Improvements in Apparatus for Cleaning and Polishing Metal Coated Plates.
Year: 1893

page_text: COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Apparatus for Cleaning and Polishing Metal
Coated Plates.
We, RICHARD LEWIS and GWILYM MORGAN, both of Norristown, in the
County of Montgomery and the State of Pennsylvania, United States of America,
Inventors, 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 :-
The object of our invention is to provide a simple and efficient apparatus for
conveying the plates from the metal pot and delivering them automatically to the
machine; and for cleaning and polishing them at one operation.
In our invention, the tin or other metal coated plates are placed by the "riser"
in a rack fixed upon a revolving drum which conveys and delivers them auto-
matically to a pair of rolls fixed in a box which is kept supplied with bran or other
cleaning material.
This and other pairs of rolls conveys the plates obliquely downward through the
cleaning chamber. Between each pair of guide rolls the plates are rubbed by
larger wooden rolls covered with sheep skins or other suitable material, which
revolve at a high rate of speed between two sheet metal plates which prevent the
bran or other cleaning material from being scattered by the rubbing rolls. Means
is provided by a small fan to remove the dust from the upper surface of the plates
before entering the second or polishing chamber.
The plates are conveyed by guide rolls horizontally from the cleaning box
through the polishing chamber and in their passage through the polishing chamber
they are again rubbed by two or more pairs of wooden rolls covered with sheep
skins, leather or other suitable material, which are made to revolve at a higher
rate of speed than those in the cleaning chamber. The cleaned and polished
plates are finally deposited automatically on a table ready for removal to the sorting
room.
In the drawings which form part of this Specification and explain the apparatus.
we have adopted
Figure 1, is a sectional view of the whole apparatus.
Figures 2 and 3, are side elevations.
Figure 4, is a sectional view through the line x-x, of Figure 3, to show how the
plates are delivered to the cleaning machine.
Figure 5, is an enlarged sectional view of a pair of the guide rolls.
In the drawings like letters of reference refer to the same part of our machine.
In the drawings, A represents the drum to which the rack pins a, a, are fixed
obliquely. b, b, are hooks of angle iron which can be adjusted to keep plates of
different sizes in a proper position on the drum. B is the cleaning chamber.
c, c', are combined feed and guide rolls. These guide rolls are of wood G with an
iron core I and having grooves into which are litted rings of rubber or other
suitable material, as shown in Figure 5.
By this means the cleaning material is allowed to pass between the rubber rings L
into the cleaning chamber B. d', d', are a pair of brushes to keep the guide rolls
clean. e, e, are two plates preferably of sheet iron extending across the cleaning
chamber forming a trough to keep the upper rubbing rolls f,f, supplied with bran
or other cleaning material. g, is an outlet for bran which has passed through the
cleaning trough. a, a, are transverse metal sheets serving to guide the plates as
they descend from the rack into the nip of the first pair of guide rolls. The rack
pins pass through the slots a¹, in the sheet, as shown in Figures 1 and 4,

page_text: his a fan forcing air and dust from the polishing chamber through the pipe I
extending horizontally across the cleaning chamber, serving to remove the dust
from the upper surface of the plates before entering the polishing chamber, and of
removing dust from the polishing chamber.
C is the polishing chamber. f,f, are polishing rolls of suitable material working
at a high rate of speed. K is the table on which the plates are deposited on leaving
the machine. D represents the chamber from which the bran is supplied to the
cleaning chamber by means of a hopper or otherwise. We prefer the arrangement
shown in our drawings, for vibrating the sieve o, which consists of a vertical steel
rod m, (Figure 3) kept vibrating by the cam n, which it engages near the bottom
of the bran box.
E, E, represent the frame of the machine.
Figures 2, 3 and 4, showthe gearing.
Figs. 3 and 4) is the driving pulley. is a pulley driving the drum A.
, are pulleys driving the guide rolls. , is a pulley driving the cleaning rolls,
and, is another pulley driving the polishing rolls. t, t, are a pair of adjustable
plates acting as guides."
.
We prefer to make our pulleys of wood and to use rope driving, except in the
case of the guide rolls where we make one roller of each pair drive the other by
means of toothed wheels s, s, preferably of solid leather.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed we declare that what we
claim is :-
1. The combination of the feed drum A, the cleaning chamber B in which the
plates are conveyed by guiding rolls obliquely downwards, and the polishing
chamber C through which the plates pass horizontally to the table.
2. A metal cleaning machine comprising cleaning rolls, upwardly extending
guiding plates above the said rolls having their lower ends adjacent to the meeting
peripheries of said rolls, a travelling plate delivery opposite said plates between the
said guiding plates, a hopper above the said guide plates and a trough or chute
delivering polishing material between the guiding plates.
3. A metal cleaning machine comprising cleaning rolls, cleaning material delivery
above the rolls, and plates curved around and adjacent to the outer peripheries of
the rolls for holding the material thereto.
4. A metal plate cleaning machine comprising a series of pairs of cleaning rolls
arranged one pair above the other for the purpose described, a material delivery
above the rolls, and feeding rolls in advance of the cleaning rolls, the said feeding
rolls having annular grooves for the passage of the cleaning material from one pair
of rolls to the other.
5. A metal plate cleaning machine comprising an oblique cleaning chamber for
causing a gravity feed of cleaning material and a substantially horizontal cleaning
chamber.
6. A metal plate cleaning machine comprising an oblique cleaning chamber to
cause a gravity feed of the cleaning material, a substantially horizontal polishing
chamber at the lower end of the said oblique chamber, and an outlet for the
cleaning material at the junction of the two chambers.
7. A metal plate cleaning machine comprising a cleaning chamber, a polishing
chamber, and a fan drawing air and dust from the polishing chamber and delivering
it to the cleaning chamber.
Dated this 28th day of November 1893
W. LLOYD WISE,
46, Lincoln's Inn Fields, London, W.C., Chartered Patent Agent.