Patent GB-189728210-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in Machines for Forming Nipples for the Wheelspokes of Bicycles and similar Vehicles.
Inventor: CAMPBELL ANDREW CHAMBRE
Filed: 1897-11-30
Granted: 1898-03-12
Abstract: 28,210. Campbell, A. C. Nov. 30. Making nipples.-Relates to automatic machines for making nipples for the wheel spokes of bicycle and similar vehicles. The blanks, cut to the required lengths and provided with shaped heads, are fed from a hopper into jaws arranged around a disc or plate, rotated intermittently to carry the blanks successively to turning, drilling, milling, and tapping tools which simultaneously act on the several blanks before they are separately ejected from the machine. The blanks placed in the hopper 8 are lifted by a reciprocating slide 9 having an inclined slotted upper end which picks up the blanks by their heads and delivers them to an inclined trough 16 down which they fall. The bottom end of the trough is bent at right-angles and curved so that the blanks assume a horizontal position in a recess 23 in a slide 22, which is reciprocated by a cam on the shaft 30 and link mechanism 26, 25 to carry the blanks separately below spring fingers on a vertical slide 33. The slide 33 is pressed down by a spring 35, and is actuated by a cam 40 and link mechanism 36, 37, 38, 39, allowing the slide to first move down and grasp a blank, then raising the slide 33 while the slide 22 is drawn back, moving the slide 33 still further down for a pushing-device to force the blanks into the jaws of the carrier disc or plate, and finally raising the slide 33 up out of the way of the slide 22, which is again advanced with another blank. A finished nipple is ejected from the jaws in the carrier plate on the shaft 50 by a pin on the rod 42, and another blank is pushed into the jaws by another pin 41 on the other side of the carrier plate on the same rod 42. The rod 42 is actuated at the required times by a cam 48 and link mechanism 47, 46, 45. The jaws 51 are adjustable on the carrier plate 49, and the pivoted jaws 54 are opened and closed by eccentric pins 56 pressing against the spring shank 61 and operated at the required time by a cam acting on crank arms on the pins and oscillated by the link 63 and cam 64. The shaft 50 is rotated by a crank 69 engaging notches 67 in the disc 66 and driven by gearing 76, 72. This crank shaft is movable to and fro by a cam 75 and lever 74 so that the disc 66 and shaft 50 are given a step rotation only every other rotation of the crank shaft. The shaft 50 is locked after each partial rotation by a spring bolt 82 engaging recesses 68 in the disc 66, the spring bolt being withdrawn by the cam 86 and lever 85. The tool for centering and tapering the end and the two drills 96 are mounted in spindles 90, 91, 92 supported on a carriage 87 and driven by the central gear 93 actuated by the band pulley 97. The carriage is moved longitudinally by a cam 89 engaging a pin on the side of the carriage. The cutters 102 for milling the flat sides on the nipple are adjustably mounted in pairs on a driven shaft supported in frames hinged to the bed and connected to the carriage 87 by a link 109 so as to be rocked thereby. The pairs of cutters are fixed at the required distance apart so as to form flats at right-angles on two nipples at the same time. The tap spindle 116 is loosely mounted in the carriage 87, and is driven alternately in opposite directions from a wheel 125 clutched to oppositely-rotating band pulleys 128 on the shaft 126. The tap is first advanced to the work by a cam on the shaft 30 rocking a lever 121 which, through link mechanism 120, 119, moves the spindle 116. As the tapping proceeds, a collar 143 on a rod 142 operates a lever 141 to release a spring catch 140 from a lever 136. A rod 134 and lever 130 are then free to be moved by a spring 132, and the shaft 126 is moved endwise to reverse the driving motion of the tap spindle. When the tap is screwed out of the work, a cam on the shaft 30 acts through link mechanism and a lever 136, and the rod 134 and lever 130 are moved again to reverse the driving motion of the tap.