Improvements in the Treatment of Metal Plates for the Manufacture of Tin or Terne Plates.
Year: 1892

page_text: Date of Application, 22nd June, 1892
Complete Specification Left, 6th Dec., 1892-Accepted, 14th Jan., 1893
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
[Communicated from abroad by EDWIN NORTON, of Maywood, in the County of
Cook, in the State of Illinois, United States of America, Manufacturer.]
Improvements in the Treatment of Metal Plates for the
Manufacture of Tin or Terne Plates.
I, HENRY HARRIS LAKE of the firm of Haseltine, Lake & Co., Patent Agents,
45 Southampton Buildings in the County of Middlesex, do hereby declare the
nature of this invention to be as follows:-
My invention relates to improvements in shipping packages of sheet metal plates,
such as are commonly employed in the manufacture of tin or terne plates.
Heretofore it has been customary to ship thin plates or sheets of iron or steel
from the place where they are rolled to the place where they are tinned, or
coated with tin or other metal in the condition that these plates come from the
rolling mill, the same being commonly termed black plates. And very great
difficulty and loss is experienced owing to the fact that these black plates will
continue to rust or oxydize while they are being stored or shipped, or during the
period that elapses between the rolling of the plates and the tinning or coating of
the same with metal. It often happens that many of the plates are found to be
eaten entirely through in spots by the rust when they are subjected to the pickling
bath to remove the scale and rust preparatory to tinning the plates. And though
the plates may not be eaten entirely through by the rust they are frequently so
thinned in spots as to render them practically worthless. This also renders it
necessary to employ skilled inspectors to detect the defective sheets.
The object of my invention is to overcome this difficulty and provide a means
whereby the thin plates of iron or steel after being rolled to the required gauge,
may be kept stored any desired length of time, or shipped without loss or injury
from rust or oxydization, and without in any way adding to or requiring any
additional labor or steps in the complete process of manufacturing the tin or terne
plates. In other words, it is the primary design of my invention to accomplish
this important result, and to secure it without any additional cost of labor or
material.
To this end my invention consists in taking the black plates after they have
been rolled or finished at the mill, and first subjecting them to the ordinary
pickling bath, commonly used as the preparatory step in tinning the sheets,
whereby the scale or oxydation is removed from their surface. The white sheets
thus produced are then washed or bathed in water to remove all traces of the acid,
and then the white and cleaned sheets are dried and fluxed, the drying and fluxing
operations being preferably performed simultaneously so that the bright or white
surface of the sheet is at all times protected by the film of water or by the film
of oil flux applied thereto as the water is driven off in the drying operation. The
white sheets after being thus dried and fluxed with oil, palm oil being preferably
used as the flux, are then piled evenly one on top of another in suitable boxes or
packages for shipping. As the bright, flat, smooth sheets are laid one on top of
another in the package, they are pressed snugly together by their own weight,
and the oil or flux is, to some extent, pressed out between the sheets and made to
exude and flow down over their edges in the package. The package of sheets is
then allowed to cool, which hardens or stiffens the palm oil, thus causing the
individual sheets to stick or adhere together with considerable firmness in one solid
package or block. The adherence of the sheets together is also greatly aided by
the atmospheric pressure, as the smooth flat sheets coated with oil on both sides,

page_text: when laid on top of one another and under the weight of the package, effectually
drives out the air between the sheets. The package of fluxed, white, adhering
sheets may then be boxed, if not previously placed in the box, and are ready for
shipment or storage for any length of time. The package of white, adhering,
oil-fluxed sheets may then be safely shipped upon ocean voyages requiring many
months without any danger of the least injury or loss from rust or oxydation.
And when it is desired to coat the sheets with tín, lead or other metal in the manu-
facture of tin or terne plates, the sheets are already fluxed and ready for immersion in
the tinning pot. To separate the sheets however from each other preparatory to
putting them separately into the tinning pot, the package of sheets are first heated
thus again softening the oil flux and enabling the sheets to be separated with
comparative ease. The heating of the sheets is also of course an incident
preparatory to subjecting them to the tinning bath in order to cause them to
properly take the tin.
Dated this Tenth day of June A.D. 1892.
HASELTINE, LAKE & Co.,
45, Southampton Buildings, London, Agents for the Applicant.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in the Treatment of Metal Plates for the
Manufacture of Tin or Terne Plates.
I, HENRY HARRIS LAKE, of the firm of Haseltine, Lake & Co., Patent
Agents, 45 Southampton Buildings in the County of Middlesex 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:-
My invention relates to improvements in shipping packages of sheet metal
plates, such as are commonly employed in the manufacture of tin or terne plates.
Heretofore it has been customary to ship thin plates or sheets of iron or steel
from the place where they are rolled to the place where they are tinned, or coated
with tin or other metal, in the condition that these plates come from the rolling
mill, the same being commonly termed "black plates." And very great difficulty
and loss is experienced owing to the fact that these black plates will continue to
rust or oxidize while they are being stored or shipped, or during the period that
elapses between the rolling of the plates and the tinning or coating of the same
with metal. It often happens that many of the plates are found to be eaten
entirely through in spots by the rust when they are subjected to the pickling bath
to remove the scale and rust preparatory to tinning the plates. And though the
plates are not eaten entirely through by the rust they are frequently so thinned in
spots as to render them practically worthless. This also renders it necessary to
employ skilled inspectors to detect the defective sheets.
The object of my invention is to overcome this difficulty and provide a means
whereby the thin plates of iron or steel after being rolled to the required gauge,
may be kept stored any desired length of time or shipped without loss or injury
from rust or oxidation, and without in any way adding to or requiring any
additional labor or steps in the complete process of manufacturing the tin or terne
plates. In other words, it is the primary design of my invention to accomplish
this important result, and to securing it without any additional cost of labor or
material.
To this end my invention consists in taking the black plates after they have been
rolled or finished at the mill, and first subjecting them to the ordinary pickling
bath, commonly used as the preparatory step to tinning the sheets, whereby the
scale or oxidation is removed from their surface. The white sheets thus produced
are then washed or bathed in water to remove all traces of the acid, and then the

page_text: white and cleaned sheets are dried and fluxed and then the white and pickled sheets
are dried and fluxed, the drying and fluxing operations being preferably performed
simultaneously so that the bright or white surface of the sheet is at all times
protected by the film of water or by the film of oil flux applied thereto as the water
is driven off in the drying operation. The white sheets after being thus dried and
fluxed with oil, palm oil being preferably used as the flux, are then piled evenly one
on top of another in suitable boxes or packages for shipping. As the bright, flat
smooth sheets are laid one on top of another in the package, they are pressed snugly
together by their own weight, and the oil or flux is, to some extent, pressed out
between the sheets and made to exude and flow down over their edges in the
package. The package of sheets is then allowed to cool, which hardens or stiffens
the palm oil, thus causing the individual sheets to stick or adhere together with
considerable firmness in one solid package or block. The adherence of the sheets
together is also greatly aided by the atmospheric pressure, as the smooth flat sheets
coated with oil on both sides, when laid on top of one another and under the weight
of the package, effectually drives out the air between the sheets. The package of
fluxed, white adhering sheets may then be boxed, if not previously placed in the
box, and are ready for shipment or storage for any length of time. The package
of white, adhering, oil-fluxed sheets may then be safely shipped upon ocean voyages
requiring many months without any danger of the least injury or loss from rust or
oxidation. And when it is desired to coat the sheets with tin, lead or other metal
in the manufacture of tin or terne plates, the sheets are already fluxed and ready
for immersion in the tinning pot. To separate the sheets however from each other
preparatory to putting them separately into the tinning pot, the package of sheets
are first heated thus again softening the oil flux and enabling the sheets to be
separated with comparative ease. The heating of the sheets is also of course an
incident preparatory to subjecting them to the tinning bath in order to cause them
to properly take the tin.
In practicing the invention any well known method or means for pickling the
black sheets and producing the white, bright or pickled sheets, now known to, or
commonly employed by those skilled in the art in tin plate factories may be used,
and the same may be said as to the method or means employed for drying or
fluxing the wet sheets after they come from the pickling or washing and cleaning
bath.
By employing as the film or coating for protecting the surface of the white
sheets from oxidation and for causing the same to adhere together, a substance
which also at the same time serves as a flux for the metal tinning or coating
operation, it will be observed that I accomplish the important new result before
pointed out without increasing in any way the labor, material or expense of the
manufacture of the final tin or terne plates. It will be readily understood by those
skilled in the art that if the black plates were furnished with a coating to prevent
further oxidation before the plates were pickled, the material used for this
preservative coating would be lost or wasted, and that also great labor and expense
would be involved in removing such preservative coating preparatory to the
subsequent pickling operation, to say nothing of the labor and expense incident to
coating the sheets with such preservative material. And that also if the sheets
after being pickled were coated with a preservative substance that would not also
serve as a flux in the subsequent tinning operation, much the same difficulty would
be experienced. But according to my invention where the white pickled sheets
are coated with a preservative substance which serves also as a flux in the subsequent
tinning operation, I accomplish the beneficial result in view and effect the saving
without any unnecessary steps or operations tending to add to the cost of the first
manufacture of the tin or terne plates.
In the accompanying drawing, which forms a part of this Specification, I have
shown at Figure 1 a package or box of white or pickled, fluxed and adhering plates
of iron or steel embodying and prepared according to my invention, the same being..
sheets such as are commonly used in the manufacture of terne or tin plates;

page_text: Fig. 2 is a similar view showing the package boxed for shipment; Fig. 3 is an
enlarged cross sectional view showing a few only of the sheets and in which their
thickness is exaggerated so that the sheets and their surface coatings or films of flux
or palm oil may be also indicated.
In the drawing A represents the box or enclosing case. B the package of
adhering, fluxed, white plates of iron or steel; one of the individual sheets;
and the film or coating of palm oil or other flux which will also act as a
preservative from oxidation or rust, and by which the sheets are caused to adhere
together more or less firmly, and, in connection with the bright smooth surface of
the sheets, to expel the air from between the sheets. The film or coating of palm
oil which collects at the edges of the package B is of course thicker than the
film between the sheets owing to the somewhat rough and uneven edge of the
package B as a whole; such edges of the package being of course composed of
the individual edges of the sheets b.
In practice I have found by experiment, where palm oil is used as the flux and
preservative substance, that after the oil and package of sheets become cold, that
the individual sheets will adhere so firmly together that the whole package may be
conveniently picked up and handled without danger of displacing or separating the
sheets one from another. The package of sheets when this prepared constitute in
fact a solid block, the sheets, in fact, hermetically sealing and protecting each other.
I desire it to be understood that while the substance I prefer to use for coating
the sheets after they are pickled and dried is palm oil, as this substance serves well
the double function of a flux in the subsequent tinning operation and also as a
preservative against oxidation of the sheets during shipment or storage, my
invention is not limited to the use of this particular substance, but other substances
which will perform this double function may be used as equivalents of or substituted
for the palm oil coating which for convenience is specifically mentioned in the
claims.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said
invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, as communicated to me
by my foreign correspondent I declare that what I claim is
1st. As a new article of manufacture the shipping or storage package of iron or
steel sheets for tinning hereinbefore described, and consisting of a number of white
or pickled sheets of iron or steel coated with palm oil, the same serving the double
function of a preservative against oxidation during storage or shipment and of a
flux in the subsequent tinning operation, so that the sheets after being stored or
shipped may be tinned without further pickling or fluxing, the individual sheets
being placed or piled close together and having the air expelled from between the
same, substantially as specified.
2nd. The process of preparing tinning sheets of iron or steel for shipment or
storage and subsequent tinning consisting in first pickling and cleaning the black
sheets, then drying, heating and fluxing the white or pickled sheets with a flux
which will also serve as a preservative against oxidation, and then piling or placing
a large number of the white, dried and fluxed sheets closely together in a package
suitable for shipment or storage and allowing the sheets and their flux coating to
cool and thus cause the sheets to adhere together in the package, so that the sheets
after being shipped or stored may be subsequently tinned without further pickling,
fluxing or cleaning and the preservative coating utilized as the flux in the tinning
operation, substantially as specified.
3rd. The process of preparing tinning sheets of iron or steel for shipment or
storage, consisting in first pickling the black sheets, then fluxing the white
or pickled sheets with a flux which will also serve as a preventative from rust or
oxidation, and then placing the white and fluxed sheets together in a shipping box
or package, substantially as specified.
4th. As a new article of manufacture, sheets of iron or steel prepared for tinning
and consisting of white or pickled sheets of iron or steel coated with palm oil, the

page_text: same serving the double function of a preservative against oxidation during storage
or shipping and of a flux in the subsequent tinning operation, so that the sheets
after being stored or shipped may be tinned without further pickling or fluxing,
substantially as specified.
5th. The shipping or storage package B of smooth, white or pickled, palm oil
coated sheets of iron or steel, the individual sheets adhering together by the palm
oil coating between the same and by the atmospheric pressure on the outside of the
package, the air being expelled from between the individual sheets, in combination
with an enclosing box A, substantially as specified.
Dated this 6th day of December 1892.
HASELTINE, LAKE & Co.,
45, Southampton Buildings, London, Agents for the Applicant.