Method of and Apparatus for Ornamenting Wood with Impressed Designs.
Year: 1893

page_text: Date of Application, 11th Oct., 1893-Accepted, 11th Nov., 1893
COBIT DELE DI DUIFICATION.
Method of and Apparatus for Ornamenting Wood with Impressed
Designs.
I, FRANZ ALOIS BRAUSIL, of Hirschengasse 18 Vienna VI Austria, Cabinet
Maker, 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 a method and apparatus for producing embossed or
recessed designs or ornaments on the surfaces of either solid wood bars or plates,
or of veneered surfaces, by means of heated revolving rolls or rings having the
said designs or ornaments either in relief or recessed thereon, whereby such designs
or ornaments are produced in a very perfect and uniformn continuous manner upon
the natural surface of the solid wood or veneer, requiring no finishing by hand and
equal in appearance to the most expensive styles of carving.
Owing to the simplicity and continuous action of the operation, the product is
cheaper even than those articles in which the design is produced upon a plastic
coating which subsequently hardens.
The process consists essentially in passing the wood to be operated upon between
two rolls or rings made to revolve in contrary directions, of which the one roll or
ring has the desired design engraved or embossed upon it, while the other roll or
ring either also has an ornamented periphery, if the wood is to be simultaneously
ornamented on two sides, or is left plain if only one side is to be ornamented, so
that this second roll or ring only serves as support.
By the use of revolving rolls or rings the process is enabled to be carried on
continuously, and in addition it allows of wood in a dry and hard state, without
steaming or softening, to be ornamented with a comparatively small expenditure of
power, because the rolls or rings, owing to their circular form, only operate at one
time upon a very small portion of the wood's surface, which is subjected progressively
to their action, and consequently in a very different manner from the usual mode of
impressing with flat plates, which act at one and the same time upon a very
considerable surface, and which consequently cannot be applied to hard woods.
The accompanying drawings shew the construction of apparatus for carrying out
my above described improved process.
Fig. 1 shews a side view of a pair of the said rolls, and Fig. 2 shews a front
view of the same.
a, b, are two rolls of which the upper one, a, is provided with rings a¹ al a
on which is engraved or embossed the design to be produced on the wood, while
the lower one, b, carries rings having a smooth surface, so that with this
arrangement the wood is only ornamented on the one side.
The rings on the lower roll could of course also be provided with a design for
ornamenting two sides of the wood, if desired. Also, instead of using separate
engraved or embossed rings, the designs and counter surfaces might be formed on
the surfaces of the rolls themselves, if it be not necessary to change the designs
except by changing the entire roll.
The rings are simply slid on to the rolls and not fixed thereon, so that the ring
will ordinarily be carried round by friction by the roll, but when it meets with
greater resistance owing to the occurrence of a harder place in the wood c, or a more
recessed part of the design, the ring is free to revolve at a slower speed than the
uniformly driven roll, thereby consequently effecting the impression of the wood at
such points at a slower speed and without slipping or tearing the wood fibres, which
might otherwise occur.
The adjustment and securing of the rings a' a' in the requisite position is simplest

page_text: effected by means of rings d d of a less diameter and of varying width, which are
slid ou the roll and hold the impression rings a¹ a¹ between them. By screwing on
cheeks e e on both ends of the roll the holding and impression rings are secured
in position so that no lateral shifting can occur.
In place of the impression rings the roll itself may, as before stated, have the
design or designs formed upon it. In order to enable the rolls in this case to
assume a variable speed above referred to with respect to the rings, as compared
with the constant speed of the driving shaft f, they are simply slid on to such
shaft without keying or other fixing, and are only secured against lateral
displacement.
For specially facilitating the impression, for increasing the toughness of the
wood, for preventing the tearing of the wood fibres when specially deep impressions
are to be made, as also, to obtain an increased density and hardness of the wood
after the impression, the wood is moistened on the side to be treated with a solution
of borax in water or milk before passing through the rolls.
For the purpose of facilitating the impression as also to increase the sharpness
and beauty of the same and to increase the strength of the wood, the rolls or rings
are heated externally or internally.
The rings of the lower roll b, if not used for impression but only for support,
are preferably made in two halves, as shewn at Figure 3, which are secured together
by lugs g and bolts h h.
A complete machine for operating with the above described rolls and rings is
shewn at Figures 4 and 5, which shew respectively a side view and a front view
partly in section.
The upper roll a is carried in bearings L L, so arranged as to be readily changed
on the removal of the caps l l.
The lower roll b is rendered vertically adjustable, to allow of the treatment of
wood of different thicknesses; for this purpose its bearings L' L' are arranged to
slide between vertical guides R R in the headstocks C C of the rolls, which are
tied across by tie rods D D. The bearings L' are supported on screw spindles S S
by means of which they can be raised or lowered, so as to bring the lower roll
nearer to or farther from the upper roll.
For this purpose the screws S are raised and lowered by the turning of hand
wheels H, as shewn more clearly in the enlarged section at Figure 6. The screws S
screw through threaded bushes m fixed to the framing C, and they have a longi
tudinal slot into which takes a key n held in a slot in the hand wheel H; this wheel
is secured to a spur wheel Z, the object of which will be presently explained, which
in its turn is fixed to a divided ring m' that takes into a circular groove in the
bush m, so that, the wheel H being thus held to the bush m its rotation in
effecting the rotation of S, will cause this to screw up and down through m.
The roll a is driven by means of crank handles K K that rotate spur wheels Z Z
the rotation of which is transmitted to spur wheels Z' on the shaft of the roll a.
In order to insure the proper feeding of the wood bar into the rolls and thereby to
insure a sharp impression of the figured roll on the wood, it is necessary also to
impart to the lower roll b the same speed of rotation as at a, assuming that the
diameters of the acting parts of the rolls are equal. For this purpose the motion
of the roller a is transmitted to b, through intermediate wheels Z Z³ gearing with
wheels Z Z on the shaft of roll b, the transmission being such that the direction of
rotation of is the reverse of that of a, as indicated by the arrows; the number of
teeth of the wheels Z being the same as those of Z, so as to insure the rotation
of the two rolls at the same speed.
In order to insure that on the vertical adjustment of the roll 6 the spur
wheels Z¹ Z Z3 Z4 shall always remain correctly in gear, the bearings N of the
wheels Z Z are on the one hand arranged to slide vertically between guides R' R¹
in the headstocks C being adjusted by means of screws S', and secondly, the
bearings of the wheels Z Zare arranged to slide in arc shaped slots F F, struck
from the centre of the wheels Z'.

page_text: The action of this arrangement is as follows:-
When the roll b is raised or lowered by the screw spindles S S the motion of the
wheels H is transmitted to the nuts of the screws S¹ through toothed wheels Z'
fixed to the wheels of S, and toothed wheels Z fixed to the nuts of S¹, thereby
raising or lowering the wheels Z³ to the same extent as Z. The screw spindles S¹
must of course have their threads inclined in the contrary direction to those of the
spindles S.
The bearings of wheel Z are at the same time shifted up and down in the curved
slots, so as to maintain the correct relative positions of its pitch line and that of the
wheel Z, whose correct relative position to 7 is of course maintained by the fact
that both wheels are raised or lowered to precisely the same extent; owing to the
slots F being concentric to the wheel Z, the wheel Z will also remain with its
pitch line in correct relative position to that of the former.
By heating the rolls a and b to different degrees, the wood operated upon may be
made to assume a more or less curved form, and if in this case the wood were
introduced obliquely into the rolls, it might be made to assume a helical shape.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what I
claim is :-
1. The method of providing bars of solid or veneered wood of any desired length
and sectional form, with raised or sunk designs on one or more surfaces by causing
such bars to pass between a pair of revolving heated rolls or rings that exert
pressure thereon, one of which rolls or rings has the desired design engraved
or embossed upon it while the other is either plain and serves merely as support or
also has a design formed thereon, the said ornamented rolls or rings being mounted
loose on their axes, in order that when they meet with greater than normal
resistance owing to the occurrence of hard places in the wood or deeper recessed
parts of the design, they can move at a slower speed than the driving axes, and
thus, in exerting a more gradual pressure, prevent slipping and tearing of the wood
fibres, substantially as described.
2. In the method of ornamenting wood referred to in the first claim, moistening
the surface of the wood with burax dissolved in water or milk before introducing
it between the rolls, in order to increase the toughness of the wood and thus obtain
an increased strength and hardness, substantially as described.
3. The use, for carrying out the method of ornamenting wood referred to in the
first claim, of impression rolls a or rings a¹, mounted loose on driving shafts or
rolls and held in position by means of divided rings d in such manner that they
are carried round by the driving shaft or roll, but can if requisite revolve at a
slower speed than the latter, substantially as described.
4. The use, for carrying out the method of ornamenting wood referred to in the
first claim, of rolls a, b, provided with impression rings a' a', and supporting
rings, which rolls are connected by means of spur wheels Z' Z Z³ 7* of
which are raised and lowered by geared right and left handed screws S S' so
that the roll b can be raised or lowered while maintaining the said wheels correctly
in gear for insuring the uniform motion of a and b, substantially as described.
Dated this 11th day of October 1893.
ABEL & IMRAY,
Agents for the Applicant.