IMPROVEMENTS IN PRESSES FOR PUNCHING OR OTHERWISE TREATING METALS AND OTHER MATERIALS to be as follows:
Year: 1885

page_text: Metals and other Materials.
I, JOHN PALMER WOODCOCK of N° 6B Victoria Street, Westminster in the
County of Middlesex Civil Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of my invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN PRESSES FOR PUNCHING OR OTHERWISE TREATING METALS
AND OTHER MATERIALS to be as follows:-
"
My invention relates to an improved construction of presses, applicable more
particularly for punching simultaneously a number of holes, arranged according to
any desired pattern but which is also partly applicable generally to shearing
stamping and otherwise treating metals or other materials.
I provide a strong plate having the required number of holes formed therein for
the reception of the punches which are placed in the said holes and kept in
position by projecting heads, the undersides of which bear upon the upper surface
of the plate, the plate being secured to the head of the press so as to hold the
upper surface of the heads of the punches firinly against the under surface thereof
Thus the punches can readily be fixed in the press according to any desired pattern
of holes to be punched by varying the pattern of the punch plate..
The press table which may be actuated by the ram or rams of one or more
hydraulic cylinders or by other convenient power or mechanical arrangement has
secured to it firstly a plate having holes corresponding in position to those of the
punch plate, in which holes are fitted steel dies; these dies are by preference fixed
in the plate by forming the upper end thereof with a collar that bears upon the
top of the plate, while the lower end is formed with an external screw-thread on
which is screwed a nut or collar bearing against the underside of the plate.
At a short distance from the die plate a second plate is secured to the table, also
formed with holes corresponding to those of the punch plate, through which holes
the punches work so that this plate acts as guide to the punches. The plate to be
punched is introduced between the die plate and the guide plate and the table
being then raised by the hydraulic cylinder or cylinders or other convenient
motive power the requisite holes are formed in the plate by the punches. On the
table descending again, the guide plate is also made to act as a guard plate
for forcing the punched plate off the punches should it adhere thereto. Should the

page_text: article punched or otherwise operated upon adhere so firmly to the punches or
dies &c, that the weight of the descending table with its die plate and guide plate
is not sufficient to draw it off, the atmospheric pressure may be utilised when
hydraulic presses are employed to actuate the table by connecting the hydraulic
cylinders by a pipe with a well at such a depth that the water in descending the
The holes in
pipe will create a partial vacuum in the cylinders below the rams.
the three above mentioned plates are by preference all made of the same diameter
so that they can all be bored simultaneously, and the acting ends of the punches
being made of a diameter corresponding to that of the steel dies inserted into the
holes of the die plate, the shanks thereof are made of enlarged diameter corre-
sponding to that of the holes of the guide plate. When the press requires to be of
a size suitable for punching or otherwise treating pieces of large dimensions,
I arrange two or more hydraulic cylinders side by side, all acting upon one and
the same table; in this case, instead of constructing the table of one continuous
length, I form it of separate sections corresponding to the number of hydraulic
cylinders, and I connect these sections by means of strong side flanges extended
downwards and bolted together. Thus when only small pieces require to be
punched or treated any one or more of the sections of the table can be disconnected
from the others and be worked by its hydraulic cylinder as an independent press.
If found to be more convenient the press may be inverted so that the table
becomes a fixture and the head of the press is operated upon by the motive power.
"
'
1007

page_text: Metals and other Materials.
I, JOHN PALMER WOODCOCK of N° GB Victoria Street Westminster in the
County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer 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 an improved construction of presses applicable more
particularly for punching simultaneously a number of holes, arranged according to
any desired pattern but which is also partly applicable generally to shearing,
stamping and otherwise treating metals or other materials.
I provide a strong plate having the required number of holes formed therein for
the reception of the punches which are placed in the said holes and kept in position
by projecting heads, the undersides of which bear upon the upper surface of the
plate, the plate being secured to the head of the press so as to hold the upper
surface of the heads of the punches firmly against the under surface thereof. Thus
the punches can readily be fixed in the press according to any desired pattern
of holes to be punched by varying the pattern of the punch plate. The press
table which may be actuated by the ram or rams of one or more hydraulic
cylinders or by other convenient power or mechanical arrangement has secured to
it firstly a plate having holes corresponding in position to those of the punch plate,
in which holes are fitted steel dies; these dies are by preference fixed in the plate
by forming the upper end thereof with a collar that bears upon the top of the
plate, while the lower end is formed with an external screw thread on which is
screwed a nut or collar bearing against the underside of the plate.
At a short distance from the die plate a second plate is secured to the table, also
formed with holes corresponding to those of the punch plate, through which holes
the punchies work so that this plate acts as guide to the punches. The plate to be
punched is introduced between the die plate and the guide plate and the table
being then raised by the hydraulic cylinder or cylinders or other convenient
motive power, the requisite holes are formed in the plate by the punches. On
the table descending again the guide plate is also made to act as a guard plate for
forcing the punched plate off the punches should it adhere thereto. Should the
article punched or otherwise operated upon adhere so firmly to the punches or
dies &c, that the weight of the descending table with its die plate and guide plate
is not sufficient to draw it off, the atmospheric pressure may be utilised when
hydraulic presses are employed to actuate the table by connecting the hydraulic
cylinders by a pipe with a well at such a depth that the water in descending the
pipe will create a partial vacuum in the cylinders below the rams. The holes in
the three above mentioned plates are by preference all made of the same diameter,
so that they can all be bored simultaneously, and the acting ends of the punches
being made of a diameter corresponding to that of the steel dies inserted into
the holes of the die plate the shanks thereof are made of enlarged diameter
corresponding to that of the holes of the guide plate.

page_text: When the press requires to be of a size suitable for punching or otherwise
treating pieces of large dimensions, I arrange two or more hydraulic cylinders side
by side, all acting upon one and the same table; in this case instead of constructing
the table of one continuous length I form it of separate sections corresponding to
the number of hydraulic cylinders, and I connect these sections by means of strong
side flanges extended downwards and bolted together. Thus when only small
pieces require to be punched or treated any one or more of the sections of the
table can be disconnected from the others and be worked by its hydraulic cylinder
as an independent press.
If found to be more convenient the press may be inverted so that the table
becomes a fixture and the head of the press is operated upon by the motive power.
Figs. 1 and 2 of the accompanying drawings shew respectively a front view and
an end view of a press constructed according to my above described invention, and
Fig. 3 shews an enlarged detail of the punch plate, punch, guard plate and die
plate of the press table.
The head A of the press has secured to it the punch plate B by means of bolts C;
D is one of the punches fitting into a corresponding hole in the punch plate and
secured therein by means of the head D¹ held between the punch plate and the
head A, the operating end D' of the punch being of reduced diameter. E is
the guard plate secured to the die plate and press table H by bolts F and distance
pieces G, so as to leave sufficient space between the two for the introduction of the
plate to be punched. The plate E has holes E¹ for the punches to pass through
and holes or recesses for the nuts of the bolts C to pass into. The die plate H is
formed with a hole by preference corresponding in diameter to that of the holes
in the guard plate and the punch plate, so that the three holes can be bored
simultaneously, and to this hole is fitted the steel tubular bush or die I, which is
secured to the plate by a shoulder 1¹ and a nut 12. The die has a hole the
diameter of the upper end of which corresponds to that of the part D' of the
punch, the hole being made to taper to an enlarged diameter at the other end, so
that the pieces of metal driven into it by the punch will readily fall out.
The table H¹ of the press is made of three separate parts, each of which is
worked by a separate hydraulic cylinder, K; the parts of the table are provided
with strong flanges H' having bolt holes, so that when operating on large sized
plates either two only or all three of the parts can be bolted together so as to
constitute one continuous table, which is then worked by either two only or all
three of the hydraulic cylinders acting simultaneously, or for small plates, the parts
of the table are disconnected and each separate part is acted upon by its own press
independently of the others, the inlet and outlet valves to the supply and discharge
pipes L being suitably arranged in any known manner for allowing this separate
or joint action.
The discharge pipes of the hydraulic cylinders are led down to a well at such a
depth that the column of water descending in the pipe shall be greater than that
balanced by the atmospheric pressure so that a partial vacuum will be created in
the cylinder in order to assist the downward motion of the press table as before
described.
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, in respect of presses for punching or otherwise treating metals and other
materials, is:
1. Providing in the head of the press a removeable plate having holes for the
reception of punches or other tools which have heads that are held between the
head of the press and the said plate, substantially as herein described.
2. In combination with a punch plate and punches or other tools arranged as set
forth in the preceding claim, the use of a guard plate connected to the die plate of
the press table and having holes corresponding to the position of the punches and
to that of bushed dies in the die plate, so that on into lucing the plate to be

page_text: punched or cut between the guard plate and the die plate, and then causing the
latter to rise, the punches will pass through the guard plate and through the plate
to be punched, into the dies of the die plate, substantially as herein described.
3. Constructing the bushes referred to in the preceding claim of a metal tube
the inner diameter of which increases in a downward direction and which is
secured in the hole of the die plate by a collar on its upper end and a screw nut on
its lower end, substantially as herein described.
4. Forming the holes in the punch plate, guard plate and die plate all of the
same size while the punch is partly made of a diameter to fit sucb holes and has its
operating end reduced in diameter, corresponding to the upper diameter of the
bush in the die plate, substantially as herein described.
5. Constructing the tables of presses of two or more separate parts each actuated
by a separate hydraulic cylinder or other moving device, and provided with means
whereby two or more of them can be secured together so as to be simultaneously
acted upon by two or more of the hydraulic cylinders, substantially as herein
described.
6. The method of producing a partial vacuum in the hydraulic cylinders by
arranging the discharge pipes from the same to pass down to such a depth that the
column of water descending therein shall be of a greater height than that balanced
by atmospheric pressure.