IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR CONVEYING RAILS AND BARS AS THEY COME FROM A ROLLING MILL ON TO A BED AND ARRANGING THEM THEREON AND FOR OTHER SUCH LIKE PURPOSES
Year: 1882

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Alexander Wilson at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents on the 19th July 1882.
ALEXANDER WILSON of Dronfield near Sheffield in the County of York.-
"IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR CONVEYING RAILS AND BARS AS THEY COME
FROM A ROLLING MILL ON TO A BED AND ARRANGING THEM THEREON AND FOR
OTHER SUCH LIKE PURPOSES
"
After a rail or bar has been rolled in a mill and has been sawn to the length
required it is brought forward on to the straightening plates over floor rollers in
the usual way it has then to be traversed sidewise either to the right hand or to
the left to bring it on to the "hot bed" where it is to remain to cool-usually
there are two hot beds one on each side of the straightening bed. To thus
traverse the rails sidewise two or more carriages are used these carriages run on
on wheels in channelled plates or guides fixed to the framework of the "hot bed " at
right angles to the straightening bed. The carriages are below the surface upon
which the rails rest and each carriage has a hinged pawl or tongue projecting up
from it so that it may come against the side of a rail and push the rail sidewise as
the carriage is made to travel along the bed.
According to my invention I haul the carriages to and fro backwards and
forwards along the channelled guides above mentioned by means of chains passing
to winding drums at the outer ends of the hot beds one set of drums at the end
of one hot bed being made to wind on chain whilst the other set at the other end
of the hot bed are unwinding and the two shafts which carry the two sets of
drums are geared to one driving shaft so that they shall both always be driven
simultaneously. In this way the two or more carriages when once set in a line
parallel with the straightening bed must necessarily remain parallel with this line
and consequently the rails moved sidewise by them will all be kept parallel with
one another. The pawl upon each carriage is made reversible so that it may push
the rails either to the right hand or to the left as required. In each of its two
positions it is held up by a spring-this allows it to yield whenever the carriage
is moved backwards in the opposite direction to that in which the rails are to be
moved and the carriage has to pass below a rail resting on the straightening bed.

page_text: In order that the hauling chains may travel to and fro in the straight lines below
the hot beds I mount the winding drums in such a manner that they can be
traversed endwise along the shafts upon which they are mounted. As the drums
are revolved I give to them at the same time an endway motion so that the chains
may coil themselves spirally around the drums and yet so that the portion of the
chain between the drum and the carriage may remain in the same straight line or
nearly so. The endway traverse may be given to each drum by means of two
screws mounted one on either side of it parallel to its axis-the screws being
revolved by gearing from the drum shafts-and being made to screw through the
ends of a cross bar which at its centre engages with a groove formed around the
exterior of a boss at one end of the drum. In place of the winding drums being
made to traverse along the shafts which carry them they might be fixed to the
shafts and the shafts be made to traverse to and fro through their bearings.
In place of the above arrangement the chains might be led between pairs of
guide rollers at the outer ends of the hot beds and then be led on to the winding
drums between other pairs of guide rollers which as the drums revolve are made
to traverse endwise along the drums so as to lay the chains on to them uniformly
in spiral coils. Or if the winding drums were sufficiently far away from the guide
rollers at the ends of the hot beds the winding drums might have each a spiral
groove formed around it for the chain to lie in and render it unnecessary to use a
traversing guide for laying the chains on to the drums.