Improvements in the Method of Manufacturing Eye-bars.
Year: 1886

page_text: Date of Application, 30th Dec., 1886.
Specification Accepted, 15th Mar., 1887
Improvements in the Method of Manufacturing Eye-bars.
I ROBERT W. SMITH, Mechanical Engineer, of Toledo, in the County of Lucas, and
State of Ohio, U.S.A. Mechanical Engineer. I 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 :-
In the accompanying drawings-
Figure 1 is an edge view of a steel blank bar suitable for making an eye-bar.
Figure 2 is a plan view of the same with dotted lines at either end to indicato the
contour of the finished eye-bar.
Figure 3 is a plan of such a blank bar with a pile upon it at each end suitable for
manufacturing an eye-bar in accordance with my invention.
Figure 4 is a longitudinal central section of Fig. 3.
Figure 5 shows a plan view of a complete eye-bar.
Figure 6 is a section of the same on the line 6, 6, of Fig. 5, indicating the relations
of the different metal parts.
Heretofore the manufacture of eye-bars has been practiced as follows-
First, blank bars have been taken and heated at the ends and upset or bunched and
forged into shape and bolt-holes formed through them. This is an expensive process,
generally requiring several heatings and hammerings, and resulting in injuring the
quality of the metal and weakening it so that it is liable to break at the neck, or the
place indicated by the line 6 in Fig. 5.
The second method practiced has been to roll out steel bars from steel ingots, leaving
a large mass of metal at either end which has afterwards been forged into shape and
a hole formed through it. This method is liable to the objection that it is expensive,
and the metal is also liable to injury from the fact that repeated heatings are generally
required.
It has never been found practicable to make steel eye-bars by either of these
methods as strong at their necks as at other portions of the bars, and to accomplish
that has long been the problem that has baffled steel eye-bar makers.
In the manufacture of iron eye-bars, (which are now of very little use on account
of the superior tenacity and desirability of steel in bridge and truss structures where
the greatest strength with the least weight is the desideratum), it has been the practice
to take a bar of iron and build upon it a suitable pile of scrap iron then to heat and
forge out the end of the eye-bar in suitable dies to give it the desired shape, and to
form a bolt-hole through it. But the iron eye-bars have always in practice been found
to be weak at the neck and to be liable to break at that point. Metal workers have
not been able to manufacture a steel eye-bar in this way, and it would be impracticable
to do it by the employment of steel only.

page_text: The object of my invention is to produce a eye-bar with a strength at the neck
sufficient to withstand any strain that the body of the bar will withstand, and to avoid
the expense and other objections mentioned incident to the ordinary manufacture of
eye-bars, as heretofore practiced. To this end I combine a small quantity of reinforce
metal with the steel bar in a particular way. I take a steel blank A of suitable
dimensions (say 1 by 4 inches) such as illustrated in Figs. 1 and 2 and place upon
one end of it a wrought iron plate B (or any other suitable equivalent plate of soft
metal or alloy might be used) say about inch thick and about three inches wider
than the steel bar. I then preferably place two small steel reinforce scraps 0 upon
the iron plate on either side. These may be dispensed with, or iron scraps may be
used, but steel scraps are preferable. I then heat this pile to a proper degree for
perfect welding and place it in dics such as heretofore used in the manufacture of iron
eye-bars and forge it into shape. This can be done as in the case of iron with a single
heating. The effect is that the iron plate does not imbed the steel bar, but spreads
over it and reinforces it and unites thoroughly with it. The steel scrap pieces at the
proper points on either side of the bolt-hole thoroughly unite with the thin iron plate
as indicated in Fig. 6, so that I obtain a practically integral mass of metal. The
steel at the neck of the eye-bar, although slightly flattened, is not materially
diminished in cross-section by the forging operation, but the iron spreads over it and
unites with it and strengthens it at that point, as well as all around the bolt-hole. The
result is that at a single heating, and without deteriorating or weakening the steel at
all, I get with great economy a reinforced eye-bar without the liability to break at
the neck heretofore existing, and at the same time without any material increase of the
mass of metal employed, such as is appreciable in adding to the expense of the
manufacture.
It is impracticable to use a steel plate of proper quality instead of the iron plate
employed upon the end of the steel bar, because of the difficulty of welding steel to
steel, and also because a steel plate will not flow or spread out over the surface of the
steel bar in the forging process so readily as iron will, but is liable to be imbedded
somewhat into the neck of the bar and weaken it.
In the manufacture of iron eye-bars, the iron pile that is built upon the end of the
iron bar does not flow over the bar at the neck, as in the case of my steel bar, because
the iron bar is as soft as the scrap iron pile upon it. The result is that the bar proper
is diminished in cross-section and weakened at the neck in the forging process. In
reinforcing a steel bar with a coat of almost molten iron as I do, however, the result
is to keep the strength of the steel at the neck and add to it what strength there is in
the iron coating,
I am aware that it is not new to weld iron and steel together or to make a pile of
alternate layers of iron and steel and forge them into a mass, and I claim nothing of
this sort.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said invention,
and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what I claim is-
.
1. The improved method of manufacturing steel eye-bars herein described, which
consists in applying a reinforce plate of wrought iron to the end of a steel bar, heating
it to a degree for perfect welding, and then forging it into form by the use of dies, as
set forth.
2. As an improved article of manufacture, a steel eye-bar reinforced by wrought
iron forged and spread around the neck and bolt-hole, substantially as set forth.
3. In a steel eye-bar, the combination of the steel bar A, the wrought iron plate B,
and the reinforce scraps C, substantially as set forth.