Document jyKvmZvLOMj2d0wG3ymD4rX8N

Rockwool---------- PLAINTIFF'S? - EXHIBIT JM 1078 Making #/Wool## By a Continuous Automatic Process Modern rock wool plant of Fed eral Portland Cement Co. designed for efficient material handling, ventilation and storage facilities ilsUll i^M9aEsMse* s' " r iilifc -- * By BROR NORDBERG Blowing minora! woof. Cupolo on loft has six molten streams for ' V'V loose wool; cupola on right (four streams I is Advanced technology and the lat est in improved machinery for for batt manufacturing the manufacture of mineral wool have strips plant standards for the indus been incorporated by the Federal try. Material handling, ventilation, Portland Cement Co., Inc., Buffalo, storage and the efficient interrelation N. Y., into a new plant that repre of manufacturing and related process sents advanced practice, particularly ing were all designed into this plant. in methods to manufacture mineral Slag and coke are the basic raw wool batts. Federal's Insulation Di materials for wool manufacture and vision started the production of batts the vertical cupola process of melting by a continuous and automatic process and blowing is employed. Essentially, October 15, 1946, having manufac there are two parallel production tured loose wool and granulated wool lines. One cupola is for the manufac for approximately two years at the ture of loose wool and granulated same location. wool, while a second, of identical size Located on the shore of Lake Erie and capacity, blows wool fibers into a adjacent to the parent pcrtland ce collecting chamber for the manufac ment plant, the mineral wool plant ture of batts. Capacity of the plant is has rail and trucking facilities and is potentially two-and-one-half tons of housed in a 85- x 200-ft. fireproof wool per hour. The cupolas are the building of concrete masonry and steel conventional, water-jacketed, vertical construction that, in itself, far out- blast furnace type, located side by side Batt production lino taken from pocking end. Note crosscut sow and on left, background, chute tor packing loose wool. Workers to the left are compressing resilient batts into boxes . - - on a common firing floor, so that the plant could conveniently be expanded sidewise. Raw Materials Air cooled blast furnace slag sized from 1% to 4 in., without any addi tive raw materials, comprises the cu pola feed, in alternate layers with 3%-4%-in. high grade foundry ccke. Overhead bins for slag and coke have capacity sufficient for 24-hr. opera tion. Both materials are weighed on a hopper scale, in the approximate fuel ratio of 5.6:1, a skip hoist trans ferring to an overhead reversible belt conveyor charging into the top of either cupola. An average charge of slag plus coke weighs 1500 lb. Fusion-Blowing Each cupola is 48-in. inside diam eter and is water-jacketed from the bottom of the fusion zone to a height of 8 ft. Fusion takes place in a zone 42 in. high, starting at a level 8 in. below tuyeres through which induced draft is introduced to burn the coke. Individual induced draft fans serve each cupola. High pressure steam, at 90 p.s.i., for fiberizing the melt is sup plied both cupolas by a stoker-fired boiler rated at 125 p.s.i. and 150-hp. capacity. Heat taken up by the cir culating cooling water is recovered, part of the steam being utilized as preheated feed tvater to the boiler. The only difference in the two cu polas is in the number of streams of melt that are blown into fibers by the high pressure steam. Water-cooled divider plates split the stream flowing from one cupola into six streams of equal size, each subjected to a blast of steam through V-orifice blow caps. The other cupola, for batt manufac 110 ROCK PRODUCTS. January. 1947 X I > -* > V , >W> ' * Lcfl: Oven to set binder, showing arrangement to bag loose wool in foreground. Right: Close-up of oil-fired oven where binder is set or "cured1 os blanket at wool passes through ture, has four streams. Production of wool from each cupola is about the same. This matter of the practicable optimum number of stream divisions, a subject of industry-wide research, is under careful consideration. Under present operating conditions, consumption of blowing steam for the long, uniform fiber produced is ap proximately one pound for each pound of slag melted per hour, or 3000 lb. per hour per cupola. The control cf induced draft, important for its effect on viscosity of the melt and the fusion rate, is regulated at the fan in each case. Consumption of air is 160 c.f.m. per lb. of coke burned per hour, in troduced into the cupola through sev en tuyeres equally spaced radially. Cooling water at 150 deg. F. is cir culated by pump through the water jacket of each cupola at the rate of 175 g.p.m., returning to a sump at 200 deg. F. There is an excess of heated water over the boiler requirement (for 90 p.s.i. steam at 340 deg. F.), requiring the addition of makeup cold water to the balance for the recircula tion through the cupola water jackets. Temperature of the melt flowing from the cupolas is 2600 deg. F., which reduces to 2450 deg. F. at the blow caps. Temperature being an im portant factor for its influence on vis cosity of the melt, it is checked at regular intervals by portable optical pyrometers. Observation ports and poke h'le.s are located at each of the seven tuyeres. Normal practice is to charge 1500 lb. of slag plus coke twice each hour into each cupola and to regulate the speed of the conveyor inside each collecting chamber to ennlorm with the highest output of the cup las that can be maintained. .Annealing oil, for waterproofing and to allay dust, is coated over the libers from which granulated wool and loose wool are to be processed. Application is at the rate of % of 1 per cent by weight, the incandescent fibers being blown through an atom ized stream of oil in front of the blow cap. Loose-Granulated Wool Fiberized wool from the 6-stream cupola is blown into its collecting chamber at a rate requiring that the continuous conveyor, 60 in. wide by 33 ft., on which it comes to rest, travel at seven lineal ft. per minute. The conveyor has high temperature steel woven wire mesh, carrying the wool blanket out of the collecting chamber for the picking and shredding proc esses. Pre-shedding takes place at the end of this conveyor, where the blanket of wool is passed under a picker, con sisting essentially of a horizontal transverse shaft with a series of pro truding arms. An inclined cleated belt conveyor followed by two overhead belt conveyors in succession elevates the wool to the shredder. A chute and downspout, where conveyor No. 2 transfers to conveyor No. 3, are pro vided for bagging loose wool on the main floor. A rotary cage with numerable ex tending teeth, much like a hammer mill, shteds the wool into ',4-in. pieces. Shot and fiber loss are screened through 7-mesh cloth on a revolving screen which also serves to pelletize the wool. Granulated wool discharges into a chute with separating plate, in cir cuit with a cyclone separator which, MTC 017221 Collecting chamber on baft line has "floating" sides to settle wool on conveyor !l I HOCK PRODUCTS, January. 1947 Left: Workers loading batts into cartons from continuous conveyor. Oven to set binder and cooler fon visible in background. Right: Continuous baft conveyor showing longitudinal sow and close-up of cooling fan while serving as a collecting bin, also separates further, shot and clinker or slugs of coke or slag. The product is packed, 40 lb. by weight, in 50-lb., double-wall stock paper bags. Reject granulated wool is bagged for dispos al or for sale at great discount. Dust, fumes and steam are ef fectively dispersed from the plant through a downdraft system in the wojl collection chamber. For the pur pose, a ventilating fan of 40,000 c.f.m. capacity receives its suction through an intake box spanning the complete underside of the conveyor inside the collecting chamber. Batt Manufacture Insulating batts are manufactured over a continuous and automatic pro duction line cf entirely new equip ment. The process consists of melting and blowing of fibers into a collecting chamber, the' coating of the fibers with plastic binder, heat treating to cure or "set" the binder, cooling, the application of paper backing, cutting and packaging. An uninterrupted flow through these processes is effected over a sin gle, endless, wire mesh conveyor on 120-ft. centers, of variable speed that is geared to the output of the cupola. The conveyor in this case is 61 in. wide, allowing 1 in. for trim in cutting four 15-in. wide strips longitudinally. Its length comprises 35 ft. ins'ile tv; collecting chamber, an 8-ft. section between the forming roll and oven, a S. J. Drake, superintendent, rock wool division 5G-ft. oven section, 15 ft. through the cooling section, and the balance for cutting. Speed range is from 7 to 21 lineal f:. per m nute, ejected through a Reeves variable speed drive. Speed is reset for changes in batt thickness and may be increased or slowed with changes in cupola output in order to maintain uniform density of the product. Resiliency of the batts is attained by application of a waterproof binder of the "thermo-setting" type. The binder, predominantly of oils and resins, is uniformly dispersed at the blow caps before the cupola, as a waler-emulsion, to coat the individual fibers as they are being blown into the collecting chamber. Applied in the ratio of 2% per cent by weight of wool, through a positive gear pump, the binder is of the class that must bo kept moist until the blanket rf wool is withdrawn from the blow room, so that the blanket may be handled and shaped into* desired thickness. Then the binder is "set" through the appli cation of heat. The result is a batt that is not only resilient, but with in creased strength and resistance to moisture and high temperature. In its moist state the binder is gum my, with the result that coated fibers of wool would have a tendency to stick to the steel sides of the conven tional, rigid collecting chamber. To prevent buildup on the inner s'dcs of the chamber and to insure uniform full batt thickness al'ng with reduced trim, the sides of the chamber are <C.ontinnel on 112 HOCK PRODUCTS. January. 1947 MTC 017222 screen is available for the production of masons' saml when desired. Auxiliary Portable Plant The portable plant, recently in stalled to produce a crusher run prod uct for secondary roads, is a Cedarapids Junior straight-line tandem plant. The conveyor carrying the product from the primary crusher discharges half its load to the main plant, as pre viously described, and half to a hopper that serves the portable plant. Under the hopper, a 24- x 48-in. reciprocat ing feeder discharges to a 24-in. belt conveyor for delivery through a trans fer station to another 24-in. belt con veyor. The latter conveyor feeds a 3- x 10-ft. double-deck Nordberg hori zontal vibrating screen with 3- and 1%-in. sq. openings on the two decks, respectively. Plus 3-in. gravel is crushed in a 10- x 36-in. jaw crusher; the minus 3-in. plus 1%-in. product is reduced in a 16- x 24-in. roll crusher; and the. minus lVh-in. product is de livered by a 24-in. belt conveyor to another 24-in. belt conveyor which fills a 23-ton capacity truck-loading bin. Crushed gravel from the two crushers is conveyed to an elevating wheel, 75-in. in diameter and 22-in. wide. Frcm this wheel a conveyor belt moves the crushed gravel to the horizontal screen, in closed cirtuit. Production capacity of both plants is now 100 tons per hour, but with the installation of the new equipment this winter, the main plant will be able to produce 200 tons per hour. R. Lee Ellis is president cf the Grove Stone and Sand Co.; Chas. G. Lee, Jr., secretary; J. G. Northcott, general manager; Paul Warlick, as sistant general manager; W. W. White, office manager; L. M. Morgan, superintendent; and George W. "Un cle George" Brandon, assistant super intendent. In addition, under the same per sonnel, the company operates a mod ern Dunbrik plant with a capacity cf 18,000 brick per day. Rock Wool (ContinurJ from P*gf 112) built to hang free. A 1-j-hp. electric motor through an eccentric keeps the sides oscillating, or floating, sidewise continuously, to maintain a square sided felt. Ccming from the collecting cham ber, the blanket of wool is compressed into desired thickness by a transverse forming roller, then enters the oven where the application of heat sets the binder to retain the established dens ity cf the blanket. The oven circu lates hot air at 500 deg. F,, heated by a 5-section, oil-fired burner, down through the wool blanket and then up through it again--a 2-pass oven-- with the heated air re-circulated by fan. Recording and control instru ments are the means to regulate oven, operation. A downdraft created by a fan in the coding section removes excess heat from the wool blanket to enable early 116 Loose wool posting under picker handling and to minimize the likeli hood of combustion after the finished product has been loaded into cars for shipment. Cutting-Packaging Cutting of the batts is accomplished first by continuous longitudinal slic ing and then, transversely, by a cross cut saw. A series of rotary saws mounted on a transverse arbor cuts the blanket into four 15-in. wide strips and trims the edges. Trim is handpacked into bags for sale. A second series of blades alongside serves as a spare and can be engaged for cutting other-than-standard widths. Paper backing, or vapor barrier as it is called, is applied automatically frcm threading rolls before cutting to length. Travel of the cross-cut saw is timed by a timing chain and magnetic switches so that when the saw is en gaged it travels forward at the same speed as the wool moves forward, in order to affect a straight cut. Batts are made with a 14 -in. tolerance on length, width and thickness. Fullthick batts are 3V4- to 3%-in. thick and semi-thick sizes measure 2 in. thick. Standard sizes are 15- x 24-in. and 15- x 48-in., with or without the vapor barrier. Capacity is 90 cartons per hour, 40 sq. ft. to the carton, or 88,000 sq. ft. of full thick batts in 24 hr. The production line for batt manu facture, including the collecting chani- Cosc-up of longitudinal sows which cut tour 15-n. strips continuously HOCK PHODUCTS, January. 1947 ber, oven, cooler, saws and accessory equipment was designed and manu factured by James Campbell Smith, Inc. Shipping Straight line production methods are followed up to include carloading. A density of 2% to 3 lb. for batts is maintained by filling cartons on a scale as the batts come off the pro duction line. Ten cubic feet are packed into a box. Cartons are shoved over a Speedway roller conveyor where workers compress the batts to close and seal the cartons. Mineral wool being a bulky commodity and there for expensive to ship, compressing of resilient batts into cartons to the point where they contain 40 per cent more product than actual volume of the cartons enables a substantial in crease in the loading per car. Average loading done by hand-propelled trucks is 18,000 sq. ft. of batts per car and the shipping radius is approximately 500 miles. All products are sold under the tradename "Airseal." Expansion of markets from conventional outlets Among new products to be manu factured will be industrial insulation is contemplated in the near future, materials, metal mesh blankets, in dustrial felts, insulation for stoves, refrigerators and air-conditi:ning equipment, pipe covering, acoustical materials, etc. S. J. Drake, formerly associated with C. W. Poe, Cleveland, Ohio, and at one time superintendent of the American Rock Wool Co. Cleveland ; plant, is superintendent of the plant. A. A. Oesterle is general superin tendent of the Federal Portland Ce ment Co., Inc., of which the Insula tion Division is subsidiary. Carbon Monoxide Indicator National Bureau of Standards, Washington, D. C., has announced the development of a colorimetric indicat ing gel that will detect and estimate less than one part of carbon monoxide in 500 million parts of air, a sensi tivity more than 100 times greater than that attained by former chemical indicators. The indicating material, yellow in color, is a silica gel impreg nated with a complex silico-molybdate compound and catalyzed by means of palladium in the form of the sulphate. The yellow' indicator turns various shades of green and bluish green on exposure to very low concentrations cf carbon monoxide. The color re sponse is a function of time of con centration of carbon monoxide, a di rect parallel to the physiological response to this gas. For use, the indicator gel is sealed in a small glass about 5 in. long and the approximate diameter of a lead pencil, with pro tecting layers of pure silica gel in each end of the tube. Gypsum Association Moves Gypsum Association, Chicago. 111., has announced that its offices have been moved to 8-10 S. Wclis Street. Chicago 6, 111. MTC 017223 0 J MTC 017224