IMPROVED MEANS FOR ADJUSTING ROLLER AND OTHER AXLES IN THEIR BEARINGS
Year: 1883

page_text: "E
LETTERS PATENT to John Auguste Arnold Buchholz of Twickenham in the
County of Middlesex for an Invention of IMPROVED MEANS FOR ADJUSTING
ROLLER AND OTHER AXLES IN THEIR BEARINGS
""
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Auguste Arnold
Buchholz at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 8th March
1883.
JOHN AUGUSTE ARNOLD BUCHHOLZ of Twickenham in the County of
Middlesex "IMPROVED MEANS FOR ADJUSTING ROLLER AND OTHER AXLES IN
THEIR BEARINGS."
The object of this invention is to maintain with great nicety the adjusted position
of rollers and of rotary cutters with respect to their work,-The object being, in
roller mills, to maintain the rollers in a determined relation to one another, and
remove all tendency of their axles to spring, and in the case of rotary cutters, to
avoid the production of irregular work when the bearings of their shafts have become
worn.
To this end I mount the shafts of rotary cutters in interlocking bearings, to
which a strain in opposite directions may be applied by adjusting screws or
otherwise, so that as the bearings wear, and an indication of chattering is observable,
it will only be necessary to tighten up the tension screws to secure the hold of the
bearings upon the shaft.
In applying the invention to roller mills, it admits of modifications to suit the
cases of dead axles and live axles.
In the case of live axles, I fit the axle of one roller in bearings carried by a fixed
frame, and the axle of the other roller in bearings carried by a rocking frame, using
springs or their equivalent to draw the rollers together.
I cause these several bearings to interlock with double or forked bearings
carried by pairs of levers fulerumed at their opposite ends, the one pair having for
their fulcrum the fulcrum of the rocking frame, and the other a transverse rod
which is free to slide under the action of a cam or its equivalent in guides formed
in the fixed framing, its adjustment being determined by an index finger.

page_text: The bearing levers are made cam shaped on their inner edges, the opposed levers
being intended to come in. contact with each other in a plane which cuts the
axes of the rollers. This contact determines the distance which the rollers shall
stand apart, the adjustment of the distance being effected by shifting the fulcrum
rod of the levers of the fixed frame nearer to, or further from the bite of the
rollers.
It will now be understood that as the rollers are drawn together, the pressure
of their axles on the bearings carried by the fixed and rocking frames will be
towards the bite of the rollers, and that inasmuch as this [pressure is intercepted
by the cam shaped edges of the levers, the bearings of those levers will be caused
to press upon the roller axles in an opposite direction; thus all tendency of the
axles to spring will be avoided, and notwithstanding the wear of the bearings, the
position of the rollers with respect to each other will be maintained, a matter of
great moment in the manufacture of flour.
In the case of rollers mounted on dead axles, I fit these rollers with sleeves or
hollow trunnions, and string bearing blocks thereon, the blocks being so formed
that those of the one roller will interlock with those of the other roller.
Between these interlocking block bearings, I insert wedges, which I actuate by
means of excentrics or their equivalent for the purpose of determining the distance
apart of the rollers.
In this case also the one roller will be mounted in a fixed, and the other
in a rocking frame, the two rollers being drawn together by springs or other
pressure.
The action will be, as before explained, to subject the hollow axles of the rollers
to opposing forces, the bearing blocks pressing upon them in an outward direction,
or away from the bite of the rollers, and the spring pressure forcing the dead
axles against the inner face of the hollow axles in the direction of the bite of the
rollers.
It will be understood that my invention applies wherever it is desired to
maintain a live axle in a determined position, and render it unaffected by the
wearing of the bearings.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said John Auguste Arnold Buchholz in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 8th September 1883.
JOHN AUGUSTE ARNOLD BUCHHOLZ of Twickenham in the County of
Middlesex "IMPROVED MEANS FOR ADJUSTING ROLLER AND OTHER AXLES IN
THEIR BEARINGS
The chief object of this invention is to maintain with great nicety the adjusted
position of rollers and of rotary cutters with respect to their work, the design with
respect to roller mills being, to maintain the rollers in a determined relation to one
another and remove all tendency of their axles to spring and in the case of rotary
cutters to avoid the production of irregular work when the bearings of their shafts
have become worn
The invention also applies to shafts or axles generally
That an adjustment such as that above indicated with the use of bearings of the
usual construction is practically impossible, becomes at once apparent, when it is
considered that (as every mechanic knows) no bearing can be made a true fit on its
axle, because the slightest increase of temperature will cause the axle to expand
and lock itself fast in a tight fitting bearing. For this reason all bearings in
practice are given enough play to allow for the expansion due to variations of
temperature in the axle caused by variations in the amount of lubrication or
changes of duty The play in ordinary bearings however by preventing nicety of
adjustment, is detrimental to good work in some machines. To retain the freedom
which play in the bearings gives to running machinery and at the same time to
secure the maintenance of the adjustment is the object of this Invention
In Sheet I of the accompanying drawings I have shewn at Fig 1 a plan view
and at Fig 2 an end view of a bearing constructed according to my invention and
suitable for maintaining a shaft or axle in its normal position notwithstanding the
wear of the bearing surfaces.
A is the shaft or axle which may be supposed to be fitted with a rotary cutter
the position of which, with regard to a bed plate for supporting the work, is
required to be maintained
This axle is mounted in an interlocking bearing B, B' carried by applummer
block C. The part B of the bearing is fitted with a screwed stem b which passes
freely through a lug c on the plummer block and carries clamping nuts for
adjusting it and holding it rigidly in position. The part B₁ of the bearing which
is forked to receive the part B is provided with a stem b' which passes through
a lug c of the plummer block and is screwed at its outer end to receive a nut and
washer.
Surrounding this screwed stem b' is a coiled spring b² which lies between the
lug c¹ and the washer The use of this spring is to enable the forked part B' of
the bearing to put a lateral pressure upon the shaft A in an opposite direction to
that imparted to it by the adjustment of the interlocking part B and thereby to
take up all slackness due to wear of the bearing surfaces, while at the same time
it is free to yield to any undue resistance encountered by the cutting tool or other
instrument mounted on the shaft and allow such cutter or other instrument to clear
the obstruction presented to it.
By reference to Fig: 2 it will be seen that space is provided in the bearing for
the free circulation of lubricating material while at the same time a practically
tight bearing is ensured, and that without any tendency of the rubbing surfaces to
become overheated.

page_text: By adjusting from time to time the clamping nuts on the stem b the normal
position of the shaft and consequently of the cutter with respect to its work will
be ensured
In applying the invention to roller mills it admits of modification to suit the
cases of dead axles and live axles, and in the drawings I have shown the invention
as adapted to these two uses.
In Sheet II Fig: 3 is an end view and Fig 4 a side view of so much of a
roller mill having live axles, as will explain the adaptation of my invention
thereto.
A is a roller mounted in fixed bearings carried by a fixed frame B and A¹ is a
roller mounted in fixed bearings carried by a pair of rocking frames C These
frames C have their fulcrum at c on the fixed frame B and pendent from the free
end of each frame C is a screwed rod c¹ which passes through a cored out hole in
the frame B and is fitted on its screwed end with an adjusting hand wheel c
The screwed rod c¹ receives between the wheel c² and the fixed frame B a coiled
spring for drawing the roller A¹ towards the roller A.
The fixed bearings interlock with double or forked bearings D D¹ respectively
as described with reference to Figures 1 and 2 These forked bearings have a cam
shaped perimeter and are mounted loosely on the axles of their respective rollers.
The object of making them cam shaped is that the opposed surfaces of the upper
and lower bearings may come in contact with each other in a plane which cuts
the axes of the rollers The radius of the contact surfaces determines the distance
which the rollers shall stand apart the adjustment of the distance being effected
by imparting an axial motion to the bearings. The bearings D D¹ in contact with
one another are connected together by nieans of rods d d which are secured by
pivot pins to their respective bearings, and are at their opposite ends jointed to the
eye of an adjusting screw d' which passes through a nut d³ mounted in a bearing
on the framing B
The periphery of this nut is formed with teeth which take into a worm e on a
cross shaft E and which is rotated by a hand wheel Thus by the turning of this
shaft the forked bearings on the opposite side of the machine will be simultaneously
rocked to give the distance adjustment between the rollers.
To ensure the parallelism of this adjustment the rods d d are divided and
threaded at their inner ends to receive an elongated nut having a right and left
handed thread for elongating or contracting the rods as desired
It will now be understood that as the rollers are drawn together the pressure
of their axles on the bearings carried by the fixed and rocking frames will be
towards the bite of the rollers and that inasmuch as this pressure is intercepted
by the cam shaped perimeter of the forked bearings D D¹, these bearings will be
caused to press upon the roller axles in an opposite direction, thus all tendency
of the axles to spring will be avoided and notwithstanding the wear of the
bearings the position of the rollers with respect to each other will through the
pull of the springs c³ be maintained, a matter of great moment in the manufacture
of flour.
In Sheet III I have shewn the mode of applying my invention to roller mills
with dead axles
:
Fig 5 is an end view of so much of the roller mill as will serve to illustrate the
modification and Fig: 6 is a sectional side view of the same Fig 7 is a detached
end view of the means employed for giving the distance adjustment to the rollers
and Fig: 8 is a sectional plan view of the same.
A is a fixed roller A¹ the adjustable roller mounted as before in their respective
frames B and C the latter of which is held down by spring pressure as above
explained to provide against the injury to the rollers by the passage between them
of hard extraneous matters.
The rollers are fitted with sleeves or hollow trunnions a a¹ and upon these are
strung bearing blocks D D¹
Between each pair of bearing blocks I insert a wedge E which I actuate by

page_text: means of an excentric E¹ keyed on a transverse shaft E' the rocking of which by
means of a hand lever, will advance or retract the wedges as desired and thereby
determine the distance apart of the rollers
.
The action in this modification will be similar to that before explained namely
to subject the axles of the rollers to opposing forces the bearing blocks pressing
in this case upon the hollow axles in an outward direction or away from the bite
of the rollers and the spring pressure causing the dead axles to press against the
inner face of the hollow axles in the direction of the bite of the rollers.
I would remark that in the case of both live and dead axles any desired amount
of play can be allowed in each bearing without in any way prejudicing the nicety
of adjustment and it will be understood that my invention applies wherever it is
desired to maintain a live axle in a determined position and render it unaffected
by the wearing of the bearings.
Having now set forth the nature of my Invention of "Improved means for
adjusting roller and other axles in their bearings" and explained the manner of
carrying the same into effect I wish it to be understood that under the above in
part recited Letters Patent I claim :-
First: The use of bearings as described whereby the shaft or axle mounted
therein is free to yield to an undue resistance presented to the rotation of such axle
or to the instrument mounted thereon while at the same time the axle is prevented
from shifting in the opposite direction such axle being free to expand by heat
without the liability of becoming locked in its bearings
Second: The means of effecting the distance adjustment between rollers
mounted in interlocking bearings as above described with reference to Sheet II of
the Drawings
Third: The means of effecting the distance adjustment between rollers mounted
on dead axles as above described with reference to Sheet III of the Drawings.
In witness whereof I the said John August Arnold Buchholz have hereunto
set my hand and seal the sixth day of September in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and eighty three.
JA ARNOLD BUCHHOLZ (L.S)
J A ARNOLD BUCHHOLZ (LS)