Metallurgical apparatus – Means for cutting solid metal with heat – e.g. – blowpipes – With torch mounting means
Reexamination Certificate
2002-10-31
2004-07-20
Kastler, Scott (Department: 1742)
Metallurgical apparatus
Means for cutting solid metal with heat, e.g., blowpipes
With torch mounting means
C266S048000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06764640
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND
As background, ships are typically made in transverse sections that are joined together in dry dock. These sections have horizontal steel ribs (stiffeners) that are attached to the walls (bulkhead) of the ship section. These stiffeners, are also known as erection beams or bulb-flat stiffeners and are used to provide support to and prevent buckling of the panels used in shipbuilding. The bulb-flat stiffeners are welded at their edge to ship sections (portions of the hull) prior to the attachment of the transverse sections to each other. They are also used with interior bulkheads (vertical walls) as well as with deck plating (flooring). For the hull and bulkheads, stiffeners are attached to the hull and bulkheads in a vertical orientation. When used with decking, they are used in a horizontal orientation. Bulb-flat stiffeners are in many respects analogous to the wall studs and floor joists typically used in home construction.
When a ship section is made, the bulb-flat stiffeners extend past the ends of the wall section and must be trimmed in the ship building process, i.e., in the assembly of the ship sections. In the ship building process, a new section is brought into place next to the end of the previously assembled sections and the amount of extending bulb-flat stiffener that needs to be trimmed off is marked for cutting. The new section is moved away from the assembled sections and a cutting torch (oxygen and gas or oxygen and acetylene) is then used to cut off the excess portion of the stiffener. After the ends of the bulb-flat stiffeners are trimmed to the appropriate length, the edge of the new section is butted against the edge of the previously assembled sections of the ship that has already been welded in place and the two abutting sections, i.e., the abutting edges (ends) of the hull and the bulb-flat stiffeners are welded together.
In present day practice, the bulb-flat stiffeners are trimmed entirely by hand, i.e., a section assembler takes a cutting torch and trims off the excess portion of stiffener by means of a free-hand, visual inspection (“eye-ball”) method. Unfortunately the work place environment is typically not worker friendly in that the worker doing the bulb-flat cutting often works more than a hundred feet in the air on temporary scaffolding in a dark and dirty environment that is not at all conducive to making straight and accurate cuts. As a result, the free-hand trimming of excess bulb flat ends can result in large gaps between adjacent bulb-flat stiffener ends when the sections are brought into position for final assembly. It is not unusual for it to take an hour or longer to fill in the gaps between the ends of the bulb-flat stiffeners when the ends are welded together.
Although some efforts have been made to mechanize cutting of various members in other industries, none of those devices meet the needs of the ship building industry. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,160,549 (Murphy) discloses a cam follower device for cutting angled finned tubes. This device relies on completely supporting the work piece in the cutting machine. U.S. Pat. No. 3,190,628 (Litzka) describes a device for cutting center sections from I beams but, here again, the device relies on supporting and/or clamping the device and the work piece to a solid work bed. U.S. Pat. No. 4,180,248 (Benko) is directed to a sill cutting unit but here the machine is supported independently of the work piece. In all three patents, the units are very large and do not provide the portability needed for use in the ship building arts. U.S. Pat. No. 4,471,948 (Holmes) is directed to a cutting unit that is attached to the work piece but in this instance the torch travels in an arc about a pivot pin with a cam used to maintain the cutting torch at a relatively constant distance from the work piece.
None of these devices teach or suggest a portable unit for making straight line bevel cuts with provisions for cutting a large bulb member at one edge of the work piece that must be fashioned into a scoop to allow for high-quality and high-strength welds required in the ship building arts. Further none of these references teach how such a device might be adapted for the varying cutting angles required in joining the angled sections of a ship or aligning the torch for cutting at but not into the attached hull of the ship. None of these references teach a device by which the welding torch can be aligned repetitively at various angles with a high degree of accuracy. None of these reference teach how a cutting torch can be set to ignite and weld at a predetermined optimal gas and oxygen level without constant adjustment of the cutting torch each time the unit is used.
As such, it is an object of the prevent invention to provide a cutting torch unit capable of cutting a flat-bulb stiffener using a single drive unit.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a cutting torch unit capable of repetitively cutting a beveled edge on a flat-bulb stiffener.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a cutting torch unit capable of cutting a flat-bulb stiffener at the point it meets an attached plate without damage to the attached plate.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a cutting torch unit capable of cutting a flat-bulb stiffener at an angle necessary for joining angled sections of a ship.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a cutting torch unit capable of being quickly and accurately secured to the work piece for precise cutting.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a cutting torch unit with a torch that is maintained at an optimal level of cutting efficiency without repetitive adjustment of fuel and oxygen flows each time a cut is made.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a cutting torch unit that is capable of forming a scoop in the bulb end of a flat-bulb stiffener for optimal welding conditions.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a cutting torch unit that is quickly broken down into portable sections for meeting adverse shipyard work conditions.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a torch holder with an alignment mechanism and angle indica that allow for quick and accurate alignment of the cutting torch.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a cutting tool that is easy and convenient to carry, handle, and manipulate under shipyard conditions, that is, in cutting bulb-flat stiffeners using scaffolding extending upward 150 feet or more in what is typically a dark and debris laden environment.
Another object of the present invention provides consistent, high quality weld joint parations in a very short time.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a beveled edge and scoop area at allow for rapid and convenient access to the joint region during the welding process.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a cutting torch assembly for cutting a variety of structural materials including T- and I-beams.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a means for quickly positioning and moving the track of a track and carriage system with respect to its supporting assembly.
The foregoing and other objects, features and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the following disclosure in which one or more preferred embodiments of the invention are described in detail and illustrated in the accompanying drawings. It is contemplated that variations in procedures, structural features and arrangement of parts may appear to a person skilled in the art without departing from the scope of or sacrificing any of the advantages of the invention.
SUMMARY
To meet these objectives, the present invention features a cutting tool for workpiece cutting that comprises 1) a clamp that is sized to attach to the workpiece, 2) a rotating platform that is rotatably attached to the clamp, 3) a latch with a first latch member attached to the rotating platform and a second latch member latching to the fir
Harwig Dennis Duane
Joseph Andy
Talkington John
Dawsey David J.
Edison Welding Institute
Gallagher Michael J.
Gallagher & Dawsey Co. LPA
Kastler Scott
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