Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
Ref No.: 1 1800.075CA
METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR SUPPLYING SUPPORT FROM BELOW TO A
SCREEN CLOTH ON A VIBRATING SCREENING MACHINE
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] The present application claims the benefit of the filing date of
provisional
patent application having serial number 62/516,946 filed on June 8, 2017 by
the same
inventors.
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
[0002] The present invention generally relates to material processing,
and more
particularly relates to vibrating screening machines, and, even more
particularly, relates to
support structure below screen cloths or wire cloths on vibrating screening
machines.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0003] In the past, various support structures below screening media or
screen cloths
have been used in a wide variety of applications.
[0004] A common deck design, of the past, has used a fabricated I-beam
cross-
member that tapers down toward the ends. The ends were typically welded into a
formed
plate that makes the deck sides. The tapered ends of the fabricated I-beam
allow use of
shortened height deck sides, which is desirable. This design can be used with
either side
tension style decks or with urethane media style decks, depending on which way
the I-beam
cross-member is oriented.
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. .
[0005] Another common design has been to use a straight tube
design. Such designs
often are symmetrical and can be used with either side tension style decks or
with urethane
media style decks. These designs have often been relatively inexpensive.
[0006] While these types of support structure systems may have
many advantages in
particular applications, they also have some drawbacks. For example, with the
fabricated I-
beam approach some challenges are presented. Firstly, fabricating a tapered I-
beam is
costly. Secondly, welding around the I-beam ends causes stress concentrations
due to the
non-continuous welds and due to the geometry of the I-beam cross section.
These stress
concentrations fatigue with the cyclic loading of the screen, causing cracks
to develop and
the screen deck can begin to fail. With the straight tube design, it often
forces designers to
scale upwardly the deck sides with deck width. Eventually, the deck sides
become too tall
to be feasible for use, especially if it is often necessary to transport the
screens on public
highways between job sites, where height restrictions will apply to all
vehicles.
[0007] Consequently, there exists a need for improved methods and
apparatuses for
efficiently supporting a screen cloth in vibrating screen machines.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
.
[0008] An aspect of the present invention seeks to provide an
easily implemented
system for supporting a screen cloth.
[0009] It is a feature of the present invention to utilize a flat
centered tubular cross-
member with tapered ends spanned by longitudinal stringers with differential
height
characteristics.
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[0010] An aspect of the present invention seeks to provide for some of the
benefits of
tapered 1-beams at a much reduced cost.
[0011] Another aspect of the present invention is to provide an easily
implemented method
of tapering portions of a tubular cross-member.
[0012] It is another feature of the present invention to cope and cap ends
of a tubular cross-
member.
[0013] An aspect of the present invention seeks to provide for a method of
making a
tapered tubular cross-member and for coupling the same to sides of a vibrating
screen machine.
[0014] The present invention is an apparatus and method for efficiently and
cost effectively
providing support from below for a screen cloth or screen media, which
apparatus and method
are designed to satisfy the aforementioned needs, provide the previously
stated objects, include
the above-listed features, and achieve the already articulated advantages. The
present invention
is carried out in a "fully tapered-less" cross-member, in a sense that simple
changes to a linear
tubular member are used, in combination with differential stingers to make a
proper properly
crowned screen cloth, without the use of fully tapered I-beam.
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Date Recue/Date Received 2023-05-30
[00151 In a broad aspect, the present invention embodies a method of
manufacturing a
screen deck of a material processing vibrating screening machine. The method
comprises
providing a pair of spaced apart parallel longitudinal side members, providing
a plurality of
cross-members having opposing ends, each of which are coupled to one of the
pair of spaced
apart parallel longitudinal side members, each of the plurality of cross-
members being made
through a process of creating a hollow tube, and removing corner portions of
the hollow tube,
and thereby creating newly exposed surfaces. A plurality of cap plates is
created, configured to
be mated to the newly exposed surfaces, replacing each of the corner portions
with one of the
plurality of cap plates. A screen media is secured above the plurality of
cross-members, which
screen media is configured to only allow particles having smaller size than a
predetermined size
to pass therethrough.
[0016] In a further aspect, the present invention provides a vibrating
screen system
comprising a pair of spaced apart parallel longitudinal side members, a
plurality of cross-
members having opposing ends, each of which is coupled to one of the pair of
spaced apart
parallel longitudinal side members. Each of the plurality of cross-members
includes sloped end
portions, each of which is defined by a cap plate disposed thereon. There is a
screen media
secured above the plurality of cross-members, which screen media is configured
to only allow
particles having smaller size than a predetermined size to pass therethrough.
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Date Recue/Date Received 2023-05-30
[0016A] In a still further aspect, the present invention provides a
vibrating screen system
comprising a pair of spaced apart parallel longitudinal side members, a
plurality of cross-
members having opposing ends, each of which is coupled to one of the pair of
spaced apart
parallel longitudinal side members. Each of the plurality of cross-members
includes sloped end
portions, each defined by a cap plate disposed thereon. A screen media is
secured above the
plurality of cross-members, which screen media is configured to only allow
particles having
smaller size than a predetermined size to pass therethrough. The cap plate is
disposed on a side
of the cross-member which is proximal of the screen media, a central flat
portion being defmed
at each end by one of the plurality of cap plates. A plurality of spaced apart
stringers is disposed
on the central fiat portion, the plurality of spaced apart stringers being
made with different
vertical height characteristics so as to provide support for the screen media
in a crowned
configuration, and the different vertical height characteristics being
arranged on the central flat
portion so that smaller ones of the different vertical height characteristics
are proximal to the cap
plates.
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Date Recue/Date Received 2023-05-30
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0017] The invention may be more fully understood by reading the
following
description of the preferred embodiments of the invention, in conjunction with
the
appended drawings wherein:
[0018] FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a vibrating screening deck of the
prior art,
which utilizes a fully tapered cross-member and a plurality of identical
stringers.
[0019] FIG. 2 is a simplified diagram of a flat screen deck of the prior
art.
[0020] FIG. 3 is a simplified diagram of a corner portion of a screen
deck of the
present invention.
[0021] FIG. 4 is a side view of a screen deck of FIG.3.
[0022] FIG. 5 is a view of an alternate embodiment of the present
invention for a flat
screen deck using the same tapered cross-members as shown in FIGs. 3 and 4.
[0023] FIG. 6 is a side view of the screen deck of FIG. 5.
[0024] FIG. 7 is a close up view of an end of a coped tube 106 without a
cap plate.
[0025] FIG. 8 is a detailed side view of the coped tube of FIG. 7 with
angular details
of the beveled edge.
[0026] FIG. 9 is a close up view of the coped tube 106 of FIG. 7 having a
cap plate.
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DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0027] Although described with particular reference to inclined multi-
level vibrating
screens, the systems and methods, of the present invention, for supporting a
screen cloth can
be implemented in many different types of vibrating screen applications.
[0028] In one embodiment, the system and method of the present invention
described herein can be viewed as examples of many potential variations of the
present
invention which are protected hereunder.
[0029] Now referring to the drawings, wherein like numerals refer to like
matter
throughout, and more particularly FIG. 1, there is shown a diagram
illustrating a simplified
version of a rectangular screen deck of the prior art, generally designated 10
having a
perimeter of four sides 11, and a plurality of tapered I-beams 12. For the
most part, these
screens achieve a crowned screen cloth with a fully tapered I-beam cross-
member12 with
identical stringers 13.
[0030] Now referring to FIG. 2, the rectangular screen deck, generally
designated 20,
is shown as having a perimeter of four sides 21, with flat top cross-members
22 spanning
across the deck to make a flat surface for the screen cloth which is
representative of different
support systems used to support different types of screen cloths of the prior
art.
[0031] Now referring to FIG. 3, there is shown a simplified
representation of a
corner portion of a crowned rectangular screen deck of a vibrating screening
machine of the
present invention generally designated 100, which is formed by deck sides 102
and deck
ends 104 and supported by supports 107. The screen deck 100 includes a
plurality of unique
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and novel coped tubular cross-members 106 spanned by a plurality of
substantially equally
spaced apart longitudinal stringers 108, 1081, 1082, 1083 with different
height
characteristics to support the screen media, represented here by a tiny
portion 109, in a
typical crowned configuration 108 (highest), 1081 (high), 1082 (medium), and
1083 (low).
It combines the benefits of the short side plates (similar to that of the I-
beam cross-member)
with the simple and inexpensive tube design cross-member.
[0032] The ends of the tube cross-members 106 are coped and then capped
to form
sloped end portions 1062. This allows for the tube 106 to have a central flat
portion 1061,
which is tall and strong in the center of the deck for wide decks, but is
angle cut short to
form sloped end portions 1062. Cross-member 106 has a non-sloped side which
opposes and
is parallel to central flat portion 1061. Since the capped tube keeps its
rectangular shape, the
non-angled end surfaces 1063 are easily welded to deck sides 102, without
starts and stops,
eliminating stress concentrations. Like the tapered I-beam design of the prior
art, it can be
used with either side tension style decks or with urethane media style decks,
depending on
how the cross-member tube 106 is oriented. (See FIGs. 5 and 6 for flat
urethane media style
decks.) As the cross-member106 is a simple angled end cut tube cut to length,
it is more cost
effective than the tapered I-beam.
[0033] Now referring to FIG. 4, there is shown a side view representation
of the
present invention of FIG. 3.
[0034] Now referring to FIG. 5, there is shown a system of the present
invention
which is a close up view of a corner view of a flat screen deck of the present
invention which
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utilizes an inverted tapered cross-member 106 of FIGs. 3 and 4. Deck sides
1021 are similar
to deck sides 102 of FIGs. 3 and 4. Deck ends 1041 are similar to deck ends
104.
[0035] Now referring to FIG. 6, there is shown a side view of the screen
deck of FIG.
5.
[0036] Now referring to FIGs. 7-9, attention is directed to the ends
1062. Normally,
coping a tube to produce sloped end portions would result in irregular and
multiple cuts
creating stress risers. Even after a cap is welded on a coped end, these
stress risers could
normally remain.
[0037] One embodiment of the present invention adds further detail to the
screen
deck with cross-member tube from FIGs. 3-6 in that it is coped by using a
smooth
continuous cut, which may be done with a five axis laser cutter. The coped
tube end can
then be capped with a plate 10621 that is welded on with a continuous or
robotic weld
without adding stress risers. The process creates the sloped end portions 1062
of the present
invention. The continuous weld connection between the non angled end surfaces
1063 and
the deck side 102 makes for easier manufacturing and improved product life.
The
continuous sweeping cut 10622 eliminates the stress risers that lead to high
cycle fatigue
failure.
[0038] During the cutting process the cutting head angle changes as it
cuts through
the radius of the tube. This leaves newly exposed surfaces with a continuous
edge profile
without any sharp changes in the tube cross section. As the top surface of the
tube is cut,
the cutting head is, in one embodiment, held at 30 degrees off vertical,
leaving an optimal
weld bevel for the cap plate 10621. The cap plate 10621 profile can be cut
using
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conventional CNC methods. In some embodiments, the cap plate 10621 is welded
to the
coped tube end forming sloped end portions 1062 without any further weld prep.
[0039] The tube cross-member 106 is strong enough to support screen media
109 and
its unique end profile allows for minimal deck side height. Minimal deck
height is desired
in order to achieve the most compact screen, making it easier to transport.
The coped and
capped tube becomes a common cross-member 106 that is used on both the side-
tensioned
crowned and flat screen decks. Depending on the deck, the cross-member 106 is
simply
rotated 180 degrees during the assembly process.
[0040] The precise implementation of the present invention will vary
depending
upon the particular application.
[0041] It is thought that the method and apparatus of the present
invention will be
understood from the foregoing description and that it will be apparent that
various changes
may be made in the form, construct steps and arrangement of the parts and
steps thereof
without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention or sacrificing
all of their
material advantages. The form herein described is merely a preferred exemplary
embodiment thereof.
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