An Improvement or Improvements in the Manufacture of Lap- welded and Butt Jointed Iron and Steel Tubes and other Hollow Cylinders.
Year: 1885

page_text: An Improvement or Improvements in the Manufacture of Lap-
welded and Butt Jointed Iron and Steel Tubes and other
Hollow Cylinders.
I EDWIN DIXON of Merridale Grove Wolverhampton in the County of Stafford
Gentleman do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "AN IMPROVE-
MENT OR IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF LAP-WELDED AND BUTT JOINTED
IRON AND STEEL TUBES AND OTHER HOLLOW CYLINDERS to be as follows:-
"
My invention consists of the method herein after described of manufacturing lap
welded and butt jointed iron and steel tubes and other hollow cylinders whereby
great economy in their inanufacture is effected.
In manufacturing a lap welded iron or steel tube according to my invention
1 bevil the edges of the strip or plate from which the tube is to be made by the
method constituting the invention for which provisional protection has been granted
to me dated March 14th 1885 N° 3344. After the strip or plate has passed from
the rolls by which its edges have been bevilled and while still hot it is passed
through a conical or bell shaped hole in a die or otherwise operated upon so as to
convert it into a skelp that is a roughly formed open jointed tube. The skelp
still hot passes into a furnace by which it is raised to a welding heat as soon as it
has attained the welding temperature it is passed from the furnace to welding
tongs or rolls by the action of which its bevilled edges are welded together and the
tube completed.
By my invention a lap welded iron or steel tube is manufactured direct from
the billet or bar of iron or steel without the cooling of the iron or steel instead of
by making first by one process a strip and afterwards by another process bevilling
the edges of the strip then by another process forming a skelp and finally welding
the skelp into a tube. In this the ordinary method of manufacture the different
stages are conducted at different times and at different places the iron or steel is
heated and cooled several times whereby its quality is injured and great waste
of fuel as well as of time results. In making a butt jointed iron or steel tubo
I proceed as described with respect to a lap jointed tube excepting that the edges
of the strip are not bevilled.

page_text: In my method of manufacture the loss of time the injury to the medal and the
waste of fuel are avoided and a better quality of tube produced.
Instead of making a complete tube by the continuous process described the
manufacture may be suspended where desirable after the skelp has been made and
the reheating of the skelp and completion of the tube may be conducted at any
convenient time and place.
The application of my invention to the manufacture of hollow cylinders other
than tubes differs in no essential from its application to the manufacture of tubes
as herein before described.

page_text: welded and Dutton on
Hollow Cylinders.
anu
W43
I EDWIN DIXON of Merridale Grove, Wolverhampton in the County of Stafford
Gentleman do hereby declare the nature of my 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 the method herein after described of manufacturing lap
welded and butt jointed iron and steel tubes and other hollow cylinders, whereby
great economy in their manufacture is effected.
In manufacturing a lap welded iron or steel tube according to my invention
I bevil the edges of the strip or plate from which the tube is to be made by the
method constituting the invention for which provisional protection has been granted
to me dated March 14. 1885. N° 3344 After the strip or plate has passed from the
rolls by which its edges have been bevilled and while still hot it is passed through
a conical or bell shaped hole in a die or otherwise operated upon so as to convert
it into a skelp, that is, a roughly formed open jointed tube. The skelp still hot
passes into a furnace by which it is raised to a welding heat; as soon as it
has attained the welding temperature it is passed from the furnace to welding tongs
or rolls by the action of which its bevilled edges are welded together and the tube
completed.
By my invention a lap welded iron or steel tube is manufactured direct from
the billet or bar of iron or steel without the cooling of the iron or steel instead of
making first by one process a strip and afterwards by another process bevilling the
edges of the strip; then by another process forming a skelp and finally welding the
skelp into a tube. In this, the ordinary, method of manufacture the different stages
are conducted at different times and at different places, the iron or steel is heated
and cooled several times whereby its quality is injured and great waste of fuel
as well as of time avoided. In my method of manufacture the loss of time, the
injury to the metal and the waste of fuel are avoided and a better quality of tube
produced.
In making a butt jointed iron or steel tube I proceed as described with respect to
a lap welded tube excepting that the edges of the strip are not bevilled.
I will now proceed to describe my invention in detail with reference to the
accompanying Drawing.
I will first describe the manufacture of a butt jointed wrought iron tube.
The iron from which the tube is to be made is puddled, shingled and rolled in
the ordinary way. The puddled bar as it leaves the forge rolls by which it has
been made into a bar passes over a weighbridge for the purpose of ascertaining the
weight of the heated bar upon which the wages of the workmen employed in
producing it have to be calculated. The heated puddled bar passes from the
weighbridge through a pair of Jack or Guillotine shears which are fixed on a level
with the weighbridge and race or receiving plates. The said shears are so arranged

page_text: that they may be thrown out of gear by a hand lever. The end of the puddled
bar having been placed between the jaws of the shears the said shears are thrown
into gear and the end of the puddled bar is cropped to square it for piling. The
shears are now thrown out of gear for the purpose of allowing the puddled bar to
pass through the open jaws or steelings as far as may be necessary to produce by
the second cut such a length as that a pile of four or more pieces will roll out in
the mill into a strip of such length, width and gange as may be required, or of as
many multiples of the required length for cach tube as it may be convenient or
necessary to produce from one pile. Whilst the pieces of puddled bar are hot they
are carried to the mill furnace which for the purpose of economy is placed in close
proximity to the Jack or Guillotine shears. The pieces of puddled bar are then
piled by the use of suitable tongs to the height and weight required and the pile is
then lifted by means of an ordinary hand crane to the charging peel and placed by
the heater or furnaceman in that part of the furnace nearest the flue where it is
allowed to remain until it is sufficiently hot to allow of its being turned over
without the pieces separating in the process. The pile is then removed gradually
in the direction of the bridge or hottest part of the furnace in order to secure the
proper welding temperature so that when rolled there shall be no indication of
lamination. By the charging of the partially beated piles into the furnace, two
furnaces with two workmen will heat as many piles as three furnaces with three
workmen will heat when the piles are charged cold besides effecting a very
considerable saving in fuel.
When the pile is heated to a proper welding temperature it is passed through
ordinary grooved or strand rolls which reduce it by extending its length to the
desired width and thickness. When the strip has been rolled to the proper width
and gauge according to the size of the tube to be made it is passed through a pair
of bending rolls of the kind represented in elevation in Figure 1 of the Drawing
the bottom roll a having grooves a², a² and the top roll bhaving corresponding
shaped projections or flutes 63, 62; or the rolls a, b may be inverted, that is, the
upper roll may have the grooves and the lower roll the projections or flutes. By
the action of the rolls Figure 1 upon the heated strip or bar it is formed into a
trough shape or a shape having in cross section the figure of the letter U. As the
strip or bar leaves the pair of rolls Figure 1 it is conducted through a trough or
shaping guide box of the kind represented in horizontal section and front and back
elevation in Figure 2. The said guide box is situated immediately opposite that
part of the rolls Figure 1 at which the trough shaped bar or strip is delivered and
in passing through the said guide box its upper ends are bent inwards so that on
leaving the said guide box the upper edges nearly touch each other. From the
said guide box the heated trough shaped strip or partly made skelp passes to the
rolls represented in Figure 3. By the action of the rolls Figure 3 the edges of
the strip or partly made skelp are brought into contact and there is thus produced
a skelp having the sectional figure of the grooves c, c in the rolls Figure 3, that is,
a pear shape in cross section. If the skelp thus made is of twice, three times or
other multiple of the length of the tube to be made, the said skelp on leaving the
rolls Figure 3 is cut into pieces of the length required for each tube to be made.
This cutting of the skelp into lengths may be effected by circular saws or other-
wise. The heated lengths of skelp are transferred by the workmen to the welding
mill furnace by means of tongs where they are raised to a welding heat.
skelps at a welding heat are drawn out of the furnace by means of tongs and arc
rapidly passed through welding tongs or between rolls without a mandril, or in
the case of tubes of large diameter say for example two inches and upwards,
through welding rolls having a fixed bulb mandril situated in the eye of the said
rolls. The said rolls and mandril are represented in cross section, partly in
elevation, in Figure 4, in which Figure 4, d, e represent the upper and lower rolls;
f the bulb of the mandril and g the stem of the said mandril; h represents the
skelp passing between the rolls and over the bulb of the mandril in the direction
indicated by the arrow and i the welded tube issuing from the rolls. By the
The

page_text: compression of the edges of the skelp between the bulb f of the mandril and the
rolls d, e the said edges are welded together and a butt jointed tube produced.
After the whole of the skelp has been operated upon by the bulb fand rolls a, e
the mandril is withdrawn from the tube made and replaced as represented in
Figure 4 for operating upon another skelp. The tube after its removal from the
mandril is operated upon by a pair of straightening rolls and its ends are cut true
by circular saws or otherwise and if the tube is intended to be used for conveying
gas, steam or water or the like, its ends are tapped or screwed and it is then ready
for commerce.
In manufacturing a lap welded iron tube I proceed in the manner hereinbefore
described with reference to the manufacture of a butt jointed tube from the
puddling of the iron to the rolling of the pile into a strip but the strip instead of
being rolled square on its edges is bevilled on its edges preferably by the method
constituting the invention for which provisional protection has been granted to me
dated March 14th 1885 No 3344. After the edges of the strip have been scarfed
or bevilled the strip is passed through two pairs of rolls having nearly semi circular
grooves. In the first pair of rolls a nearly semi circular figure is given to the strip
as represented in Figure 5 and in the second pair of rolls the strip is bent or closed
so that its bevilled edges slightly overlap and a skelp is formed ready for welding
as represented in Figure 6. In passing from the first pair of rolls to the second
pair the strip passes through a guide box resembling generally that herein before
described and represented in Figure 2 but differs therefrom in the respect that it
tapers more than the said Figure 2; Figuro 24 and Figure 2B respectively repre-
senting the size and shape of the opening in the said guide box at its two ends.
In the eye of the second pair of rolls a bulb inandril may be fixed for facilitating
the shaping of the skelp. When the skelp has been brought to the shape Figure 6
it is sawn into the required lengths as before described with reference to the
manufacture of a butt jointed tube and the manufacture of a lap welded tube from
the skelp Figure 6 is completed by the action of the rolls and bulb mandril Figure 4
and the subsequent processes herein before described with reference to the manufacture
of a butt welded tube.
In manufacturing steel butt jointed tubes I commence with the ingot immediately
after teeming, the said ingot being cast of suitable size and section for producing
the size and gauge of strip required. The ingot after teeming is placed for the
time necessary to consolidate the metal in a soaking pit in which it retains on
the outside sufficient heat to allow of its being clearly and safely rolled. From the
soaking pit it is taken to the cogging mill where it is cogged or broken down into
such a shape and size as may be required to permit it to enter freely into the
strand or strip rolls through which it passes in the ordinary manner until rolled
to the proper width and thickness when it is skelped, sawn passed onto the drawing
mill and welded in the same manner as hereinbefore described in making butt
jointed iron tubes.
In manufacturing lap welded steel tubes I commence with the ingot immediately
after teeming, pass it to the soaking pit and when it is consolidated and ready for
rolling I cog it down and pass it through the strand rolls in the ordinary way
until it is nearly rolled into a finished strip. I then bevil the edges of the strip
preferably by the method constituting the invention for which provisional pro-
tection has been granted to me dated March 14th 1885 No 3344, after which
I proceed in the same manner to the end of the process as herein before described
with respect to the manufacture of lap welded iron tubes.
The application of my invention to the manufacture of hollow cylinders other
than tubes such for example as pump and other cylinders, differs in no essential
respect from its application to the manufacture of tubes herein before described and
illustrated in the accompanying Drawing.
By manufacturing lap welded and butt jointed tubes and other hollow cylinders
according to my invention, that is, direct from the puddled billet or bloom of iron
or ingot of steel without allowing the iron or steel to cool until it has been made

page_text: into a finished tube or hollow cylinder, great economy both in labour, in time and
in fuel is secured and a better quality of tube is produced in consequence of the
iron or steel not being exposed to the repeated heatings and coolings to which it is
exposed in the ordinary method of manufacture.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my inven-
tion and the manner in which the same is to be performed I declare that I claim
as my invention of "An improvement or improvements in the manufacture of lap
welded and butt jointed iron and steel tubes and other hollow cylinders " ;-
Making the said iron and steel tubes and cylinders direct from a puddled bloom
or billet of wrought iron or from an ingot of cast steel by treating the said bloom
or billet or ingot by the process or series of processes hereinbefore described an
illustrated in the accompanying Drawing, by which process or processes the bloom
or billet or ingot is manufactured into a tube or hollow cylinder by continuous or
uninterrupted treatment and without the metal-being allowed to cool between-the
several stages of the manufacturo substantially as described and illustrated.
Doted this Canned da S 151 100%