IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF WELDED IRON AND STEEL TUBES
Year: 1874

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Huggins, of Birmingham, in the County
of Warwick, Tube Manufacturer and Machinist, for the Invention
of "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF WELDED IRON
AND STEEL TUBES.”
Sealed the 11th December 1874, and dated the 9th October 1874.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Huggins at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
9th October 1874.
I, JOHN HUGGINS, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Tube
Manufacturer and Machinist, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF WELDED
IRON AND STEEL TUBES," to be as follows:-

page_text: The Invention described in the Specification of and secured to me by
the said Letters Patent is machinery for the manufacture of open jointed
and welded iron or steel tubes, and for the manufacture of tubes generally,
and consists of combinations of rolls, guides, and other mechanical
agents, whereby either open-jointed tubes or welded iron or steel tubes
may be manufactured, the manufacture of the welded tubes being effected
at one heat and by one operation.
My present Invention consists in substituting when welded iron or
steel tubes are to be manufactured a moveable or rotating guide for the
fixed guide between the pair of rolls by which the welding is effected, 1
the said rolls being slightly modified for the purpose of fitting them to
work in combination with the said rotating guide.
I make the welding rolls in the manner described and represented in
the Specification herein-before referred to, excepting that one flange of
each roll is of slightly less diameter than the other flanges, the flanges 1
of less diameter being opposed to each other. By this construction the
larger flanges of the two rolls work in contact, but the smaller flanges
are a short distance apart, and into the space thus left between the two
smaller flanges of the welding rolls the periphery of the third roll at
right angles to the welding rolls enters. The periphery of the said third
or guide roll is slightly concave, the concavity being of the same radius
as the nearly semicircular grooves in the welding rolls. A vertical
transverse section being taken through the machine in the plane in which
the axes of the said three rolls are situated, the said guide roll will be
found to form with the two welding rolls in the said section a complete :
circle, the circular space thus enclosed being the passage through which
the heated partly made tube is drawn and welded by the pressure of the
said rolls. The opposed edges of the tube under process of welding are
acted upon by the said guide roll, and the cylindrical figure of the tube
made more perfect than when a fixed guide is used. The pressure of
the said guide roll may be counterbalanced by a bearing roll situated
opposite to it, upon which bearing roll the larger flanges of the welding
rolls bear.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said John Huggins in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 8th April 1875.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
HUGGINS, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Tube Manu-
facturer and Machinist, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Ninth day of October, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-four, in the thirty-
eighth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said John Huggins, Her special license,
that I, the said John Huggins, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said John Huggins, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no
others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during the term
therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and
vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the
Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN MACHINERY FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF WELDED IRON AND STEEL TUBES,"
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said John Huggins,
my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my,
or their, or one of their bands and seals, should particularly describe
and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner
the same was to be performed, and cause the same to be filed in
the Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next and
immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said John Huggins, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement thercof, that is to say :-
My Invention consists of improvements on an Invention for which
Letters Patent were granted to me on the 27th day of September, 1871,
No. 2542.
The Invention described in the Specification of and secured to me by
the said Letters Patent is machinery for the manufacture of open jointed

page_text: and welded iron or steel tubes, and for the manufacture of tubes generally,
and consists of combinations of rolls, guides, and other mechanical
agents, whereby either open-jointed tubes or welded iron or steel tubes
may be manufactured, the manufacture of the welded tubes being effected
at one heat and by one operation.
My present Invention refers only to the manufacture of welded iron
and steel tubes, and consists essentially in the combination with or
adaptation to the welding rolls of the said machinery of a moveable or
rotating guide and welding roll, the welding rolls being slightly modified
for the purpose of fitting them to work in combination with the said
rotating guide and wolding roll.
I make the welding rolls in the manner described and represented in
the Specification herein-before referred to, excepting that one flange of
each roll is of slightly less diameter than the other flanges, the flanges
of less diameter being opposed to each other. By this construction the
larger flanges of the two rolls work in contact, but the smaller flanges
are a short distance apart, and into the space thus left between the two
smaller flanges of the welding rolls the periphery of a third roll at right
angles to the welding rolls enters. The periphery of the said guide and
welding roll is slightly concave, the concavity being of the same or
nearly the same radius as the nearly semicircular grooves in the welding
rolls. A vertical transverse section being taken through the machine in
the plane in which the axes of the said three rolls are situated, the said
guide and welding roll will be found to form with the two welding rolls
in the said section a complete circle, the circular space thus enclosed being
the passage through which the heated partly made tube is drawn and
welded by the pressure of the said rolls. The opposed edges of the tube
under process of welding are acted upon by the said guide and welding
roll, and the cylindrical figure of the tube made very perfect. The
pressure of the said guide and welding roll may be counterbalanced by a
bearing roll situated opposite to it, upon which bearing roll the larger
flanges of the welding rolls bear.
Having explained the nature of my Invention, I will proceed to
describe with reference to the accompanying Drawing the manner in
which the same is to be performed.
Figure 1 represents in sido olevation and Figure 2 in plan machinery

page_text: for the manufacture of welded iron and steel tubes constructed according
to my said Patent, with which said machinery mechanism constructed
according to my present Invention is combined. Some parts of the
machinery forming no part of my present Invention are omitted.
Figure 3 represents in vertical section, drawn to double the scale of
Figures 1 and 2, the pair of welding rolls of the said machinery, and
also the moveable or rotating guide and third welding roll, and the fixed
guides; and Figure 4 is a vertical section of portions of the pair of
welding rolls and guide and welding roll drawn to a larger scale than
Figure 3, the said section Figure 4 being taken in a direction at right
angles to that in which the section Figure 3 is taken. The same letters
of reference indicate the same parts in the several Figures of the
Drawing.
a, b, are the bending rolls working in a vertical plane, by which said
rolls the heated flat strip of iron or steel introduced between them is
bent into a trough-like or semi-tubular figure. The said bending rolls
consist of an upper convex roll a and a lower concave roll b. In front
of the rolls a, b, is the table c, near to which is the furnace or muffle
(not represented), by which the strips of iron or steel are heated to a
welding heat before they are introduced between the said bending
rolls a, b; d, e, is a pair of horizontal shaping and welding rolls, and
f, g, is a pair of horizontal shaping rolls. Between the pairs of rolls d, e,
and f, g, is a pair of vertical shaping rolls h, i. Beyond the rolls h, i,
and f, g, are other pairs of rolls alternately vertical and horizontal, by
which the tube is finished. These finishing rolls are not represented in
the Drawing. The pair of rolls d, e, besides serving to bend or fashion
the trough-like strip as it leaves the first bending rolls into a tubular
figure also serve to weld the joint of the tube in its passage through
the said rolls d, e. In front and behind each of the pairs of rolls fixed
guides marked k, k, are situated for guiding the partly made tube into
and out of the rolls. Between the grooves of the welding rolls d, e, is a
plug or mandril (see Figure 3) for giving internal support to the partly
made tube as it passes through the said rolls. In the nearly semi-
circular grooves of the welding rolls d, e, and situated immediately under
the rear end of the plug or mandril 1, is an adjustable wedgo-shaped block
or support m (see Figure 3) for supporting the trough-like strip during
its entrance into the grooves of the rolls d, e, In Figure 3 the heated-
flat strip of iron or steel before it enters the rolls a, b, is marked n, the

page_text: portion of the strip bent by the rolls a, b, is marked p, and the trough-
formed strip after it has been fashioned into a tube and its opposed edges
welded by the action of the rolls d, e, is marked q.
go
In combination with the pair of welding rolls d, e, I use a guide and
welding roll for assisting in the formation of the joint of the tube and
for perfecting the figure of the tube at the joint part thereof. The said
guide roll and welding roll is situated in a vertical plane, that is, in a
plane at right angles to that of the welding rolls d, e, and the said roll »
works in the space at 1³ (see Figure 4) between the flanges d³, e³, of the
welding rolls d, e. The periphery of the said guide and welding roll is
r
concave as represented. The flanges d³, e², of the rolls d, e, are made of
less diameter than the flanges on the opposite sides of the said rolls for
the purpose of permitting the third roll to work between them, as seen
in Figure 4. The concave periphery of the said third roll has the same
orn early the same radius as the nearly circular grooves of the welding
rolls d, e, and the three rolls where they meet enclose a complete circular
space, which space constitutes the passage through which the heated tube
is drawn, and at which it is welded by the pressure of the said rolls d, e, r,
as will be understood by an examination of Figure 4, where a tube
marked g is represented upon the mandril or plug in the act of being
welded by the pressure of the said rolls d, e, r. It will also be seen by
reference to the said Figure 4 that the partly made tube is completely
supported, both internally and externally during the welding process,
and as the guide and welding roll acts directly on the joints of the
tube g the cylindrical figure of the tube at its welded edges is as perfect
as the other parts of the tube, that is, the formation of a burr or feather
by the metal-being forced between the flanges of the rolls is avoided, the
welding being at the same time made more perfect by the action of the
said roll r. The joint & may either be a butt joint or a lap joint.
Besides assisting in the welding of the joint of the tube and perfecting
the cylindrical figure of the tube at the joint part, the roll r also assists
in guiding the trough-like strip p to the fashioning and welding rolls d, e,
and completing its tubular figure. As the welded tube leaves the
welding rolls d, e, it is carried in succession through the rolls h, i, and
f, g, and the other rolls of the series and the guides of the said rolls, by
the action of which rolls the metal of the tube is consolidated and the
figure of the tube perfected, a welded tube being made at one heat and
by one operation.

page_text: The guide and welding roll r turns on the axis ³, which axis is carried
by the arm r¹ connected by the pin and slot at to the frame or housing
of the pair of bending rolls a, b, (see Figure 1). The guide and welding
roll r is adjusted vertically in the space at 3 between the flanges d³,
of the welding rolls d, e, by the pin and slot at 75, and its horizontal
position in the said space is adjusted by a screw pin fixed by a nut taking
into the slotted end of the arm
e³,
The guide and welding roll r turns on the axis ³, which axis is carried
by the arm connected by the pin and slot at³ to the frame or housing
of the pair of bending rolls a, b, (see Figure 1). The guide and welding
roll is adjusted vertically in the space at between the flanges d³, e³,
of the welding rolls d, e, by the pin and slot at 75, and its horizontal
position in the said space is adjusted by a screw pin fixed by a nut taking
into the slotted end of the arm
*
When tubes of large size and strength of metal are to be manufactured
I prefer to support the peripheries of the welding rolls d, e, immediately
under the lowest point of the guide and guiding roll r by means of a
bearing roll at E, Figure 4.
Each pair of rolls is worked independently of the others. Part of the
gearing for driving the rolls is represented in Figures 1 and 2, where it
will be seen that the pairs of vertical rolls a, b, and h, i, are driven by
bands passed over the driving pulleys t, t, on the end of one of the axes
of the rolls, the axes of each pair of vertical rolls being geared together
by toothed gearing at u. The horizontal rolls d, e, are driven by bevil
gearing v, w, the horizontal axis to² carrying the vertical bevil wheels w
having on its end a driving pulley. The horizontal rolls f, g, and the
other succeeding horizontal rolls need not be driven by gearing, as the
tube under operation communicates a rotatory motion to them.
Having now described the nature of my Invention and the manner in
which the same is to be performed, I wish it to be understood that
I do not limit myself to the precise details herein described and
illustrated, as the same may be varied without departing from the nature
of my Invention; but I claim as my Invention the improvements herein-
before described and illustrated in the accompanying Drawing in
machinery for the manufacture of welded iron and steel tubes, in which
the said tubes are made at one heat and by one operation by the action
of alternate pairs of vertical and horizontal bending or shaping and
welding rolls in conjunction with fixed guides, that is to say, the addition
to or combination with that pair of rolls of the said machinery by which
the welding of the tube is effected of a guide and welding roll for
assisting in guiding the trough-like strip to the said welding rolls, for
› assisting in welding the joint of the partly-made tube, and for perfecting
the cylindrical figure of the said tube at the joint part, the said welding

page_text: rolls and guide and welding roll being constructed, and combined, and
acting substantially as described and illustrated.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Huggins, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Ninth day of January, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-five.
5
Witness,
GEORGE SHAW.
JOHN HUGGINS. (L.s.)