the input shaft
101
bulky and high, increasing the equipment cost and the necessary installation space.
On the other hand, the four-roll rolling mill disclosed in the Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 71704/H4 has a bevel gear mounted on each of the four roll shafts and gears which are disposed on the back or the front of the housing and engages the four bevel gears to transmit the driving power.
This structure makes rolling mills thick and, hence, unsuitable to rolling mills such as stretch reducers which require to minimize the stand-to-stand spacing.
The three-roll rolling mill disclosed in the Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 70305/H2 has in its housing a large-diameter hypoid gear of which the outer diameter is slightly smaller than the inner diameter of the housing. The input shaft of the rolling mill has an input hypoid gear which engages and rotates the large-diameter hypoid gear, which in turn engages the driven hypoid gears of the three roll shafts to drive the three rolls.
In this configuration, although the offsets between the center of the large-diameter hypoid gear and the driving and driven small-diameter hypoid gears are determined by the tooth profile, such arrangement as two large-diameter hypoid gears catch small-diameter hypoid gears between them is impossible, because such two large-diameter hypoid gears require offsets in two directions opposite to each other. Accordingly, only one large-diameter hypoid gear can be used in this configuration, which makes the configuration unsuitable to large-capacity rolling mills.
In accordance with the above, an object of the present invention is to provide a rolling mill which is thin and compact and has large capacity and of which the driving reducer is compact and low.
In case of a tandem rolling mill consisting of mill housings of more than 20 stands such as a stretch reducer, because housings have to be provided in accordance with its product sizes, the total number of housings comes to over 100.
Therefore, if every housing contains a driving gear mechanism, the cost of the whole equipment becomes huge.
In accordance with the above, another object of the present invention is to make compact the housings of a tandem rolling mill consisting of many rolling stands and reduce the cost of the housings.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
According to the first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a rolling mill comprising (i) a housing, (ii) a roll unit having a plurality of rolls arranged to roll material and (ii) a drive unit to drive the roll unit. The drive unit further comprises (i) a large-diameter ring-like driving bevel gear, (ii) an input shaft mechanism for rotating the driving bevel gear, and (iii) transmission mechanisms each for transmitting the driving torque of the driving bevel gear to a roll.
According to the second aspect of the present invention, there is provided the rolling mill of the first aspect, wherein (i) the drive unit has two driving bevel gears disposed face to face, and (ii) each transmission mechanism comprises a small-diameter transmission bevel gear caught between and engaging with the two driving bevel gears and a transmission shaft mechanism for transmitting the driving torque of the transmission bevel gear to a roll.
According to the third aspect of the present invention, there is provided the rolling mill of the second aspect, wherein each transmission shaft mechanism comprises (i) a first transmission shaft on which the transmission bevel gear is fixed, (ii) a first cylindrical gear fixed on the first transmission shaft, (iii) a second transmission shaft connected to the roll shaft of a roll, and (iv) a second cylindrical gear fixed on the second transmission shaft and engaging the first cylindrical gear.
According to the fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided the rolling mill of the first or second aspect, wherein the input shaft mechanism comprises an input shaft inserted from the outside to the inside of the housing and a small-diameter input bevel gear fixed on the input shaft and engaging the driving bevel gear(s).
According to the fifth aspect of the present invention, there is provided the rolling mill of the fourth aspect, wherein (i) the roll unit comprises four rolls of a pair of horizontal rolls and a pair of vertical rolls, and (ii) the input shaft of the input shaft mechanism is disposed horizontally, taking the place of the first transmission shaft of a transmission shaft mechanism and driving the second transmission shaft.
According to the sixth aspect of the present invention, there is provided the rolling mill of the fourth aspect, wherein (i) the roll unit comprises four rolls of a pair of slant rolls and another pair of slant rolls, the latter crossing the former at a right angle, and (ii) the input shaft of the input shaft mechanism is disposed horizontally.
According to the seventh aspect of the present invention, there is provided the rolling mill of the fourth aspect, wherein (i) the roll unit comprises three rolls arranged 120° apart around the pass line, and (ii) the input shaft of the input shaft mechanism is disposed horizontally.
According to the eighth aspect of the present invention, there is provided the rolling mill of the first aspect, wherein (i) the housing comprises an inner housing holding the roll unit and an outer housing holding the drive unit, (ii) the outer housing is generally in the shape of a ring, and (iii) the driving bevel gear has an outer diameter slightly smaller than the inner diameter of the outer wall of the outer housing and an inner diameter larger than the diameter of a circle in contact with the outmost points of the rolls.
According to the ninth aspect of the present invention, there is provided the rolling mill of the eighth aspect, wherein (i) the drive unit has two driving bevel gears disposed face to face, (ii) each transmission mechanism comprises a small-diameter transmission bevel gear caught between and engaging with the two driving bevel gears and a transmission shaft mechanism for transmitting the driving torque of the transmission bevel gear to a roll, and (iii) the outer housing is split into a front section and a rear section. One of the two driving bevel gears is journaled on a bearing in the front section, and the other driving bevel gear is journaled on a bearing in the rear section.
According to the tenth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a rolling mill comprising (i) a housing which comprises an inner housing and an outer housing, (ii) a roll

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