Improvement in Manufacturing Chains.
Year: 1895

page_text: Date of Application, 26th Sept., 1895-Accepted, 26th Oct., 1895
Improvement in Manufacturing Chains.
1, EMIL SONANINI, Partner of E. Sonanini & Cie., Manufacturer of Duren in
the Province of Rhineland and Kingdom of Prussia 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 :-
The so-called patent chains so much used for securing and hanging up of little
household objects such as hanging-lamps, plugs for basins in lavatories etc.,
especially in the brass-fitter's trade, were, up to the present, made in the following
manner: The single links were obtained by stamping them out of a metal strip,
and then hooked into each other by hand, then turned back and bent together.
The new invention has the object of avoiding the drawbacks which are connected
with this manner of making the chains, viz. (1) the unexpectedly large amount of
waste in stamping out the links, (2) the necessary, troublesome and expensive
hand-work in joining the finished links to a chain.
In the annexed drawing, Fig. shows a piece of the metal strip as hitherto
used before and after the stamping out of the chain-links; Fig. 2 shows a new
link, which is to be joined to the chain, stuck into the preceding link, turned round.
and bent together (the latter two positions with dotted lines). Fig. 3 shows a piece
of the wire used by me in the manufacture of the chain-links before used after
they are rolled out. Fig. 4 shows the rolling apparatus used for this purpose.
Figs. 5, 6, 7 and 8 show in ground-plan, front- and side-view or sections to us,
20 and - the machine for making the chains and the different processes that
occur.
In the mode of manufacturing the chains hitherto in use, the metal strip (Fig. 1)
after the different chain-links had been stamped out, formed a grate a, which along
with the little pieces bb, stamped out of the chain-links for the eyes, was
considered as waste, the quantity of which in proportion to the wares produced is
a very great one; for on 300 kilogrammes of raw material (metal strips), one
reckons about 100 kilogr. of finished chains and 200 kilogr. of waste. 1, on the
other hand, use a proportionately thicker metal wire d (Fig. 3) of any sectional
shape (round, square etc.) which is unrolled from the winch A (Fig. 4) and pressed
flat in the roller B, and at the same time proportionately curved at the edge, so that
it comes out of the roller as a metal band e of a corrugated shape; increasing and
decreasing alternately in breadth. From this metal band the flat chains are then
obtained, lying longitudinally the one behind the other, the little parts of the
eye-holes o, as well as the narrow cross-pieces f, serving as a connection between
two consecutive half-finished chain-links, being stamped out in the stamp C. As
the parts are equal to the parts bb mentioned above as waste in the former
process, there only remain, as further waste, the cross-pieces ff, as against the
whole grates a in the former process. In my mode of manufacture, therefore, the
work is done almost entirely without waste; at least it is hardly worth mentioning
in comparison to that of former times, and my process is therefore far more
economical and rational.
The stamp C is so arranged as machine, that it separates the extreme end of the
metal band e as a finished flat chain-link 1, so that it now lies free in the press D
with its centre opposite to the press-parts gg and h. Before being separated by
the stamp, however, the end I has been, while lying flat pushed through the eyes
of the preceding link II, which is lying-finished and bent together by the previous.

page_text: operation, in the press D, while the free end of I was received in a corresponding
slit of the piece E, which serves at the same time as a stop to the advance of the
metal band. Now, after being separated from I, E turns 90° about its axis, so that
the slit in it and the breadth of the link I, which until now lay horizontally, take
a vertical position. Thus I presents its flat side to the parts g g and h of the
press D, so that it can now be bent together in U-shape by being drawn in between
the fork-parts gg and by pressing down the stamp h, whereupon it assumes the
position, which link II had formerly. A catch G draws the link between the
parts 9 9 and pushes them forward in this direction for the length of a link. This
catch seizes from above with its point i, which is bent back downwards and split
like a fork, the double-cross-piece of the link V, which has come out of the
press F during the previous operation, catches behind the terininal loop m, which
has been made by the bending in D and the pressing in F, and draws this link
with the four other links hanging to it IV, IV, II and I forwards for the length
of a link, so that V now moves into the place of VI, IV into that of V and so on.
Then the point of the catch G, going upwards, leaves the cross-piece of the
present link VI, goes back into its former position and in the same manner seizes
the link V, formerly IV, and so on. Simultaneously with G, the stamp h of the
press D, goes backwards and forwards.
While the stamp C is working and all the links are standing still, the two
stamps n in the press F move simultaneously from the right and from the left
towards each other and press between them, i.e. their correspondingly figured faces
the link IV, which was drawn out, bent like a during the previous pulling of
the catch G, from between the parts g g of the press D,-from the L-shaped into the
final bent shape corresponding to the finished chain-link; during which operation,
therefore, the cross-piece and the terminal loop m is formed.
The entire process of manufacturing the chain is therefore mechanically carried
out by the machine, without any hand-work being necessary. The manufacture of
each link of the chain takes place in four successive operations :
1.) The end of e is pushed forward into the position I;
2.) Stamping out and cutting off at C, when link IV is at the same time pressed
and finished at F.
.3.) Turning round E with I through 90°;
4.) Drawing round or pressing the link I into the position and -like shape
of 11 by the simultaneous forward motion of G and h.
The lifting out, going back and seizing anew of G takes place during the
operations 1.) 2.) and 3). Not until these four operations for one link are finished is
the band e again pushed forward the length of a link, forming operation I) for the
next link.
The roller B can also take part in this jerky forward-motion of e
with pauses in between, if it only rolls out one link from the wire d and then
stops, or the roller B can be allowed to run so long separately from the rest of the
machine, as one wishes to make band e from the wire d, while ready rolled metal
bands e are brought in to the other part of the machine and are moved forward at
intervals by a carrier arrangement the length of a link. The pressing roller B
consists of two rollers W, W, mounted adjustably in the supports P and Q above
or alongside of each other.
Each roller is divided lengthways into two parts, between which interchangeable
rollers Rare set in, according to shape, size and thickness of the chains, that are
to be made.
The collar of the one roller then serves as bed, that of the other as punch.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is:
1.) The manufacture of chain-links lengthways one behind the other, in which
they are coniained in endless strips hanging together in circumference almost
finished in the metal band e rolled from wire.

page_text: 2.) The arrangement of the pressing roller B for the manufacture of the metal
byad e, distinguished by the interchangeable collars set in between the two parts of
the rollers W, W..
3. For the manufacture of the chains from the metal band e, the mode of
procedure, distinguished by the four consecutive operations :
1.) Advancing of the metal band e the length of a link ;
2.) Stamping out of the eye-holes oo and of the cross-piece f, when
simultaneously at another place, a link which has previously gone through
the other operations, is pressed into its final shape.
3.) Turning round the new chain-link separated by the operation 2.) from the
metal band e through 90°;
4.) Bending this link into L-shape.
4.) The arrangement of machinery in order to make the performance of the work
mentioned in 3) possible in a purely mechanically way, thereby distinguished, that
in the direction of the advance of the metal band e the stamp C, press D, consisting
of the fork g g and the die and the moveable stop E are arranged behind one
another, each half the length of a link further on, and that at right angles to
this direction in the direction of the motion of the die h of the press D, a press F,
consisting of two dies nn moving towards each other and a catch G alternately
dvancing and retiring the length of a chain-link, is arranged, F being distant
from D two lengths of the link and from G alternately 1 and 2 or more lengths.
Dated this 25th day of August 1895.
For EMIL
SUNANINI,
Bernh. Brockhues.