Improvements in the Manufacture of Wheels.
Year: 1899

page_text: Date of Application, 19th Oct., 1899-Accepted, 2nd Dec., 1899
Improvements in the Manufacture of Wheels.
I, HEINRICH ALBERT ECKSTEIN, of Querstrasse 27, Leipzig, Germany, Mer-
chant, 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 forged wheels of any material the object to be aimed at
is maximum lightness compatible with the necessary strength and for this the
best possible distribution of material, which can be easily secured in the case of
cast wheels, must be striven for.
Now according to this invention pressed wheels are manufactured specially
with a view to obtaining the most favourable distribution of material. The
successive steps of this manufacture are represented in the accompanying draw-
ings, with reference to which it will be described.
A cylindrical hollow body closed at one end (Fig. 1) is jumped or forged into
the shape shown in Fig. 2, so as to receive a neck a like that of a bottle. If
the hollow body shown in Fig. 1 has a diameter equal to the desired diameter
of the wheel, the only additional operation that is required is to knock the
bottom through a suitable die c by means of a plunger and the wheels is then
substantially finished.
If the diameter of the hollow body shown in Fig. 1 is smaller than the
diameter of the wheel, the depth of the cylindrical body must be proportionately
greater. The hollow body is then filled with a suitable yielding material, as
sand, which is prevented from coming out by closing the neck a in a suitable
manner. The hollow body thus prepared is placed in a press between two smooth
dies one of which has a cavity for the neck, and the hollow body is then com-
pressed until the desired diameter and depth are produced. The end & opposite
to the neck is now perforated as hereinbefore described, whereupon the wheel is
substantially finished (Fig. 3).
The wheel is given a strong nave by bringing a bolt d of suitable strength
(Fig. 4) and the wheel itself to welding heat and boring the bolt through in the
closed die. Owing to the spreading out of the material when perforated, all
the material surrounding the nave is subjected to great pressure and a perfect
weld results (Fig. 5).
It is obvious that, if desired, the wheel shown in Fig. 5 can, by means of suit-
able dies, be given any of the shapes shown in Figs. 6, 7, and 8. It is also clear
that the wheel shown in Fig. 5 can, by depressing separate portions of the web,
be transformed into a combined disc and spoke wheel, which may have the form
shown in Fig. 9; or be converted into a spoke wheel by stamping out a part of
each of such portions and welding or riveting a rib around each aperture thus
made, as shown in Fig. 10.
The rims of the wheels may of course be made of any shape desired and
adapted for the most widely different purposes-two examples are shown in
Figs. 11 and 12.
It is obvious that all the dimensions of the finished wheels made according to

page_text: this invention are accurately determined beforehand by the dimensions of the
hollow body (Fig. 1) originally selected, and that it is consequently possible to
manufacture with certainty wheels corresponding accurately to the requirements.
On compressing the hollow body shown in Fig. 1, the side wall diminishes in
thickness from the bottom towards the rim, and hence the discs of the finished
wheel are conical from the nave towards the rim, as is required by considerations
of strength.
Instead of starting with a hollow body closed at one end, a hollow body open
at both ends may be used; in this case both ends of the cylinder will be con-
tracted to form bottle necks.
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. For producing a pressed sheet metal wheel the process of contracting into
a neck of the size of the nave to be produced the open end of a hollow cylinder
that is closed at the other end and has to be perforated thereat, or each of the
ends of a hollow cylinder open at both ends.
2. For producing a sheet metal wheel by transforming, according to the pre-
ceding claim, a hollow cylinder, the diameter of which is less than that of the
wheel, into an intermediate product of greater depth than the width of the wheel,
filling this intermediate product with a yielding material, and then reducing its
depth and increasing its diameter by pressure.
8. The improved manufacture of sheet metal wheels herein before described
with reference to and illustrated by Figs. 1 to 5 of the accompanying drawings,
and as modified according to Figs. 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12 respectively thereof.
Dated this 19th day of October 1899.
F. WISE HOWORTH,
46, Lincoln's Inn Fields, London, W.C.,
Agent for the Applicant.