IMPROVEMENTS IN MOULDING MACHINES
Year: 1863

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Frederick Versmann at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 11th April
1863.
I, FREDERICK VERSMANN, of 7, Bury Court, Saint Mary Axe, in the City
of London, Consulting and Analytical Chemist, do hereby declare the nature.
of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MOULDING MACHINES," to be
as follows:-
The object of this improvement is a machine for moulding clay, raw or
prepared peat, or other materials of a plastic nature.
The machine consists of an iron hopper, which conducts the material to be
moulded into an iron cylinder containing a horizontal screw, by the turning of
which the material is forced along and through moulding dies, which may be
of any suitable shape or form, at one end of the cylinders. In front of these
dies is a table containing for each die one endless band, which takes up the
moulded material, and carries it on by a forward motion. Between the dies
and the table there is a thin frame, in which a set of knives or cutters (one
for each die) is mounted; after the material has travelled on the endless band
till it has acquired the desired length, the motion of the screw and of the
endless bands stops, and another motion sets in, by which the frame with
knives and cutters is moved across the mouth of the dies, and the moulded
material is cut into blocks of certain lengths. The moment these cutters havo
passed from one side of the die to the other that motion ceases, and the first
motion of the screw and the endless bands sets in again, by which means a
fresh quantity of moulded material is forced through the dies, and moved

page_text: forwards on the table till it has acquired the desired length, when these
motions stop, and the motion of the frame with cutters sets in and cuts the
material into lengths. Motion is given to the various parts of the machine by
live and dead pulleys mounted on a short shaft or stud connected to one end
of the machine; to the shaft are attached two spur wheels, each having the
teeth only about one-half round its circumference; these wheels are keyed on
to the shaft in such manner that the blank or toothless half of the one wheel
covers the toothed half of the other wheel; both these spur wheels gear
and work with ordinary spur wheels of the same diameter, on which the teeth
are complete all round; one of these ordinary spur wheels is keyed on the
end of a barrel or cylinder, into which the blades of the screw are fixed, and
the other is keyed on to the end of a spindle which passes quite through the
screw barrel, and works the cutter frame by means of a small crank keyed on
to the other end. In order to insure the true action of the semi-geared
wheels, and also that the teeth of the same fall into gear at the required
moment, two false teeth are placed on the rim of the semi-geared wheels at
half pitch, which come in contact with similar teeth on the wheels with a
complete set of teeth, and further to secure the regular intermittent action of
the feeding screw and the cutting-off frame there is attached to each of the
above-named four wheels a circular disc, in two of which, namely, those on
the completely toothed wheels, there are two segmental notches on each, into
which a portion of the periphory of the other two discs (those on the semi-
toothed or semi-geared wheels) turn, and these retain alternately the wheels
driving the cutting-off frame and the screw and endless bands until each has
performed its assigned functions. The motion produced by the above arrange-
ment of wheels alternately turns the screw, and advances the material through
the dies), and work the cutting-off frame forwards and backwards. The
intermittent motion of the endless bands already mentioned is produced by a
pair of spur wheels, one of which is keyed on to the end of the screw barrel
(before mentioned), and the other to a small spindle having on its other end a
bevilled wheel, which works a similar bevilled wheel on a transverse spindle
carrying wooden rollers, over which the endless bands travel; this action is
simultaneous with that of the feeding screw, so that the bands move forwards
the moment the material is forced through the dies, and they stand at rest
whilst the cutters are in motion.
I do not confine myself to the method just described, namely, to the action
of a screw set into motion by a combination of wheelwork; but I claim any
and all other such methods as may accomplish the same result; for instance, a
plunger or piston set into motion by levers, excentrics, or other contrivances.;

page_text: and I claim the production of the intermittent action, by which a quantity of
material is first moulded and delivered, and then cut into blocks of certain
lengths, and the machine whereby a certain quantity of moulded material is
delivered and waits for the operation of cutting off, the mode of cutting off
above described, and the setting in of these actions regularly and alternately.
I claim as my Invention the following specific details,—
1. The method by which a certain quantity of the material introduced into
the machine is delivered in any form or shape required by a screw revolving
in the interior of a hollow cylinder with an intermittent action, or any other
arrangement producing the same effect, such as a plunger or piston, or a
reciprocatory blade or cylinder with a semi-rotary piston, already described.
2. The peculiar method of cutting off the said material into given lengths
by means of the reciprocating cutters or knives mounted in a frame.
3. The intermittent action I claim as my Invention, and the mode above
described of obtaining the same, and communicating it to the endless bands
for assisting the delivery of the material, and alternately to the feeding screw
or other feeding power and the cutting-off frame; and I do not confine myself
to the method above described, but I claim all such other methods as may
accomplish the same result.