Improvements in the Manufacture of Flanged Flues or Furnaces for Boilers.
Year: 1898

page_text: Date of Application, 31st Jan., 1898
Complete Specification Left, 29th Oct., 1898-Accepted, 3rd Dec., 1898
Improvements in the Manufacture of Flanged Flues or Furnaces for
Boilers.
I, ERNEST GEARING, of Penshurst, Clarence Drive, Harrogate, in the County
of York, Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as
follows:-
In the manufacture of flanged flues or furnaces for boilers, it is usual to roll
the plates with a marginal portion or portions of increased thickness next the
edge or edges at which there is or are to be formed only partly around the flue
or furnace a flange or flanges the object of such thickening being to compensate
for the waste and drawing or thinning of the plate that occurs in the process
of producing the flange or flanges and so to maintain, as far as practicable, an
equal thickness throughout the body and flanged portion of the flue or furnace.
Such thickening of the plate in the process of rolling as usually effected results
in the production entirely across or along the plate (and not merely where the
flange or flanges is or are to be formed) of a thickened margin, a portion or por-
tions of which has or have to be subsequently worked off by hammering or
drawing, where it is required that the finished flue or furnace shall be of practi-
cally equal thickness throughout.
Now the object of my invention is to obviate this inconvenience and expense.
For this purpose, in the manufacture of a flanged boiler furnace or flue, whether
intended to be corrugated or not, I take a rolled plate, of the required dimensions
suitably heat that marginal part at which the thickening is required, and by
means of an appropriate die or mould, with pressing appliance, I form, at the
desired marginal part of the plate, by pressure, a thickening of only the necessary
extent and area for the required flange, and I subsequently, in a known or suit-
able manner, bend the plate to form the flue or furnace and complete the forma-
tion of the flange. There may be one or more flanges.
My invention may be carried out by the use of apparatus variously constructed
and arranged. According to one arrangement, use a press worked by fluid
pressure, and constructed with two rams (or two sets of rams) adapted to work
at right angles to one another, the one ram or set of rams is adapted to grip
the plate to be thickened, and is furnished with dies or moulds of appropriate
form to produce the required thickening; the other ram or set of rams is adapted
to effect the displacement or upsetting of the material of part of the plate into
the die or mould, to the extent necessary to produce the required local thickened
formation; the pressure upon the first mentioned ram or rams being maintained
during the displacing or upsetting operation of the second ram or set of rams.
The pressure is (or may be) applied to the plate in a gradual manner, such
as to obviate detrimental effect upon the material.
The displacing or upsetting operation may be performed by several strokes
of one pair of rams, or at one operation by the use of several pairs of rams
adapted to act simultaneously.
The heating is effected in such a manner as to ensure the proper formation

page_text: of the thickening within the die throughout so that the thickened portion of
the plate may be of the required form and practically homogeneous.
I sometimes make flues or furnaces which at one end are thickened by rolling
and afterwards turned and at the other are formed with flanges produced after
the manner hereinabove described according to which the plate is locally thickened
by pressure in dies.
Improvements in the Manufacture of Flanged Flues or Furnaces for
Boilers.
I, ERNEST GEARING, of Penshurst, Clarence Drive, Harrogate, in the County
of York, 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:―
In the manufacture of flanged flues or furnaces for boilers, it is usual to roll
the plates with a marginal portion or portions of increased thickness next the
edge or edges at which there is or are to be formed only partly around the flue
or furnace a flange or flanges, the object of such thickening being to compensate
for the waste and drawing or thinning of the plate that occurs in the process
of producing the flange or flanges and so to maintain, as far as practicable, an
equal thickness throughout the body and flanged portion of the flue or furnace.
Such thickening of the plate in the process of rolling as usually effected results
in the production entirely across or along the plate (and not merely where the
flange or flanges is or are to be formed) of a thickened margin, a portion or por-
tions of which has or have to be subsequently worked off by hammering or
drawing, where it is required that the finished flue or furnace shall be of practi-
cally equal thickness throughout.
Now the object of my invention is to obviate this inconvenience and expense.
For this purpose, in the manufacture of a flanged boiler furnace or flue, whether
intended to be corrugated or not, I take a rolled plate, of the required dimensions,
suitably heat that marginal part at which the thickening is required, and by
means of an appropriate die or mould, with pressing appliance, I form, at the
desired marginal part of the plate, by pressure, a thickening of only the necessary
extent and area for the required flange, and I subsequently, in a known or suit-
able manner, bend the plate to form the flue or furnace and complete the forma-
tion of the flange. There may be one or more flanges.
My invention may be carried out by the use of apparatus variously constructed
and arranged. According to one arrangement, I use a press worked by fluid
pressure, and constructed with two rams (or two sets of rams) adapted to work
at right angles to one another; the one ram or set of rams is adapted to grip
the plate to be thickened, and is furnished with dies or moulds of appropriate
form to produce the required thickening; the other ram or set of rams is adapted
to effect the displacement or upsetting of the material of part of the plate into
the die or mould, to the extent necessary to produce the required local thickened
formation; the pressure upon the first mentioned ram or rams being maintained
during the displacing or upsetting operation of the second ram or. set of rams.

page_text: Fig. 1 of the accompanying illustrative drawings shows a side elevation of such
an arrangement by way of example. Figs. 2 and 3 show an edge view and
plan respectively of a plate having a portion of its margin thickened according
to this invention, the dotted lines indicating the shape of the plate before
thickening; the shaded portion in Fig. 3 shows the extent of the thickened
portion. Fig. 4 shows a portion of a flue with a flange formed partly around it.
An open-gap standard 1, fixed to or cast in one with a bed-plate 1", is formed
with two fluid pressure cylinders 2 and 3 in which work respectively rams 2"
and 3 at right angles to each other. The ram 2 is provided with a head or
forming die 2b which works above a lower forming die 4 and is adapted to -grip
a plate A placed upon the latter. The adjacent faces of the said dies are so
shaped that a recess or mould is formed thereby which corresponds to the shape
of the thickened margin required, the arrangement being such that when a suit-
ably heated plate is thus held and the horizontal ram 3 is moved forward the
heated projecting edge of the plate is upset into the mould formed by the two
dies. For the purpose of resisting the outward thrust of the upsetting ram 3"
upon the holding ram 2 there are provided tension bars 5 at opposite sides of
the standard 4 securely held at one end by means of screw nuts 5" to lugs or
brackets 1° formed with or fixed to the standard 1. The other ends of the
bars 5 are fixed by screw nuts 5b to a partly annular supporting clamp which
bears against the outer surface of the ram 2ª; or the clamp 6 may be replaced
by a guide ring surrounding the ram and formed in halves with lugs bolted
together and to the bars 5.
The rams 2 and 3 are respectively provided with supplementary rams 7 and 8
for drawing back the rams 2 and 3"; the crossheads 7" and 8" of the rams 7
and 8 are fixed by rods 9 to lugs 2 and 3° on the ram heads 2b and 3b of the
respective rams 2 and 3ª. The lower die 4 may be advantageously secured to
the bed plate 1" by bolts 4" having enlarged heads 4b located in grooves 1b in
the bed plate.
The rolled plate A, as shown in dotted lines Fig. 3, has a projecting portion
sufficiently large to provide the material necessary for the desired thickening,
the plate being afterwards flanged at the edge to suit the particular flue or furnace
to be produced.
The thick lines in Fig. 3 show the shape of the edge of a plate that is to form
a flue having a flanged end of the ordinary flanged type, as shown in Fig. 4.
It is sometimes preferred to first cut out the plate to the shape required for
the desired form of flange, and afterwards thicken the portion to form the flange,
or the plate may first be thickened and then shaped to form the particular flange
required.
such as
The pressure is preferably applied to the plate in a gradual manner,
to obviate detrimental effect upon the material. The displacing or upsetting
operation may be performed by several strokes of one pair of rams, or at one
operation by the use of several pairs of rams adapted to act simultaneously.
The heating is effected-in such a manner as to ensure the proper formation of
the thickening within the die throughout so that the thickened portion of the
plate may be of the required form and practically homogeneous.
I sometimes make flues or furnaces which at one end are thickened by rolling
and afterwards turned and at the other are formed with flanges produced after
the manner hereinabove described according to which the plate is locally thickened
by pressure in dies.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said
invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what
I claim is:
1. In the manufacture of flanged flues or furnaces for boilers, forming the

page_text: plate with a thickened margin along a portion of its length, by heating the
plate at such portion, holding the heated plate by fluid pressure firmly between
two dies the adjacent faces of which are recessed to form a mould corresponding
in shape to the required thickening, and upsetting the heated edge of the plate
into the said mould substantially as described.
2. In the manufacture of flanged flues or furnaces for boilers as hereinabove
described the use of apparatus substantially as described and shown with reference
to Fig. 1 of the accompanying drawings.
Dated this 29th day of October 1898.
For the Applicant.
Dated this 29th day of October 1898.
For the Applicant.
W. LLOYD WISE,
46, Lincoln's Inn Fields, London, W.C., Chartered Patent Agent.