Patent GB-596749-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in or relating to wire fabric making machine
IPC: B21F27/10
Filed: 1945-08-02
Abstract: 596,749. Welding wire fabrics. PITTSBURGH STEEL CO. Aug. 2, 1945, No. 19883. Convention date, Aug. 11, 1944. [Class 83 (iv)] In making welded wire fabrics a number of horizontal stay wires are simultaneously moved rearwardly towards vertically moving strand wires through a number of horizontally spaced vertical bars, each of which has a number of vertically spaced pivoted gripping fingers projecting rearwardly therefrom, the bars moving vertically to engage the fingers with the stay wires, then rearwardly to place the stay wires against the strand wires and then forwardly to separate the fingers from the stay wires, and finally being returned to their original position. The strand wires 10 are led from coils over guide rollers and then over grooved wheels 8 to a reel 11. The wheels which are mounted on a shaft 7 and are provided with lugs 9 engaging the stay wires 86, 87 to feed the fabric, are rotated through ratchet mechanism 24, 26, 28 by an adjustable connecting rod 23 from a shaft 19 rotated by gearing 18, 17, 16 from a belt driven shaft. The shaft 7 carries also a ratchet-wheel connected by a pawl to a loose pulley 31, which through a belt drives the shaft on which the reel 11 is mounted. The stay wires are produced from a pair of vertically spaced horizontal cross-wires which are fed by rolls 60 co-operating with adjustable pressure rolls 61, the rolls 60 being driven by bevel gear 52, 53 and spur gear 48, 47, 43 through a pinion 42 rigidly connected to a ratchet-wheel 41 rotatably mounted on a shaft 38 connected by bevel gear 36, 37 to the shaft 19. The shaft 38 carries a short arm 39 on which is pivoted a pawl 40 which engages the ratchet-wheel 41, but which during each revolution strikes a stop 67 to disengage it from the ratchet-wheel and thus stop the feed for an interval. The crosswires pass through apertured lugs 73, 74, Fig. 9, projecting from a bar 72 slidable in a frame 71 mounted on the ribbed bed plate 3. The frame carries a pair of stationary knives 84, 85 against which the lengths of wire to form stay wires are cut from the cross-wires by raising the bar 72 against the action of a spring 76 by a lever 79 connected by a link 81 with a lever 82 operated by a projection 83 on the side of the gear 18. As the wires travel across the machine they are supported and guided by slots 96, Fig. 6, in metal blocks 95 carried by cross-bars 90, 91. The bottoms of the slots are normally closed by spring-pressed pivoted jaws 97, which, however, are swung down by pressure on the wire for removal of the wire therefrom. The strand wires travel across two spaced rows of welding electrodes 101, cooperating with spaced pairs of electrodes 102 carried by blocks 104, spring mounted in a beam 107 which is reciprocated in guides in the frame by rods 112 and levers 113 from cams 116 on the shaft 19. After the stay wires are cut they are pushed out of the guides and transferred to the strand wires so as to effect the welds between the electrodes 101, 102, by spring-pressed picker fingers 152 pivoted on bars 150 and having notches co-operating with notches in the bars which are connected to rods 120 extending across the machine and mounted in a pair of vertical bars 121. The bars 121 are provided with pins 122 projecting through slots 123 in vertical guide plates 124, the plates being provided with pins 128 so as to be slidable in slots 129 in brackets 126, 127. The pins 122 are moved up and down the slots 123 by levers 131 connected to forked links 132 oscillatable on the upper rod 120 of the picker mechanism, the other ends of the levers being connected by rods 133 to eccentrics 134 on the shaft 19. When the levers 131 move the picker bars 121 down, the stay wires are gripped by the fingers and forced out of the slots 96 and moved by the fingers into contact with the strand wires by the inclined parts of the slots 123. The front electrodes then hold the stay wires and the guide plates 124 are moved forwards by spring-pressed rods 136 operated by levers 141 and rods 142 by cams 145 on the shaft 19. The beam 101 is then moved forward to separate the electrodes and the levers 131 move the picker frame upwardly in the slots 123. Due to the guide plates being in their forward position, the picker fingers do not foul the cross-wires that have been fed into the guide members in the meantime. The guide plates move back to their original position after the picker fingers have risen above the cross-wires. The spacing between the stay wires may be the same as the distance between the cross-wires or may be less as determined by the feed of the strand wires. Further, three or more stay wires may be welded simultaneously to the strand wires.