Improved Machinery for the Manufacture of Horse Nails, Applicable also for Machine Keys, Square Pins, and other Articles of Foursided or Irregular Section.
Year: 1886

page_text: Date of Application, 13th Oct., 1886.
Complete Left, 13th June, 1887.
Complete Accepted, 29th July, 1887.
Improved Machinery for the Manufacture of Horse Nails, Applicable
also for Machine Keys, Square Pins, and other Articles of
Foursided or Irregular Section.
I WILLIAM HENRY DORMAN of Brook House Stafford in the County of Stafford
Engineer do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:-
A machine for forging Horse Nails Keys, Square Pins or other objects of irregular
section from a bar of iron or other metal furnished with four hammers which act in
pairs alternately. Two of the hammers move horizontally in opposite directions and
strike simultaneously on the opposite sides of the bar and the other two moving
vertically in opposite directions strike the other two sides of the bar. The hammer
faces are formed of a suitable shape for the section proposed so that that portion of the
bar submitted to their action is forged to the desired shape. In front of the hammers
is fixed a shears at such a distance from them as will allow an article when cut off
after having been forged to drop down between the shears and the hammers. As
close as possible to the shears if the bar is to be worked hot (which with iron is almost
always the case) is a heating furnace of length sufficient to heat the bar from which
the article is to be forged to a proper degree during its passage through it. At the
rear of the furnace is a sliding or swinging frame which carries a pair of feeding rolls
actuated from a cam on a revolving shaft. The cam is so shaped as to feed the bar in
to the hammers by degrees so that the heated end of it may be gradually forged to the
desired shape. The sliding frame which carries the feed movement is made to
reciprocate by means of a cam so shaped that after an object is forged the bar being
held fast in the feed rolls is withdrawn from the hammers sufficiently far that the
shears cut off the forged object at the desired place. The shears are worked off a cam
on the same shaft or one having the same speed.
The operation of the machine is as follows; a bar of suitable size being introduced
between the feed rolls, the machine is set in motion, and the bar is by degrees moved
along through the whole length of the heating furnace, until by the time it reaches the
end nearest the hammers it is of a heat suitable to be worked. The next movement of

page_text: the feed will carry the bar through the shears and the shears will close. Unless the bar
happens to be brought exactly to the face of the shears a short piece of waste will be
cut off. When the shears open again the reciprocating frame moves forward and
carries the end of the bar through the shears and close to the hammers, the feed then
comes into action and the bar is slowly fed forward until a sufficient length has been
brought under the action of the hammers. The feed mechanism then stops and the
frame moves backward withdrawing the now forged article from the action of the
hammers and bringing it into a suitable position, the shears then close and cut off
the nail, key, or other article to the desired length. The process is repeated until
the bar is used up. The furnace may be heated by gas or other fuel. In making
horse nails the hammers may be so shaped as to form a nail similar to a hand
made nail which requires no further treatment to render it a marketable article
(as also in the case of keys, pins, & other so called "black"
forgings). But
if it be desired to produce a
so called "patent
or bright nail, the
hammers are shaped so as to form a blank suitable to be brought to form by
the well known process of rolling and clipping. The rolling out and clipping
machines are of a known type, but they are geared so as to run at such relative speeds
as to work together. The clipping machine is furnished with a carrier which receives
the nail from the rolling machine and carries it up and places it in position in the
clipping machine for the clipping action.
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page_text: also for Machine Keys, Square Pins, and other Articles of
Four Sided or Irregular Section.
I, WILLIAM HENRY DORMAN of Brook House, Stafford in the County of Stafford,
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 :-
My Invention consists of a Machine for forming Horse Nails, Horse Nail Blanks or
other objects by Forging from the Bar.
In the accompanying Drawings-
Fig. 1, Sheet 1 shews an Elevation of the Machine.
Fig. 2 Sheet 2 shews a Plan; like letters stand for similar parts in both Figures.
The Machine consists of a Hammer-frame A upon which are mounted four
hammers a, a, b, b, these hammers are carried on the ends of slides or plungers c,
working in guides B in the hammer frame A.
The hammers a, a, b, b, are actuated by levers a¹ 6' which are worked from
excentrics a², 63, on the shaft Cthrough the medium of the ball jointed excentric
rods a³, 63. The slides or plungers c are fitted with springs c¹ which keep them in
contact with the levers a¹, b¹.
The pair of excentrics 6², 6², for actuating the top and bottom hammers 6 6 are
placed in the middle of the shaft C, and the pair a² a² for actuating the side hammers
are placed near the ends of the shaft C. In each pair the excentrics are arranged
opposite one another, so that as the shaft revolves the hammers in each pair
simultaneously approach and recede from one another. The two pairs of excentrics are
placed at right angles with each other so that while in one pair the hammers are
approaching, in the other they are receding. The bar or rod Z being operated on is
thus struck at once by one pair of hammers on two opposite sides, and then by the
other pair of hammers on the other two opposite sides, and so on each pair of sides
being alternately hammered.
The hammer faces a, a, b, b, are made of suitable shape to impart the required
form to the forgings.
As this Machine is intended especially to be used in forging from metal rods in a
heated state, a furnace D is provided of a length sufficient to impart the required
degree of heat to the metal during the passage through. In the drawings this furnace
is shown as heated by gas which is a convenient form of fuel but a fire may be
employed and charcoal or mineral fuel be used ordinary aired or Bunsen burners are

page_text: or asbestos.
The bed of the furnace is made of a suitable refractory material, as recity
At a distance from the hammers sufficient to allow the largest nail or other articlo
the machine is intended to forge to fall down freely is fixed a pair of shears E which
are actuated by a cam E¹ on the cam shaft F.
This cam F by means of the cam roll ƒ moves the lever F¹ which is hung on a
pivot at ffixed to the frame X.
From the pin f in the upper end of the lever F1 two rods g g proceed to the pins g¹
in the two bell crank levers G. G. respectively. The bell cranks G are pivotted on
the pin g. From the pins g of the respective bell cranks G rods g³ proceed to the
frames ee which slide in the fixed bracket E and carry the shear blades el e¹. The
bell cranks G being hung as shewn in opposite directions it is obvious that the move-
ment of the lever F will produce motion in opposite directions in the shear frames e e,
and by the aid of the spring F will alternately open and close the shears.
The shears e are placed as close as possible to the furnace D so as to lose as little
heat as possible on the way to the hammers a, a, b, b. The spring F2 holds the
lever F in contact with the cam E¹.
At the rear of the machine is placed the mechanism for feeding the bar into the
hammers. This mechanism consists of an oscillating frame H which is hung on the
pivot and is actuated by the cam H' on the cam shaft F (by means of the cam
roll ) and the spring I.
The upper end of the frame H is formed to carry the axes of the feed rolls J. J'.
The feed rolls are caused to firmly grip the bar Z by means of the spring jj.
The rolls J J are geared together by the toothed wheels -On the end of the axis
of the feed roll J are fixed two ratchet wheels kl with their teeth in opposite directions.
These are acted upon by the pawls k¹ the pawl being pivotted to the frame H, and
the pawl k being carried on the pawl lever * which swings on the axis of the feed
roll, J.
The pawl lever k² is worked by the rod k³ extending to the lever k which is
pivotted on the pin mounted on the frame X.
The lever is worked by the cam K by means of the cam roll K³ and is kept in
contact with the cam by means of the spring K².
The operation of this mechanism is as follows-Supposing the bar or rod from
which it is intended to forge for example horse nails has been fed into the hammers
up to the head of the nail, it is now needful to bring it to the shears to be cut off the
bar. The rise on the cam H is so timed as to act on the swing frame H at this
moment and cause it to move backwards.
The bar Z being held firmly gripped by the rolls J J is withdrawn from the
hammers by this action. The cam H is so formed that it withdraws the bar not too
rapidly, the nearly formed nail thus gets again hammered over its entire surface as it
moves out from the hammers and the forging is by this means completed. The
extent of the rise on the cam H¹ is such that when it has moved the swing frame H
back to the full extent it just brings the head of the newly formed nail to the shear
blades e e¹ at the exact point at which it is to be cut off. The rolls J J' are prevented
from revolving during this movement and so allowing the bar to hang back, by means
of the pawl and the ratchet wheel into which it works.
Directly the swing frame H has retired to the full extent the cam E¹ commences to
operate the shears and cut the finished nail off the bar. This cam is formed to act
sharply so as to close the shears and open them again as quickly as possible. The
Cam H' is so timed that directly the nail is cut off the bar the swing frame H returns
and brings the bar Z forward with it up to the hammers but as the piece upon which
the hammers have already acted is cut off, it is needful to advance the bar still further
so as to bring a further portion of iron sufficient for a nail under the action of the
hammers. This is accomplished by the feed rolls J J and the pawl k¹ and the
cam K.
The pawl lever is furnished with a cam ke. The cam K comes into action
on the lever k a little before the forward motion of the swing frame H is
completed.

page_text: The cam K is so formed that it allows the pawl lever ² to fall to its lowest extent
and so remain during the time that the swing frame H is moving back and till the
forward movement is nearly complete.
The cam on the pawl lever is so shaped that while the pawl lever is in its
lowest position the pawl can engage with its ratchet wheel 7 but as soon as the pawl
lever begins to rise under the action of the cam K and before the pawl ¹ begins to
act on the ratchet wheel the cam lifts the pawl out of engagement with the
ratchet and leaves the rolls free to revolve.
As soon as the swing frame H comes to rest the Pawl takes against the teeth of
the ratchet turns the ratchet & with it the feed rolls through a distance sufficient
to feed forward the bar Z into the hammers the amount required to form a nail. The
feed cam K is formed with a gradual slope so as to feed the bar into the hammers at a
suitable speed.
The hammer shaft C is driven by a pulley M at a very high speed from a suitable
counter shaft and the cam shaft F is driven preferably by a pulley from a separate
countershaft at a very much lower speed.
The oscillating frame E above described may be dispensed with if deemed preferable
and the feed rolls J J and their adjutants mounted on a slide which is carried on a
prolongation of the frame X and the slide would be moved by a lever pivoted at fa
and taking its motion from the cam H³.
The hammers may be so shaped as to form a nail similar to a hand made Horsenail
which requires no further treatment to render it a marketable article. But if it be
desired to produce a so called "patent" or "bright" nail the hammers are shaped so
as to form a blank suitable to be brought to shape by the well known processes of
rolling and clipping.
Having now described & ascertained the nature of my invention and in what
manner it is to be performed I declare that what I claim is
First. In a machine for forging horse nails and other articles, the use of four
hammers acting in pairs on the four sides of a bar and which are carried on the ends
of slides or plungers and receive their motion from cams or eccentrics on a revolving
shaft.
Second. In a machine for forging horse nails and other articles, placing the shears
in advance of the hammers so that the bar is fed through or past them to the hammers
and afterwards drawn back to be cut off.
Third. In a machine for forging horse nails and other articles, a feed motion
consisting of feed rolls and their adjuncts as described, which feeds forward the bar to
the hammers and afterwards draws it back to be cut off by the shears.
Fourth. A machine for forging horse nails and other articles consisting of four
hammers acting in pairs on the four sides of a bar and which are carried on slides or
plungers and actuated by levers and eccentrics or cams on a revolving shaft ; and of
shears mounted in advance of the hammers; and of a furnace in which the bar to be
forged is heated as it passes to the hammers; and of a feed motion acting
automatically to feed the bar to the hammers & afterwards draw it back for the forged
article to be cut off.