Patent GB-363314-A (GB)
Title: Improved process and apparatus for the production of welded wire fabric
IPC: B21F27/10
Filed: 1930-09-15
Abstract: 363,314. Welding wire fabrics. PILKINGTON BROS., Ltd., 631, Tower Building, Water Street, Liverpool, and GASKELL, J., Stocks well, Hard Lane, St. Helens, Lancashire. Sept. 15, 1930, No. 27512. [Class 83 (iv).] In making electrically welded wire fabric with diamond meshes, one set of inclined wires are first successively laid on and welded across selvage wires and a second set of oppositely inclined wires are then successively laid on and welded to the first set of wires, the partly finished fabric being kept taut by tension applied to the selvage wires during passage from the first machine to the second, and the first set of wires being retained in correct position close to the welding line of the second machine. The first set of wires 3 are successively fed from a spool 6 by a finger 7 traversed by a screw and intermittent gear as described in Specification 229,016, [Class 83 (iv), Metals, Working], over a pair of selvage wires 1, which are traversed from spools on to a feed drum as described in the said prior Specification. After each length is fed it is cut off by a knife 28 and welded by dies 60 on arms 22 mounted on a shaft 23, which is oscillated by a cam 27 on the main shaft 11 through an arm 26, link 25 and crank 24. The partly finished fabric is fed through a second machine, which is connected by gearing 32, 33 to the first machine, and a second set of oppositely inclined wires 4 are fed in a similar manner to the first set over the partly finished fabric and welded thereto by dies on a series of arms 22 on a second shaft 23. During passage from the first to the second machine the fabric is maintained taut by guiding its edges through passages formed between the ends of two pairs of bars 36, the selvage wires, which may consist of an outer thick and an inner thin wire being retained within the channel 38. The bars of the two guides may be laterally adjusted by screws 39 to adjust the tension. The wires of the partly finished fabric are guided and retained in correct position on a line close to the welding dies of the second machine by a single or double threaded screw 40 which is rotated by a chain and gapped gears from the shaft 12, during the period in which the fabric is fed forward through the length of one mesh, sufficiently to bring one groove 41 into the position of the next groove. In order to avoid breakage of the wires 3, 4 during feeding under tension from their spools, the friction brakes which provide the tension are released before the finger starts to draw the wire and are applied only after the spools have been set in motion. For this purpose the spools 6, together with springs 49 and washers 50, which are rotatable on fixed pins 48 are acted on by washers 51 keyed to the pins and pressed down by levers 52 with adjustable weights 59. The other arms 53 of the levers 52 are acted on by cams 55 on the shafts 11 and 12 so as to raise the arms 52 at the beginning of the feed. The arms 22 of the welding dies 60 are provided with slots 63 engaged by projections 64 on the shafts 23 so that they are positively raised, but on the return motion of the shafts the arms are operated through springs 65. The arms are located on the shafts by screws 66 and annular grooves 67.