Improvements in Making Flat Wire Springs, and Apparatus used therein...
Year: 1895

page_text: Date of Application, 24th July, 1895-Accepted, 16th Nov.,
.1895
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Making Flat Wire Springs, and Apparatus
used therein...
I, HERMANN HEINRICH WAGENER of Cassel, Moltkestrasse 5 Province of
Hessen-Nassau, Germany, 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:—
This invention relates to such flat springs as are used in place of whale-bone
splicings in dress-making, corset-making, and such like trades, for shaping and
stiffe: ing waists and other parts of a dress.
The flat springs made of steel bands and of animal or vegetable stuff like horn,
palm-reed and such like, have been used and are still used for these purposes, and
also there have been produced several kinds of flattened wire coils in shape of flat
springs, but my process of making and the machine used for producing the
improved springs have the purpose, to avoid the inconvenients of other springs,, in
making a spring as unbreakable as whale-bone and without the sharp edges
occurring in sheet steel or watch-spring steel or flattened wire corset springs, and
further in making them as light as whale-bone or even lighter and giving them a
more pronounced elasticity edgeways, so that the new product is advantageously
used for the most delicate dresses of ladies where whale-bone has been the only
spring admissible up to this day.
Beside of these advantages my new product owns the quality of having quite a
peculiar character or appearance in consequence of the process of producing it by
the apparatus used.
By the new process I can give the flat wire coil spring the appearance of a braid,
showing loosely crossing wires in diagonal lines, or the appearance of a contiguous
row of wire loops crossing each other.
:
The following methods of producing such effects, are those which I' use
preferably use a mandril of Hattened oval section to coil upon it two or more.
wires in close windings, or I use another mandril of wedge-shaped section or knife-
blade section with rounded edges, or I use a half-round mandril to coil the wires
on, and then in all cases I push off the coils at the rear end of the mandrils, coil
by coil, as I proceed winding up, the wires at the other end, and the product
coming off the mandril, having a peculiar helical or spiral shape, I then put under
a suitable pressing or Hattening device.
Similar appearances I produce also by using a round mandril, the diameter of
which is in a certain ratio to the number of wires to be coiled upon it; as for
instance, with a mandril of three, thirty seconds of an inch in diameter and with
three wires of No. 20 Birmingham wire gauge at a time, I produce the open loose
braid appearance of the finished spring; with four wires and more the appearance
of a closer braid; according to the, diameter 1 produce either open looped or
crossed diagonal wires. like a braid, as structure of the spring. The braid shapėd
appearance depends upon a certain minimal pitch of the coils on the mandril; the
crossed diagonals and rounded loops as characteristics of structure appear when
1 use a smaller number of wires so, that the pitch of the spiral produced falls short
of the said minimal pitch for the mandril in question.
In working with mandrils of flattened oval, wedge-section, or half round section,
the coils have to be stripped or pushed off the mandril end successively, an
unavoidable requirement for regular work, because otherwise the coils take hold
of the mandril so tightly, that they could be taken off by force onlv.
"
:

page_text: The intermediate product, stripped off the mandril, as well as the finished
article, have quite a different appearance according to the shape of the mandril,
but in all cases I can produce lighter springs of same width and closeness of texture
than by the old method.
The springs produced when using a mandril of flattened oval section, (Fig. 1B),
are shown Figs. 1 and 1^; the first or intermediate product looks like the surface
of a steep screw, whilst the finished, pressed spring, looks like a loosely braided
wire lacing.
The products of the knife-blade mandril (Fig. 2B) are represented in Figs. 2
and 2; the shape of the coil as it comes from the mandril is somewhat resembling
the former, but the helical body seems looser, like a hollow body formed of
helically arranged and superposed loops; the finished and flattened product shows
one edge as a contiguous row of return-wire-loops running diagonally to ogce-arched
rows of wires on the other edge.
The products of the half-round mandril (Fig. 3) are shown in Figs 3, 34
and 3.
The coil when stripped off the mandril appears like a double thread helix,
with one helical surface flat, or showing itself as a straight line in cross section,
and the other helical surface a convexely curved one, and showing in cross section
of course a convex curve. In correspondence herewith the finished spring coming
from the press, shows a system of diagonally crossed straight lines returning, in
forming loops at the one edge, to the other edge in curves, Figs. 3^ and 3".
The fabrics produced by using a round mandril of a certain diameter are shown
on the additional Sheet No. II where Fig. 8 shows a round mandril with eight
wire coils wound round it, and Fig. 84 shows the product obtained when these coils
have been stripped off the mandril and pressed flat.
If however on the same size mandril only 4 wires are coiled and these are
stripped off and pressed flat as shown in Figs. 9 and 9 the product represented by
the latter figure is obtained. Five wires would still give a similar product as
shown in Fig. 94; seven wires would give a similar product as eight wires and
with six wires the shape of the fabric will depend partly upon the pliability of the
wire used; fine soft wire will in this special case give a product like Fig. 94, hard &
thicker wire would take the shape of Fig. 8. This shows that, as said above,
when round a mandril of certain size wires are wound in a certain pitch, they will
produce an open braided like flat spring with diagonally arranged wires, when the
inclination is steep, and they will produce a flat spring in which the wires
apparently form returning loops intermeshing with each other, when the inclination
of the coils on the maudril is small and the number of wires below a certain ratio
to the diameter.
"
The winding of the coils for any shape of mandril is done on the apparatus
shown by Figs. 4 to 7 which is fit for taking up flat, round or oval mandrils.
Fig. 4 shows the tool in a side view;
Fig. 5 shows a front view of same,
Figs. 6 and 7 are top views, the first showing the mandril advanced, and the
other the same pulled back.
Two standards A and B connected at the foot, have adjusted bearings for a
spindle C, surrounded by a coiled wire spring D, bearing against the standard A
and against a washer fixed by a pin on the spindle near the other standard B,
thereby exerting a constant pressure on the washer and tending to shift the
spindle towards the standard B, where it carries the mandril E. Outside the
bearing of the standard it is fixed a ring-shaped cam F, having a helically raised
part for about two thirds of the circumference, the other part falling quickly, and
a pin G in the spindle, in contact with the cam F, is giving an axial movement to
the spindle with its mandril E during each revolution by its sliding upon the cam
surface and by the action of the spring coil D. The standard B has a bracket H
fixed to it under the end of the spindle C, carrying in two bearings a pair of
superposed rolls I, which are parallel to the mandril; and nearly flush with the
left hand end face of the rolls is fixed, on an angle piece of the bracket H, a

page_text: plate K, through which the mandril E is penetrating in front of the rolls I. This
plate K is adjustable and forms a guide for the wires to be coiled upon the mandril
and at the same time it forms an abutment for the coils when the mandril is retiring
axially so as to strip off the coils at the end of the mandril.
The apparatus described above works in the following way: Wires L (Fig. 6),
in suitable number, are introduced between the rolls, and their ends bent round
the mandril several times so as to take hold for the subsequent coiling by the
spindle and mandril revolving together; as the latter makes an axial way to and
fro at each revolution according to the rise and fall of the cam F and the counter-
action of the spring D, the coils, covering the mandril and abutting against the
plate K cannot follow the movement of the mandril and must slip off the mandril
at its end, which they do in shapes like Figs. 1, 2, and 3.
The so obtained peculiar shapes of helix-bodied wire-coils are then flattened
under a press or by passing them between pressure rolls, and thence they come out,
according to the mandril used in coiling them, in the shape of the flat multiple
wire coil springs represented in Figs. 1, 2 and 3ª.
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 process of making flat, multiple-wire-coil springs showing the structure,
like loose braids, of diagonally crossed continuous lines; or the structure of
contiguous crossings of straight wires in lines broken at one edge and returning in
loops from the other edge; or the structure of contiguous crossings of straight
wires in one direction, returning from the broken line edge in arched lines to the
other edge of contiguous loops, all which effects being obtained by winding up,
in the first case, on a flattened oval mandril two or more wires at a time and
stripping them off the mandril and pressing the product to flatten it; or by
coiling such a number of wires in correspondence with the diameter of a round
mandril on the latter, that a certain minimum pitch of the helical lines on the
mandril is attained or exceeded; or by coiling, for the second case, the wires
on a wedge-shaped or knife-blade mandril and then treating them as above; or
by coiling on a round mandril such a number of wires that the mentioned
minimum pitch is not attained; and for the third case, by coiling the wires on a
half-round mandril, stripping them off and flattening them in a press.
2. The apparatus used in the process specified in Claim 1 for coiling upon
and stripping off from the mandrils the wires; and which apparatus consists of
a spindle C rotating in suitable bearings A, B, and making at each revolution
an axial to and fro movement, so that the coils of wires, wound upon a mandril E
fixed in the front end of the spindle, are stripped off at the mandrils end at each
back stroke of the latter, by their abutting against a fixed angle plate K penetrated
by the mandril.
Dated this 20th day of July 1895.