Improvements in the Manufacture of Tires for Locomotive and like Wheels.
Year: 1896

page_text: Date of Application, 12th May, 1896-Accepted, 4th July, 1896
[Communicated from abroad by HAYWARD AUGUSTUS HARVEY, of Orange,
New Jersey, United States of America, Mechanical Engineer.]
Improvements in the Manufacture of Tires for Locomotive and like
Wheels.
I, HENRY HARRIS LAKE, of the Firm of Haseltine, Lake & Co., Patent
Agents, 45 Southampton Buildings, in the County of Middlesex, 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:-
The object of this invention is the production for use on locomotive and like
wheels of a flanged tire, the main body of which is composed of tough metal and is
integral with excessive hard metal upon the face or tread of the tire and with a
somewhat less excessively hard metal upon the side of the flange adjacent to the
tread.
In the common process of manufacturing locomotive and like wheel tires, the
first step is to cast or forge a steel ingot in the form of a truncated cone, which is
technically called a "cheese." The present invention requires that this cheese
shall be made of low steel containing not to exceed, say three tenths per cent. of
carbon. In the ordinary process of manufacturing the centre of the cheese is
punched out and the remaining annulus is subjected to the operation of rough
rolling, in the course of which the flange is developed.
The present invention requires that the part of the said cheese or annulus which
is to form the tread, as the case may be, either before or after the rough rolling
operation, shall be impregnated upon its convex surface to the depth of from two
to three inches with a prescribed additional quantity of carbon, while the part
This is effected by
which is to form the flange is impregnated to a less extent.
subjecting the cheese, or the annulus, either before or after it has been rough
rolled, to intense heat while its convex surface is in contact with a granular
material rich in carbon, the side of its flange, or of the metal which is to form the
side of the flange adjacent to the tread, is in contact with a material lean in carbon,
and the remaining portion of the surface of the cheese or annulus is in contact
with sand or other non-carbonaceous material, said granular materials being
contained in a suitably shaped receptacle, the walls of which are made of fire clay,
or other refractory substance, and which is arranged within the heating chamber
of a suitable furnace. The period of time required for such impregnation will of
course vary with different furnaces and different fuels and must therefore be
determined by previous tests of the particular furnaces and the particular fuel
employed.
In prior Patents, No. 401 dated January 10, 1888, and No. 16544, dated
September 29, 1891, the intense heat above referred to necessary for super-
carburization has been indicated in connection with the treatment of ibgots or
other bodies of steel, and also in connection with armour-plate. In the first named
patent there is specified a temperature above 1500° F., and excellent results are
stated to be produced by raising the raw steel to a temperature upwards of
3000° F. In the last named patent a temperature above the melting point of cast-
iron (1930° to 2300° F.) or, approximately, such heat is specified. All these
temperatures can only be stated approximately, first, because it is difficult to
measure the same exactly, and secondly, because a prolonged heating at a somewhat

page_text: lower temperature will produce results which are similar to those obtained by a less
prolonged heating at more intense temperatures.
The extent of supercarburization effected should be such that the metal upon
the surface of the tread will be made to contain at least nine tenths per cent. and
possibly one and twenty five hundredths per cent. of carbon. If the super-
carburization has been performed upon a cheese, the central portion of the cheese
will subsequently be punched out in the usual manner. The cheese, or the
annulus, may be slowly cooled down and thus annealed in the furnace, but
preferably after having cooled down is re-heated and carefully annealed pre-
paratory to being re-rolled and machined to its finished form, and subsequently
again reheated in a suitable furnace for the purpose of being hardened. When its
convex surface is observed to have the colour which indicates the degree of
temperature suitable for hardening steel of the particular quality used, it is chilled
by being submerged in, or copiously sprayed with, a cold chilling liquid. Cepious
spraying is important where the mass of heated metal is large, and the degree of
hardening produced by chilling is to be properly proportioned to the degree of
carburization at different depths in the body of the tire.
As the main body of the resulting tire is composed of tough metal any warping
which it may acquire during the described treatment can easily be taken out of it
by the use of the ordinary appliances for that purpose. If desired, the convex face
and flange of the tire can then be finished by grinding.
In the accompanying drawing, which represents the heating chamber of a
furnace containing the receptacle in which the supercarburizing operation is
performed,
Figure 1 is a vertical section of the annular receptacle filled with the granular
materials, in which two cheeses are embedded.
Figure 2 is a vertical section showing the strata of granular materials, and
affording a view in section of two tires embedded therein and
Figure 3 is a vertical section of the heating chamber of a furnace, showing the
receptacle for the granular materials and the objects embedded therein, and
showing an arrangement of flues by which the flames and heated products of
combustion are directed over the top and under the bottom of said receptacle.
B is a cylindrical receptacle, the interior of which constitutes a cell C of suitable
dimensions for conducting the supercarburizing operation upon two cheeses. At
the bottom of the cell is a stratum, D, of sand upon which is deposited the punched
cheese, E, the periphery of which is enclosed by an annular mass, F, of granular
carbonaceous material. Preferably, a thin stratum, F1, of mixed sand and granular
carbonaceous material is interposed between the stratum D of sand and the annular
mass F of carbonaceous material. The interior E' of the punched cheese is filled
with sand, and a stratum D', of sand surmounts the cheese E and the annular
mass F of carbonaceous material.
An unpunched cheese, G, rests upon the stratum, D', of sand and has nearly all
its periphery enclosed by the annular mass H of granular carbonaceous material.
A relatively thin stratum, H', of mixed sand and carbonaceous material is arranged
above the annular mass H of carbonaceous material and together with the
unpunched cheese, G, is surmounted by the uppermost stratum D2 of sand above
which is the cover I, made of fire clay or other refractory material. It will be
seen that the portions of the cheese which are ultimately worked into the flange of
the tire are those which are in contact with the strata F and H which are lean in
carbon.
Figure 2 represents a cylindrical receptacle, B, proportioned with reference to
effecting the supercarburization of two such rough rolled tires as would be made
from cheeses of the proportions indicated in Figure 1. In this case the lower
tire, e, is deposited upon the lower stratum, d, of sand and its interior, e¹, is filled
with sand. Instead of arranging a stratum of granular material lean in carbon
immediately around the flange of the tire, e, the said tire is placed flange downward
and is embedded into the stratum, d, of sand to a depth equal to rather more than

page_text: one half of the thickness of its flange e. The remainder of the periphery of the
tire is enclosed by the annular mass, f, of granular carbonaceous material, which,
together with the tire is surmounted by the stratum, d', of sand or other
non-carbonaceous material.
The tire, g, arranged with its flanged side upward, is deposited upon the
stratum, d', of sand, and the interior, 9, of the tire, g, is also filled with sand.
The periphery of the tire, g, with the exception of rather more than one half of its
flange, g, is enclosed by the annular mass, h, of granular carbonaceous material,
which, together with the tire g is surmounted by the stratum, d², of sand above
which is the cover i.
The expedient of exposing only portions of the flange of the tires e and g to
contact with the carbonaceous material, is to be regarded merely as the alternative
of the expedient illustrated in Figure 1 of surrounding the corresponding parts of
the cheeses with mixtures of sand and carbonaceous material. In both cases the
object is the same, to wit, to prevent the supercarburization of the flange of the
wheel to the extent to which the remainder of the tire is supercarburized, so that
the flange will not be impregnated with sufficient carbon to be in danger of being
made brittle in a subsequent process of hardening the tire.
It is preferred to so conduct the operation of supercarburization that the finished
tire will be impregnated upon its face or tread with the added carbon ordinarily to
the depth of one and one half inches. In such case it will be necessary to
impregnate the face or tread of the rough rolled tire to a greater depth, that is,
to such greater depth as is inversely proportional to the difference between the
diameter of the rough rolled tire and the diameter of the finished tire. Similarly,
if the supercarburizing operation is performed upon the cheese, the depth of
impregnation must be still greater. For example, if the rough rolled tire is one
quarter less in diameter than the finished tire, then it should be impregnated to a
depth of, say, two and oue eighth inches, in order that the finished tire produced
from it shall have upon its tread, or face, a depth of impregnation of one and one
half inches. Or, for example, if the supercarburizing operation is performed
upon a cheese the mean diameter of which is one half that of the finished tire, then
the depth of impregnation of the cheese should be twice that required for the
finished tire.
It is also to be understood that the supercarburizing operation may, if, preferred,
be performed upon the finished tire after it has been subjected to the final rolling
operation by which it is brought to its ultimate diameter, and in such case the
process of supercarburization will be so regulated as to secure in the finished tire
the depth of impregnation of added carbon which may be desired. In conducting
the supercarburizing operation upon the finished tire, the operation is similar to
that described with reference to the treatment of the rough rolled tire, especially
in respect of the fact that the flange is prevented from absorbing too much carbon,
by protecting the greater portion of it with sand, or by enclosing it in a mass of
material lean in carbon.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, as communicated to me by
my foreign correspondent, I declare that what I claim is:-
1. The herein described improvement in the manufacture of flanged tires for
locomotive and like wheels, which consists in constructing such tires from steel low
in carbon ly the usual methods, and in the course of manufacture impregnating
the metal ultimately composing the tread with a prescribed excess of carbon, and
in impregnating with a relatively smaller excess of carbon the metal ultimately
composing the side of the flange adjacent to the tread, and in finally hardening the
tire while it is at a suitable temperature by inmersing it in, or spraying it with, a
cold chilling liquid.
2. The improvement in the manufacture of flanged tires for locomotive and like
wheels, which consists in subjecting a low steel tire to heat while its face or tread

page_text: is in contact with a body of powdered charcoal, or other carbonaceous material,
and while the side of its flange adjacent to its face or tread is in contact with a
body of material comparatively lean in carbon and in subsequently hardening the
tire while it is at a suitable temperature by immersing it in, or spraying it with, a
cold chilling liquid.
Dated this 12th day of May 1896.
HASELTINE, LAKE & Co.,
45 Southampton Buildings, London, W.C., Agents for the Applicant.