IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF HORSE-SHOE NAILS, AND MACHINERY THEREFOR.
Year: 1878

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Robert Lake, of the Firm of Haseltine, Lake,
IN
& Co., Patent Agents, Southampton Buildings, London, for the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF HORSE-SHOE NAILS, AND
MACHINERY THEREFOR.' A communication from abroad by John Eliakim
Wheeler, of Lynn, Massachusetts, United States of America.
"
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION filed by the said William Robert Lake at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 22nd April 1878.
"
WILLIAM ROBERT LAKE, of the Firm of Haseltine, Lake, & Co., Patent Agents,
Southampton Buildings, London. "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF
HORSE-SHOE NAILS, AND IN MACHINERY THEREFOR.' A communication from
abroad by John Eliakim Wheeler, of Lyun, Massachusetts, United States of
America.
This Invention has for its object the manufacture of horse-shoe nails by a process
which gives the completed nail a uniform density throughout of a quality not so
hard and brittle as to crack, fracture, splinter, or crumble in driving the same, or in
use, and not so soft as to wear too rapidly, or be weakened at the juncture of the
head with the shank by the strain exerted on the nail at that point, but yet suffi-
ciently stiff to drive easily and truly, sufficiently tough to stand, and sufficiently
malleable at the head and point to be clinched without fracture.
The process by which these nails are made consists in cutting from a hot rolled
ribbed metal plate a peculiarly shaped blank, having a head forming portion wider
and thinner than the head of a finished nail, and a shank considerably shorter than
the completed shank of the nail.
The blank thus formed is fed by suitable mechanism, herein-after explained, head
first, to a pair of revolving dies preferably arranged directly over and at a right
angle to another pair, in the first of which the head is upset by a lateral pressure
exerted on the edge of the blank, and the shank near the head of the blank is some=
Prine 1

page_text: what thickened, and the shank is drawn down and indented or bevelled at its point
by a pressure upon the face and back of the shank of the blank transversely to that
exerted in shaping the head in the second or under pair of revolving dies.
In the accompanying Drawing,
Figure 1 is a front elevation of the revolving dies, and means employed in feeding
the blanks in a machine embodying this Invention.
Figure 2 is a vertical section; and Figure 3 is a plan of the same.
Figure 4 is a perspective view of the nail plate from which the blanks are
punched.
Figure 5 is a plan and side elevation of a blank.
Figure 6 is a plan and elevation of a blank after the head-forming portion thereof
has been upset in the first or upper pair of revolving dies.
Figure 7 is a plan and elevation of the blank after the shank has been reduced
by the second pair of revolving dies, also showing the bevelled indentation.
Figure 8 shows similar views of the completed nail.
Figure 9 is a plan and elevation of a flat or T shaped blank.
Figures 10 and 11 are detail views; and Figure 12 is a central section of a roll
forming part of the machinery used in practising this Invention.
Although the flat or T shaped blank shown in Figure 9 may be used in working
out this Invention, yet I prefer to employ blanks, cut "heads and points" from a
hot rolled ribbed plate of homogeneous metal, and having a head-forming portion
wider and thinner than the head of the finished nail, substantially as represented
in Figure 5, as it is more easily reduced to shape by the dies without destroying its
integrity by a too severe compression, which, with the flat blank may produce
lamination, and without exerting too severe a strain on the dies.
The blanks as they drop from the dies may fall into a pan from which they are
fed by hand, head first, to the dies by dropping in the feed tunnel A; or they may
be automatically conveyed to a box B prepared to receive them, and which may be
arranged immediately under the die in line with the punch, and in position to
receive each blank as it leaves the dies on the top of a pile, filling the box from
which the undermost blank is successively ejected through an opening in the bottom
of the box by the reciprocating plate c, head foremost, into the tunnel A. This
reciprocating plate c is operated by the cam a on the disc b and the lever d.
The fixed tunnel A is provided with a detent e, which may have a forked end, and
which projects into the tunnel immediately above the converging point of the rolls,
and alternately closes and opens the passage to them, opening just before the
revolving dies converge to drop the blank upon the rolls in position to be seized by
the dies as they come together, then closing to prevent the fall of another blank
until the first blank is entirely within the dies, when it is again withdrawn to
permit the descent of the second blank. It may also be operated to centre the
blank in the dies by causing the forked ends to close upon the shank of the blank
as it is drawn in by the dies, and to support the same vertically; in this case it
must be so timed as not to advance with sufficient rapidity to cause a retarding
friction on the shank of the blank.
In Figures 1 and 3 I show a divided detent, which opens from and closes towards
the centre of the tunnel; this contrivance also operates to centre the blank in the
dies. The detent is operated by the lever fand cam groove g on the disc b.
The rolls D are each provided with two or more dies E in their periphery, and
are shaped to mould the head of the blank as they converge by acting upon the
edge of the blank, and upsetting the head-forming portion of the blank, as above
explained.
From these dies the blank drops through the short tunnel F to the rolls G arranged
immediately below and transversely to the rolls D, so that the revolving dies H will
operate upon the surface of the blank at right angles to the edges operated upon by
the first set of dies, which will be the face and back of the shank of the blank, the
head forming recess in the dies H being sufficiently large to receive the head of the
blank without compressing it.

page_text: The projection h is formed near the end of that part of the die that rolls the face
of the blank for the purpose of forming the bevelled indentation m in the blank.
The nail is completed by clipping its point in any suitable clipping machine.
The rolls D are keyed to the shafts D¹, which are provided with suitable bearings
D2 in the frame of the machine, and with cog wheels D³. The rolls G are keyed to
the shafts G¹, which have bearings G2 and cog wheels G³, and the cog wheel M and
bevel gear wheel M¹ connect the lower and the upper operating mechanism, and
make the speed of the lower pair dependent upon that of the upper.
The rolls D, G, are made preferably in three disc-like parts, and the central disc
is provided with a hub projection o, which increases the bearing surface of the disc
on the shaft. The outer parts are recessed to fit the projections.
Each shaft is provided with shoulders, against which the inner disc bears, and
with a screw thread at its end. The three discs are keyed to the shaft, and held
firmly together by a nut screwed on the end of the shaft, and the shoulder on the
shaft. By this construction die grooves and recesses may very readily be made.
When a narrow central disc is used it is necessary to provide it with a longer bearing
on the shaft proportionally than that given to the outer discs, so that the greater
strain which it receives may be distributed on a larger section of the shaft than
would be the case were the disc of one thickness.
A flat thin disc cuts into the shaft unless it is provided with a sufficient bearing
surface.
The operation of the aforesaid machine is as follows, that is to say:-The blanks
are successively automatically fed head foremost from the box by the reciprocation
of the sliding plate into the feed tunnel A, or are dropped by hand therein, and fall
upon the detent, which is withdrawn from the tunnel at the proper moment to allow
the blank to drop upon the rolls slightly in advance of the converging of the dies.
The detent then returns to stop the descent of another blank; meanwhile, the
head-forming recesses of the dies seize the head of the first blank as they converge,
mould it to the desired shape by the lateral pressure exerted upon the edge of the
blank, which drops from the dies as they diverge into the short tunnel by which it
it is guided to the second set of revolving dies, which revolve at right angles to the
first pair, and which are so timed as to converge immediately after the blank is
discharged from the first pair, and so shaped that the head of the blank is not again
compressed by their action, but simply drawn into the dies, which operate wholly
on the face and back of the shank of the blank from the head in drawing it down
to its proper length, and in forming the bevelled indentation or end. The nail is
then finished by clipping the point of the blank.
When necessary I may use two machines, one having the head-forming dies, and
the other the shank and point-forming dies, in place of combining the two sets of
rolls in one machine, in which case the machine having the dies reducing the shank
may be provided with a detent in its feeding tunnel if necessary.
When the detent acts as a centreing device it is placed as near as practicable to
the said rolls.
It will be observed that the nail is finished in section, that is to say, first, the nail
plate is rolled with longitudinally extending head-forming ribs of a thickness equal
to about two-thirds that of the head of the completed nail. From this plate is
punched blanks with heads somewhat wider than those of the finished nails, and
shanks preferably gradually tapering on their edges towards the end of the blank.
The next step is to completely finish the head of the nail by upsetting the same in
the first pair of dies, and to thicken the shank near the head. The next step is the
reduction of the shank, and the formation of the bevelled indentation at or near its
end, and the nail is completed by clipping its point in any suitable way.
It will thus be seen that as no part of the nail is subjected to two rollings the
metal is of one density throughout, more tenacious and ductile, and less brittle than
a nail having every part subjected to and shaped by two cold rollings, and not so
liable to give or draw at the head or in the shank, or to clip or flake at the point
as a nail whose head is hot rolled only, and whose shank possesses varying

page_text: .
densities, and terminates in a hard brittle point, which is the result of excessive
cold rolling.
Having thus fully described the said Invention as communicated to me by my
foreign correspondent, and the manner of performing the same, I wish it understood
that I claim,-
First. In a machine for making horse-shoe nails the combination of a feed tunnel,
either with or without a detent,' operated as described, with the revolving dies
adapted to operate upon the edge of a blank in upsetting and finishing the heads of
the nails, as above set forth.
Second. In a machine for making horse-shoe nails the combination of a conducting
box arranged to automatically receive the blanks, and provided with means for
successively ejecting the undermost blank with the feed tunnel, either with or
without a detent, and a pair of revolving dies for upsetting and shaping a section of
a blank, all arranged to operate as above described.
Third. In a machine for making horse-shoe nails the combination of a conducting
tunnel with a pair of revolving dies adapted to operate only on the face and back of
the shank of the blank, and to indent the end of the same, as above described.
Fourth. In a machine for making horse-shoe nails the combination of parts com-
prising a feed tunnel, either with or without a detent, one pair of revolving dies
adapted to shape the head of the blank only, a short intermediary conveyer, and a
pair of revolving dies adapted to draw down and indent the shank, all arranged to
operate as above described.
: Fifth. In a machine for making horse-shoe nails the combination of parts com-
prising an automatic feeding device arranged to feed cut blanks to the dies, one pair
of dies for shaping the head of the blank, an intermediary conveyer, and one pair
of revolving dies for lengthening and indenting the shank, as above described.
Sixth. In a machine for making horse-shoe nails the combination of parts com-
prising the disc provided with the lever, the reciprocating plate; and the box
adapted to receive the blanks, and provided with an opening at the bottom, by
which they are ejected, as above described.
Seventh. In a machine for making horse-shoe nails the combination of the disc
provided with cam projections, with the lever, the detent, and the feed tunnel, all
arranged to operate as above described.
Eighth. In the manufacture of horse-shoe nails the process consisting, first, in
punching from a ribbed metal plate a blank having a head-forming portion wider
and thinner than the head of the finished nail; second, in upsetting the head-
forming portion of the blank, and thickening and lengthening its shank by a lateral
pressure exerted upon its edge; third, in reducing the shank by a pressure exerted
upon its front and back transversely to that exerted in forming the head, whereby
the head and the shank are successively formed by cold rolling, and but one pressure
is exerted upon the completed nail, as above described.
Ninth. A horse-shoe nail made in accordance with the process above described,
and having one density throughout its entire substance.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Robert Lake, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-second day of April, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and seventy-eight.