Improvements in the Manufacture of Wheels for Railway Waggons or other Vehicles.
Year: 1896

page_text: COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in the Manufacture of Wheels for Railway Waggons
or other Vehicles.
I, FRANZ LUDEWIG of 19 Feldstrasse, Dusseldorf, in the Empire of Germany,
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 relates to a process for manufacturing wheels for railway
waggons and the like the essential feature of such process being that either the
whole wheel or portions of same only is or are formed by rolling one upon the
other several strips or bars of flat or other shaped metal (advantageously iron) and
the rough or unfinished article so obtained is then raised to welding heat when a
suitable welding powder may be added-the whole being then firmly welded
together by means of dies and matrices or other suitable means.
In this manner an intimate combination of the several parts resting one upon
the other is obtained and the welded and finished wheel contains fibrous layers of
the material of which it is composed.
I will now proceed to further describe my present invention with reference to
the accompanying drawings in which :-
Fig. 1 represents-in section-part of a wheel (for railway waggons or any
other purpose to which same is applicable) made entirely according to this
process, and
Fig. 2 shows also in section-a part of a wheel of which the nave and rim are
manufactured in any well-known or suitable manner only the disc or web of the
wheel being manufactured by my process herein described.
Referring to Fig. 1-the manufacture of a railway waggon wheel or the like
according to this process takes places as follows.
The flat iron bar F is twisted around a mandril d in such a manner that the
portion 6 being placed at the middle of the mandril its shorter end a is wound
around same in the consecutive turns indicated by the figures of reference 1,
2, 3, 4 and 5 in the drawing thus forming the under layer of one half of
the nave.
The end a of the flat iron bar F is now wound around this layer so as to form on
same the turns 6, 7, 8 and 9.
On the completion of the ninth turn the end a of the flat iron bar F must be cut
or smoothed away.
The winding of the second half of the nave is effected with the other end of
and consists of the turns I, II, III, & IV and upon these the turns V, VI, VII,
& VIII the last turn 1X lying upon the turn 1 which completes the shape of the
nave it being understood that these turns are formed by using the end c of the flat
iron bar F. This end c is of such length that after the operation just described
there still remains sufficient of it to serve for building the disc or web part B which
is effected by continuing the winding operation in such a manner that the successive
turns X, XI, XII, XIII, XIV, XV, and XVI lie upon the turn IX. The
rim
or felloe C is formed from the two strips c¹ and c for which the
"strut" is provided in XVI and one or more rings or layers con each
side thereof.
After the wheel has been so twisted or rolled or built up as aforesaid it is
finished off at a high welding heat in the manner already described.

page_text: If it is desired to employ a nave A (Fig. 2) & crown C manufactured in the usual
manner the disc or web part B only can be produced by this twisting or winding
process and for this purpose the iron may be of any suitable shape in cross section
such as shown in the drawing.
A groove or recess c is provided in the nave A in which the first of the turns
forming the web part is laid and these turns then follow one upon the other
precisely in the manner already described.
On the completion of this operation the rim C is shrunk on to the disc according
to the dotted lines f the wheel being then finished off at a high welding heat by
suitable matrices and dies or other suitable means.
Instead of employing both a nave and rim previously prepared as assumed
above the nave only may be made according to the method hitherto adopted
and the rim manufactured according to this twisting or winding process or
vice versa.
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
1. Wheels for the purposes described made from wound flat or shaped metal
bars or bands.
2. The herein described process for the manufacture of wheels consisting in so
winding or twisting bars bands or strips of flat or shaped iron upon a mandril
(starting at the middle point of said nandril) that the turns given to the material
employed follow one upon the other in such a manner as to form first the nave then
the disc or web part and finally the rim the rough or unfinished article thus obtained
being finished at welding heat by any suitable means.
3. In the manufacture of wheels as set forth in Claim 1 the employment
therewith of a previously manufactured nave on which the web part and rim
are respectively formed by winding as set forth or by using also a previously
manufactured rim in which case only the web part is formed by winding or
using only a previously manufactured rim in which case the nave and disc
part respectively would be formed by winding substantially as herein before
described.
4. The improved manufacture of wheels as and for the purposes herein before
set forth.
Dated this 28th day of May 1896.
TONGUE & BIRKBECK,
Southampton Buildings, Chancery Lane, London, W.C.,
Agents for the Applicant.