Improvements in Shearing Machines for Shearing Compound Iron Sheets or Plates and for other like purposes.
Year: 1897

page_text: Date of Application, 15th Apr., 1897
Complete Specification Left, 6th Jan., 1898-Accepted, 19th Mar., 1898
Improvements in Shearing Machines for Shearing Compound Iron
Sheets or Plates and for other like purposes.
I, HUBERT SPENCE THOMAS, of The Cottage, Lydbrook, in the County of
Gloucester, Tin Plate Manufacturer, do hereby declare the nature of this invention
to be as follows:-
:-
My invention consists of the construction and combination hereinafter described
of the parts of shearing machines for shearing compound iron sheets or plates
and for other like purposes.
The shearing machine constituting my invention is especially fitted for use
in the manufacture of "black" iron plates to be afterwards tinned or coated with
other metal or alloy for the production of tin and terne plates and the like; that
is to say, for shearing or trimming the rough longitudinal edges of and for
shearing or cutting transversely into three or more pieces, the compound or
laminated plate or sheet formed by doubling a bar several times upon itself and
rolling the doubled bar into the required length and thickness, the layers of the
several trimmed and divided parts being afterwards separated into several pieces
er sheets of the same size, as is well understood.
The machine constituting my invention consists essentially of two horizontal
tables one above the other, the lower table being fixed and the upper table being
capable of a vertical reciprocating motion to and from the fixed table. The upper
side of the fixed table carries a series of parallel knives or shearing edges and the
upper and movable table has fixed on its under side a corresponding number of
parallel knives or shearing edges, the said knives or shearing edges of both tables
being arranged at such a distance apart that on the descent of the upper and
movable table its knives work closely against and pass between those of the lower
fixed table and shear between them the plate placed upon the said fixed table.
The knives or shearing edges of the two tables have the contour of the flat or
curved plate to be sheared and are made capable of accurate adjustment, the sides
of the knives being nearly but not quite vertical.
When the machine is constructed for trimming or shearing the longitudinal
edges of the rolled compound or laminated plate hereinbefore referred to two
pairs of parallel knives or shearing edges at the required distances apart are fixed
upon the two tables; and when the machine is constructed to shear or divide
transversely the said rolled compound or laminated plate, four pairs of parallel
knives or shearing edges at the required distances apart are employed in the
machine.
When it is wished to shear plates with angles other than right angles, the
pairs of knives or shearing edges are correspondingly inclined instead of being
parallel.
In order to preserve the plate flat during the shearing operation a press or other
holding apparatus may be employed and the fixed table may be provided with

page_text: guides for the purpose of determining the exact required position of the plate on
the said table.
Beneath the fixed table of the machine an endless chain or other carrier may
be arranged on which the finished and sheared plates are received and by which
they are conveyed to the part of the works at which they are to be opened or
separated.
By the use of a machine of the kind described containing two pairs of knives
the sides of the compound plate are trimmed or sheared very truly and parallel
and by the use of a machine of the kind described containing four pairs of knives
the compound plate is divided into three pieces each of the same size and with
their edges squarely and truly cut.
I do not limit myself to the use in the machine of any particular number of
pairs of knives or shearing edges nor to the application of the machine to the
purposes described as it may be used for analogous operations.
W. T. WHITEMAN,
Agent for the Applicant.
Improvements in Shearing Machines for Shearing Compound Iron
Sheets or Plates and for other like purposes.
I, HUBERT SPENCE THOMAS, of The Cottage, Lydbrook, in the County of
Gloucester, Tin Plate Manufacturer, do hereby declare the nature of my 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 consists of the construction and combination hereinafter described
of the parts of shearing machines for shearing compound iron sheets or plates
and for other like purposes.
The shearing machine constituting my invention is especially fitted for use
in the manufacture of "black" iron plates to be afterwards tinned or coated with
other metal or alloy for the production of tin and terne plates and the like; that
is to say, for shearing or trimming the rough longitudinal edges of, and for
shearing or cutting transversely into three or more pieces, the compound or
laminated plate or sheet formed by doubling a bar several times upon itself and
rolling the doubled bar into the required length and thickness, the layers of the
several trimmed and divided parts being afterwards separated into several pieces
or sheets of the same size as is well understood.
The machine constituting my invention consists essentially of two horizontal
tables one above the other, the lower table being fixed and the upper table being
capable of a vertical reciprocating motion to and from the fixed table. The upper
side of the fixed table carries a series of parallel knives or shearing edges and the
upper and movable table has fixed on its underside a corresponding number of
parallel knives or shearing edges, the said knives or shearing edges of both tables
being arranged at such a distance apart that on the descent of the upper and
movable table its knives work closely against and pass between those of the lower
fixed table and shear between them the plate placed upon the said fixed table.
The knives or shearing edges of the two tables have the contour of the flat or
curved plate to be sheared and are made capable of accurate adjustment, the sides
of the knives being nearly but not quite vertical.
When the machine is constructed for trimming or shearing the longitudinal

page_text: edges of the rolled compound or laminated plate hereinbefore referred to, two
pairs of parallel knives or shearing edges at the required distances apart are fixed
upon the two tables; and when the machine is constructed to shear or divide
transversely the said rolled compound or laminated plate, four pairs of parallel
knives or shearing edges at the required distances apart are employed in the
machine.
When it is wished to shear plates with angles other than right angles, the
pairs of knives or shearing edges are correspondingly inclined instead of being
parallel.
By the use of a machine of the kind described containing two pairs of knives
the sides of the compound plate are trimmed or sheared very truly and parallel
and by the use of a machine of the kind described containing four pairs of knives
the compound plate is divided into three pieces each of the same size and with
their edges squarely and truly cut.
I do not limit myself to the use in the machine of any particular number of
pairs of knives or shearing edges nor to the application of the machine to the
purposes described as it may be used for analogous operations.
I will now proceed to describe with reference to the accompanying drawings
the manner in which my invention is to be performed.
Figure 1 of the accompanying drawings represents in front elevation and
Figure 2 in side elevation a multiple machine constructed according to my in-
vention for shearing compound plates transversely into several pieces or sheets
Figure 3 represents in side elevation a pair of shearing knives together with the
stripping or ejecting rollers hereinafter described and Figures 4 and 5 are plans
of the stripping or ejecting rollers.
Figure 6 represents two pairs of the said knives separately.
Figure 7 represents the adjusting mechanism for the series of knives of the
machine.
Figures 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 are drawn to a larger scale than Figures 1 and 2.
The same letters of reference indicate the same parts in the several figures of the
drawings.
A is the lower or fixed table of the machine and B is the upper vertical
reciprocating table. The said table B is shown in its raised position in the several
figures of the drawings. On the said tables A and B a series of parallel knives
marked respectively a, a, a and b, b, b are arranged the said knives being made
adjustable with respect to one another by screw pins c, c, c working in screwed
holes in blocks d, d, d (see Figures 3 and 7) at the ends of the knives or
shearing edges a and b, the said screw pins c, e being turned by heads or nuts e, e
formed in one piece with the screw pins c, c. The knives are fixed after adjustment
by the clamping screw bolts el and screw nuts e² (see Figure 3). From an examina-
tion of Figure 3 the method of mounting the knives a, a, a on the table A and
fixing of them to the said table after adjustment will be well understood.
The knives b, b of the reciprocating table B are so arranged with respect to the
series of knives a, a on the fixed table A that on the descent of the table B the
several knives b, b work closely against and pass between the several knives (, (
of the fixed table A and shear between them the plate placed on the said fixed
table.
The vertical rising motion of the table B and its knives b, b, b is obtained by
a pair of eccentrics f, f on the rotary shaft 9 and eccentric rods f f jointed to
the upper side of the table B, slides, on the said table B working in guides
in the standards h, h. The shaft g is driven from the engine m through the crank
shaft, pinion and spur wheel k, a clutch i being employed to throw the shaft g
into and out of communication with the crank shaft. The shaft g may be driven
by a detached or separate engine or prime mover instead of by an engine in com-
bination with the machine.
The compound plate to be divided into sheets is fed between the several pairs
of knives a, b when the reciprocating table is in the position represented in the

page_text: drawing and on the descent of the upper table B is divided transversely by the
action of the pairs of knives into six series of sheets. After the series of sheets
have been thus simultaneously produced by the shearing operation, they are
seized by stripping or ejecting mechanism consisting essentially of pairs of
rollers n, peach pair being situated in the space between adjacent pairs of knives
(see Figure 1) and by the action of the said rollers the cut sheets are ejected or
removed from the machine which is then ready for the reception of another
compound plate.
The ejecting or withdrawing rollers n, p are arranged operated and work as
follows:-
The upper rollers n, n, n are each carried by an adjustable forked arm through
the upper part of which arm a shaft 2, driven by belt or other gearing from the
shaft g, runs.
On the said shaft is a toothed wheel driving through an inter-
mediate wheel n², a toothed wheel n' on the axis of the roller n. The roller n which
has a continuous rotary motion, constitutes the driving or acting roller of the pair of
ejecting rollers n, p and is situated at a level higher than that which the compound
plate to be operated on in the machine has. Situated under the roller n is the
idle roller of the pair of rollers n, p carried by a forked arm or lever p² carried
on a shaft pl. An angular motion is given to the shaft p¹ after the cutting of the
sheets by a cam 7 (see Figure 2) acting through the levers and spring pressed
rod the lower end of which is jointed to an arm on the shaft p¹ coincident with
the arms, the raising of the arms 72 72 and rollers being effected by the
spring of the spring pressed rod t when the flat part of the cam 9 comes under the
roller at the free end of the lever s. By the said angular motion of the arms 22
the idle roller is raised and thereby lifts and grips the cut sheets between it
and the driving ejecting roller n when the said sheets are withdrawn or ejected
from the machine by the motion communicated to them by the rotating roller.
When a machine of the kind described and represented is to be employed only
for trimming the longitudinal edges of the plates or sheets introduced into the
machine, two pairs of knives at right angles to those shown and at the required
distance apart are employed in place of the said cross knives a, h.
In order to preserve the plate flat during the shearing operation, a press or
other holding apparatus may be employed and the fixed table may be provided
with guides for the purpose of determining the exact required position of the
plate on the said table.
Instead of the pairs of ejecting rollers described and represented, an endless
chain or other carrier may be arranged beneath the fixed table of the machine
on which the finished and sheared plates are received and by which they are
conveyed to the part of the works at which they are to be opened or separated.
In operating on compound plates of iron of a concave or curved figure in the
machine hereinbefore described and represented, the outer knives of the bottom
or fixed series are raised by inserting packing pieces under them and the middle
knives of the upper or movable series are lowered so that the several series of
knives shall follow the contour of the plate and effect the cutting of the series
of sheets simultaneously.
Figure 8 represents in front elevation the bottom series of the knives a and the
top series of the knives of the machine so arranged as to conform to the contour
or curve of the plate to be sheared. It will be seen that the blocks or holsters d, d
carrying the outside knives of the bottom set a are adjusted to the proper height
by packing pieces ³, of different thicknesses placed under them, that is.
between their ends and the bottom table A to which they are bolted; and it will
also be seen that the position of the outside knives 6 of the top set is adjusted with
respect to the bottom knives a by making the outside blocks or bolsters d, d on the
table B, correspondingly thin, so that each top knife of the series is at the same
distance from its corresponding bottom knife.
Other methods than that described may be adopted for adjusting the pairs of
knives to the contour of the plate to be sheared.

page_text: Where sheets are required having a wedge shape, that is, having a greater width
at their rear ends than at their front ends I incline the knives of the upper table
to each other at the desired angle and arrange the knives of the lower table to
correspond with those of the upper table.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my invention
and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that I claim as my
invention of "Improvements in shearing machines for shearing compound iron
sheets or plates and for other like purposes":
First: The combination in a machine for simultaneously cross shearing or
cutting a compound or single plate of iron or other metal into a series of sheets,
of a series of pairs of parallel cross knives or shearing edges, carried by a fixed
table and a vertically reciprocating table, the several parts of the multiple cross
shearing machine being constructed and worked substantially as hereinbefore
described and illustrated in the accompanying drawings.
Secondly; The combination in a machine for simultaneously shearing or
trimming the opposite longitudinal edges of a compound or single plate or sheet
of iron or other metal, of two pairs of parallel longitudinal knives or shearing
edges at the required distance apart carried by a fixed table and a vertically
reciprocating table substantially as hereinbefore described.
Thirdly; In multiple or compound shearing machines of the kinds claimed in
the prior claims, the combination with the pairs of knives or shearing edges of the
said machines of plate stripping ejecting or withdrawing rollers arranged, operating
and working substantially as hereinbefore described and illustrated in the accom
panying drawings.
Lastly; In shearing curved plates in the multiple or compound shearing
machine arranging the series of fixed and movable knives or shearing blades
so that their acting shearing edges have the same or practically the same contour
as that of the curved plate to be cut or sheared as herein described and illustrated
in the accompanying drawings.
Dated this Fourth day of January 1898.