Improvements in the Manufacture of Axle Boxes.
Year: 1896

page_text: Date of Application, 29th Jan., 1896
Complete Specification Left, 28th Oct., 1896-Accepted, 28th Nov., 1895
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in the Manufacture of Axle Boxes.
I ALFRED JOHNSON CHARLTON of 886 Ashton Old Road, Fairfield, near
Manchester in the County of Lancaster, Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of
this invention to be as follows:-
This invention relates to the manufacture of axle boxes for railway and other
vehicles, and the said invention consists in the manufacture of a solid rolled or
forged axle box from wrought iron or steel scrap, or a cast ingot or a bloom, formed
into a tube of suitable thickness for the process hereafter described.
This tube may be welded or weldless but I prefer the latter. I may form the
tube from wrought iron or steel scrap by hydraulic or other pressure at a welding
heat, or I may punch a hole through a solid bloom and so form a tube or I may
cast an ingot of tubular form.
I then roll or forge this tube by means of grooved rolls so formed as to reduce
the same to the section required to form the necessary indentations and projections
and give strength and solidity where necessary but still in a circular or cylindrical
form; after which it is squared by suitable tools to the desired shape to form the
completed axle box, which may afterwards if required be further finished either by
band or power.
I thus obtain an axle box as solid as a casting but of rolled or forged iron or
steel.
Dated this 28th day of January 1896.
GEO. DAVIES & SON,
4, St. Ann's Square, Manchester, Agents for the Applicant.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in the Manufacture of Axle Boxes.
I ALFRED JOHNSON CHARLTON, of 886 Ashton Old Road, Fairfield, near
Manchester, in the County of Lancaster, Engineer, 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 the manufacture of axle boxes for railway and other
vehicles, and the said invention consists in the manufacture of a solid rolled or
forged axle box from wrought iron or steel scrap, or a cast ingot, or a solid bloom,
formed into a tube of suitable thickness for the process hereafter described.
My improved process of manufacture will be readily understood on reference to
the sheet of drawings hereunto annexed and the following explanation thereof.
The tube from which the axle box is to be formed may be welded or weldless,
but I prefer the latter. I may form the tube from wrought iron or steel scrap by
hydraulic or other pressure at a welding or other suitable heat, or I may punch a
hole through a solid bloom, or cast an ingot, as shewn at Fig. 1, on the annexed
drawing, and roll out or expand the tube into the form shown in side view at
Fig. 2, and end view at Fig. 3, or I may cast an ingot in this form.

page_text: I then roll or forge this tube by means of grooved rolls so formed as to reduce
the same to the section required, to form the necessary indentations and projections,
and to give strength and solidity where necessary, but still in a circular or cylindrical
form, with three projecting circumferential bands a, b, and c as shown in end view
at Fig. 4, and in section at Fig. 5.
I then square or squeeze up this cylinder by hydraulic or other pressure with
suitable tools or dies, into a rectangular form (as represented by the dotted lines on
Fig. 4) to the desired shape to form the completed axle box, which may afterwards,
if required, be further furnished either by hand or power.
Fig. 6 shews an end view, and Fig. 7 a vertical section of the finished
.axle box.
It will be seen that the space between the projecting bands a and b at the
top will form the seat for the spring, and the space between the bands b and c
at the sides will form the vertical grooves to receive the two borns of the axle
guards.
These bands will be continued all round the box but at those parts where
they are not required for the above named purposes it will not be necessary
to remove them as they will tend to give strength and rigidity to the
axle box.
Instead of the groove between the bands b and c being rolled out the band
may be rolled solid and the groove cut out afterwards by a suitable tool to the
depth required.
By this improved method of manufacture 1 obtain by mechanical means an
axle box as solid as a casting but of rolled or forged iron or steel.
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 :-
The manufacture of rolled or forged axle boxes, substantially as hereinbefore
described and illustrated by the drawings annexed.
Dated this 27th day of October 1896.
GEO. DAVIES & SON,
4, St. Ann's Square, Manchester, Agents for the Applicant.