Improvements in the Manufacture of Felt and like Wads.
Year: 1894

page_text: Date of Application, 7th Mar. 1894
2.
1005 Accented
0th Feb
1895
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in the Manufacture of Felt and like Wads.
I, GEORGE HOOкHAM, of Nos. 7 and 8 New Bartholomew Street, in the City
of Birmingham, Manufacturer, do hereby declare the nature of this invention to
be as follows:-
My invention relates to the manufacture of felt and like wads for use in cartridge
cases, and my object is to minimise the waste of felt or other material used.
Felt wads are usually punched out of felt sheets by means of circular punches,
but a very large amount of waste is produced because it is necessary to leave a
considerable space between the edges of the holes punched out, otherwise the
felt cannot be punched out truly to form a circular wad. It is found that if the
punched holes approach too closely to each other, then the wads, although appearing
to be truly circular at first, after a time assume a distorted form.
My invention consists in first cutting the sheet felt into strips of suitable width,
very little broader than the wad to be cut, in any convenient manner; and then
passing the said strips through a guide or channel arranged in such manner that
the sides of the strips are well supported, under a tool of copper or similar metal
softer than steel, and over a tubular steel punch of proper internal diameter
opposing the copper tool. The end of the felt strip is caused to butt against a
stop projecting downwards from a bridge piece, and the felt strip is fed into the
guide or channel, and is cut out by being forced down upon the tubular punch
while supported at the sides. The wad is thus cut out and forced through the
tubular punch, and the travel of the upper copper piece is limited by suitable stops.
The wad top is so placed that the minimum of material required for end support
is left. A spring is placed to lift up the strip after cutting.
The felt sheets are first cut up into strips by means of any suitable shears or
other cutting devices, each strip being cut off the correct width to form a wad so
that as each wad is punched out by the punch, the waste piece is severed from the
strip as well as the wad. By this arrangement I save entirely the waste made
when the wads are punched out of sheets due to the material required to be
preserved between the sides of the holes. When I punch wads from the strips by
means of a circular punch I find that, although the wad at first appears to be
circular in form, after a time it expands in the direction of across the strip so that.
it becomes oval with its longer axis across the strip.
To obviate this difficulty I form my punch oval, and punch from the strip with
the longer axis of the oval placed in the direction of the length of the strip. By
this device the wad is at first cut oval, but after cutting it expands across its shorter
axis so that it assumes a truly circular form.
I form my punches truly oval by turning in an oval chuck.
I preferably cut my felt sheets into strips by means of circular knives accurately
spaced so as to produce the correct width of strip, and I prefer to place the disc
or circular knives with two knives within two opposing knives, and I arrange the
bevel edges within, sloped in opposing directions, and the bevel edges without also
sloped in opposing directions; the purpose being to cut the material truly, and
balance the opposing actions.

page_text: By a combination of my method of cutting the felt into strips and of punching
with an oval punch; I effect a large saving in material.
Dated this 6th day of March 1894.
MARKS & CLERK,
18, Southampton Buildings, London, W.C., and
13, Temple Street, Birmingham, Agents for the Applicant.
improvements in thе мапитacture of геть аци по
I, GEORGE HOOKHAM, of Nos. 7 and 8, New Bartholomew Street, in the City
of Birmingham, Manufacturer, 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 :-
My invention relates to the manufacture of felt and like wads for use in cartridge
cases, and my object is to minimise the waste of felt or other material used.
Felt wads are usually punched out of felt sheets by means of circular punches
but a very large amount of waste is produced because it is necessary to leave a
considerable
space between the edges of the holes punched out, otherwise the felt
cannot be punched out truly to form a circular wad. It is found that if the punched
holes approach too closely to each other, then the wads, although appearing to be
truly circular at first, after a time assume a distorted form.
My invention consists in first cutting the sheet felt into strips of suitable width,
very little broader than the wad to be cut, in any convenient manner and then
passing the said strips through a guide or channel arranged in such manner that the
sides of the strips, are well supported, under a tool of copper or similar metal softer
than steel and over a tubular steel punch of proper internal diameter opposing the
copper tool. The end of the felt strip is caused to butt against a stop projecting
downwards from a bridge piece, and the felt strip is fed into the guide or channel
and is cut out by being forced down upon the tubular punch while supported at
the sides. The wad is thus cut out and forced through the tubular punch and the
travel of the upper copper piece is limited by suitable stops. The wad stop is so
placed that the minimum of material required for end support is left. A spring is
placed to lift up the strip after cutting.
The felt sheets are first cut up into strips by means of any suitable shears or
other cutting devices, each strip being cut off the correct width to form a wad so
that as each wad is punched out by the punch, the waste piece is severed from the
strip as well as the wad. By this arrangement I save entirely the waste made
when the wads are punched out of sheets due to the material required to be
preserved between the sides of the holes. When I punch wads from the strips by
means of a circular punch I find that although the wad at first appears to be
circular in form after a time it expands in the direction of across the strip so that
it becomes oval with its longer axis across the strip.
To obviate this difficulty 1 form my punch oval and punch from the strip with
the longer axis of the oval placed in the direction of the length of the strip. By
this device the wad is at first cut oval, but after cutting it expands across its
shorter axis so that it assumes a truly circular form.
1 form my punches truly oval by turning in an oval chuck.
I preferably cut my felt sheets into strips by means of circular knives accurately
spaced so as to produce the correct width of strip, and I prefer to place the disc
or circular knives with two knives within two opposing knives, and I arrange the

page_text: bevel edges within, sloped in opposing directions, and the bevel edges without also
sloped in opposing directions; the purpose being to cut the material truly and
balance the opposing actions.
By a combination of my method of entting the felt into strips and of punching
with an oval punch I effect a large saving in material.
Referring to the two accompanying sheets of drawings:-
Figure 1 is a front elevation of the machine for cutting the sheets into strips
with the front rolls removed to show the circular kaives.
Figure 2 is a plan the front rolls being shown in position.
Figure 3 is an end elevation looking on the machine from the left side.
Figure 4 is a section of the wad punching device and
Figure 5 is a plan corresponding to Figure 4.
Figure 6 is a section showing the walls supporting the wad strip.
The sheet cutting machine contains cylinders A, B, mounted on suitable frames C
and fixed to a strong bed D. The cylinders A B carry opposing sets of circular
knives A¹ B which circular knives are set in pairs so that one pair A' presents
flat surfaces to the interior sides and bevelled surfaces to the outer sides, while the
opposing pair B presents bevelled surfaces to the interior and flat surfaces to the
exterior as clearly shown at Figure 1.
Rolls E, F are mounted opposite to the circular knives and serve to feed the felt
sheet to the circular knives to be cut into strips.
The sheet cutting machine is actuated by means of the driving pulley G the
shaft G and a suitable train of toothed wheels which so rotate as to pass the
felt sheet through the rolls E, F, to the circular knives to be cut.
Arrows are shown at Figure 3 which indicate the direction of rotation of the
gearing wheels, the feed rolls and the circular cutting knives.
The felt sheet is shown in plan at Figure 2 as being fed into the machine through
the rolls E F, the felt is shown entering the rolls at H and at H' it is shown as
issuing from the circular knives A¹ B¹ divided into strips.
By this machine the felt sheet is at once cut into strips.
To punch out the wads the separate strips are fed into the device shown at
Figures 4 and 5.
I is a punch preferably of copper and J is a tubular steel punch opposing the
copper punch or tool.
The felt strip H' is pushed into the guiding channel N (Figure 4) and held level
with the top of the tubular punch by the spring K. It guided at the sides by
the fingers M² and stopped at the proper distance by the stop M.
The stop M and the fingers M2 are carried by the frame M and the whole
attached to the die block Q. This die block Q is bolted to the bed of the
machine O by the clamps P.
O is a portion of the pillar carrying the slide for the punch I which slide and
its operating mechanism is not shown.
When the copper tool or punch I descends it forces the strip on the tubular
punch J and into the guiding slot N ; the position is indicated in dotted lines.
The wad is thus cut out and forced through the tubular punch.
The spring K yields as the strip H' is forced down on the tubular punch J by
the upper copper tool I and when the said tool 1 is raised again the spring K
forces the strip H to its upper level so as to enable the strip to be pushed up
over the punch to the stop M to cut another wad. The waste is removed by
falling over the inclined part of the die block Q under the stop M.
The tubular punch J is preferably made oval as herein before described.
The section Figure 6 shows the strip H' effectively supported at the sides so
that when the tool I forces it on the cutting edges of the oval tubular punch J,
the sides of the strip are supported and the formation of each wad cuts entirely
through the sides of the strip and avoids waste. RR are the walls arranged
immediately above the cutting edges of the punch J.

page_text: Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is :-
1. Manufacturing felt or like wads by first cutting the felt into strips and then
punching the wads out of the said strips, the sides of each strip being effectively
supported during cutting by suitable walls between which the strip is forced by the
tool, so as to produce the minimum of waste as hereinbefore described.
2. Manufacturing felt or like wads by first cutting the felt into strips and then
punching the wads out of the said strips by means of a punch of smaller dimensions
in the direction across the strips so as to produce wads which become circular
after standing, substantially as and for the purposes hereinbefore described.
3. Manufacturing felt or like wads with little waste by cutting the said wads
very close to each other out of a sheet, the punch used being oval with its smaller
diameter arranged in the direction in which the adjoining wad apertures come
nearest, substantially as and for the purposes hereinbefore described.
4. In the manufacture of felt wads a cutting machine with circular knives
substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to Figures 1, 2 and 3 of the
drawings.
5. In the manufacture of felt wads a punching or cutting out device comprising;
a tubular punch as J, an upper tool as I, a spring as K and guiding walls and a
stop contrivance for the felt strip all arranged and acting substantially as
herein before described with reference to Figures 4 and 5 of the accompanying
drawings.
Dated thin and do of Tanum 1005
MARKS & CLERK,
18, Southampton Buildings, London, W.C., and
13, Temple Street, Birmingham, Agents for the Applicant.