Improvements in Apparatus for Cleaning Metal Plates or Sheets.
Year: 1891

page_text: Date of Application, 7th Feb., 1891
Complete Specification Left, 5th Dec., 1891-Accepted, 19th Dec., 1891
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Apparatus for Cleaning Metal Plates or Sheets.
We, PHILIP ROGERS, of 4 St. George's Terrace, Hanover Street, Swansea,
Machinery Agent, and JOHN PLAYER, Tin Plate Manufacturer, of Clydach
near Swansea, in the County of Glamorgan, do hereby declare the nature of this
invention to be as follows
This invention relates to apparatus adapted to effectually remove grease and
dust from metal plates or sheets, more especially tin and terne plates, without
buckling scratching or otherwise damaging them. The apparatus is designed to
work in connection with a tinning machine of the kind described in the Speci-
fication of a former Patent No. 15,040 dated November 1886 and in the
Specification filed with an application for Patent No. 11,606 dated July 1890, but
can also be adapted to clean plates that are coated by other means.
For this purpose we provide a tilting shelf on to which the coated plates are
delivered one by one say by the pick-up device of a tinning machine. This shelf,
which may be worked from the tinning machine deposits each plate flatwise on a
carrier by which it is carried forward to a pair of rolls by which the plate is
passed through a trough containing suitable cleaning material such as bran. This
trough is divided horizontally into two parts and means are provided to impart a
reciprocating motion thereto in a direction transverse to that in which the plate
moves when passing through it, the two parts of the trough moving by preference
in opposite directions. The plate cau be passed through as many bran troughs in
succession as may be found necessary to thoroughly scour off the grease and after-
wards through one or more troughs somewhat similar to the bran troughs but fitted
with material adapted to wipe off the dust such as sheepskin or other suitable
rubbing substance of flat or block form, or as circular live rolls, or rubbers arranged
on bands. Finally the plates are allowed to collect on a shelf ready to be carried
to the assorting room.
The bran or other cleaning material that escapes from each trough during the
cleaning operation falls into a receptacle from which it is returned to the troughs by
any suitable means such as an clevator. The bran carried out of the troughs on
the top surface of the plates is collected in the same receptacle, being swept off the
plates as they pass under, or between a pair of brushes this arrangement can be
applied to each bran trough used, and so prevent the bran from one trough
mixing with that from another.
The rolls used for feeding the plates may be of metal or other suitable material,
or be each formed of a series of discs of different materials and be clothed, or not,
as may be found necessary or desirable.
The lower part of each bran receptacle may be provided with a series of openings
to enable the bran to be gradually renewed if necessary. According to a modified
construction the bran receptacle is divided vertically and the plates passed between
the two parts in a vertical position. The two parts of the receptacle may in either
case be moved together or in opposite directions, as may be desirable in practice.
The apparatus can be arranged to take the coated plates out of the present
tinning machine rack, instead of replacing that rack by the tilting shelf afore
mentioned.
By the construction described all the grease is removed from the plates by the
novel action of the bran troughs, there being nothing to interfere with the scouring
action of the bran on the plates. Perfect circulation of the bran is obtained

page_text: and as very little resistance is offered to the passage of the plates by the bran in
the trough, plates of fine gauge may be efficiently cleaned.
D
1
1
1001
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Apparatus for Cleaning Metal Plates or Sheets.
We, PHILIP ROGERS of 4 St. George's Terrace, Hanover Street, Swansea
Machinery Agent, and JOHN PLAYER, Tin Plate Manufacturer, of Clydach
near Swansea, in the County of Glamorgan, 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 apparatus adapted to effectually remove grease and
dust from metal plates or sheets, more especially tin and terne plates, without
buckling scratching or otherwise damaging them. The apparatus is designed to
work in connection with tinning machines of the kind described in the Specifications
of former Letters Patent granted to us ciz. No. 15,040 dated November 1886 and
No. 11,606 dated 24 July 1890, but it can also be used to clean plates that are
coated by other means.
For this purpose the coated plates are delivered one by one, from a tinning
machine to a pair of rolls by which the plate is passed through a trough containing
suitable cleaning material such as bran, or saw dust mixed with a little lime.
This trough is divided into two parts, and means are provided to impart a
reciprocating motion thereto in a direction transverse to that in which the plate
moves when passing through it, the two parts of the trough moving by preference
in opposite directions. The plate can be passed through as many bran troughs in
succession as may be found necessary to thoroughly scour off the grease, and
afterwards or alternately through one or more devices somewhat similar to the
bran troughs but fitted with material adapted to wipe off the dust such as sheep-
skin or other suitable rubbing substance arranged in flat or block form, or as
cylindrical rolls, or as rubbers arranged on bands. Finally the plates are allowed
to collect on a shelf ready to be carried to the assorting room.
The bran or other cleaning material that escapes from each trough during the
cleaning operation falls into a receptacle from which it is returned to the trough
by any suitable means such as an elevator. The bran carried out of the troughs
on the top surface of the plates is collected in the same receptacle being swept off
the plates as they pass under, or between a pair of brushes; this arrangement can
be applied to each bran trough used, and so prevent the bran from one trough
mixing with that from another.
The rolls used for feeding the plates may be of metal or other suitable material,
or be each formed of a series of discs of different materials and be clothed if found
desirable.
The lower part of each bran trough may be provided with a series of openings
to enable the bran to be gradually renewed if necessary. The bran trough may
be divided vertically and the plates passed between the two parts in a vertical
position. The two parts of the trough may in either case be moved together or in
opposite directions, as may be found desirable in practice.
The apparatus can be arranged to take the coated plates out of the present
tinning machine rack, instead of replacing that rack by the tilting shelf herein-
before mentioned.
By the construction described all the grease is removed from the plates by the

page_text: novel action of the bran troughs, there being nothing to interfere with the scouring
action of the bran on the plates. Perfect circulation of the bran is obtained and
as very little resistance is offered to the passage of the plates by the bran in the
trough, plates of fine gauge may be efficiently cleaned..
Referring to the accompanying drawings,.
Fig. 1 is a longitudinal section of an apparatus for cleaning metal plates or
sheets according to this invention; Fig. 2 is a plan of the same, and Fig. 3 is an
end elevation partly in section.
For the sake of simplifying the drawings some of the small parts of the apparatus
are omitted in some of the views.
C to Care pairs of feed rolls arranged to convey the plates from right to left
in Fig. 1. Each roll is carried on a spindle which runs in bearings in the
frames LL, and one roll of each pair is positively driven. The power is trans-
mitted from the first motor shaft A by means of the bevel wheels a³, the spur
pinion and wheel and and the cross shaft a carrying a pinion gearing with
the spur wheel a mounted on a spindle and connected to a pinion a*. Motion is
transmitted from the latter pinion to the rollers through a train of spur gearing a*.
The bearings of the upper rolls are so arranged that they can rise and fall.
Between the frames LL, and parallel to them there are arranged two pairs of
girders 2 and 63. The two girders 62 63 are connected together at the ends by
tie rods and so are . They are supported by rollers mm carried on the main
frame, and can reciprocate on them to a limited extent, This reciprocating motion
is derived from two pairs of eccentrics on the first motion shaft A. The eccentrics a
and a move the girders 2, 3, while the eccentrics a¹ and a² move the other pair.
The bran troughs B and B'; the dusters D, D1, D2 and the brushes c to care
mounted on the girders and share in these reciprocating motions. By preference
the pairs of girders move in opposite directions. Each bran trough is made in
two parts horizontally, the upper part being connected to one set of girders, and
the lower part to the other. The upper part is provided with cross bars and b
to ensure a rubbing action of the bran on the top surface of the plates, and ou
the exit side with brushes n and n¹ placed at an angle, as shewn. These brushes
extend the full length of the troughs and prevent too much bran being carried out
on the top surface of the plates. There are brushes o and o¹ in the lower parts of
the bran troughs. Three are shewn in each trough, but they may be replaced by
one brush having several rows of bristles. These brushes are inclined at an angle
as shewn, and have their ends slightly below the line of the path of the plates when
passing between the feed rolls. They are designed to lead the front edges of the
plates horizontally and to prevent them from burrowing into the bran.
In some cases one or more transverse brushes placed at an angle, may be
arranged in the bottom of the upper part of each bran trough as shewn in dotted
lines in Fig. 1 for the purpose of guiding between the two parts of the bran
troughs plates having a set or camber such as would be liable without the use of
the brushes mentioned to cause the plates to become blocked or entangled if fed
into the machine with the set of the plates pointing upward. These additional
brushes may be used in lien of or in conjunction with the cross bars bb.
The dusters D D1 and D2 are arranged in pairs and are cylindrical. Their
spindles are carried in brackets on the girders and are free to turn.
To ensure
that they shall rotate, and prevent the wool of the sheepskin with which they are
by preference covered being worn into flats, a slow revolving or step by step motion
is imparted to them, preferably by means of ratchet mechanism such as shewn in
side elevation and plan in Figs. 4 and 5 respectively. In this mechanism a ratchet
wheel E is secured to the spindle of each duster, and working free on each spindle
is a lever E¹ provided with a spring pawl E2 that engages with the corresponding
ratchet wheel. The three levers E₁ are connected by rods E³. E is a lever
pivoted to the girder 6 and engaging at one end with a pin E fixed to one of the
rods E³, and at the other end to one end of a lever E' the other end of which is

page_text: jointed to one of the frames L. With this arrangement as the girder b² recipro-
cates it will be seen that the levers E' will be oscillated and a step by step motion
will be imparted to each of the upper dusters. A similar arrangement is provided
for the bottom dusters but with the pawls arranged to rotate the ratchet wheels in
the reverse direction. These ratchets are not shewn in the drawings. We prefer
to arrange that the bottom dusters shall move in the same direction as the plates,
and the top dusters in the opposite direction. The brushes e to c move with the
girders and sweep the bran from the surfaces of the feed rollers, thus keeping these
rollers clean.
Beneath the bran trough is a hopper K through which falls all the bran
escaping from the troughs. The bran is carried by a conveyor H, which may be
an endless belt as shewn, or a worm, to an elevator (not shewn) arranged within
a casing F and by which it is raised and distributed to one or other, or both of
the bran troughs, according to the position of the valve F* shewn in dotted lines
in Fig. 1 at the junction of the forked spouts F1. The conveyor H is driven by
belt from the pulley a on the shaft A, to the pulley on one of the con-
veyor shafts. The elevator is driven by a belt passing over the pulleys at and f
The table X receives the plates after passing through the machine, and is pro-
vided with an adjustable stop block a which can be fixed to suit different lengths
of plates.
When the machine is to be used, bran is fed into the troughs until they are fairly
full. Greasy plates are then fed into the first pair of rolls, and by them passed
through the bran trough B, the feed rolls C', the bran trough B¹, the feed rolls C*,
the duster D, the feed rolls C³, the duster D', the feed rolls C, the duster D2, the
feed rolls C³, and are finally deposited on the table X.
The reciprocating motion of the bran troughs and dusters in opposite directions
and transverse to the travel of the plates through the machine, while thoroughly
cleaning the plates, offers such slight resistance to the passage of the plates that
the finest gauges are operated on without damage, as there is nothing to interfere
with the action of the bran on the plates all the grease is removed before it comes
to the dusters, and the plates are finished free from scratches and buckles.
In some cases we provide openings for allowing the bran in the bottom part of
troughs to leak out and so get renewed if required. We may use one or more bran
troughs in succession followed by one or more pairs of dusters in succession with
the necessary feeding rolls between as in the arrangement shewn, or we may arrange
a bran trough and dusters followed by another bran trough and dusters and so on,
with necessary feed rollers between.
When cleaning plates supplied from a tinning machine of the kind hereinbefore
referred to, the plates may be automatically conveyed from the rack of the tinning
machine to the cleaning apparatus by a conveyor. When desirable however we
dispense with the rack and replace it with a tilting shelf which may be worked by
the present rack chain and onto which the pick-up apparatus of the tinning machine
places the plates one at a time. This tilting shelf tilts the plates over flatwise
onto a conveyor leading to the cleaner, or the pick-up may drop the plates direct
on to the conveyor.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed we declare that what we
claim is
1. In apparatus for cleaning metal plates or sheets, passing the plate or sheet to
be cleaned through a trough, or between troughs, containing cleaning material,
such as bran, the said material having imparted to it at the same time a recipro-
cating motion relatively to the plate.
2. In apparatus for cleaning metal plates and sheets the combination of two
troughs containing cleaning material placed face to face, and moving in the same
or opposite directions, the arrangement being such that a plate can be passed

page_text: between the said two troughs and during its passage will be subject to the action of
the material contained in the troughs substantially as herein described.
3. In apparatus for cleaning metal plates or sheets, a trough containing cleaning
material, such as bran, through or over which a plate or sheet is passed and pro-
vided with a brush or brushes arranged to guide the plate or sheet and prevent it
diverging from its proper path substantially as described.
.
4. In apparatus for cleaning metal plates or sheets, the combination with a
trough or troughs containing cleaning material such as bran, of feed rollers to
pass plates or sheets through or over the said material substantially as described.
5. In apparatus for cleaning metal plates or sheets, the combination with a trough
or troughs containing cleaning material such as bran, through or over which the
plates or sheets to be cleaned are passed, of a hopper to catch the material which
escapes, and conveying and elevating devices to return the said material to the
trough or troughs substantially as described.
6. In apparatus for cleaning metal plates or sheets, the combination with a trough
or troughs containing cleaning material, such as bran, through or over which the
plates to be cleaned are passed, of a duster or dusters formed of suitable material
such as sheepskin with the wool attached, and arranged to move transversely with
relation to the plates or sheets passing through the machine substantially as
described.
7. The improved apparatus constructed, arranged, and operating, substantially
as described with reference to the drawings annexed.
Dated this 5th day of December 1891
W. Lloyd Wise,
PHILIP ROGERS.
JOHN PLAYER.
46, Lincoln's Inn Fields, London, W.C., Agent for the Applicants.