A Process and Apparatus for Operating on Chain Links.
Year: 1895

page_text: Date of Application, 6th Sept., 1895-Accepted, 12th Oct., 1895
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
A Process and Apparatus for Operating on Chain Links.
I, OTTO KLATTE, Manager of the Firm of Walzwerk Germania, Neuwied on
the Rhine, Germany, 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 :-
In the manufacture of chains without welding or brazing by means of cross
shaped bars such as set forth in the Specification of my Letters Patent Nos. 1413
A.D. 1892 and 15403 A.D. 1893, it was necessary to have for each different kind
of chain, special rolls provided with recesses like dies of a shape corresponding to
the chain which they were designed to make. One and the same kind or form of
If a different
rolls can only be employed to make one and the same kind of chain.
kind of chain is to be made, in the first place special rolis are necessary, and
Secondly such rolls would have to be mounted and dismounted for each kind of
chain causing considerable loss of time and increase of expense. In order to obviate
these disadvantages viz. the necessity of having a great variety of rolls and
consequently of changing the same, the hereinafter described method of jumping
or compressing the links and the apparatus, appertaining thereto have been
devised.
To prevent such an occurrence, that is to say, to avoid having to provide a
comparatively large number of rolls as well as to avoid the frequent change of
the same is the object of this invention which relates to a thickening process and
to machinery therefor.
In the accompanying drawings,
Figure 1 is a piece of a chain ready to be reduced in bulk by thickening the
metal, the links of which are long and wide.
Figure 2 is a side view partly in section of a pair of compression blocks which
are slightly apart and enclose a chain link.
Figure 3 is a view similar to Figure 2, the compression blocks being shown
closed, in consequence of which the link enclosed by them is subjected to a first
thickening operation in a transverse sense.
Figure 4 is a plan of a block (Figure 3) with enclosed chain piece.
Figure 5 shows a chain link reduced in a transverse sense by a thickening of the
metal by the press illustrated in Figures 3 and 4.
Figures 6 and 7 show links which are being thickened in a longitudinal sense,
the link of Figure 7 being reduced to a greater extent than the link of Figure 6.
Figures 8 and 9 show in side view partly in section a pair of pressure blocks
which are used to compress a link of the shape shown in Figure 5 in the direction
of its longitudinal axis and cause it to assume the shape shown in Figure 6; these
figures showing the blocks in their respective position before and after the
compression operation.
Figure 9 is a plan of the lower block of Figure 9.
Figures 10, 11, and 11 are corresponding views to Figures 8, 9, and 9^ showing
pressure blocks which are arranged to act on several links at the same time and
in the same manner as illustrated in Figures 8 and 9.
Figures 12 to 15 are similar views of another construction of the pressure blocks
shown in Figures 8 to 114 and illustrated in several working positions, wherein
the links are not placed in a perpendicular position as in the arrangement shown
in Figures 8 to 114 but are reduced in the longitudinal sense of the tightly
stretched chain.

page_text: According to the process described in the Specifications of my Royal Letters
Patent Nos. 1413 A.D. 1892 and 15403 A.D. 1893 unwelded chains are formed of
a solid cross shaped bar and have comparatively long and wide links, Figure 1,
after which the links are shrunk into a shorter forin. In the original form k
Figure 1 the links are thicker at their points of contact than in the middle of the
long sides, they taper therefore from such contact points to the middle of the long
sides. The links as shown in Figure 1 are first made to assume a more slender
form being reduced in a heated state perpendicularly to their longitudinal direction
by the blocks or dies a and b shown in Figures 2, 3 and 4. These blocks may be
considered as the two parts of a press which may be actuated by mechanical or
hydraulic power so that these two parts may be brought into close contact or
separated one from the other.
Each part, matrix, die or block has a recess having the shape of half the link
longitudinally, that is to say, having the outside shape of such half as the link will
assume after compression.
Figure 2 shows the position of the link when compression is first started, while
Figure 3 shows the link after compression.
According to this preliminary treatment only a slight reduction occurs in the
short sides and the link has the form ¹ (Figure 5). These links are subsequently
shortened to a greater extent by being compressed longitudinally with suitable
tools. The thickness of the iron of the chain increases obviously in this size
reducing operation in the reduced parts so that the above mentioned tapering
disappears more or less according to the extent of the shortening.
The dimensions of the link & shown in Figure 5 are such that the latter assumes
the same thickness over its whole periphery when reduced to the size of the link k³,
Figure 7, but if it is only reduced to the size of the link 2, Figure 6, the tapering
does not entirely disappear and the link is still thicker at the contact points
opposite the cross section in the middle of the longitudinal sides. Thus it is
possible to produce of one original form several other forms of chain links having
either an equal section all round or being thickened at the points of contact according
to the chosen taper of the original shape and also to the amount of jumping or
pressure to which the said link is subjected.
The remaining figures of the drawings show moulds or blocks for this kind of
compression, it being assumed throughout that the link is to be reduced from the
form, Figure 5, into the form of Figure 6. In the course of the operation
the links are suitably heated. The compressing blocks c and d shown in Figures 8
and 9 are so arranged that at each stroke of the press wherein they are placed
they operate on one link which is placed vertically to the longitudinal direction of
the axis of the chain.
Figure 9 shows the blocks c and d with the compressed link in its final position,
the latter being enclosed and pressed by the blocks on its outer periphery.
The division between the blocks c and d is perpendicular to the longitudinal
direction of the link between the blocks and in the centre. Figure 8 is the position
at starting.
The curvature of the recesses in the blocks is such as to allow room during the
reducing operation for the thickening and the widening of the link in suitable
places.
Figures 10, 11, and 11 show blocks operating like those of Figures 8 and 9
with this difference that several links, four in the example shown, can be compressed
at the same time. Whereas with the blocks of Figures 8 to 11 it was necessary
to place the links to be reduced in size perpendicularly to the longitudinal direction
of the remainder of the chain, Figures 12 to 15 show an arrangement where such
a condition is not necessary.
taut.
The links are compressed in the position in which they are when the chain is
To permit this, the blocks or dies must be doubly divided, that is to say, a
die or block such as described with reference to Figures 8 and 9, is again subdivided
in two equal halves e and f, Figure 13.

page_text: The reduction of a link is therefore carried on by means of four blocks e, f, e f
which are shown separated in Figure 13. From this position they are brought
into that of Figure 12 by means of screw gear, by hydraulic power, or by any
other suitable means. The blocks slide on guides, see Figure 15 at g.
From the
position shown in Figure 12 they are brought into that of Figure 14 which
operation is exactly the same as above described. The blocks move upon the
guides h, h, Figure 15. By arranging 4, 6, 8, or more pairs of such blocks e, f,
several links may be acted on simultaneously in the same machine.
The process can likewise be carried on by making use of original forms or
models which do not taper in the manner above mentioned but are of uniform
thickness. These links are then reduced in the direction of their longitudinal axis
whereby they become thickened in the middle. By subsequent compression the
thickened parts are brought at the points of contact whereby short link chains
are made.
It is obvious that the chain link of Figure 7 can be further compressed, and
thus reduced in size and thickened, and generally from a link of a given cubic
contents a link of lesser cubic content can be made by crowding the metal upon
itself by compressing.
It may be further remarked that each rolled chain made out of one piece can
when its links have been worn out to a certain degree be converted by the process
above described into a useful chain composed of smaller but thicker links or of
larger but thinner links.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of this inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what I
claim is
1. A process for reducing the links of a rolled chain made of one piece, consisting
in compressing by crowding the metal upon itself first transversely and then
longitudinally until they assume the required contracted form.
2. The modification of the process above claimed whereby the link or links is or
are first reduced longitudinally and then compressed all round.
3. To carry out the process set forth in Claim 1, two or more pair or pairs of
compression blocks or dies hollowed or scooped out in such a manner that one pair
reduces the said link or links in a transverse sense while the other pair acts
similarly in a longitudinal direction.
4. To carry out the process set forth in Claims 1 and 2, two pairs of compression
blocks or dies, the four parts of which can be displaced in the same plane in
perpendicular directions in such a manner that the two parts of each pair are
guided simultaneously in one direction and clasp the chain link transversely, after
which the two pairs of blocks are guided in the other direction and reduce the
chain link in a longitudinal sense.
Dated this 6th day of September 1895.
H. GARDNER,
Patent Agent, 166 Fleet Street, London,
Agent for the said Otto Klatte.