New or Improved Machinery for the Manufacture of Metallic Tubes.
Year: 1889

page_text: Date of Application, 22nd May, 1889
Complete Specification Left, 12th Feb., 1890-Accepted, 22nd Mar., 1890
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
New or Improved Machinery for the Manufacture of Metallic
Tubes.
We CHARLES FAULKNER of No. 5 Plough and Harrow Road Edgbaston
Birmingham in the County of Warwick Tube Manufacturer and WILLIAM ELLIS
LLOYD of No. 6 Chad Road Edgbaston aforesaid Tube Manufacturer do hereby
declare the nature of this Invention to be as follows:-
'
Our invention has reference principally to the manufacture of tubes of steel and
of iron but is also applicable to the manufacture of tubes from other metals and
alloys and consists of machinery the parts of which are constructed and combined in
the following manner.
The said machinery consists essentially of three horizontal or nearly horizontal rolls
driven in the same direction and at the same rate. The shafts of the said rolls are
prolonged on one side to a length somewhat greater than the length of the tube to be.
made in the machine. The shafts of the rolls are not parallel but converge slightly
and the said rolls are capable of adjustment to a greater or less distance apart. The
said rolls may have the general figure of a cylinder that is may have the same
diameter throughout or they may be slightly conical. The acting faces of the rolls
are not truly cylindrical but have helical or spiral grooves formed in them. These
grooves are shallow and concave. Each roll has only one groove running from end
to end similar to the groove of a single threaded screw.
The short thick hollow
The said machinery is used in the following manner.
cylinder supported internally by a mandril is introduced between the rolls endwise
that is the hollow cylinder is introduced between the rolls at their ends. By the
rotation of the rolls the said hollow cylinder is made to rotate and by the action of
the helical or spiral grooves on the rolls is drawn into the machine in a line coinci-
dent with the line around which the axis are situated and towards which they con-
verge. By the action of the rolls on the said hollow cylinder it is lengthened to
three or four times its original length and its external diameter reduced. The tube
produced has a helical groove on its exterior which is removed either by the ordinary
rolling process or the ordinary drawing process.
The short hollow cylinder is operated upon either hot or cold according to the
nature of the metal or alloy operated upon.
We do not confine ourselves to the use of a helical groove in each of the rolls as
only one or two of the rolls may be grooved neither do we limit ourselves to making the
groove or grooves extend to the end of the roll or rolls as the finishing end of one or
more of the rolls may be cylindrical. In this case the groove formed by the first
motion of the rolls is wholly or in part obliterated.
Dated this 22nd day of May 1889.

page_text: 1
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
New or Improved Machinery for the Manufacture of Metallic.
Tubes.
We, CHARLES FAULKNER, of No. 5 Plough and Harrow Road, Edgbaston,
Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Tube Manufacturer, and WILLIAM ELLIS
LLOYD, of No. 6 Chad Road, Edgbaston aforesaid Tube Manufacturer, do hereby
declare the nature of our invention and in what manner the same is to be
performed to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement:
Our invention has reference principally to the manufacture of tubes of steel and of
iron, but is also applicable to the manufacture of tubes from other metals and alloys ;
and consists of machinery the parts of which are constructed and combined in the
following manner.
The said machinery consists essentially of three horizontal or nearly horizontal rolls
driven in the same direction and at the same rate. The shafts of the said rolls aro
prolonged on one side to a length somewhat greater than the length of the tube to be
made in the machine. The shafts of the rolls are not parallel but converge slightly
towards one point and the said rolls are capable of adjustment to a greater or less
distance apart. Tho said rolls may have the general figure of a cylinder, that is,
may have the same diameter throughout, or they may be slightly conical. The acting
faces of the rolls are not truly cylindrical but havo helical or spiral grooves formed
in them. These grooves are shallow and concave. Each roll has preferably only
one groove running from end to end similar to the groove of a single threaded
screw.
The said machinery is used in the following manner.
The short thick hollow cylinder supported internally by a fixed mandril is introduced
between the rolls end wise, that is, the hollow cylinder is introduced between the rolls
at their ends. By the rotation of the rolls the said hollow cylinder is made to rotate
and by the action of the helical or spiral grooves on the rolls is drawn into the
machine in a line coincident with the lino around which the axes are situated and
towards which they converge. By the actn of the rolls on the said hollow cylinder
it is lengthened to three or four times its original length and its external diameter
reduced. The tube produced has a helical groove on its exterior which is removed
either by the ordinary rolling process or the ordinary drawing process or as herein-
after described.
The short hollow cylinder is operated upon either hot or cold according to the nature
of the metal or alloy operated upon.
We will now proceed to describe with reference to the accompanying drawings the
manner in which our invention is to be performed.
Figure 1 represents in sido elevation and Figure 2 in. plan, machinery constructed
according to our invention for the manufacture of metallic tubes; Figure 3 represents
in front elevation one of the housings of the rolls and Figure 4 represents in front
elevation one of the housings of the driving pinions, the said Figure 4 also indicating
the driving pinions of the machinery.
The same letters of reference indicate the same parts in the several Figures of the
Drawings.
a, b and c are the three nearly horizontal rolls of the machinery working in the
housings or standards d, d², the said rolls being driven in the same direction and
at the same speed by the four pinions e, f, f, f, (indicated in dotted lines in
Figure 4) carried by the housings or standards 9, 92, the middle pinion e being
the driving pinion. The shafts of the three rolls a, b, c and the shafts of the threo
outer pinions f,, f, are coupled together by the coupling shafts and boxes ƒ³, ƒ³, ƒ³,
of the ordinary kind. The distance between the housing d² of the rolls and the
housing of the pinions is of a length somewhat greater than the length of the
tube to be made. The acting face of each of the rolls a, b, c has a helical or spiral

page_text: groove formed in it as represented. It will be seen that these grooves are shallow
and concave and each roll has preferably only one groove running from end to end
similar to the groove of a single threaded screw. The shafts of the rolls a, b, c
slightly converge so that, the space between them is greatest at the left hand end and
gradually diminishes towards the right hand end of the rolls.
The top roll a is capable of adjustment nearer to or further from the side rolls b, c
by screws in the ordinary way. Or each of the rolls may be adjustable.
Although, as represented in the Drawings, we prefer to give the helically grooved
rolls a, b, c the general figure of a cylinder yet they may be slightly conical.
In using the machinery represented the hollow ingot or short thick hollow cylinder
(either hot or cold) supported internally by a fixed mandril, preferably a bulb
mandril of the ordinary kind, is introduced between the rolls endwise or in the.
direction of the arrow Figure 1, that is, between the rolls at their widest ends, or the
ends at which the distance between them is greatest.
By the rotation of the rolls, the tubular ingot or thick hollow cylinder, introduced
between them, is made to roiate and by the action of the helical or spiral grooves on
the acting faces of the rolls, the said hollow ingot or cylinder is drawn into and
carried through the machine. The hollow ingot or cylinder is thereby lengthened
and its external diameter reduced. By the operation of the rolls an ingot or thick
hollow cylinder of about, say, two feet in length is converted into a tube, say, of
about six feet in length. The tube may be passed several times through the machine
according to the length and external diameter of tube required, the tube after each
rolling operation being reheated and the upper roll or all the rolls being readjusted.
The tube thus produced has a helical or spiral groove on its exterior which is
removed either by the ordinary rolling process or ordinary drawing process or as
hereinafter described.
We do not confine ourselves to the use of a helical groove on each of the rolls as
only one or two of the rolls may be grooved; neither do we limit ourselves to
making the groove or grooves extend to the end of the roll or rolls as the finishing
end of one or more of the rolls may be cylindrical, that is, without grooves. In this.
case the groove formed by the first motion of the rolls is wholly or in part obliterated
by the finishing ends of the rolls.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our invention and
the manner in which the same is to be performed we declare that we claim as
our invention of "New or improved machinery for the manufacture of metallic
tubes":-
Combining a series of rolls slightly inclined to one another, one or more of the
said rolls having on its or their acting surface or surfaces a helical or spiral groove or
grooves, the said rolls and their driving mechanism being constructed and arranged
substantially in the manner herein before described and illustrated in the accompanying
drawings so that the hollow ingot or short thick tube to be operated upon may be.
introduced between the rolls endwise at the ends of the rolls most distant from one
another, the said hollow ingot being made by the action of the rolls to rotate, its
external diameter being reduced and its length increased, and delivered from between
those ends of the rolls opposite to the ends at which it had been introduced, the
advancing motion of the ingot or partly made tube being effected by the helical
groove or grooves on the roll or rolls, substantially as described and illustrated.
Dated this 9th dose of th
1000
CHARLES FAULKNER.
WILLIAM ELLIS LLOYD.