Improvements in Machinery for Curving or Shaping Tubes and .s of Various Sections
Year: 1897

page_text: Date of Application, 10th May, 1897-Accepted, 3rd July, 1897
Improvements in Machinery for Curving or Shaping Tubes and .
Articles of Various Sections.
(A communication from abroad by the Société Anonyme du Générateur du Temple, of
Paris, in the French Republic.)
I, PHILIP MIDDLETON JUSTICE, of 55 and 56 Chancery Lane, in the County of
Middlesex, Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Patent Agents, 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:--
This invention relates to certain improvements in machinery for curving or shaping
tubes and articles of various sections.
Some forms of the essential portions of machinery for this purpose are illustrated
diagrammatically in the accompanying drawing in which is shown in Fig. 1 a former
or shaped part or body O to the surface of which are adapted to be applied two or
more rollers a b c placed in line and suitably carried such as by a lever this
combination of rollers being capable of two movements, first a movement around a
point o of the first cylinder O, and second, a movement around another point o¹ of the
lever situated between the first and the last roller but not necessarily on the line of
their centres.
In Figs. 2, 3 and 4, the apparatus is shown as having only two rollers.
To shape or curve a tube or the like the two rollers are suitably carried in a frame
or in other ways are placed in the position indicated in Fig. 2. The tube is placed
against the former O, which may be done with ease as there is a considerable space
between the rollers and the former. By moving the lever which is pivoted at o the
two rollers are made to turn around the point o. As soon as this rotary movement
commences the rollers rock on the point o¹ on which they are pivoted and take up
the position indicated in Fig. 3. The tube M N which is to be shaped or curved
tends to push away the roller a and consequently causes the roller b to apply the
tube accurately on the stationary former 0 which in this case is shown as being a
circular body or cylinder.
This arrangement presents several advantages. It allows the shaping of forms such
as X, Fig. 5, presenting differences of thickness in a direction perpendicular to the
direction of the rolling; it allows a considerable play between the rollers and the
former or cylinder which enables the rollers to take in articles having thickened
extremities (such as the tubes of the "du Temple" boilers, which are flanged at the
ends), and it allows of shaping on a former or cylinder of other than circular form and
of forcibly applying the article to the stationary former even in the event of the
axes bending.
As shown in Fig. 4 the arms carrying the rollers ab may be altered, the shorter
arm carrying the working roller b. This arrangement allows the article to be
maintained in a plane strictly normally to the axis of the former o whilst it is being
rolled. Finally it permits when curving tubes in a small radius of their being made
to engage progressively in U shaped or like grooves in a former such grooves being

page_text: slightly widened or flared at the mouth, the edges of the U exerting a lateral
compressing force intended to compensate for the flattening force which is set up by
the tension of the fibres on the outside of the tube.
It will be obvious that other arrangements of parts to those illustrated may be
employed without departing from the principle of the invention.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my 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 :-
1. In machinery for shaping or curving tubes and articles of different section, two or
more rollers placed in line, and capable of movement about a point situated between
the first and last roller, and of another movement around a point situated in the
former on which the rolling takes place, substantially as and for the purpose described.
2. The improvement in machinery for shaping or curving tubes and articles of
different section consisting of the arrangements of pivoted levers and rocking rollers
arranged substantially as described and illustrated.
Dated the 10th dose of M. 1907