Rendleman v. Ladd

197 F. Supp. 304, 130 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 300, 1961 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 6048
CourtDistrict Court, District of Columbia
DecidedJune 27, 1961
DocketCiv. A. No. 2417-59
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 197 F. Supp. 304 (Rendleman v. Ladd) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, District of Columbia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Rendleman v. Ladd, 197 F. Supp. 304, 130 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 300, 1961 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 6048 (D.D.C. 1961).

Opinion

SIRICA, District Judge.

This is a civil action brought under 35 U.S.C. § 145 in which plaintiffs Norman Rendleman, as the applicant, and United Engineering and Foundry Company as the assignee of an application for patent entitled “Metal Rolling,” serial number 327,484, filed December 23, 1952, seek to have the Court authorize the issuance, to the assignee, of a patent containing claims 10, 11 and 14-18 (entered and examined in said application), and proposed claims 19-22 (which were not entered by the Examiner), not examined and not considered by the Board of Appeals of the Patent Office in its decision.

The claimed invention is for what is known in the art as a “continuous rod mill.” A continuous rod mill is used for converting white hot steel “billets” (usually 30 feet long and from two to two and one-half inches square) into “rods” several hundred feet long. These rods are sold to industry in coiled form. Industry may then subsequently convert the coils into still longer coils of wire, or into various products or machines that unwind the coils, straighten the rod, and cut it into short pieces, converting the pieces into products such as bolts, nuts, concrete reinforcements, and numerous other items. Such a mill is one of the more intricate devices found in the steel industry. A single mill of the type here involved occupies a large floor area and is said to cost between sixteen and eighteen millions of dollars.

As a preliminary to converting a billet into a rod, the billet must be heated until it is white hot throughout its entire length and section. This heating is accomplished in a “billet heating furnace” in which the billets lie side by side, and as one is pushed in at the entering end, a heated billet is pushed out from the other end. The hot metal is increased in length and reduced in crosswise dimension by a simple process of “squeezing.” The hot metal is squeezed by passing it between a pair of motor-driven rolls having matching grooves in their peripheries. Tht matching grooves are called a “roll pass,” and the combination of two rolls is called a “roll stand.” The billet heating capacity of the furnace should be matched to the capacity of the rod mill itself. Each billet must be rolled from its original size to the finished size before it gets too cold. This requires that the entire operation be done at high speed. This high speed factor requires that the “roll stands” be placed relatively close together. The matter of the relative speeds of each stand of rolls therefore becomes a critical factor.

All present and prior rod mills and the present application contain three essential sections, a “roughing train” where the initially large (in cross-wise dimension) billet is first reduced in area, an “intermediate train” where the rod is further reduced and a “finishing train” where the rod is finally reduced to the desired size of the end product. Each of these “trains” in the various prior patents consists of a varying number of the aforementioned “roll stands.” The present application uses no apparatus not known and used in other rod mills. The claimed novelty of this mill is in the overall organization. Plaintiff claims: “In the instant case the elements of the mill are not new but the mill has been reorganized to accomplish certain things that the prior art did not accomplish, and of which it had no concept.” (Plaintiffs’ pre-trial brief, p. 52.)

[306]*306The rod mill disclosed in the application as thfe preferred embodiment comprises twenty-two roll stands with five controlled loops. There are eight roll stands in the roughing train with the first two separately motor driven from the others; eight roll stands in the intermediate train separated into groups of two, each group being separately driven and each in looped relation to the adjacent train or group; six roll stands in the finishing train, alternation of roll pass shape being maintained throughout the stands. The disclosed method of operating this mill to get best results at all sizes of rod from % inch to 2Yb2 inch includes operating the exit pass of the roughing train at constant product cross-section and constant speed and keeping four motors operating in the intermediate train and maintaining four loops1 preceding the exit stand of the intermediate train by omitting intermediate stands in multiples of two, only one stand from each group of two. In so operating, it may be necessary to shift roll stands to keep the roll pass shape alternation.3

In the present application also, where different size billets are used, the adjustments for speed and area which are always necessary in changing product size are made only in the first two stands of the roughing train. The other six roughing train stands operate at constant speed and size for all rods from % inch to 2Yb2 inch final product size.

Plaintiff claims it is the new arrangement of the intermediate train of five loops and four groups of stands arranged in pairs which is the important improvement and which has secured “heretofore unrecognized advantages.” (Plaintiff’s pre-trial brief, p. 20.) It is because of the flexibility of the intermediate roll train that the roughing train can at all times accept the hot metal at the same speed and pass it on to the intermediate train at the same size.

The prior reference patents of record relied upon by the Examiner and the Board of Appeals in rejecting the present application are four in number: Rendleman patent number 1,932,750 (1933), Fisk patent number 1,910,889 (1933), Talbot patent number 1,987,876 (1935) and Peterson patent number 2,-354,771 (1944). The prior Rendleman patent discloses a mill capable of rolling % inch to % inch rounds. That mill includes a roughing train of five roll stands, an intermediate train of four roll stands, and a finishing train of four roll stands. The number of intermediate roll stands depends on the amount of reduction required for shaping the final product. The intermediate train may have two groups of two stands, each group having an independent motor and being in looped relation to the adjacent train or group. All the stands of the intermediate train are selectively operable. The Rendle-man patent discloses operating the roughing train without adjustment of the roll stands. It also discloses rolling various sizes of rod stock by removing stands in multiples of two, but only one from each group of two. In the examples disclosing rolling of % inch, % inch and % inch rounds, the roughing train speed is increased in relation to an increase of product size so that all sizes are produced at the same exit speed of 1,800 feet per minute.

The Fisk patent discloses an eight stand roughing train, a four stand intermediate train and a four stand finishing train. The patent states that in the roughing train, the grouping and number of roll stands may be varied to suit different requirements. The mill is intended to roll sections from 44 inch round up to 2% inches round.

[307]*307The Peterson patent discloses a rod mill including a nine stand roughing train, an eight stand intermediate train, and a six stand finishing train. The first two roughing rolls are driven by a separate motor. The intermediate train includes groups of two stands driven by one motor, which groups may be of any number required to furnish the desired reduction.

The Talbot patent discloses a mill for rolling rods and bars.

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197 F. Supp. 304, 130 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 300, 1961 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 6048, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/rendleman-v-ladd-dcd-1961.