Improvements in the Manufacture of "Patent" or Compressed Fuel, and in Machinery or Apparatus therefor.
Year: 1890

page_text: Date of Application, 1st Aug., 1890-Accepted, 20th Sept., 1890
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in the Manufacture of "Patent" or Compressed Fuel,
and in Machinery or Apparatus therefor.
We, ISAAC LILLEY, of Pyramid Villa, Whitecroft, near Lydney, in the County of
Gloucester, Manager of "Patent" Fuel Works, and GEORGE HENDERSON HOPKINS,
of Britannia Iron Works, Pillgwenlly, Newport, in the County of Monmouth, 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 the manufacture of patent fuel and consists in improve-
ments in that method of manufacture and also in the machinery therefor for which
Letters Patent were granted to Isaac Lilley and Frank Morris, dated April the 12th
1882 and numbered 1743.
According to this present invention the materials of which the fuel is composed,
instead of being delivered from the pug mill to a cooling chamber, as in the invention
forming the subject of the Patent No. 1743 of 1882, is discharged from the mill into
two pans fixed at opposite sides of the mould table and fitted with arms revolving in
the pans. These arms impel the fuel through apertures in the bottoms of the pans
into the moulds which, as the mould table rotates, are brought under the said apertures
in the pans.
32
The
The material in the moulds is compressed against thrust blocks by "stamps'
actuated through rams and rocking levers, as in the invention forming the subject of
Patent No. 1743 of 1882, and the compressed blocks are ejected by like means.
rocking levers are pivotted to supports provided on the bed plate and are actuated
by a pair of single-acting engines.
The stamps for compressing and ejecting the blocks are fitted at foot with anti-
friction rollers and run on a platform provided below the mould table. After each
stamp has been employed in compressing the fuel into a block, the stamp, on being
lowered mounts an inclined rail as the mould table continues to revolve and thus the
stamp is again raised into such position as to ensure the ejection of the previously
compressed block when the lifting ram has acted. The ejected blocks are removed
from the table by levers which may conveniently be termed pushers which are operated
to come into contact with the blocks and sweep them from the table as they are ejected
from the moulds.
The pushers are actuated by cams carried on vertical shafts rotated from the main
horizontal driving shaft by means of mitre gearing. On one of the said vertical
shafts is a crank to which is connected a pawl engaging with teeth or projections
formed on the exterior of the mould table. By this pawl the mould table is
rotated.
The arrangement is such that while on one side of the mould table a pair of blocks
is being compressed, a second pair being discharged and a third pair is being
swept off the table. Like operations are simultaneously being effected at the opposite
side of the table.
This invention consists further in an improvement relating to the compressing
engines and is designed to prevent injury to the cylinders and machinery generally
in event of the machine being operated while the moulds are not charged. Projecting
into each cylinder at the upper end thereof is the spindle of a valve governing
communication between the cylinder and a steam pipe. In event of the piston rising
in the cylinder to an undue height the piston comes into contact with the valve spindle
aforesaid. The valve opens and thus steam is admitted to the upper side of the pistou.
further upward movement of which is accordingly prevented.

page_text: Referring to the accompanying sheets of illustrative drawings,
Fig. 1 represents a part elevation and part section of a machine constructed, for
the manufacture of patent fuel, in accordance with this invention.
Fig. 2 represents a part plan of the mould table and part transverse section
through the pug mill.
Fig. 3 is a part plan and part section, the right half being taken above the com-
pressing and lifting levers, and the left half above the platform on which run the
stamps by which the fuel is compressed and the blocks ejected from the moulds.
b
The material of which the fuel is composed is fed from the pug mill a into the
pans and is by the arms c (Fig. 2) rotating in the pans charged through apertures
in the bottoms of the pans into the moulds provided in the mould table d which in
the example illustrated is furnished with twenty four moulds d in two concentric
series of twelve each.
It is to be understood that the table may have a greater or less number of moulds
than is shown in the drawing. The arms are centred on shafts e driven, by means
of the mitre gearing f, from the main horizontal driving shaft which passes through
the column on which the mould table rotates.
y
On the exterior of the mould, table at the lower part thereof are formed twelve
projections or teeth i, corresponding in number to the pairs of moulds. With these
teeth engages a pawl connected at one end to a crank j formed on one of the
shafts e. The pawl is kept in contact with the periphery of the mould table by an
antifriction roller (Fig. 2) carried by an arm acted upon by a counterweight j
attached to a chain or rope passed over the pulley J. As the shaft e revolves it causes
the pawl to pull round the table to the extent of one-twelfth of a revolution at each
stroke. For each mould in the mould table there is a stamp k which at foot is fitted
with an antifriction roller 1, running, as the mould table revolves, on the platform m.
The platform m protects the parts below it from dirt, and from water used to wash and
lubricate the moulds. On the platform m and arranged at opposite points are inclined
planes m placed in the path of the rollers of the stamp k.
Projecting through the platform m are the plungers n', the former for
compressing the fuel into blocks and the latter for ejecting the compressed blocks
from the moulds. The plungers are divided as shown at Z, Fig. 1, so that by the
insertion or removal of washers the thickness of fuel blocks may be varied at will.
The plungers n n' are connected at their lower ends to levers o arranged in pairs, as
shown. These levers are connected at one end to the piston rods p of the compressing
cylinders g, and at the other they are supported on fulera on which they are free to
rock vertically. On the shaft y are the eccentrics E by which the sliile valves for
admitting and exhausting the steam from the cylinders g are reciprocated. As, in the
rotation of the mould table d, the charged moulds are in turn presented above the
compressing plungers n, the levers o are tilted upwards on their fulcra by the piston
rods p and the contents of the moulds are consequently compressed into blocks by the
stamp against the thrust blocks pabove.
9
Simultaneously the compressed blocks in the pair of moulds acted upon in the
immediately previous upward stroke of the levers are, with their stamps, presented
to the lifting plungers n' above which the said stamps have arrived by ascending the
inclined planes m'.
Accordingly, with the upward movement of the levers the compressed blocks,
having passed from below the thrust blocks p', are ejected from the moulds by the
lifting plungers n'. At the same time the blocks ejected, in the immediately previous
upward stroke of the levers o, from their moulds are swept off the table by the
levers, conveniently termed "pushers" pivotted to a spindles and actuated from
the shafts e, as seen more particularly at Fig. 4 which represents a detached plan of a
pusher and the mechanisin connected therewith. The pusher r, pivotted on the
spindle carried in a bracket fixed to the pan 6, is connected by the rod R to the
cam C pivotted on the underside of the pan.
Centred on the shaft e by which the filling arms in the pan are rotated is a crank L

page_text: fitted at the outer end with an antifriction roller M. As the shaft e rotates, the
crank L acts upon the cam C and rocks the pusher on its pivot. The mechanisan is
so set that as a pair of compressed fuel blocks are ejected by the lifting stamps from
their moulds the blocks ejected at the previous stroke are, as the mould table
revolves, presented opposite the blades of the pushers and are thereby swept off
the table.
It will be seen that the machine is so arranged that while on one side of the mould
table d the contents of a pair of moulds are being compressed, a second pair of blocks
is being simultaneously discharged from their moulds and a third pair is being swept
off the table, like operations being performed at the other side of the table.
In event of steam being admitted below the pistons of the pressing cylinders q
when the moulds are not charged, the pistons in the said cylinders are prevented from
coming into contact with the cylinder cover, by means of a check valve, illustrated at
Fig. 5, with which each cylinder is fitted. The valve u governs communication
between the top end of the cylinder and a steam pipe v. The spindle of the valve
projects into the cylinder and should the piston exceed its normal upward stroke the
valve is lifted by the piston and steam is accordingly admitted above the piston,
further upward travel of which is prevented. When the piston has descended in
the cylinder clear of the outlet w the steam above escapes thereat and the valve u is
assisted to close by the provision of the aperture and chamber a¹ whereby steam has
access to the upper end of the spindle.
The piston is prevented at all times from striking the bottom cover of the cylinder,
either by a block carried on the lower end of the piston rod and coming into
contact with a fixed buffer, or by a buffer carried on the lower end of the piston rod
and coming into contact with an unyielding surface.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our said inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, we declare that what we
claim is :-
1. In a machine for the manufacture of blocks or bricks of "patent" fuel, the use,
in combination with a superposed pug mill, ef two pans fixed at opposite sides of the
mould table and provided with arms or scrapers rotated within the said pans for
charging the moulds with the fuel in its non-compressed state, substantially as
described.
2. In a machine for the manufacture of blocks or bricks of patent fuel, the
provision of the platform m between the mould table and the bed plate and
constituting a means of protecting from water the parts below and furnishing a
path for the stamps through which the fuel is compressed into blocks and the
blocks ejected from the moulds, substantially as herein before described.
3. In a machine for the inanufacture of blocks or bricks of patent fuel, the
provision of pushers such as r for sweeping the blocks from the mould table at
opposite sides thereof, arranged and operated, substantially as described.
4. In the steam cylinder or cylinders of a machine for the manufacture of blocks
or bricks of patent fuel, the provision of a check valve such as u situated at the top
end of such cylinder or cylinders and arranged to open and adinit steam above the
piston when the latter, over-shooting its stroke, comes into contact with the spindle
of such valve.
5. The combination of parts constituting the improved machine for manufacturing
patent" fuel, constructed, arranged and operating substantially as hereinbefore
described.
5 T
1000