IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF PIPES AND TUBES
Year: 1858

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Richard Archibald Brooman, of 166, Fleet Street, in
the City of London, E. C., Editor of the Mechanics' Magazine and
Patent Agent, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR THE
MANUFACTURE OF PIPES AND TUBES."-A communication.
Sealed the 13th July 1858, and dated the 18th January 1858.
11
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Richard Archibald
Brooman at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 18th January 1858.
RICHARD ARCHIBALD BROOMAN, of 166, Fleet Street, in the City of
London, E. C., Editor of the Mechanics' Magazine and Patent Agent, do
Hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
MACHINERY FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF PIPES AND TUBES," (communicated to me
by a foreigner residing abroad,) to be as follows:-
This Invention is designed chiefly for the making of copper tubes, and
consists in a machine so constructed as to form the tube out of an ingot or
casting of the intended metal by rolling it or forming it upon a stationary
mandril, the metal being stripped from the end of the mandril by the action
of the rollers as it passes between them. The rollers are grooved on their
edges with a groove, which is a segment of a circle, so that when four (or any
other convenient number) are brought properly together, a round hole will be
formed where the rolls mitre together. These rollers are geared together so as
to be compelled to revolve alike, and they have also cross cuts made in the
grooves, which cuts it is preferred shall be made in a diagonal direction, or

page_text: similar to a feniale screw. The mandril is held at one end by a swivel pin
fixed in a strong frame, and so that the other end shall, when in place, only
extend into and terminate in the hole formed by the grooves where the
peripheries of the rolls join. When the ingot or casting is to be slipped on
this mandril, that end of it which is between the rolls is to be withdrawn, and
turned aside sufficiently to allow of the ingot being slipped on, and when
replaced, the end of the ingot will be caught by the revolving rollers, and the
whole drawn through, the cross cuts forming grippers, as it were, to prevent
slipping, and thus stripping the metal from the mandril which forms the base
for the crushing action of the rollers. A second set of rollers may be placed
immediately after the first set, and thusa further reduction and extension of the
ingot will be effected upon that single heat; the metal being anuealed for
further working in the usual way, until the whole is reduced to the degree of
thinness required for any given tube, the tube being passed from one set of
rollers to another set, having its central hole and mandril smaller until that
object is attained. It may be finished in a dead die, if necessary.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters l'atent, filed
by the said Richard Archibald Brooman in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 17th July 1858.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, RICHARD
ARCHIBALD BROOMAN, of 166, Fleet Street, in the City of London, E.C.,
Editor of the Mechanics' Magazine and Patent Agent, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Eighteenth day of January, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight, in the twenty-first year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Richard Archibald Brooman, Her special licence, that I, the said Richard
Archibald Brooman, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others
as 1, the said Richard Archibald Brooman, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and
at all times thereafter during the term therein expressed, should and lawfully
might make, use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF PIPES AND TUBES," (a
communication,) upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Richard
Archibald Brooman, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in

page_text: writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should particularly
describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner
the same was to be performed, and cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal
Patent Office within six calendar months next and immediately after the date
of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Richard Archibald Brooman, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is
to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement thereof, reference being had to the Drawings hereunto
annexed, that is to say :-
This Invention is designed chiefly for the making of copper tubes, and
consists in a machine so constructed as to form the tube out of an ingot or
casting of the intended metal by rolling it or forming it upon a stationary
mandrel, the metal being stripped from the end of the mandrel by the action
of the rollers as it passes between them. The rollers are grooved on their
edges with a groove which is a segment of a circle, so that when four (or any
other convenient number) are brought properly together, a round or nearly.
round hole will be formed where the rolls mitre together. These rollers are..
geared together so as to be compelled to revolve alike, and they have also
cross cuts made in the grooves, which cuts it is preferred shall be made in a
diagonal direction, or as similar to a female screw. The mandrel is held at
one end by a stop fixed in a strong frame, and so that the other end shall,
when in place, only extend into and terminate in the hole formed by the
grooves where the peripheries of the rolls join. The ingot or casting is to be
slipped on this mandrel, and when it comes at length into place, the inner end
of the said ingot will be caught by the revolving rollers, and the whole drawn
through, the cross cuts forming grippers, as it were, to prevent slipping, and
thus stripping the metal from the mandrel which forms the base for the
crushing action of the rollers. A second set of rollers may be placed imme-
diately after the first set, and thus a further reduction and extension of the
ingot will be effected upon the single heat. The metal will require to be
annealed for further working in the usual way until the whole is reduced to
the degree of thinness required for any given tube, the tube being passed from
one set of rollers to another set, having its central hole and mandrel smaller,
until that object is attained. It may be finished in a dead die, if necessary.
Figure 1 of the Drawings hereunto annexed exhibits an end view or eleva-
tion; Figure II., a transverse vertical section on the line x, x, of Figure III.;
Figure III., a top or plan view; and Figure IV., an enlarged view, exhibiting
the shape of the hole formed by the united segments of the rollers. The

page_text: machine in Figure 1 consists of a set of four rollers set in a strong frame, the
said rollers being driven in pairs by two shafts, which latter are geared
together, to make the motions of a lluniform, a and a¹ being one pair, and
and b¹ the other, and c, c', their two driving shafts. The faces of these rollers
are grooved out, leaving space to have the corners taken off to make a bevel,
so as to form mitres when the set is put in place. These grooves are not
necessarily segments of such a circle that the central hole formed by uniting
them shall be truly round, but, on the contrary, may be struck from arcs of
greater radius than from a true centre of the said hole, as shewn in Figure 4,
which is the preferable method of forming them, the true circle being there
seen dotted in. By this means a cavity would be left at each corner were a
mandrel inserted of the size of the dotted circle, and this cavity is further en-
larged by cutting off the corners of each roll, as seen at d, d. The grooves
thus formed have their surface roughened by spirally-shaped or diagonal cross
cuts. It is preferred to have these cuts gradually deepened, beginning at the
edges at nothing, or nearly so, and increasing gradually to the centre of the
grooves. The use of these cross-cut grooves is to give the grip to strip
the metal from the mandrel, and furthermore to assist in breaking it down
into the lamellated condition from that of the crystalline form, as when in the
casting. The mandrel seen ate should be a solid cylinder of hard metal, such
as steel; this is supported so as to stand between the rolls without touching
anywhere the grooved surface. The space left around determines the thick-
ness of metal of the tube. That end of the mandrel where the ingot is
delivered off is tapered down a little, the taper commencing just beyond the
centre of the rolls, so that immediately after the latter have given the squeeze
upon the ingot it will be relieved. There are two notches cut around the
mandrel at the receiving side, as at e¹ and e¹¹. That at e¹ is for receiving a
safety guard and support, while ell is for receiving the securing clutch. The
safety guard consists of a forked stud fturning upon a cross bar f1, to which
there is attached an operating handle", Figures II. and III. When fuis
locked down, the fork f is up, so that the mandrel at the notch e¹ rests within
it. By raising this handle, fis turned down, and is then out of the way for
the passage of the ingot to the rolls. At g the mandrel has another support,
consisting of a block lying in a groove g¹ of the frame, along which
groove it
can slide; and there is still another support at the outside end at h; this is a
forked stud hinged to the top of the post h¹. It acts like a latch, as it can be
turned down, a spring serving to keep it in its erect position, and it therefore
yields to the passage of the ingot off the end of the mandrel, and resumes its
position of itself after the ingot has got by. To prevent the mandrel from

page_text: being drawn through the rolls with the ingot is the office of the notch ell and
block The two are kept together by the striding fork i.
g.
The operation will be as follows:-The rolls are set in motion in the
direction of the arrows. An ingot of the metal to be rolled out is cast
as a cylinder, of the proper diameter to go on the mandrel, and to pass-
through the rolls and receive such an amount of reduction as they are to
be allowed to give. When the ingot is sufficiently heated the fork i is
removed, then the block g is run out in its groove to the end at gn, and will
then be clear of the forward end of e. The ingot is now slipped on and run
up to the guard support f, which thus prevents the possibility of its getting
into the rolls before the mandrel is locked; now return g to its first position,
and until it strikes the set screw shewn, then return the fork i to its place, lift
the handle, and thus remove from interfering with the ingot, which is now
to he pushed up to the rolls. The gripping cross-cut grooves at this time
seize it on all sides and draw it through. The mandrel being held firmly in.
place, the rolling is effected upon it, the tube running off its end. This first
action serves to break the metal down, and the ingot is then taken by the
tongs in the hand of an attendant, and passed immediately to a second set of
rolls having a smaller central hole and mandrel, and is further reduced. Thus
the process is continued so long as the heat lasts, or until the tube becomes
sufficiently drawn out.
The arrangement deemed most desirable is to have the sets of rolls placed
so that a long or continuous mandrel can be used to pass between them all.
Thus the ingot once on, it can be passed with greater speed and economy of
heat as well as time and labor from set to set, and the work accomplished
accordingly with greater advantage.
As the metal is compressed in the rolls it is found desirable that some space
should be allowed for it to extend laterally as well as in the direction of the
length of tube. The cavities dare for that purpose, and this shapes a tube
which is not truly cylindrical on the outside besides having slight ribs formed
by these cavities; the surface thus consists of four arches, as can be seen by
inspecting Figure IV.; therefore the ingot must be turned partially round at
each passage through a set of rolls, so that the ribs will strike the centre of
the
grooves and thus be in turn rolled down. The smooth finish is obtained
last of all in a dead die, or by being drawn through smooth rolls.
To make all the various sizes of tubes and pipes, different sized mandrels as
well as different sized grooves on the faces of the rolls will be necessary. The
rolls may be changed as desired, but it will be preferable to have the portions
containing the grooves made to be removable from the bodies of the rolls, so

page_text: that it will only be necessary to shift the sections constituting the part grooved,
as may be required.
It is known that a skelp of malleable iron has been welded and formed into
a tube by a set of rollers over a fixed mandrel for gun barrels, &c. The pre-
sent Invention is to be distinguished from that plan in that the said plan had
chiefly for its object the welding of the edges of the skelp and of giving a
cylindrical shape to the same, while this effects the reduction of the metal
from a cast into the lamellated condition as well as the forming of a tube.
And having now described the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I declare that I claim,-
Firstly, the forming of a tube from cast metal ingots by means of the pro-
pelling and compressing action of a set of rollers acting in conjunction with
a fixed mandrel, as herein-before described.
Secondly, the employment of spiral or diagonal cross cuts in the grooves of
the said rollers, as herein-before described.
Thirdly, the use of a fixed and stationary mandrel in connection with one
or more sets of rolls, so arranged in respect to the latter that the said mandrel
will not have to be withdrawn for receiving the cast metal ingot, while it may
also be so fixed that the said ingot can pass from one set of rolls to the next
on the said mandrel, as herein-before described,
In witness whereof, I, the said Richard Archibald Brooman, have here-
unto set my hand and. seal, this Sixteenth day of July, One thousand
eight hundred and fifty-eight.
R. A. BROOMAN.
(L..S.)