Method of Utilising Worn Metal Tubes for the Manufacture of Metal Strips, and Tools and Appliances for use in connection therewith.
Year: 1899

page_text: Date of Application, 1st June, 1899
Complete Specification Left, 1st Mar., 1900-Accepted, 1st June, 1900
Method of Utilising Worn Metal Tubes for the Manufacture of Metal
Strips, and Tools and Appliances for use in connection therewith.
I, LEONARD ALFRED SMALLWOon, of 99, Grantham Road, Sparkbrook, in the
City of Birmingham, Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of this invention
to be as follows:-
This invention has for its object a particular method of treating worn tubes
which will render them useful for other purposes and prevent their relegation
to scrap as is at present the case, the said treatment effecting an immense
saving in the cost of material. Further, certain tools and appliances to be
used with the said method forms. part of the object of the invention.
Worn out tubes, especially boiler tubes, are usually sold at a price equiva-
lent to that of the scrap metal from which they are made, in fact as scrap, but
according to this invention they are in the majority of cases so treated as to
retain their marketable value as new metal.
The invention will be carried into effect in connection with an old or worn
boiler tube as an illustration, as it has particular applicability in connection
therewith.
The said worn tube is slit or saw cut at a point for its entire length, and is
subsequently opened out flat by a mandrel over and around which it is drawn,
the said mandrel having a taper nose of a circular section which gradually
shapes off into a flat strip portion, so that the split tube is gradually opened out
first by the nose of the mandrel and lastly by the flat portion. This mandrel
may be either a fixture and the tube movable or vice-versa. Subsequent to the
tube being opened out it may, if necessary, be cleaned by a dipping or other
process.
This strip formed from the opened out tube is now subjected to a straight
rolling process to reduce its guage sufficient to remove the unequalities as
regards thickness which were present in the metal when a tube, and in cases
where such tubes may have been worn into holes at points the said rolled out
strip of reduced guage may be subsequently sheared to form a number of narrow
strips capable of being worked for different purposes.
The tube under. treatment may, when necessary, be at different times
annealed. The slitting and opening out is performed upon a draw bench, the
mandrel being suitably attached to either remain stationary or be shifting.
In front of this mandrel is a circular or other shaped cutter, either stationary
or rotating, for slitting the tube prior to the nose of the mandrel acting upon its
bore, the said cutter being set at any desired angle upon the bench. and the
said tube being supported either internally or externally as may be desired.
A convenient method of carrying the cutter is upon a rod passing along the
bore of the tube, and the said cutter is either stationary or rotating, in which
latter case it can be driven either by frictional contact with the tube or by an
independent driving means.

page_text: The cutter-carrying rod in the bore of the tube may have suitably fitted to it
a number of cutters, either rotating or stationary, which will sub-divide the
tube simultaneously into a number of strips of a predetermined breadth, the
said cutters being preferably fitted onto the said rod adjustable in a radial
direction.
The cutter or cutters may be supported and fitted in front of a pair of rolls,
in which case the mandrel need not be used, as a portion of the end of a tube
could be slit for a short distance and its branches could be hammered down in
order to form leads into the rolls, after which the drawing of the tube between
the rolls will cause the cutter to slit it and the strips formed thereby to be rolled
out at the one operation.
Guide rollers are arranged to support the tube at different points as it is being
operated upon, so as to keep it in line with the cutters.
W. P. THOMPSON & Co.,
11, Burlington Chambers, New Street, Birmingham,
Patent Agents for the Applicant.
Method of Utilising Worn Metal Tubes for the Manufacture of Metal
Strips, and Tools and Appliances for use in connection therewith.
I, LEONARD ALFRED SMALLWOOD, of 99, Grantham Road, Sparkbrook, in the
City of Birmingham, 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 has for its object a particular method of treating worn, tubes
which will render them useful for other purposes and prevent their relegation
to scrap as is at present the case, the said treatment effecting an immense
saving in the cost of material. Further, certain tools and appliances to be
used with the said method form part of the object of the invention.
Worn out tubes, particularly boiler tubes, are usually sold at a price equivalent
to that of the scrap of the metal from which they are made, in fact as scrap, but
according to this invention they are, in the majority of cases, so treated as to
retain their marketable value as new metal.
.
The invention will be described as carried into effect in connection with an
old or worn boiler tube as an illustration, as it has particular applicability in
connection therewith.
The wall of the said worn tube (generally copper) is slit or saw-cut at a point
for its entire length, and is subsequently opened out flat by a mandrel over and
around which it is drawn, the said mandrel having a taper nose of a circular-
section which gradually shapes off into a flat portion, so that the split tube is
gradually opened out first by the nose of the mandrel and lastly by the flat
portion. This mandrel may be either a fixture and the tube movable, or tire-
versa. Subsequent to the tube being opened out it may if necessary; be cleaned
by a dipping or other process.
This strip formed from the opened-out tube is now subjected to a straight
rolling process to reduce its guage sufficient to remove the inequalities as regards
thickness which were present in the metal when a tube, and in cases where such
tubes may have been worn into holes at points the said rolled-out strip of reduced

page_text: guage may be subsequently sheared to form a number of narrow strips capable
of being worked for different purposes.
The tube under treatment may, when necessary, be at different times annealed:
The slitting and opening out is performed upon the draw bench, the, mandrel
being suitably attached to either remain stationary or be shifting. In front
of this mandrel is a circular or other shaped cutter, either stationary or rotating,
for slitting the tube prior to the nose of the mandrel acting upon its bore, the
said cutter being set at any desired angle upon the bench, and the said tube
being supported either internally or externally as may be desired.
A convenient method of carrying the cutter is on a rod passing along the
bore of the tube, and the said cutter is either stationary or rotating, in which
latter case it can be driven either by frictional contact with the tube, or by an
independent driving means.
The cutter-carrying rod in the bore of the tube may have suitably fitted to it
a number of cutters, either rotating or stationary, which will sub-divide the
tube simultaneously into a number of strips of a predetermined breadth, the said
cutters being preferably fitted onto the said rod adjustable in a radial direction.
The cutter or cutters may be supported and fitted in front of a pair of rolls,
in which case the mandrel need not be used, as a portion of the end of the tube
could be slit for a short distance and its branches could be hammered down in
order to form leads into the rolls, after which the drawing of the tube between
the rolls will cause the cutter to slit it and the strips formed thereby to be
rolled out at the one operation.
Guide rollers are arranged to support the tube at different points as it is being
operated upon, so as to keep it in line with the cutters.
In order to further make clear the herein before described treatment of a worn
boiler tube a sheet of drawings is annexed in which Fig. 1 represents a worn
tube to be treated. The wall of this tube is first slit or saw cut for the whole
of its length as represented by Fig. 2, and then the said tube is opened out flat
into a strip, in the manner represented in Fig. 3, by the aid of a mandrel c which
has a taper nose and a flat rear ; this last operation being performed on a
suitable draw bench or other well-known appliance. Fig. 4 shows the opened-
out flat tube, which is now a strip, and Fig. 5 the same strip after it has been
submitted to a straight rolling process to remove its inequalities.
In Fig. 6a diagram of a draw bench, cutter, and mandrel for slitting and
opening out the tube at one operation is shown. In this view is the cutter,
c is the mandrel, and d is the tube.
An internally working cutter a is shown for slitting the tube d in Fig. 7,
and a number of such arranged on a common rod in Fig. 8.
In Fig. 9 a cutter a is supported in front of a pair of rolls c, c, so as to slit
the tube prior to it being drawn in by the rolls for flattening and rolling. In
this arrangement for effecting the process, the one end of the tube is first slit
for a distance and then hammered down to form a lead into the rolls.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what
I claim is:-
First. The manufacture of marketable metal strip from a
slitting or saw-cutting the said tube longitudinally, opening it out flat or approxi-
worn tube by
mately so,, and rolling it (preferably straight rolling) between rolls, substantially
as described.
Second. Utilising worn metal tubes for the manufacture of metal strip by
first slitting or saw-cutting the tubes longitudinally at a point, or at points,
opening them out flat into strips by the aid of a mandrel, and straight rolling
the said opened-out strips between rolls to remove their inequalities as regards
thickness, and subsequently shearing them into narrow strips, substantially as
described.

page_text: Third. In the manufacture of metal strip from worn tubes as described, the
use of tools or appliances arranged in combination so as to operate upon the tube
treated simultaneously or successively in the manner described.
Dated this 28th day of February 1900
W. P. THOMPSON & Co.,
11, Burlington Chambers, New Street, Birmingham,
Also at Liverpool, London, and Manchester,
Patent Agents for the Applicant.