Improvements in a Method of and Apparatus for Welding Together the Meeting Edges of Iron or Steel Sheets or Plates.
Year: 1890

page_text: Date of Application, 25th Nov., 1890-Accepted, 21st Mar., 1891
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in a Method of and Apparatus for Welding Together
the Meeting Edges of Iron or Steel Sheets or Plates.
I, JAMES COPPER BAYLES, of East Orange, State of New Jersey, U.S.A.,
Mechanical Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of my invention for IMPROVE-
MENTS IN A METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR WELDING TOGETHER THE
MEETING EDGES OF IRON OR STEEL SHEETS OR PLATES, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by
the following statement :-
The object of the present improvements is to facilitate the practice of the art of
welding together the edges of iron or steel sheets or plates according to the
method heretofore invented by the inventor of the present improvements, and
designated by him in his Application for Letters Patent therefor No. 19179 of
November 25th 1890 "clinal welding."
It will therefore be understood that the present invention is entirely subordinate
to the said previous invention designated "clinal welding," and merely consists in
the herein-described particular method of and especial form of apparatus for
practising the said art of "clinal welding."
Iron or steel sheets or plates are prepared for clinal welding by having those of
their edges which are to be united provided with diagonal bends. The sheets or
plates are then arranged with their diagonal bends occupying convergent positions
in close proximity to each other, and in suitable relation to a furnace or hot blast,
by which the bends are raised to a welding heat preparatory to being appropriately
supported upon an anvil and welded together by hammering or compression.
The particular method, which forms one part of the present invention, consists in
first applying force to the heated bends in such manner as to drive them laterally
toward and against each other, whereby they are made to unite and form a welded
ridge of metal, and in then applying force in such direction as to flatten such ridge
toward or into the plane of the sheets.
The second part of the present invention embracing the apparatus for carrying out
the prescribed method of welding, consists of any suitable anvil for supporting the
work, and an especial hammer or die, the face of which at the end adjacent to the
furnace, or source of heat, is provided with a notch or recess having convergent side
walls and gradually diminishing in depth and increasing in width.
The
The mouth of the notch is wide enough at the edge of the hammer next the
furnace to straddle the two bends, and the resultant effect of the first blows of the
hammer thereon is to crowd the bends against each other as they are subjected to
progressive compression between the convergent side walls of the notch.
hammer and anvil are then moved along the work, or the work is fed between the
hammer and anvil, the blows of the hammer or die being repeated until the ridge
produced by the welding together of the bends is flattened down substantially into
the plane of the sheets by the continued blows of the flat portion of the face of the
die or hammer adjacent to the notched portion.
The accompanying drawings, illustrating the apparatus employed, are as
follows:-
Figure 1 is a symbolic representation of a furnace and a transverse section of two
plates, with the required bends arranged in suitable proximity to each other and to
the furnace, together with a front elevation of the notched end of a hammer, the
furnace being assumed to be in front elevation, and the hammer as vibrating in a
vertical plane in the rear of the furnace.
Figure 2 is an insometrical perspective of the hammer or die, exhibiting the
notched face.

page_text: Figure 3 is a symbolic representation of a pair of hammers vibrating in different
parts of the same plane, for effecting the preliminary union of the heated bends, and
thereby carrying out the first step of the present process.
Figure 4 is a symbolic representation exhibiting the notched hammer and anvil
in side elevation, and illustrating the forging down of the welded ridge into the
plane of the sheets.
Figures 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 are transverse sections symbolically representing,
respectively, the original shapes and positions of the bends as prepared for welding,
and the progressive changes in the form of the weld produced by successive impacts
with the notched and flat portions of the face of the hammer as the work is fed
along the surface of the anvil which supports it.
The drawings represent in cross section two iron or steel plates, A. B, which are
prepared for being united by a welded joint by having their adjacent edges provided,
respectively, with the diagonal bends, a b.
The sheets thus prepared are clamped in suitable proximity to each other, and in
proper relation to the furnace or source of heat, as symbolically illustrated in
Figure 1. The flame or hot blast, C, is directed into and through the space between
the bends which are thus brought to a welding heat.
The first step in the process of welding is to apply the necessary lateral force to
drive the two bends toward and against each other, whereby they become welded
into the form of the ridge, D, symbolically represented in Figure 6.
This preliminary step of the welding process may be performed by means of the
hammers, Ee, adapted to vibrate rapidly in different parts of the same plane, as
symbolically represented in Figure 3, but it will usually be more convenient to
adopt the simpler device illustrated in Figures 2 and 4 which consists of a hammer-
block or die, F, adapted to deliver its blows in a direction substantially perpen-
dicular to the plane of the sheets, and having a portion, FI, of its working face flat,
and the adjoining portion of its face toward the furnace provided with a notch, f, the
mouth of which, at the end of the hammer-block or die which is fed toward the
work, or toward which the work is fed, is large enough to straddle the two bends,
so that the flaring side-walls, f¹ 12, of the mouth will force the two bends toward
and against each other as the hammer delivers its blows toward the face of the
anvil upon which the work is supported.
By whichever method the preliminary step of the welding operation be performed,
the result is the formation of the welded ridge, D, and the next step consists in
flattening this ridge toward the plane of the sheets, which is effected by the
successive blows of a flat faced hammer delivering its blows in a direction
substantially perpendicular to the plane of the sheets and which may either be a
separate hammer employed in conjunction with the vibrating hammers, Ee, or in
conjunction with a notched straddling hamuner, or may be a hammer having a
portion of the working face flat and the remaining portion notched, as illustrated in
Figure 2.
In either case, as the work progresses, the welded ridge is flattened down as
illustrated in Figures 7, 8 and 9 until, if desired, all appearance of a ridge is
obliterated, as illustrated in Figure 10, in which case the only remaining indication
of the weld will be the shallow groove, d, having convex side walls meeting each
other at a sharp angle, which is one of the characteristic marks of the so called
"clinal weld."
Welding apparatus embracing essentially a furnace, an anvil and a vibrating
hammer, being well known and in common use, need not be herein described. In
such apparatus, the work is sometimes fed from a stationary furnace over a stationary
anvil, toward the face of which the hammer moves in delivering its blows; or the
work may be maintained in a stationary position, and the furnace, anvil and hammer
be moved progressively along the line of the weld. It is therefore deemed sufficient
to herein describe in detail merely a hammer-block or die having the notched face
which is the characteristic feature of the apparatus claimed.

page_text: Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that
what I claim is :-
1. The method of practicing the art of clinal welding for uniting the edges of iron
or steel sheets or plates by providing the adjacent edges of the sheets of metal with
diagonal bends, then holding the sheets in suitable proximity and heating the bends
to a welding heat; which consists in first laterally compressing the heated bends
toward and against each other and thereby forming a welded ridge; and in then
forging down such ridge toward or into the plane of the sheets, substantially as set
forth.
2. In an apparatus for welding together iron or steel sheets or plates, a hammer-
block or die having a portion of its working face flat and the remaining portion
provided with a notch, or recess which has flaring side walls, and which gradually
increases in depth toward the edge of the face, as and for the purposes set forth.
3. The combination, as herein set forth, of a furnace, an anvil adapted to support
two iron or steel sheets or plates provided upon their adjoining edges with diagonal
bends, and a hammer provided upon its working face with a notch, having convergent
side walls and adapted to reciprocate in a path substantially perpendicular to the
face of the said anvil, as and for the purpose described.
Dated this 25th day of November 1890.
ABEL & IMKAI,
Agents for the Applicant.