Improvements in Means and Apparatus for Shaping, Drawing, and Finishing Metal Tubes.
Year: 1897

page_text: Date of Application, 10th Mar., 1897
Complete Specification Left, 10th Dec., 1897--Accepted, 19th Feb., 1898
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Means and Apparatus for Shaping, Drawing, and
Finishing Metal Tubes.
I, JAMES ROBERTSON, Engineer, of The Lawns, Rainhill, in the County of
Lancashire, do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:-
My invention relates to a new and improved means for operating and pressing, by
great force into or through shaping matrices and dies, or other shaping tools, for
drawing out or elongating thick metal tubes or shells of a round or polygon
section, in a glowing red-hot state, or in a cold state.
This invention consisting mainly in new and improved means and apparatus
for fixing the dies and matrices and for operating the mandrils and dies during the
shaping operation by means of placing the mandrils on guides between the dies or
matrices fixed on cross-heads on either side of the machine; and the operated or
after end of stem rods placed in sockets formed on the drivers, bolted on opposite
ends of a long toothed rack, for operating one or both ends of the pressing and
shaping tools for elongating thick metal tubes or shells, of a round or polygon
section, in a glowing red-hot state, or in a cold state.-The long rack to be toothed
on one side or on opposite sides, and made to gear with a rack pinion or pinions
on one or both sides, with suitable sliding-plates guiding and steadying the forward
or backward motion of the rack. The pinions or pinion necks and coupling ends
all formed in one or more castings, and mounted in a strong housing, of the ordinary
rolling mill type or of a large bush form, for containing the entire rack pinion
or pinions, turned on points of the teeth and end neck pieces, for revolving in the
housing casting, so forined in place of bush-neck bearings, and coupled to a driving
shaft or shafts by strong operating tooth gear, with suitable spindle or spindles,
driven or operated by a pair of coupled reversing steam engines.-The housing
connected and stayed on opposite sides by strong tension stay or stays, to suitable
receiving cross-heads, for holding up the long or short dies, or shaping matrices,
for elongating thick tubes or shells of a round or polygon section, in a glowing red-
hot state or in a cold state; with mandrils for elongating them through a short die
over a long mandril, or for elongating them in long dies or matrices, by pressing
or shaping mandrils.
Dated this Ninth day of March 1897.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Means and Apparatus for Shaping, Drawing, and
Finishing Metal Tubes.
I, JAMES ROBERTSON, of The Lawns, Rainhill, in the County of Lancaster,
Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what
Price Rd】

page_text: manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in
and by the following statement:-
My invention relates to apparatus and means for drawing out metal tubes or
shells of any section from either cold or hot metal. It relates more particularly
to draw-benches and arrangements wherein a rack pinion gear is used to thrust or 5
pull a mandril through a suitable metal ingot or blank, and where great forces are
required in the shaping operations.
My invention consists in a very advantageous arrangement of the parts of the
draw-bench, matrices, mandrils, and driving gear; also in the improved details
rendered necessary in carrying out this arrangement.
1
My arrangement is as follows. The shaping dies or matrices supported on cross-
heads are placed one on each side of the machine; rack and pinion operating gear
is placed in the centre. The rack is suitably guided in the centre casting, and has
attached to it, one on each end, stem rods carrying the mandrils. The crossheads
have tie rods which pass through and suitably anchor them to the main casting 1
supporting the driving gear. The stem rods are supported at their outer ends by
light crossheads. The rack and pinion gear is of a new type, and consists of a
pinion so arranged that its journals are of the same diameter as the points of its
teeth, and the housings are so made that they support the pinion by the points of
its teeth at all parts of its circumference except where gearing with the rack, as 2
well as supporting it by the journals in the usual way. I thus get a very strongly
supported driving gear, which is of great importance in such apparatus. The
pinion may have fixed to it in any suitable manner a gear wheel which is driven in
the usual way by a reversing steam engine. This arrangement of the draw-bench
and dies or matrices enables the same attendants to work the two sets of mandrils 2
and dies alternately, thereby affording new and improved means for the more
continuous production of tubes, as there is now no idle stroke of the operating rack.
In carrying my invention into effect according to one modification, as illustrated
in the accompanying four sheets of drawings.
Figure 1 is an elevation partly in section of my new draw-bench, showing a tube 3
in the process of drawing.
Figure 2 is an end sectional elevation of the same.
Figure 3 is a plan of the apparatus, and
Figure 4 an end elevation of the same.
Figure 5 is an elevation, and Figure 6 a sectional elevation showing one of the a
die or matrix holders having a long die in position, and with a suitable stem rod
and mandril operating on a tube.
Figure 7 is an end elevation, and
Figure 8 a side elevation of the housings, where a double rack and two driving
pinions are used.
Figure 9 is a section of the same taken on the line - in Figure 7.
The centre casting A carries housings B which support the pinion C. (See
Figures 1, 2, 3 and 4.) This casting has guides 11 on which the rack 1]) is supported
during its travel. The die or matrix holders E are placed opposite the ends of the
rack 1), one on each side of the centre casting A, and are shown strongly stayed in 4
position by the steel stays, F, and F. These stays take the thrust of the
mandrils during the drawing process. The mandrils & are carried on the stem
rods G which are suitably fixed to the opposite ends of the rack 1). Light cross-
heads K (see Figure 3) may be provided to guide the outer ends of the stem rols.
The housings B are provided with strong lugs B which are connected by the
strong stays or tie bolts F with the die or matrix holders E. The rack D may
either be single, as shown, having one driving pinion, or double, having teeth on
both sides, and two driving pinions one on each side of the rack. The pinion
housing B is formed preferably of cast iron, and is smoothly bored out to receive
the pinion C. The pinion C and rack D are preferably made of steel, the pinion
being made with large bearing bosses of the same diameter as the diameter of the
points of the turned teeth of the pinion C.

page_text: The whole pinion and bosses are turned a working fit for the bored-out housing B.
The boss C is shown somewhat larger in diameter than the neck, forming thus a
collar to hold the pinion in its place laterally, and a loose collar C is fitted on with
set screws forming a collar on the other side, thus retaining the pinion in its
place. The boss C₁ is continued outwards to carry, keyed on it, the driving gear
wheel H. This wheel should be operated from a shaft driven by a reversing
engine. The steel pinion C for the sake of lightness is shown made hollow. For
the smaller sizes of these machines the pinion C can be readily adapted to be
driven by an ordinary shaped wobble spindle as is usual in rolling mill rolls, instead
of being driven by the gear wheel H. The steel rack D is planed on its bottom
surface, sides, and on the points of the teeth, and it is made a working fit for its
planed out guides D¹ in the centre casting A, as shown in Figures 1 and 2. The
die holders E may have either long or short dies. The long drawing tube dies J
are shown in operation with suitable long stem rods G and mandrils G in
Figures 5 and 6
In Figures 5 and 6 long dies J are shown in operation with their suitably shaped
mandrils. The dies J are fixed into the die holders by screwing, or in any other
suitable manner. The dies may be of circular or any other section, according to
the section of the tubes to be drawn.
In the modification wherein a double rack is used for operating the stem rods
(see Figures 7, 8, and 9) the pinions C gear into the rack D, which has formed,
both on its top and bottom, surfaced teeth suited to mesh with these pinions. The
rack D is supported by guides in the same manner as before described for a single
rack D. A driving wheel I is shown keyed on the out end boss C¹ of upper rack
pinion C. In this modification both pinions have to be driven, so a toothed
pinion L is shown keyed on a boss C formed on the other end of the upper
pinion C, from the boss C. The bottom rack pinion C has a boss C3 on which is
keyed a pinion L¹ which must be equal and similar to the pinion L, and gear with
it accurately, transmitting to the lower rack pinion C motion equal to that of its
corresponding upper rack pinion C. Thus double the driving force can be trans-
mitted to the rack 1). The housings B must be made so as to support the
pinions C by the points of their teeth except where they gear with the rack 1).
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is:-
1. The means and apparatus for drawing metal tubes of any section substantially
as hereinbefore described, with reference to the accompanying drawings.
2. The special form of pinion wheel having bosses of diameter equal to the
diameter of the wheel over the teeth, and having housings adapted to support it
by the points of the teeth as well as by the bosses.
3. In tube drawing appliances the special double rack and pinion form of
driving gear with its special housings, for operating the stem rods or mandrils
substantially as described and illustrated.
Dated this 10th day of December 1897.
Dated this 10th day of December 1897.
MARKS & CLERK,
Agents for the Applicant, 18, Southampton Buildings, London.