Improvement in Appliances for use in Shearing Metal Plates.
Year: 1889

page_text: Date of Application, 25th Mar., 1889
Complete Specification Left. 27th Dec., 1889-Accepted, 15th Feb., 1890.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvement in Appliances for use in Shearing Metal Plates.
WILLIAM DAVIES of Number 68 Thornaby Road South Stockton in the North
Riding of the County of York Gentleman, do hereby declare the nature of this invention
to be as follows:-
Moveable stands in front of shears impelled by chain or wire rope.
Also a moveable bogey railway under the floor for the purpose of lifting the platos
to the shears such railway to be lifted by hydraulic or steam power. The screw is
formed by a pin and box neither of which have a thread the box being cut or slotted
through in the form of a screw & kept in its place by a smaller pin fixed at right
angles in the pin round which the box revolves and by this means renders the services
of men called forkers unnecessary.
'
The object of the screw is to hold the plate whilst being sheared firmly on its bed
thus ensuring the plate being correctly cut as marked and required without the aid of
forkers to hold the plate in its proper position.
Dated this 23rd day of March 1889
WILLIAM DAVIES.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvement in Appliances for use in Shearing Metal Plates.
WILLIAM DAVIES, of 47, Cecil Street, Stockton-on-Tees, in the County of Durham,
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:-
25
My Invention relates to machinery or appliances designed to lift and convey iron
or steel plates from the floor or "Bank" of the mill after having passed from the rolls
to the shears to be cut to the required shapes and dimensions. The means at present
in use for effecting this purpose consist of the manual labour of a gang of men called
"forkers," who lift the plates bodily from the mill floor or
"Bank and convey them
to the shears where they are placed on a rest to be sheared down to lines previously
marked on each plate to indicate its finished size and required shape. This mode of
carrying plates to the shears by manual labour wastes time and labour as compared
with the same operations when carried into effect by my improved appliances.
or
The object of my invention is to provide simple and effective mechanical appliances
by which plates of every size, shape or weight can be brought from the "Bank"
mill floor on bogies to the front of the shears by gravity, from which they are trans-
ferred to other bogies travelling in front of the shears, by means of which the
plates are adjusted in position and moved along to take the cut which shears the plate
to its finished dimensions and required shape, after which operation the plates may be
conveyed away on the same bogies to other bogies upon which they are carried by
gravity to a weighing machine or are otherwise disposed of. Further objects of my
invention are to furnish the shears with a specially constructed screw box which
secures narrow plates in position by the application of pressure to take a true cut
without tilting or canting, and also to provide devices such as indicated guages for
correctly adjusting the plates to be sheared into strips of certain widths.
These several objects above enumerated I carry into effect by the arrangement and
combinations of mechanical appliances and the employment of specially constructed
bogies, screw box and guages substantially as they are illustrated in the accompanying
drawings and described and claimed in reference thereto. In the drawings Figure 1

page_text: illustrates in general plan the machinery or arrangement and combination of appliances
which constitute the improvements included in my invention: Figure 2 is a
sectional elevation taken on line A A of Figure 1: Figure 3 is a transverse sectional
view taken on line BB of Figures 1 and 2. Figures 4, 5 and 6 illustrate to an
enlarged scale my improved screw box for securing narrow plates in position by the
application of pressure to take a true cut from the shears. Figures 7 and 8 illustrate
also to an enlarged scale in elevation and corresponding plan a specially constructed
bogie to travel in front of and parallel to the shear blades and to move forward the
plate as the shears are operating. Figures 9, 10 and 11 illustrate also in side elevation,
plan and end elevation respectively a specially constructed bogie which I term a
radius" bogie to be substituted for the bogies illustrated in Figures 7 and 8 when
shearing "sketch" plates.
so far
come in
In Figures 1, 2 and 3 are illustrated the system of railways or bogie-roads
with bogies placed thereon, which extends from the front of the shears to the
"Bank
or part of the mill floor where the plates are deposited from the rolls.
This system of railways or bogie-roads is divided into two sections which together
make up the distance the plates travel from the "Bank" to the front of the shears;
section a consists of a double line of bogie-roads extending from the "Bank"
in the direction of the shears, and section b, which takes up the remainder of the
distance, consists of a single line of bogie-road. The two bogie-roads in section a are
set sufficiently apart to enable the end of the bogie-road in section 6 to
between them. These bogie-roads are supported and operated below the floor level c
on the piston crossheads of the lifting cylinders d', d², d³, d, in the manner more
particularly shown in Figures 2 and 3; the power being supplied from steam or
hydraulic pressure obtained and applied in any suitable manner, so that by raising
and lowering the piston crossheads, the bogie-roads, which are constructed of light
girder form and rest on the said crossheads, can be tilted to such positions as
will cause the bogies placed on the bogie-roads to travel in either direction by the
gravity due to the inclined plane on which they stand. The two bogies e which run
on section a of the bogic-road system are underneath the floor level c, with the
exception of their carrier webs or bars e¹, which when required rise above the floor
level c through the slots c c as shown more distinctly in Figure 1. The single
bogief which runs on section of the bogie-road system is partially under the floor
level c, the swivel part being always above the floor level, and supported on the
centre shaft, which extends through the slot c² in the floor level as also shown more
particularly in Figure 1. The travel of the bogies in both sections are thus limited
in either direction to the lengths of the said slots. The mode in which the
bogie-roads are operated and the plates brought down on the bogies from the
"Bank
to the front of the shears and the bogies run back again is as follows:
The piston crosshead of each of the lifting cylinders can be raised and lowered
independently of the other piston crossheads; consequently the rails upon which the
bogies travel can be tilted at either end and within limits to any required position.
A plate to be sheared is placed upon the mill floor in a position in which it extends
across both slots c¹, so that by raising the piston crosshead of cylinder d', whilst the
piston crosshead of cylinder 2 remains stationary and in a low position, the carrier
webs e¹ of the bogies e pass up through the slots and lift the plate clear of the
floor, at the same tilting the section a of the bogie-road sufficiently to run the
bogies e down the inclined bogie-roads to the end of slots c¹ by gravity, and to a
position in which the plate to be sheared is also above that part of slot c, which
comes between the two slots c'; the swivel bogie fon section of the bogie-road
having previously been bronghi into position so as to be between the two bogies e,
and low enough to allow the plate on these bogies to pass over it, is now raised up by
raising the piston crosshead of cylinder, high enough to lift the plate off the
bogies e and to tilt the section of the bogie-road so that the swivel bogie runs by
gravity to the end of the slot 2 where it is in front of the shears, and of the line
of travel of the train of specially constructed bogies g, which run in front of and
parallel to the shear blades. By reversing the incline of the bogie-roads a and b,
"

page_text: the bogies upon them return by gravity to their original positions to remain in
readiness to repeat the above described operation. The plate once on the swivel
bogie can be turned endwise to the shears to shear the ends and then sideways
again before being lodged on the train of bogies g; this is effected by lowering the
piston crosshead of cylinder d', and of course the swivel bogief with it, when in
front of the shears, with the train of bogies g arranged in order in front of the
shears, so that the swivel bogie comes between two of them; as the swivel bogie
descends the plate is left resting upon two or more of the train of bogies g, which
trail after each other on rails in front of and parallel to the shear blades; and are
hauled along by an endless chain geared and operated in the usual manner, or by any
suitable means. Referring to Figure 2 and more particularly to Figures 7 and 8,
the bogies g are constructed to adapt themselves to plates of considerable width and
to narrow strips and are intended to support the said plates or strips in the level
position to take the cut and to move them forward as the operation of shearing
proceeds. The carrier frames g' which extend cross-wise of the line of travel of the
bogies and slightly overhang the wheels thereof approach near enough to the
shears rest to support plates of the ordinary width; but in order to support narrow
strips I attach to the frame of each bogie y a bracket or small jib crane g³,
which
turns upon its centre so that it can be closed in behind the carrier frame gl
when not in use, or be extended out to the position in which it is shown when
supporting a narrow plate; these brackets are attached to the bogies g behind the
carrier frame g¹, so that as each bogie passes the shears rest the extended bracket
which would otherwise foul the rest will turn back and allow the bogie to pass 03.
The bogies above described are used when shearing rectangular or other plates to
the usual shapes in which the line of the cut runs straight; but for the purposes of
manipulating what are technically known as "sketch" plates, I provide the "radius"
bogie illustrated in Figures 9, 10 and 11, which is made to travel in a curve by
having the wheels on one side of the bogie of smaller diameter to those on the other
side, and their axes correspondingly inclined to each other, the inclination of the axes
and the relative size of the wheels being varied according to the intended curvature
of the travel of the bogic which curvature can of course be readily varied by adapting
these details of construction to obtain the requisite curvature of its travel.
g
In dealing with plates of considerable width, the plate may be placed on the rest
to take the cut without being secured by pressure, and is moved forward on the
bogies g as the operation of shearing proceeds, after which the plate is conveyed on
the bogies g to other bogies placed on a tilting railway and conveyed by gravity to a
weighing machine, on the principle hereinbefore described with reference to convey-
ing the plates from the mill floor or "Bank" to the shears, or the plates when sheared
may be otherwise disposed of. Narrow plates to be sheared with accuracy must be
held in position on the shears rest by pressure, otherwise the plate is liable to tilt or
cant when taking the cut and to be sheared to a bevel edge in consequence. The
requisite pressure to prevent a plate from tilting may be derived from any suitably
constructed mechanism, but in order to apply and remove the pressure rapidly, and
enable the pressure to be maintained at will, I prefer to employ for this purpose the
specially formed screw box illustrated in the figures and more especially in Figures 4, 5
and 6.
The screw box consists of a centre spindle / which is rigidly secured to the upper part
of the shears frame so that the screw box is suspended therefrom over the shears rest;
a cylindrical casting or jacket fits onto the lower part of spindle h, upon which it is
free to slide up and down and to revolve, but is retained in position by the following
means: a pin or stud j projects as a fixture from the spindle h and fits into a spiral
slot provided in the casing or jacket; by turning the casing or jacket i round as
by a hand wheel the action of the pin or stud sliding in the spira! slot raises or
lowers the easing i, so that by turning the casing i down, the face plate k is brought
into contact with the shears rest or a plate laying thereon and is capable of applying
pressure thereto so long as the requisite torsional strain is applied to the casing; in
order that the said casing, may automatically lock itself against the stud; when

page_text: exerting pressure, the lower sides of the spiral slot and of the stud j are stepped out
or ridged in the manner shown in Figures 4 and 5, the upper sides being smooth
inclined planes, the consequence of which is that the reacting pressure locks the
ridged surface of the spiral slot against the ridged surface of the pin or studijas
shown in Figure 5, and no rotary movement can take place in the direction which
would relieve the pressure which is consequently maintained until by turning the
casing in the opposite direction, these ridged surfaces become unlocked and the smooth
surfaces of the upper sides of the stud and spiral slot come into contact as shown in
Figure 4 and the casing j is free to rotate with its accompanying up and down sliding
movement.
In order to adjust plates to be cut to certain dimensions without previously marking
them off as for instance when cutting 48 inch plates into 12 inch strips, I provide
two indicated guages as shown in Figures 1 and 2, one of which is attached to
the shear frame and placed close behind the cut and the other at any suitable distance
further off, say for instance a distance of 8 feet so that a plate on being placed on
the rest is readily adjusted by means of those guages to be cut to a certain width or
into strips. These guages consist preferably of a spindle screwed through a suitable
bearing and turned by a hand wheel and indicated to show the exact distance of the
edge of the plate from the line of the intended cut.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my invention and
how the same is carried into effect I would observe in conclusion that I do not
restrict myself to the precise details which I have described with reference to the
accompanying drawings, which are merely intended to illustrate suitable means by
which the essential features of my invention can be applied for use in shearing metal
plates, as these details may be varied in many ways without departing from the nature
of my invention, but what I claim is :-
Firstly In machinery or appliances for use in shearing metal plates, the employ-
ment of railways or bogie-roads mounted on the piston crossheads of lifting cylinders
or otherwise supported and operated so that by raising and lowering the said
railways or bogie-roads, the plates to be sheared can be conveyed to the shears by
gravity, substantially in the manner herein before described with reference to the
accompanying drawings.
SecondlyThe construction and employment of the train of bogies g for travelling
in front of and parallel to the shear blades to which are attached the moveable
brackets, substantially as and for the purpose as described with reference to
Figures 1, 2, 7 and 8 of the accompanying drawings.
"
ThirdlyThe construction and use of the "radius" bogie for shearing "sketch
plates, substantially as described with reference to Figures 9, 10 and 11 of the
accompanying drawings.
Fourthly The construction and use of the screw box for securing plates in
position on the shears rest by pressure, substantially as described with reference to
Figures 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 of the accompanying drawings.
Fifthly The employment of indicated gauges in combination with the appliances
for shearing metal plates, substantially as and for the purpose as hereinbefore
described with reference to Figures 1 and 2 of the accompanying drawings.
Sixthly -The improvements in machinery or appliances for shearing metal plates,
consisting of tilting bogie-roads, specially constructed bogies, a specially constructed
screw box, and indicated guages, all employed and operating together, substantially
in the manner and for their respective purposes as hereinbefore described with
reference to the accompanying drawings.
Dated this 24th day of Danamber 1889
G. J. CLARKSON,
Stockton-on-Tees, Agent for the Applicant.