This invention relates to machines for making briquettes in molds mounted on tandem rolls such as are described in Komarek U.S. Pat. No. 3,077,634. Komarek shows a briquetting machine characterized by a cylindrical central body having V-shaped recesses for accommodating mold inserts. These cylindrical units are placed in tandem so that faces of two molds oppose each other as the cylinders turn, compressing the particulate material which falls between them. Temperatures of the gas are about 1100.degree.-1400.degree.F. A continuous ore feeding operation requires that a screw feeder constantly force the hot ore into the bottom of a bowl or other tapered device for direction into the nip of the rolls. The pressures and temperatures of the screw feeding operation are necessarily severe and result in considerable wear and tear of the feeder and associated equipment.
It is important that the rolls and their respective pockets line up both circumferentially as well as axially.
Although the roll assemblies are supported on two bearing blocks, good design dictates that the rolls be positioned axially by fixing only one bearing block and allowing the other block to float. In most briquetting machines, the fixed bearing block is the one opposite the drive end.
In addition to fixing the rolls axially, the bearing blocks must be free to pivot in the horizontal plane in order to prevent roll breakage because of the high separating forces generated during the briquetting operation. Conventionally, this is accomplished by fitting a guide block in a slot on the underside of the fixed bearing block and then by locating this guide block with a guide pin which positions the block and corresponding roll assembly in the briquette machine frame.
It has been extremely difficult with the prior art configuration to move the rolls, weighing six or more tons, to within a very close tolerance of roll gap and axial alignment, generally without being able to see the bearing block or the adjustment for it, which is obscured by the massive machinery. A critical problem in the prior art configuration was that the roll and its housing had to be lowered into a perfectly level position on the bearing block.