IM- PROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR ROLLING AND SHAPING IRON AND STEEL
Year: 1878

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Thomas Williamson and Alexander
Younger at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 19th March
1878.
THOMAS WILLIAMSON, Steel Works Manager, and ALEXANDER YOUNGER, Mill and
Forge Foreman, both of Newton, in the County of Lanark, North Britain.
" IM-
PROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR ROLLING AND SHAPING IRON AND STEEL,"
This Invention relates to machinery for rolling and shaping iron and steel, and
has for its object to construct and arrange such machinery in a novel, simple, and
extremely compact manner.
The improvements are also designed to reduce the labor of manipulating the
metal during the rolling operation, and diminish the time required for producing
the finished material.
In one modification of the improved machinery adapted for rolling rails, angles,
beams, and bars of any section, the usual reversing rolls, through which the bloom
or ingot of iron or steel is passed and repassed, are replaced by a series of pairs of
rolls arranged in a continuous line or row.
The rolls are carried in strong housings placed as close to each other as the
requisite strength will permit, and at the beginning of the series where the bloom
or ingot is first led between the rolls, a number of these rolls are disposed in pairs
alternately horizontal and vertical, the remainder towards the further or finishing
end being in pairs continuously horizontal.
The heated bloom or ingot is laid on an inclined way, down which its slides by
its own weight towards the first pair of rolls, where it enters and is rolled through
a large rectangular or other shaped aperture formed by grooves turned in the
rolls.
In each succeeding pair of rolls smaller grooves are formed than in the pair
immediately preceeding, and the bloom or ingot in passing through the decreasing
apertures between the rolls is gradually reduced in cross section whilst being
lengthened into a bar.
Åt or about the first pair of continuous horizontal or finishing rolls the grooves
or apertures in the rolls begin to assume the form of cross section, which it is

page_text: intended to give to the rail or bar passing through, and when the final pair is
reached the grooves in them correspond exactly to the desired section of the finished
rail or bar.
Guides are provided between each pair of rolls to lead the bloom or the bar into
the grooves or apertures; and in order to ensure the passage of the rail or bar from
one pair of rolls to the next at the proper speed to prevent buckling, bending, or
overdrawing, the rolls are provided with suitable gearing by which they are driven
at peripheral velocities corresponding to the increasing length of rail or bar to
be rolled by each consecutive pair.
The rolls are made adjustable towards or from each other by means of screws
which regulate the draft for any velocity of the rolls.
The continuous horizontal or finishing rolls, may have, two or more grooves of
different sections formed in them, and the rail or bar in course of formation may be
passed from the preceding pair of rolls into a groove of the first finishing pair corre-
sponding to the section it is desired to produce.
In a modification of the present improvements applicable to machinery for rolling
and shaping axles, crank pins, piston rods, and other similar short forgings of iron
or steel, three solid rolls are mounted horizontally in suitable housings, two being
on the same level, and the third immediately above and between them. The
peripheries of these rolls are turned or cut away so that when all three bear or
nearly bear on each other, a central space is left between them of the exact shape of
the axle or other forging to be rolled, and the rolls are made adjustable to or from
each other by means of screws worked by suitable gearing, the top roll sliding
vertically and the lower rolls horizontally.
The bloom or ingot is passed between the rolls at one side, and whilst being
rolled the rolls are gradually screwed towards each other until the bloom assumes
the form and size of forging required, when the lower rolls are quickly screwed or
slid back, and the forging drops out by its own weight on to an inclined way, and
alides or rolls from underneath the mill.
For rolling and shaping very short forgings the peripheries of the rolls may be
turned to admit two or more pieces in their length at one time.