Albuquerque daily citizen. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1895-1903, 1902-05-03
AIR BRAKE APPLIANCES.
Foreman Davis, Of Topeka Shops,
Announces Important Inventions.
SAVE TIME AND

A. X. Davis. general foreman of the
Santa Fee shops in Topeka, has Just
perfected some important inventions
for the repair of air brakes, saws the
State Journal. So Important are the
inventions considered that the rail-
road apers are devoting much space
to full descriptions of them.
The repair of air brakes is an i'm
portant mater in modern ra%ilroading.
Much of this sort of work is necessary
and heretofore there has been a great
deal of waste in making repairs. 1t
has been impossible to do satisfactorily
the work which Mr.. Davis new inven-
tions render simple and inexpensive.
The basis for Mr.. Davis system of re.
pair devices is the operation of roll
ing damages cylinders and packing
ring grooves instead of hammering
them.
The inventions which are mentioned
have been made since Mr.. Davis has
been at Topeka, and are all in use at
the Topeka shops. The work of max
ing the tools was done at the shope
here, under the Santa Fe plan of en-
couraging new inventions by the en-
ployes.
Mr.. Davis has been granted patents
on one OF the inventions, and appljca-
tions are pending for patents on the
others.
One of Mr.. Davis new inventions for
repairing worn cylinders of air brakes
Is a circular ~roller-cage of machine
steel, having provision for thirteen
hardened tool-steel tapered rollers.
through it's center, coincident with its
axis, a shaft of tool steel, having a
head or collar on its lower end and
threaded on the upper end. Within
the cage and mounted on the shaft is
a center roller, tapered to correspond
to the outer rollers, against which it
bears.
The cage has a cover, through which
the shaft passes and IN which there is
a knob, screwed on to the end of the
shaft. Tightening up on this knob
raises the center roller and forces out
the small rollers. An expansion of
3.S4 in. is provided for.
The result to the cylinder from the
use of this tool is a smooth hardened
surface and consequent reduction of
friction. A much nearer perfect fit of
the piston is obtained, thus reducing
leakage PAST the piston. This is shown
by the leakage test, in which the pis-
ton is blocked on center and subjected
to an air pressure of 80 pounds IN n
side. Formerly all triples that did not
show a leakage exceeding 80 pounds
at the expiration of n minute were
passed. The new cylinder treatment
has reduced this leakage by about one
half.
Another tool does away with ham
mer in restoring worn or injured pis-
ton packing ring grooves. like the first
by rolling. It consists of three parts:
a roller, a piston clamp and circular
base. The tool was designed for use
in a drill press. as{A
The work the tool does is very salts
factory. Pistons that formerly were
thrown away because of their badly
worn or damaged condition, d now
be restored to service. tr3hg
BY the use of these two tools the
repairs are made in about one-half the
time; or. in other words, they double
the capacity of the department for
triple valve repairs of the kind men,
toned. The cylinder roller costs about
SIS to make In a shop tool room. AS
the rolling operation requires only
about three minutes the tool pays for
itself in a very short time. Mr.. Davis
has been granted a patent on the ,cyiin-
der roller and has applied for a patent
on the piston roller.
Mr.. Davis is also engaged in bush
ing with brass the check velve castings
of the old triples that have cast-iron
valve seats. All new triples have this
brass bushing. Its insertion was found
to be necessary because of the trouble
that was experienced from water-cut-
ting of the iron valve seat. Many of
the roads are throwing away the old
castings and substituting new ones for
them. 1t costs the Santa Fe about 10
cents to put in one of these bushings.
To ream out a casing preparatory to
bushing, a u a~ngle-plate is bolted to
the table of a drill press. The upper
leg of this plate has a hardened steel
bushing fitted in it, which acts as a
guide for the ream. Two pins hold the
casing central and a wedge is driven
beneath to hold it tight against the
angle-plate. A ream of special form is
mead RI Give q euuarl seat for the bush