Improvements in Machines for Producing Bodies of, or Reducing them to, Circular Form, Applicable for use in the Treatment of Car Wheels or the like.
Year: 1890

page_text: Date of Application, 18th Feb., 1890-Accepted, 5th Apr., 1890
ADDITION
Improvements in Machines for Producing Bodies of, or Reducing
them to, Circular Form, Applicable for use in the Treatment of
Car Wheels or the like.
A communication from abroad by JACOB NEFF BARR, of Milwaukee, in the County
of Milwaukee, State of Wisconsin, United States of America.
I, WILLIAM PHILLIPS THOMPSON F.C.S. M.I.M.E. of the Agency for Foreign
Patent Solicitors 6, Lord Street, Liverpool, 6, Bank Street, Manchester both in
the County of Lancaster & 323 High Holborn in the County of Middlesex, Civil
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 :-
The object of this invention is to provide a machine for automatically reducing
bodies to a true circular form in cross section, and this without the necessity of
centreing or chucking, or otherwise mounting them, as is usual when the operation
is performed in lathes, milling machines or grinding machines of ordinary
construction.
The machine may be adapted for trueing articles and objects of various kinds, both
those which are circular on the exterior, and those which require an internal circular
surface. It is intended, however, more particularly for use in the treatment of car-
wheels, and therefore, for purposes of illustration, a machine adapted for this special
work is shown in all its details.
The invention is based upon the fact that a circle of a certain diameter and no other
will touch three points in given relation to each other.
The machine involves as its leading elements two or more rollers or their
equivalents, to serve as peripheral supports for the wheel or body to be finished, and
an abrading wheel or other cutting instrument, located in such relation to the supports
as to act on the periphery of a body revolved between them.
It also involves various means for adjusting said elements, for retaining the wheel
in position, and for other purposes.
In the accompanying drawings
-
Figures 1, 2 and 3 are diagrams illustrating the principle upon which the machine
is based and different arrangements of the elements to be adopted under different
conditions.
Figure 4 is a side elevation of a machine for peripherally grinding car wheels.
Figure 5 is a top plan view of the same.
Figure 6 is an end elevation of the same with the wheel in position theroin.
Figure 7 is an elevation looking from the opposite end.
Figures 8 and 9 are sections of details on the lines x x, y y, respectively.
Referring to the drawings:-
:-
B and C represent two rollers supposed to be mounted on bearings or supports of
any ordinary or suitable character, D the approximately circular body which is to be
given a true circular form and a predetermined diameter, and F an emery wheel or
other grinding, abrading or cutting tool located between the supporting rollers. The
rollers are arranged to give peripheral support to the body D, which it is required to
reduce in diameter. The cutter c is located between the two rollers, and the three
occupy such relation to each other that their upper or active surfaces will touch a
circle of the required size. This being the arrangement, it follows that the body
revolved upon the supports will be gradually cut away or reduced by the cutter until
it acquires a true circular form and predetermined diameter, after which the action of
the cutter will automatically cease.

page_text: In Figure 2 the same letters indicate the same parts as in Figure 1. The arrange-
ment here shown differs from that in the first Figure only in that the cutter is
arranged outside of instead of between the supporting rollers.
Figure 3 represents the arrangement to be adopted when the circular surface is to
be produced on the inside of an annular body, such, for example, as a locomotive tyre.
In this example, the rolling supports B and C rest within the body, and the cutting
wheel is arranged outside of the roll. Under this arrangement, the body B heing
revolved, the cutting action will continue until the required diameter and the exact
circular form are reached.
It will be understood that the manner of supporting the rollers and the cutter, the
means for imparting motion thereto, and the means for adjusting said parts in relation
to each other according to the diameter of the circle to be produced may be modified
to any extent within the range of mechanical skill.
Passing now to the description of the machine shown in Figures 4 to 9:
A represents the main frame, B and C the two rolling supports mounted thereon,
D the car wheel seated at its circumference against and sustained by the rolling
supports, E the rolling guide and pressure device acting against the car wheel to hold
the same in position on the rolling supports, and F the rotary abrading wheel.
The main frame may be of any form and construction adapted to give support to
the other parts hereinafter described.
The rolling support B consists simply of a wheel or pulley carried by a horizontal
shaft provided with a driving pulley 6 mounted in boxes 61 which latter are secured
to arms rising from plates by means of bolts 63, passing through vertical slots in
said arms in order to admit of the pulley being raised or lowered. The plate 63 is
secured to the base of the main-frame by vertical bolts 6, having heads which enter
horizontal grooves in the frame in order to admit of the entire rolling support being
adjusted horizontally.
The rotary support C consists also of a pulley mounted on a horizontal shaft c
sustained in a block c¹ which is mounted on top of the main-frame secured by bolts c
entering horizontal grooves in the frame so that the roller may be adjusted
horizontally.
The guide and pressure roll E turns on a journal at one end of the horizontal
supporting arm e¹, which latter is mounted at the opposite end on a vertical bolt e³,
passing downward through a slide e³ engaging in a T-groove on the top of the frame,
the bolt being provided at the upper end with a tightening nut et operated by a
handle e or like device.
The foregoing construction admits of the guide or pressure device E being moved
horizontally so as to vary its distance from the rolling supports B and C, and thus
adapt the machine for holding wheels of different sizes.
The construction also admits of the arm e¹ being turned horizontally so as to throw
the pressure roll backward in order to permit the introduction and removal of the
wheel.
In operating on a car wheel, it is introduced in such position that the rolling
supports and the pressure device bear upon the tread and also upon the outer face of
its flange, as plainly shown in Figure 6. In order that the flange of the wheel may
be held firmly against said devices so as to ensure the revolution of the wheel in a
true vertical plane, it is proposed to provide a pressure device to act against the inner
side of the wheel. This pressure device may be modified in detail.
In its preferred form, it consists of a horizontal screw G provided in the outer end
with an operating wheel g, and passing through a nut g¹, arranged to slide in a
horizontal slot in the main frame. The screw is provided outside of the frame with
a hand-nut g³, by tightening which the supporting nut g³, and the screw are both held
in the required positions. By adjusting the screw endwise it may be caused to act
with the required pressure against the face of the wheel at or near its centre. In
order to reduce the friction, a plate or washer g', which may be sustained either by

page_text: the wheel or by the screw, is introduced between the screw and wheel. The slot is
intended to permit lateral adjustment of the screw and its supporting nut in order that
the screw may be brought in a certain relation to wheels of different diameters. When
the machine is to be used only for wheels of a given diameter, the lateral adjustment
of the screw is unnecessary.
It is to be distinctly understood that the screw is but one of the many forms of
pressure device which may be employed, and that the invention contemplates the use
of an entire pressure device having a similar mode of action.
The grinding and abrading wheel F, which may have a face of any appropriate
form, is mounted on a horizontal shaft f, which is provided with a driving pulley f."
and supported at its two ends in bearings on a plate f1, mounted to slide horizontally
and longitudinally on an underlying plate f", which is in turn mounted to slide
transversely on the main frame, this construction permitting the wheel to be adjusted
to and from the periphery of the car wheel and also transversely of its face or
tread.
The adjustment of the abrading wheel forward and backward is effected by a
horizontal hand screw H connecting the plates f' and f, while the lateral adjustment
is effected by a horizontal hand screw connected with the main frame.
The construction of the sliding connection between the parts f¹f, and the main
frame, and the connection of the screws therewith are essentially the same as in
milling machines, metal planers and other machines in general use, and need not,
therefore, be described in detail.
The expression "rolling supports" is employed herein to indicate supports which
revolve about their own axes and roll against the periphery of the car wheel or other
object under treatment.
The operation of the machine is as follows:-
The upper roll E is first turned backward out of the way. The rolling supports B
and C are adjusted in relation to each other with reference to the diameter of the
wheel to be trued. The wheel is then rolled into position upon said supports, after
which the guide and pressure device E is turned inward snugly against the periphery
of the wheel and secured in position. The pressure screw G is then adjusted to a
point opposite the centre of the car wheel, turned inward against the same, and fixed
in position. Rotary motion being then communicated to the rolling support B, it
acts by frictional contact to impart a rotation to the car wheel. A rotary motion is
then imparted to the abrading or grinding wheel which is slowly advanced by the
screw H toward the car wheel, being given at the same time such lateral motion by
screw I, as may be necessary to cause its proper action on the tread of the car wheel.
The advance of the abrading wheel is continued until it is found to act on the entire
circumference of the car wheel. When this occurs it indicates that the wheel has
acquired a true cylindrical shape.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, as communicated to
me by my foreign correspondent, I declare that what I claim is :-
1. In a machine for producing bodies of circular cross section, two rollers or like
supports on which the body to be reduced may be peripherally sustained and revolved,
and an adjacent cutter, said elements constructed and combined for joint operation
substantially as described and shown.
2. In a machine for reducing bodies to a circular form in cross section, two rollers
or like supports to act on the periphery of the body to be reduced, and an intermediate
rotary cutter, said elements constructed and arranged in relations substantially as
described.
3. In a machine for reducing bodies to a circular form in cross section, two
supporting rollers, and a rotary cutter, said members having their active surfaces
located in a circle the diameter of which equals that of the required body: whereby
a body sustained by and rotated upon the rolls will be automatically reduced to a
circular form of the predetermined character by the cutter.

page_text: 4. In a machine for producing bodies of circular cross section, the two sustaining
rollers, the rotary cutter, and a pressure device to hold and guide the body upon the
underlying rollers.
5. In combination with the supporting rollers the elevated guiding and pressing
roll, a laterally acting pressure device C, and a rotary cutter, said members arranged
in relations substantially as described and shown.
6. In combination with two supporting rollers, an intermediate rotary cutter and
means for changing the relative positions of said parts: whereby the machine may be
adapted to produce automatically a circular body of larger or smaller diameter as
required.
7. In a machine for trueing car wheels, the rotary supports B C, to act peripherally
on the wheel, in combination with the overlying pressure wheel and its support pivoted
to turn out of the plane of the supports BC: whereby the ready introduction and
removal of the car wheel are permitted.
Dated this 17th dow of Bab 1000
WM. P. THOMPSON & Co.,
Agents for the Applicant.