Improvements relating to the Manufacture of Wire-nails.
Year: 1897

page_text: [Communicated from abroad by The Firm of TUNNERHOFF & GOTTER, Manufacturers,
of Hemer in Westphalia, in the Kingdom of Prussia.]
:
Improvements relating to the Manufacture of Wire-nails.
I, JASPER WETTER, Patent Agent, of 37 & 39, Essex Street, Strand, in the
County of London, 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:-
717
4
f.
Hitherto wire nails could only be made from wire which has been drawn to a
given thickness, and which is known by the name of nail-wire. Neither rolled
wire nor annealed wire was suitable for this purpose, on account of insufficient
hardness.
This invention relates to a process for reducing wire, and especially crude wire,
while it passes through the nail machine, to the required thickness, and to a
device for performing this operation.
In the accompanying drawings:
.
Fig. 1 is a plan of a reducing device embodying the invention; Fig. 2 is a
vertical section of the same along line op of Fig. 1; Fig. 3 is a cross section
along line mn of Fig. 1; Figs. 4 and 5 represent details of construction; Fig. 6
shows the arrangement of the reducing device on the nail machine.
The advantage of the process consists in the fact, that it obviates the necessity
to prepare the wire serving as raw material for the nails, by passing it through
a wire drawing machine, until it has the required diameter, and in some cases to
subject it first to a pickling and liming process, but that crude rolled wire or
annealed wire can be drawn to the required thickness, hardened and worked up
into nails, in one operation.
For this purpose the wire coming from a drum and then passing through a
straightening or rectifying device, as usual, is guided between the rollers W₁, W
W2, W2, of the appliance hereafter described, which rollers have been placed the
required distance apart by means of set screws A, B, C; subsequently the wire
is guided to the ordinary working tools of the nail machine.
The apparatus for performing this operation chiefly comprises two pairs of
grooved rollers W1, W2 placed one behind the other and at right angles to each
other, in such a manner, that the wire, after leaving the. first pair of rollers,
passes immediately between the second pair, whereby any flattening of the wire,
which may have been produced by the first pair, is rectified by the second pair.
The said rollers are mounted in holders S. Fig. 5, inserted into suitable recesses
of the block K, Fig. 1, and held in the desired position by set screws A, B, C,
(Fig. 3) each of which passes through a screw nut M shown in detail by Fig. 4.
As seen from this figure, the screw nut proper has two diametrically opposite lugs
provided with slots through which pass the screws for fixing the nut to the
block K, which may be made of wrought iron or steel. One of the vertical
rollers W2 is not held between the cheeks of a holder S, like the other rollers,
but is immediately inserted into a recess of the block K and held between a pair
of centres formed on a pair of screws F and G screwed into the block K, as shown

page_text: by Fig. 3. These screws fix the axis of the said roller, while the distance between
the two rollers W2 is adjusted by the set screw A, acting on the holder S which
holds the corresponding roller of the pair. The screws FG may be used also for
adjusting the position of their roller horizontally, so that its groove is opposite
to that of the other roller.
The apparatus works as follows:-
-
The block K constructed as described, is mounted in a wire-nail machine in the
place of the slide hitherto used, as indicated by Fig. 6. By means of a lever H
connected with the fly wheel, the said block K is moved forward and backward,
like the slide used in ordinary machines. As the wire which has been introduced
between the roller pairs, without previous heating, and then fed forward the
required distance, is held fast in the usual manner by the cheeks of the nail
machine, one of which is movable and caused to act upon the fixed cheek by the
lever, the backward motion of the block K has the effect, that the wire will be
made thinner, according to the position of the rollers (determined by the
Screws A, B, C). Consequently, by the backward motion of the block K the wire
may be reduced to the desired thickness. By the subsequent forward motion of
the block K the wire is then conducted to the working organ of the nail
machine.
Beside simplifying the process of manufacture, the present invention serves to
improve the quality of the product, as the wire suffers much less from the treat-
ment with rollers, than it does from being drawn through draw-plates, and the
thickness of the nails produced is more uniform, than in the case of machines
hitherto used.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what
I claim is:
1. The process for the manufacture of wire nails, which consists in first reducing
the wire to the desired thickness by passing it consecutively through several pairs
of rollers placed at right angles to each other, and then delivering it to the usual
operating tools of the wire nail machine, in a continuous operation, substantially
as described.
2. An attachment to a wire-nail machine, comprising in its construction several
pairs of adjustable rollers placed at right angles to each other in a block adapted
to move forward and backward in the said machine, the backward motion serving
to reduce the wire to the required thickness, and the subsequent forward motion
serving to feed the wire thus reduced to the usual operating tool of the nail
machine, substantially as described.
3. Mechanism for reducing the thickness of the wire in a wire nail machine on
its way from the feed drum to the operating tool of the machine, comprising in its
construction a block A containing two pairs of grooved rollers W1 W2 mounted at
right angles to each other, in the line of feed of the wire, means for adjusting
the relative position of the rollers, and means for moving the said block forward
and backward in the line of feed between the feed drum and the operating tool
of the machine, substantially as described.
4. In a wire-nail machine, a reducing or wire-drawing attachment constructed
and adapted to operate substantially as described.
1
1000
:
:
FAIRFAX & WETTER,
Agents.