Improvements in Machinery for Dressing Skins, Hides, and Leather.
Year: 1896

page_text: Improvements in Machinery for Dressing Skins, Hides, and Leather.
I EDWARD VAVASOUR BROWN,, of the Firm of Huxhams and Brown, of Exeter in
the County of Devon, Engineers, do hereby declare the nature of this invention to
be as follows
This invention relates chiefly to improvements in the operation of the tools used
in striking, scouring, setting, glassing, and rolling leather or skins, whereby these
operations may be effected more satisfactorily than heretofore; but the invention
has also reference to various details of construction to produce more efficient working
of the parts.
To this end, the invention consists in so operating the tools, that they shall be
caused to act simultaneously in opposite directions during the whole or greater
portion of their stroke from the centre outwards, so that the leather is stretched at
the same time as it is finished, and is automatically held steady upon the table.
The tools are carried by suitable frames which receive independent motion from
cranks, and are caused to raise the tools off the leather at the return stroke in the
usual manner.
During the return motion, the table is fed forward by a suitable ratchet mechanism
actuated by the crank motion, so as to give an intermittent action to a revolving
feed table, to present a fresh portion of the leather to the action of the tools.
The tools are mounted on one end of a rocking lever suitably carried, the other.
arm being connected to a spring by which the pressure of the tool can be regulated.
The tools may consist of "slickers," rollers, or glass cylinders, as usual, but I
prefer to employ tools of square section, which are mounted in suitable carriers fixed
to the rocking arms.
I may employ one, two, or more tools in each frame, but in any case the front
tool of each frame will be half the width of the others, so that the inner tools may
pass each other.
Improvements in Machinery for Dressing Skins, Hides, and Leather.
I EDWARD VAVASOUR BROWN of Exeter in the County of Devon, Engineer, do
hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what manner the same is to
be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement :-
This invention relates to that class of machinery for dressing skins, hides, and

page_text: leather, in which sets of dressing tools reciprocate above a table on which the skin
hide, or leather to be dressed, is placed, and operate alternately, first in one direction,
and then in the other, on the material.
I would here remark that by the term "dressing," I wish to be understood as
including such operations as striking, scouring, setting, glassing, and rolling, skins
and leather, or any other operations which are capable of being performed in machines
of the class named, the object of the present invention being to effect these various
operations in a more satisfactory manner than heretofore.
To this end, the invention consists in causing the sets of tools to pass one another,
and operate on the material simultaneously in opposite directions, from the centre
outwards, during the whole, or the greater part, of their stroke, so that the material
is stretched at the same time as it is finished, and is automatically held steady upon
the table.
. And in order that iny invention may be clearly understood, I will now proceed to
fully describe it, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, in which-
Fig. 1 is a plan view of one form of machine for effecting the object of this
invention.
Fig. 2 is a side elevation.
Fig. 3 is a left-hand end view.
Fig. 4 is a cross section, on the line 1-2, Fig. 2, showing the inner tools; and
Fig. 5 is a cross section on the line 3-4, showing the outer tools.
A A are standards supporting rods or bars B on which the tool carriers CC are
mounted and slide. D'is the driving shaft which communicates motion through
spur gearing to a crank shaft E, both of which are mounted in bearings suitably
carried.
F is a table which is capable of axial motion in a carriage, which is mounted on
wheels to run on rails placed transversely of the machine, all as usual.
For convenience, I will designate the sets of tools as X and Z, each set being
composed preferably of a narrow tool x and a wide tool z, as seen in Figs. 4 and 5.
The tools are carried by elbow or bell-crank levers (pivotted to the carriers), the
long arms H of which form the connecting rods between the carriers C and the
cranks. The arrangement of these levers, and their mode of action generally,
will be understood by reference to the Specification of Letters Patent granted to
Charles Armitage Brown dated April 22nd 1890, No. 6115.
As the tool carriers have to move independently of one another, and in opposite
directions, I attach (through the connecting rods) one, carrier C to the crank E, and
the other carrier C', by two rods, to crank pins on discs I, mounted on the ends of
the crank shaft E and outside the bearings. If desired, one dise I may be formed
with teeth on its periphery, and serve as the spur wheel to drive the shaft E, as shown
in the drawings.
As before stated, the table F is mounted in a carriage, and this carriage is of
special construction, with a view to raise and lower the table, and to regulate the
pressure in accordance with the work required. The carriage consists of two circular
plates, J and K, superposed the one on the other, and having inclined planes j, k,
which are always in contact. The plate K is mounted on the wheels L, which run
on rails, but the upper plate J is capable of axial motion on a centre pin.
The plate J has, on its periphery, a projection with a toothed sector M, and the
plate K has a similar projection carrying an axle, on which is keyed a pinion N in
gear with the sector and a hand wheel O, a locking nut with a handle being also
provided.
When it is desired to raise or lower the table, the hand wheel O is turned in one
direction or the other, which causes the pinion to rotate the plate J on its axis, so
that the inclined planes ; will ride up or down the inclined planes k, thus raising
or lowering the plate J, as the case may be, and with it the table F.
When the machine is at work, the narrow tools are caused to pass one another,
before they strike on the material, thus ensuring the proper "working" of the
material over its whole surface. As the tools move simultaneously and in opposite

page_text: directions, they serve to hold the material down on the table while it is being
"worked," and the necessity for special holding devices is therefore obviated.
The action of the tools also serves to stretch the material while it is being worked,
and an independent stretching operation is rendered unnecessary.
Although I prefer to use a narrow and a wide tool, as shown, I may, if desired,
einploy two wide tools, a slight modification in the arrangement (which will be
obvious) being made to enable the inner tools to pass one another.
The table carriage may be moved forward intermittently by suitable ratchet
mechanism actuated from the crank axle in the usual manner, so as to present a fresh
portion of the material to the action of the tools at each stroke, but I prefer to move
it by hand.
The pressure of the tools is regulated by springs in the usual manner, and the
tools may consist of slickers, rollers, glass cylinders, or other usual devices.
I would here remark that I do not intend to confine myself to the exact details
shown, as these may be modified without departing from the nature of my invention,
and are shown by way of example only.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said Inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is :-
1. Machinery for "dressing" skins, hides, and leather, in which reciprocating
operating tools, which. rise clear of the work on the inward stroke, are caused to
simultaneously act on the work in opposite directions from the centre outwards,
during the outward stroke, as and for the purpose set forth.
2. Machinery for "dressing" skins, hides, and leather, in which reciprocating
operating tools are caused to pass one another on both inward and outward strokes,
and act simultaneously on the work in opposite directions from the centre outwards,
as and for the purpose set forth.
3. Machinery for "dressing" skins, hides, and leather, in which reciprocating
operating tools, which rise clear of the work during the inward stroke, are caused
to act simultaneously on the work during the outward stroke in opposite directions
from the centre outwards, in horizontal parallel planes, as and for the purpose
set forth.
4. Machinery for "dressing" skins, hides, and leather, in which sets of pairs of
reciprocating operating tools are caused to act on the work simultaneously in
opposite directions from the centre outwards, the inner tools of each set passing
one another, as and for the purpose set forth.
5. Machinery for "dressing" skins, hides, and leather, in which pairs of
reciprocating operating tools, consisting of a narrow tool and a broad tool, are
caused to act, during the whole or greater portion of their stroke, simultaneously
in opposite directions from the centre outwards, the narrow tools of each set passing
one another, and the broad tools moving in the same horizontal plane, as and for the
purpose set forth.
6. The machinery for "dressing" skin, hides, and leather, as herein described and
shown in the drawings.
7. In machinery for "dressing "skins, hides, and leather, the means, as herein
shown and described, for regulating the height of the table, as and for the purpose
set forth.
8. In machinery for "dressing" skins, hides, and leather, the means as herein
shown and described, for simultaneously reciprocating the operating tools in opposite
directions.