Improvements in the Manufacture of Flanged Copper Steam and Feed Pipes.
Year: 1897

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in the Manufacture of Flanged Copper Steam and
Feed Pipes.
I, THOMAS MUDD, of Central Marine Engine Works, West Hartlepool, in the
County of Durham, Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be
as follows:
With flanged copper pipes as usually manufactured, breakage of the pipes is
liable to occur at the junctions of the pipes with their flanges, whether the latter
be brazed or formed out of the thickness of the copper, and the object of my inven-
tion is to obviate this disadvantage.
For this purpose I make the pipe of gradually increasing thickness towards the
end or ends at which the flange or flanges is or are to be formed or attached, and
I form the flange or flanges out of the thickness of the metal or I suitably attach,
as by brazing, a flange or flanges at the thickened end or thickened ends of the
pipe, so that between the flange and the portion of the pipe where the wall has
its two surfaces parallel to one another, there is a portion of pipe (which may
be say fifteen inches more or less in length) whose surfaces are inclined to one
another thus forming a tapered and thereby strengthened portion or section of a
thickness gradually increasing up to or towards the flange the thickest part of
the pipe extending up to the flange.
Pipes according to my invention can be made in various ways. The pipe may
be drawn out in such a way as to form at one or at each end of it a taper in the
thickness of the wall of the pipe, so that the greatest thickness shall be at the
end of the pipe as already described, and to this thickened end, as before stated,
a flange may be securely attached, by known means such as brazing; or if the
flange in to be made direct from the material of the pipe, the flanging may be
effected in a known manner by introducing into the mouth of the pipe by pipe
by hydraulic pressure, one by one in successive order, a series of tapering or
conical tools or plugs, and completing the operation by means of a flat-faced tool
adapted to flatten the flange against a suitable device.
day of Santember 1897

page_text: Improvements in the Manufacture of Flanged Copper Steam and
Feed Pipes.
"
We, GEORGE HENRY BAINES, of Central Marine Engine Works, West Hartlepool,
in the County of Durham, GEORGE JONES, of Victoria Road, West Hartlepool, in
the County of Durham, THOMPSON HOWLETT, of Westleigh, Leamington Spa, in
the County of Warwick, THOMAS EDWARD GOODWIN, of Grange Road, West
Hartlepool, in the County of Durham, and ELIZABETH MARY MUDD, of Greencliffe,
Hartlepool, in the County of Durham, Executors of Thomas Mudd, Deceased, 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:
2
With flanged copper pipes as usually manufactured, breakage of the pipes is
liable to occur at the junctions of the pipes with their flanges, whether the latter
be brazed or formed out of the thickness of the copper, and the object of this
invention is to obviate this disadvantage.
•
For this purpose the pipe is made of gradually increasing thickness towards
the end or ends at which the flange or flanges is or are to be formed or attached,
and the flange or flanges is or are formed out of the thickness of the metal, or a
flange or flanges may be suitably attached, as by brazing, to the
thickened end or..
thickened ends of the pipe, so that between the
flange and the portion of the pipe where the wall has its two sur-
faces parallel to one another, there is a portion of pipe (which may
be say fifteen inches more or less in length). whose surfaces are inclined to one
another, thus forming a tapered and thereby strengthened portion or section of
a thickness gradually increasing up to or towards the flange, the thickest part of
the pipe extending up to the flange.
Pipes according to our invention can be made in various ways.
Fig. 1 of the accompanying drawings shows partly in side elevation and partly
in longitudinal section, a portion of a flanged copper pipe made according to this
invention. Figs. 2, 3, and 4 are sectional elevations showing three stages in the
manufacture of such a pipe.
1 (Fig. 1) is the parallel portion of the flanged copper pipe of uniform thickness,
and 2.2 the tapered strengthened end portions which gradually increase in thick-
ness from about the position of the lines A A, B B towards and up to the
flanges 3. As will be seen, such a pipe is thickest and therefore strongest at the
point of junction with each flange, the thickness of the wall tapering away
gradually from that point to the portion 1 of uniform thickness.
The pipe may be drawn through dies D D over a mandril M M (Fig. 4*) in a
draw bench in the usual way, the dies D and mandril M being tapered so that
by stopping the drawing process at the right time, before the whole of the pipe
has gone through the tapered die, the portion at the end remaining in the dic
will retain the tapered shape of the die. Similarly at the other end the taper
on the mandril will be retained by the pipe drawn upon it, the increase of thick-
ness being in this case towards the inside, of the pipe when first made, to be
afterwards brought to the outside and the bore made parallel by expanding.
Or the pipe may be longitudinally rolled on a mandril between rollers, or ham-
mered in swages, or have its central part-reduced in thickness by any known
means, in such a way as to form at ong, or as shown, at each end of it, the tapering
thickness of the wall, so that the greatest thickness shall be at the end of the
pipe as already described. To the thickened end, or each end, as before, stated,

page_text: the flange 3 may be securely attached, by known means such as brazing; or if
the flange is to be made direct from the material of the pipe, as is preferred and
as shown in Fig. 1, the flanging may be effected in a known manner by introducing
into the mouth of the pipe by hydraulic pressure, one by one in successive order,
a series of tapering or conical tools or plugs, and completing the operation by
means of a flat-faced tool adapted to flatten the flange against a suitable device.
Figs. 2, 3, and 4 illustrate three steps in such a flanging operation. The pipe
is held in a holding or supporting device 4 so that there projects a sufficient
portion 2 of the tapered end for the formation of the flange, which is produced
by gradually turning over the said projecting length 2ª by forcing into the same
by means of the ram 6 of a hydraulic press, and one by one, a series of conical
tools or plugs 7, each succeeding tool or plug used being of somewhat greater taper
than the one that preceded it, (Figs. 2 and 3). Fig. 4 shows how the flanged end
is finally flattened against the holding or supporting device 4 by a flat faced tool 8
so as to form the finished flange 3 which is of sufficient dimensions to admit of its
being bolted direct to a similar flange on an adjacent length of pipe. As will
be seen, the pipe is of uniform bore from end to end, the taper of the end portions
being wholly on the outside of the pipe.
By making the end portion of the pipe of gradually increasing thickness right
up to the end thereof, practically sufficient metal will be provided to enable the
flange when finally pressed to shape to be of approximately uniform thickness
throughout, the extra thickness of metal towards the tapering end serving to
supply what is lost in the thinning or flattening due to flanging.
Figs. 5 and 6 illustrate known methods by which such a pipe as is herein
described may be attached, when its flange is worked out of the solid copper, to
a fixed object 9 as in Fig. 5, or to another similar pipe as in Fig. 6, by a loose
flange 10, or loose flanges 10, 10%. Fig. 7 shows an ordinary brass flange 12
attached by brazing to the taper strengthened end of such a pipe as herein
described.
By constructing flanged copper steam and feed pipes in the manner described,
the injurious effects produced on the material of the pipe by vibration and expan-
sion and contraction, especially on steam ships, and which often result in the
fracture of ordinary pipes at the point of junction thereof with their flanges, will
be considerably reduced or entirely obviated, as the movement and stress will
be distributed instead of being concentrated as heretofore.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said
invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, we declare that what
we claim is:
:-
1. A flanged copper steam or feed pipe having one or each of its end portions
of tapering or gradually increasing thickness for a considerable portion of its
length from a portion of parallel or uniform thickness towards and up to its end
where it is provided with a flange so that the pipe is thickest and therefore
strongest at its point of connection with the flange and gradually tapers down to
the part of the pipe of uniform thickness, whereby the movement and stress pro-
duced by vibration and expansion and contraction of the pipe will be distributed
over the tapered portion of the pipe and the usual injurious effects of such move-
ment and stress considerably reduced or entirely obviated, substantially as
described.
2. The herein described method of manufacturing flanged copper steam or feed
pipes with long tapered strengthened end portions by forming a considerable
length say fifteen inches more or less, of one or each of its end portions of
gradually increasing thickness toward and up to the end, then supporting the
thickened end portion in a suitable device so that the end part of it will project
outward from said device to a suitable extent to form a flange, then gradually
expanding the projecting end by outward pressure from within caused by the
nsertion one by one of conical plugs of gradually increasing taper, and finally

page_text: flattening the expanded end portion by a flat faced tool so as to form a flange
that is of approximately uniform thickness and extends at right angle to and is
integral with the thickened tapering end portion of the pipe, substantially as
described.
3. The improved flanged copper steam or feed pipe shown in and described
with reference to Fig. 1 of the drawings annexed.
Dated this 31st day of May 1898
W. LLOYD WISE,
46, Lincoln's Inn Fields, London, W.C., Chartered Patent Agent.