Improvements in Machinery for Making Wood-wool.
Year: 1888

page_text: Date of Application, 5th Nov., 1888
Complete Specification Left 29th June 1889 Accepted 10th Aug. 1889
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Machinery for Making Wood-wool.
I, THOMAS MALLINSON, of 139, St. Paul's Road, Bow, in the county of Middlesex,
Wire-drawer, do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:-
My invention relates to machinery for making wood-wool.
In working machines for manufacturing wool-wool as hitherto constructed an
extensive waste of material results through the tendency of the wood which is being
operated upon to cant instead of keeping upright as it is fed to the reciprocating
knives, it is only practicable to operate on a single board or block of wood at one time
and it is necessary that all the boards or blocks shall be of uniform thickness. Also
much time and labour are occupied in setting the numerous cutting tools or blades,
forming the scoring knife in their holder each time it is required to change the said
knife.
The object of my invention is to remedy these defects, to effect a great economy in
the cost of material as my improvements will allow of utilizing refuse or waste pieces
of wood which cannot at present be used, to provide improved means for adjusting
the height of the cutting and scoring knives, and to render the machines double
acting.
To this end I construct the machine of a frame in which works a reciprocating knife
holder, bed, or carrier operated by suitable means such as a crank and connecting rod,
and rollers are employed at each end of the boards or blocks to feed the latter to the
knives. All these parts are of ordinary construction.
Upon one side of the frame I fix a plate made with vertical ribs or knife edges, and
on the opposite side of the frame I mount a roller or rollers adjustable by means of
pressure screws or by equivalent means in such a manner as to allow any required
thickness and number of boards or blocks to be placed and pressed between them and
the ribs of the hereinbefore described plate. The said ribs and rollers then serve to
guide the material or keep it from canting whilst being fed to the knives by the feed
rollers.
The scoring knife is arranged in advance of a shearing or cutting knife so as to
divide the shavings previously to their being cut by the shearing knife. This scoring
knife I make somewhat in the form of a comb, the teeth which constitute the cutters or
scorers being integral with their support or holder which is adapted to be readily
secured to the knife bed or carrier and removed therefrom by means of set screws or
the like. By this means the trouble and loss of time involved in setting the cutters
when changing the same is avoided and it is only necessary to remove and replace the
scoring knife by another of different gauge or sizo.
In order to raise or lower the knives to vary their depth of cut I arrange the bed or
carrier so that it can be raised or lowered by eccentrics operated by any suitable
means.
I find it advantageous to make the machine doubly acting and this I do by employing
two reciprocating knife beds or carriers each provided with a scoring and a shearing
knife operated by a double throw crank thus enabling double the quantity of work to
be performed in a given time in one machine with a very small increase of power over
that usually required to work a single acting machine. This arrangement also tends
to equalize the strain upon the crank shaft of the machine.
It will be obvious that the hereinbefore described arrangements of guides, scoring
knife and eccentric knife adjuster are applicable to both single and double acting
machines.
D
11
1 1
1
1000

page_text: COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Machinery for Making Wood-wool.
I, THOMAS MALLINSON, of 139, St. Pauls Road, Bow, in the County of Middlesex,
Wire-drawer, 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 :-
My invention relates to machinery for making wood-wool.
In working machines for manufacturing wood-wool as hitherto constructed an
extensive waste of material results through the tendency of the wood which is being
operated upon to cant instead of keeping upright as it is fed to the reciprocating
knives, it is only practicable to operate on a single board or block of wood at one
time and it is necessary that all the boards or blocks should be of uniform thickness.
Also much time and labour are occupied in setting the numerous cutting tools or blades
forming the scoring knife, in their holder each time it is required to change the said
knife.
The object of my invention is to provide a machine whereby these objections will
be obviated.
In the accompanying drawings,
Figure 1 is a side elevation; and
Figure 2 is a plan of a double-acting machine for making wood-wool, embodying
my improvements.
Figure 3 is a transverse section of the machine taken on the line A B of Figure 2,
the standards or supports being broken off.
Figure 4 is a plan drawn to a larger scalo of the reciprocating knife holder, bed
or carrier.
Figuro 5 is a central longitudinal section of Figure 4; and,
Figure 6 is a transverse section on the line CD of Figure 4.
Figures 7 and 8 are respectively a face view and an edge view of one of the tools or
blades which form the scoring knife drawn to a still larger scale.
In the drawings I have shewn a double-acting machine, that is to say, a machine
having two sets of reciprocating scoring and shearing knives, feeding rollers and parts
for operating them according to one part of my invention but in the description I
have generally for the sake of brevity only referred to a single set, as my improve-
ments, for the most part are equally applicable to single-acting as to double-acting
machines. Similar letters, however, illustrate similar parts in both sets and in all the
figures.
The machine is constructed of a frame a in which works a reciprocating knife-
holder, bed, or carrier 6 operated by a crank c and connecting rod d, and rollers e, e
are employed at each end of the boards or blocks to feed the latter to the knives.
These rollers are operated from the main-shaft f of the machine through the medium
of a worm g mounted thereon and gearing with a worm-wheel, mounted on a shaft i,
which also carries a toothed-wheel gearing with the pinion k. A second pinion / on
the axis of the pinion k gears with a toothed wheel m mounted on a shaft 'n carrying
worms o, o, which drive worm-wheels p, p carried on the axes of the rollers e, e.
In order to keep the rollers e, e firmly pressed against the boards or blocks the
front roller is mounted in sliding bearings operated upon by a spring 7 on one side
and a weights on the other side, the tendency of the said spring and weight being to
draw the said roller towards the other roller; the spring is attached to the bearing g
and to a portion of the frame-work a, and the weights is suspended by means of a
cord or chain t passing over a pulley u and connected to one end of a rod v, the other
end of which is jointed to a lever-handle, we to which is also attached a rod a secured
to one of the sliding bearings q, the shaft of the lever handle being provided with a
lover which is connected by another rod to the other sliding bearing g.
The pressure of the rollers is relieved by pulling forward the lever-handle w and
thereby causing the sliding-bearings to move in the same direction.

page_text: All these parts are of ordinary construction.
Upon one side of the frame a I provide a plate y baving projections forming
bearings for rollers a¹, a', and upon the opposite side of the frame a I provide
rollers, mounted in a bracket c¹, the position of which can be adjusted by means
of a hand-screw d¹ working through the frame a of the machine. By this means it
will be obvious that any required thickness and number of boards or blocks (shown in
dotted lines at e¹ e¹ in figure 3) can be placed and pressed between the rollers a¹, a'
and b', ', the said rollers thus serving to guide the blocks e', e' or keep them from
canting whilst being fed to the knives by the feed-rollers e, e.
1
The scoring knife which is composed of a number of cutting blades fl preferably of
the shape shown in figures 7 and 8. is arranged in advance of the shearing or cutting
knife so as to score or divide the surface of the wood previously to each shaving
being cut by the shearing knife. The cutting blades f₁ are passed through the bed,
or carrier and their bottom ends rest upon a removable rabbetted plate secured to
the bed or carrier by means of set screws ; I thus provide a support for the cutting
blades and by this means the trouble and loss of time usually involved in setting
the cutters when changing the same is avoided.
In order to raise or lower the scoring and shearing knife gl to vary its depth of cut
I construct the bed or carrier 6 with a movable portion which can be raised or
lowered by means of eccentrics ¹, k operated by means of a spanner placed upon the
square ends, of their spindles or by any other suitable means.
I find it advantageous to make the machine double-acting and this I do by employing
two reciprocating knife-beds or carriers b, beach provided with a scoring and a
shearing knife operated by a double-throw crank thus enabling double the quantity of
work to be performed in a given time in one machine with a very small increase of
power over that usually required to work a single-acting machine. This arrangement
also tends to equalise the strain upon the crank-shaft of the machine.
Instead of employing rollers a', a¹ upon the plate y I sometimes form the said plate
with vertical ribs or knife-edges in combination with the rollers 6', 6' for guiding the
material and preventing it from canting.
I do not confine myself to the use of the screws d¹ for adjusting the rollers b', 6', as
it is evident that they could be made adjustable by other means.
Further the scoring-
knife can, if desired, be made somewhat in the form of a comb, the teeth, which con-
stitute the cutters or scorers, being integral with their support or holder which can
be readily secured to the knife-bed or carrier by means of the plate h¹ and set screws i¹
herein before described.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is :-
(1) In a machine for making wood-wool the use of rollers such as a¹, a', or vertical
ribs or knife-edges in combination with adjustable rollers such as 6, 6 for allowing
any required thickness and number of boards or blocks to be operated upon at one
time, substantially as herein before described.
(2) In a machine for making wood-wool the means for securing and supporting the
scoring-knife, substantially as, and for the purpose, hereinbefore described with reference
to the accompanying drawings.
(3) In a machine for making wood-wool the combination with a reciprocating
knife-holder, bed, or carrier made with a movable portion, of eccentrics for raising or
lowering the said movable portion, for the purpose of varying the depth of cut of the
knives, substantially as hereinbefore described and illustrated in the accompanying
drawings.
(4) A machine for making wood-wool having two reciprocating knife-beds or
carriers arranged side by side, each being provided with a scoring-knife and a
shearing-knife, and operated by a double-throw-crank, substantially as, and for the
purpose, hereinbefore described with reference to figures 2 and 3 of the accompanying
drawings.

page_text: (5) The improved machine for making wood-wool, herein before described and
illustrated in the accompanying drawings.
Dated the 29th day of June 1889.
G. F. REDFERN & Co.,
4, South Street, Finsbury, London, Agents for the Applicant.