IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF WELDED IRON TUBES
Year: 1879

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Brownhill at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents on the 10th February 1879.
WILLIAM BROWNHILL, the younger, Managing Director of the Birchhills Hall Iron
Company, Limited, Walsall, in the County of Stafford. "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
MANUFACTURE OF WELDED IRON TUBES."
In the ordinary method of manufacturing welded iron tubes the bending or
fashioning and welding of the edges of the heated skelp or partly made tube, so as
to convert it into a welded tube, are effected by drawing the said heated skelp
several times through pairs of welding and finishing tongs situated in front of
the heating furnace, the partly made tube being reheated after each drawing
operation and passed through a different pair of tongs.
My Invention consists in manufacturing welded iron tubes by effecting the
shaping and welding or welding only of the heated skelp or partly made tube in
the following manner :-
Instead of using one pair of welding and finishing tongs at a time for the
shaping and welding of the skelp, I use a series of two, three, or more pairs of
welding and finishing tongs placed one behind the other in front of the heating
furnace, the tube to be manufactured being passed successively through the series
of welding and finishing tongs without reheating it. The said pairs of welding
and finishing tongs are supported in any convenient manner in front of the
heating furnace and are arranged at a short distance apart, the eyes of the
several pairs of tongs being in the same line. The eyes or acting portions of
the several tongs are not of the same diameter, their diameters progressively
diminishing from the front or first pair of tongs to the last pair of tongs of the
series. The heated skelp is connected with the ordinary draw bench and by one
drawing is drawn through the series of welding and finishing tongs. By the action
of the first pair of tongs the edges of the heated skelp are closed upon one another
and welded together; by the action of the second pair of tongs the further welding
of the joint and the shaping of the tube are effected; and by the action of the sub-
sequent pairs of tongs, where more than two pairs are used, the completion of the
welding of the joint and the perfecting of the figure of the tube are effected.
By thus conducting the manufacture of the tube the several pairs of welding
and finishing tongs operate simultaneously upon different parts of the tube and
the conversion of the skelp into a welded and finished tube is effected at one
heat

page_text: ⚫ Instead of using welding and finishing tongs drawing bells may be substituted
therefor.
Or, in place of the said welding and finishing tongs or drawing bells, rolls having
opposed semicircular grooves may be employed. These rolls are not driven by
steam or other power, the only motion they receive being communicated to them by
the partially drawn-tube.being drawn between them.
I prefer to use skelps of a heart shape or of a nearly-circular-figure in cross
section and with closed or nearly closed edges, but skelps of the ordinary kind may
be converted into welded-tubes_by_the method of manufacture herein before
described.
--By-my Invention the manufacture of welded iron tubes is much economized, and
the injury to the iron which results-from-the-repeated heatings to which it is
subjected in the ordinary manufacture is avoided by the use of my Invention