IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF BLADE OR PLATE SPRINGS FOR CARRIAGES AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES, MACHINERY TO BE USED IN THE SAID MANUFACTURE
Year: 1875

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by James Milward Holmes at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
24th June 1875.-A communication from abroad by William H.
Porter, of Bridgeport, Connecticut, in the United States of America.
I, JAMES MILWARD HOLMES, of Birmingham, in the County of
Warwick, Secretary of the International Agency, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF
BLADE OR PLATE SPRINGS FOR CARRIAGES AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES,
MACHINERY TO BE USED IN THE SAID MANUFACTURE," to be as follows:—
This Invention has reference to the manufacture of those parts of the
said blade or plate springs commonly called the hooks or claws, and eyes,
that is the ends of the springs by which they are connected together,
and also to the links or swivels attached to the body of the carriage.
The said hooks or claws and eyes are usually fashioned by hand labour.
This Invention consists in fashioning the said hooks or claws and eyes

page_text: by the process of manufacture, and by the use of the machinery herein-
after described, whereby the said hooks or claws and eyes are more
economically manufactured, and are made more exact and uniform in
shape than those manufactured by the ordinary process.
The method of manufacture constituting part of this Invention consists
in subjecting the heated end of the strip or plate of steel from which the
spring is to be made to the action in succession of a series of pairs of
shaping or bending dies, whereby the heated end of the strip or plate is
shaped or fashioned into the desired form.
I will describe the process of manufacture in conjunction with the 1
machinery which constitutes part of this Invention. The said machinery
consists essentially of two (or more) pairs of preparatory shaping dies,
a pair of finishing dies and a pair of gripping tools, the said dies and
tools being arranged side by side in the same frame, or in separate frames
so as to constitute separate machines. The lower dies of the two 1
pairs of preparatory' dies are fixed on the bed of the machine (or
machines), and the upper moveable dies of the said pairs of dics are
carried by levers actuated by cams on the driving shaft of the machine.
Near the second pair of dies is a pair of gripping tools, and in front of
the said gripping tools is a die moving horizontally and worked by a 2
cam on the driving shaft. The end faces of the gripping tools form the
fixed die for the horizontal die described. By means of the said
horizontal die the shape of the end of the blade or plate of steel while
held in the gripping tools is perfected.
In using the machine or machines the heated end of the blade or å
plate of steel is placed on the lower die of the first pair of dies. By the
descent of the moveable die the heated end of the plate is chamfered or
bevilled, bent downwards, and slightly curved. The partly shaped end is
next placed in an inverted position on the fixed die of the second pair of
dies, and by the operation of the moveable die the said end is further 8
shaped. The plate is next placed and gripped between the gripping
tools, its partly shaped end projecting beyond the inner faces of the said
tools; while the plate is so held the horizontal finishing die advances,
and by its operation finishes the said end giving it the figure of a hook
or claw, and by completing closing the hook or claw an eye may be 3
formed.

page_text: By the successive operations described, the hooks, claws, or eyes, are
rapidly and economically produced on the blades or plates, and the
figure of the said hooks, claws, or eyes is very exact and uniform.
The arrangements for giving motion to the moveable dies may be
varied; for example, instead of working the moveable dies of the first
and second preparatory dies by means of levers they may be attached to
slides, and the latter worked by cams.