Improvements in Steam Hammers.
Year: 1889

page_text: Date of Application, 14th Oct., 1889-Accepted, 12th Apr., 1890
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Steam Hammers.
I, JOHANN ALBERT HENCKELS of No. 15 Kölnerstrasse, Solingen Germany 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 improvements described hereafter relate to the valve motion of steam hammers
and have been constructed with the intention to work hammers more economically
than hitherto by using the steam expansively.
Arrangement I, as shown in the Figs. 1 to 3, is intended to vary the quantity of
the upper steam and in consequence the heaviness of the blows of hammer.
For this purpose a slide valve s is placed on the back of a common slide valve e.
This slide valve s, which has a port for the passage of the upper steam, remains
stationary and is kept in its position by a lever t. The latter is keyed on the shaft u,
going through a stuffing box and can be moved by the smith either by a hand lever or
treadle.
It is obvious, that by altering the position of the slide valves the steam is allowed
to pass a shorter or a longer time through the corresponding port of the slide valve
and to enter into the cylinder above the piston of the hammer.
By these means the steam can be shut off entirely when wanted and the expansion
of the steam will take place at any point of the hammer's stroke.
The upward notion is effectuated by the governing lever, while the downward
motion takes place in a self-acting manner by the pressure of steam on the plunger of
the slide valve spindle.
To produce single blows of the hammer the pawl g is arranged for arresting the
slide valve spindle; and for varying the heaviness of the blows a wedge motion can
be attached, on which the end of the slide valve spindle will rest, by these means
diminishing or increasing the way of the slide valve e.
Arrangement II, as shown in Figs. 4 to 6, effectuates expansion of the steam as
well for the upper steam as the under steam.
This
To effect this the ports of the slide valves are arranged in a similar way to the
well known expansion gear of Rider. On the back of the slide valve e is placed a
circular valves, which remains stationary in its vertical direction, and is only allowed
to turn upon its axis. This circular slides is connected to the spindle t¹, which bears
on its squared top end a worm wheel u¹ in gear with the worm v on shaft w.
shaft can be brought by any suitable means, for instance by a pair of bevel wheels,
screw and handwheel, within easy reach of the smith. The circular valve s has two
ports for the passage of the upper and under steam. It is obvious, that by turning
the circular valves the steam will be cut off sooner or later in its passage through
the upper or under port according to the shape and dimensions of these ports.
It can easily be arranged, that the expansion of the steam will take place at will at
any point of the way of the piston and just as well for the upper steam as for the
under steam.
Instead of the circular valve s two flat sliding expansion valves m, m¹ can be placed
on the back of the slide valve e, as shown in Fig. 4. These slide valves m, m³ have no
motion and their distance can only be altered according to the desired extent of
expansion.
In both cases the motion of slide valve e, the arrangement of the pawl g to effectuate
single blows and the wedge motion to vary the vehemence of the blows is the same as
described at the arrangement I.

page_text: Arrangement III, as shown in Figs. 7 to 9, gives a new valve motion, where the
steam, having been used for the upward stroke of the piston of the hammer is again
used for the downward stroke. To obtain this the steamports on the cylinder face are
arranged in such a way, that the port for the exhaust steam is placed on the upper
side of the slide valve face.
The slide valve (or piston valve) is shown in Fig. 7 in such a position, that the
pawl g is disengaged from the plunger f of the slide valve spindle. The latter has
therefore arrived at its lowest position.
The steam left underneath the piston from the foregoing stroke of the hammer will
then pass through the slide valve on the upper side of the bammer's piston and force
the latter downwards in consequence of the top area of the piston being larger than the
under area, while at the same time the weight of the hammer piston with tup will
facilitate the downward motion. While the piston of the hammer has gone down, the
slide valve e has been moved upward, the under steam port has been cut off, while the
upper steam port has been opened for the connection with the steam outlet. While
the upward motion of the slide valve is going on, the under steam port will be opened
by and by, fresh steam will enter underneath the piston and the latter will start
upward, while the slide valve, beginning its downward motion, will cut off the fresh
steam.
The motion of the slide valve, the arrangement with the pawl g and the wedge
motion are the same and are designed to answer the same purposes as with the
arrangements I and II.
Arrangement IV, see Fig. 10, shows a contrivance to regulate, while giving light
blows, the quantity of the under steam according to that of the upper steam.
Above the working point of the governing lever a¹ is placed a kind of wedges,
guided through an enlarged part of the aperture c. This wedge s¹ is by means of a
double lever g brought in connection with the wedge s2, on which the bottom end of
the slide valve spindle will rest in such a manner, that the two wedges s' and s² are
moved in opposite directions. It is obvious, that by giving only a little under steam
the quantity of the upper steam will be regulated correspondingly.
Arrangement V, shown in Figs. 11 and 12, has been designed with the same inten-
tion as the arrangement IV. A knee-lever joint g g₁ is placed in the plunger f and
jointed at its bottom part to the governing lever a¹. The knee-lever joint can be moved
by means of the rod / the double armed lever i k either by hand or foot of the man
working the hammer, whereby the slide valve is either raised or lowered on the slide
valve face in a similar way as in arrangement IV. The effect will be, that the hammer
will give more or less violent blows.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is:
1. The use of a flat expansion valve in connection with the valve gear of a steam
hammer for the purpose of giving expansion to the upper steam; the flat expansion
valve, characterised by its remaining stationary while the slide valve is in motion,
being capable of regulation by foot or handlever.
steam
2. The use of a circular valve or of two flat expansion valves in connection with the
valve gear of a steam hammer for the purpose of giving expansion to the
as well as to the under steam; the circular valve and the two expansion valves,
upper
characterised by their remaining stationary, while the slide valve is in motion, being
capable of regulation by foot or handlever.
3. The arrangement of steamports in the cylinder and slide valve of a steam
hammer, as shown in Figs. 7 to 9, to effect an economy of steam by using the same
steam for the upward motion as well as for the downward motion of the piston, thus
working the steam expansively.
4. The use of an adjustable wedge above the working point of the governing lever
of a steam hammer in connection with a second wedge, upon which the bottom end of

page_text: the slide valve spindle rests, for the purpose of regulating simultaneously the upper
and under steam of a steam hammer.
5. The use of a knee-lever joint in connection with the slide valve spindle and
governing lever of a steam hammer, for the purpose of altering the position of the
slide valve against the slide valve face of the cylinder.
Dated this 14th dow of Octahou 1900
J. A. HENCKELS,
Per L. W.