Transportation equipment is aimed for mechanization and automation of loading and discharge processes of normalizing furnace, blank transportation after the furnace through the cooling bed and handing over to the branch conveyor.

Transportation equipment for railroad casting normali-zing provides blanks conveying between process units.

Transported Blanks

Technical Parameters

Transportation equipment consists of the following:

• Stack car
• Transfer table
• Transportation cars
• Manipulators
• Mechanical cooling bed

Blanks being transported to normalizing area using the shop handling equipment are put by operating personnel onto base elements of a stack car.  The stack car is designed for placing four blanks. Once the loading is complete the car moves to a transfer table.  The transfer table lifts the blanks and the stack car returns to the loading position.

Then a transportation car comes to the transfer table and the table puts the blanks down onto its base elements. The loaded car is transported to manipulator and moving in single-step mode it places the blanks under manipulator gripper. When four blanks are loaded into the furnace, the transportation car moves to the transfer table for a new lot of blanks.

The manipulator moves the blanks into the normalizing furnace and puts them onto furnace hearth guides. Upon completion of heating and normalizing cycle the blank is picked up by the manipulator and discharged from the furnace onto the mechanical cooling bed. Then the manipulator puts the next blank onto free place.

Moving through the mechanical cooling bed in single-step mode the blanks are cooled down to 60°С.

After cooling the manipulator transfers the blanks from the mechanical cooling bed to the transportation cars. Two transportation cars are brought to transfer position by turn. The car loaded with four blanks is transported to the discharge position.