Improvements in Apparatus to be used in Heating, Annealing, and Tempering Metal Wires, Rods, and Hoops.
Year: 1889

page_text: Date of Application, 11th June, 1889
Complete Specification Left, 11th Apr., 1890-Accepted, 31st May, 1890
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
[Communicated from abroad by HENRY ROBERTS, of Pittsburgh, in the County of
Alleghany, in the State of Pennsylvania, United States of America.]
Improvements in Apparatus to be used in Heating, Annealing, and
Tempering Metal Wires, Rods, and Hoops.
I, JOHN THOMSON KING, of 4 Clayton Square Liverpool, in the County of
Lancaster, Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as
follows:-
--
This invention relates to heating metal wire, rods, and hoops, and similar metal
previous to or during rolling drawing or galvanizing or for any other purpose to
which the apparatus may be applicable and it consists essentially of a beating furnace
or chamber in which the wire rod or hoop is heated in its passage through the furnace
and is by novel devices fed into carried through and delivered from the heating
furnace or chamber.
Under one modification of my invention I employ the following parts in combina-
tion viz. a furnace preferably of the regenerative class, and a spool or drum in the
furnace around which the wire or other form of metal is passed in one or more coils.
In this way the wire is exposed for a considerable time to the heat of the furnace and
can be caused at will to travel more rapidly through the furnace. The spool or drum
is preferably formed with grooves and notches on the surface for securing and
guiding the wire and is provided with internal liquid cooling arrangements to prevent
such spool or drum or its carrying shaft from being damaged by heat.
one wire way be passed around the spool or drum at the same time.
More than
Under another modification especially applicable when two or more wires are passed
through the furnace at the same time the spool or drum is constructed in several
separate sections each capable of being moved independently of the others and one
wire is passed around each section. By this arrangement any of the sections and
the wire thereon can be stopped or started without interfering with the motion of
the others. The sections are preferably made is segments bolted together and
are preferably driven by frictional contact. They are also cooled internally as in the
previous modifications.
The apparatus may be arranged in various ways without departing from the object
of the invention which is to keep the wire or metal exposed to the heat of the furnace
for a sufficient length of time to ensure its being heated to the required degree and
at the same time to keep the speed of travel of the wire so high that the quantity
treated in a certain size of furnace shall be sufficient to allow of its profitable use.
Dated this 4th day of June 1889
Per pro J. T. KING,
W. B. Johnson.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Apparatus to be used in Heating, Annealing, and
Tempering Metal Wires, Rods, and Hoops.
I JOHN THOMSON KING of 4 Clayton Square, Liverpool in the county of Lancaster,
Patent Agent 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 heating metal wire, rods and hoops and similar metal
previous to or during rolling, drawing or galvanizing or for any other purpose to
which the apparatus may be applicable, and it consists essentially of a heating
.

page_text: furnace or chamber in which the wire rod or hoop is heated in its passage through
the furnace and is by novel devices fed into carried through and delivered from the
heating furnace or chamber.
Under one modification of my invention I employ the following parts in combina-
tion riz.: a furnace preferably of the regenerative class and a spool or drum in the
furnace around which the wire or other form of metal is passed in one or more coils.
In this way the wire is exposed for a considerable time to the heat of the furnace
and can be caused at will to travel more rapidly through the furnace. The spool or
drum is preferably formed with grooves and notches on the surface for securing and
guiding the wire, and is provided with internal liquid cooled arrangements to
prevent such spool or drum or its carrying shaft from being damaged by heat.
More than one wire may be passed around the spool or drum at the same time.
Under another modification especially applicable when two or more wires are
passed through the furnace at the same time the spool or drun is constructed in
several separate sections each capable of being moved independently of the others,
and one wire is passed around each section. By this arrangement any of the sections
and the wire thereon can be stopped or started without interfering with the motion
of the others. The sections are preferably made in segments bolted together and are
preferably driven by frictional contact. They are also cooled internally as in the
previous modification.
The apparatus may be arranged in various ways without departing from the object
of the invention which is to keep the wire or metal exposed to the heat of the furnace
for a sufficient length of time to ensure its being heated to the required degree and
at the same time to keep the speed of travel of the wire so high that the quantity
treated in a certain size of furnace shall be sufficient to allow of its profitable use.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
Figure 1. is a vertical longitudinal section through the furnace on the line
X-X of figure 2 showing the rolls in dotted lines for supporting the ends
of the wire.
Figure 2. is a vertical cross section on the lines Y Y of fig. 1.
Figure 3 is a vertical longitudinal section of a furnace illustrating a modification
of my invention.
Figure 4 is a horizontal section on the line Z-Z of figure 3.
Like symbols of reference indicate like parts in each.
In the drawings, 2 represents the heating chamber of the furnace. In order to
adapt it for use on the regenerativo principle I prefer to provide it at the ends with
chainbers 3, filled with checker-work, and provided with gas inlets 4 and with ports 5
which by means of suitable valves, may be connected with the stack to serve as an
outlet for the waste products of combustion, or with the outer air to serve as an air
inlet. The chambers 3 are connected with the heating chamber 2 by neck flues 6. The
gas and air enter the the combustion chamber 2 from one of the regenerator chambers,
and after they have burned therein, the products of combustion pass through the
other regenerator chamber to the stack, heating the latter chamber in their passage.
The course of the gas and air may then be reversed and the regenerators are used
alternately as inlet and outlet passages in the usual way.
Inside the heating chamber 2, is journalled a spool or drum around which the
wire or wire rod is wrapped in one or more coils or plications. It is caused to travel
through the chamber from one side to the other around this spool or drum, and as it
thus has a circuitous or indirect passage, it is subjected for a considerable time to the
heat of the burning gases and may thus be raised to a high degree of head dependent
upon the number of times it passes around the drum, and the consequent duration
of its subjection to the fire of the furnace.
This construction of apparatus which I have just described (except the regenerator
chambers which are an essential feature) constitute my invention. The spool, how-
ever, may be constructed in many different ways, and I have illustrated some of them
in the drawings. Others will suggest themselves to those skilled in the art.

page_text: In figures 1 and 2. 1 show one form of the spool. It consists of a hollow cylin-
drical casting 7 mounted on a hollow shaft 8, which is supported in suitable journals 9
and is driven by a belt pulley 10 or other suitable power connection. The shaft 8
is hollow and is provided with a water supply pipe 11 by which a constant stream
of water through the shaft and through the body of the spool is maintained. The
water has its exit from the end of the shaft into a waste pipe or passage 12. The
water serves to cool the spool and its shaft and to prevent them from being burned
by the heat of the furnace. On the periphery of the spool 7 is a shell or ring 14
preferably made in two or more transversely divided sections, and provided with
peripheral ribs 15, which divide it into a number of grooves to enable two or more
wires or rods to be passed through the furnace at a single time. These grooves are
preferably inclined as shown in fig. 2 so that the wire shall be automatically
distributed on the surface of the spool and shall be prevented from overlapping
when the wire is wrapped more than once around it. The shell 14 is provided in
each groove with one or more notches or cavities 17, in which the end of a wire may
be inserted and secured.
}
The operation is as follows:-When it is desired to pass a wire through the
furnace, the cover 16 of the furnace is removed and the end of a wire which is drawn
from a reel situate at one end of the furnace, is introduced into the furnace, and is
fastened to the shell 14 by insertion into one of the notches 17 and. then the rotation
of the spool wraps the wire around its circumference in one of the grooves and
when it has been wrapped a sufficient number of times, say from one to twenty
times, the end is unfastened from the spool and is secured to a rotary reel situate at
the opposite end of the furnace or is passed to the rolls or to the galvanizing
apparatus according to the nature of the treatment which the wire is, to receive.
Two or more strands of wire may be fastened to the spool and wound thereon at
once. The rotation of the spool draws the wires into the furnace at one end and
causes them to pass out at the other in a continuous course, but owing to the number
of the wrappings around the spool, the wires are exposed to the heat for.a sufficient
length of time to heat them to a high degree even though the spool is driven quite
rapidly. I am thus enabled to heat the wire without causing it to travel so slowly
as to impede or diminish the output of the mill in which the apparatus is. used.
The slowness of action of prior apparatus in which the wire is caused to pass
directly through a heating chamber from one side to the other has been fatal to their
successful use. The only disadvantage in this form of apparatus is that if it be
used for heating more than one wire or rod at a time, anything, which would
necessitate the stopping of the spool for one of the wires would oblige it to be
stopped for all, and from this cause serious inconvenience might result. I overcome
this by constructing the spool so that there shall be a separate section or part for
each of the wires, these sections or parts being so arranged that any of them may
be checked in its rotation without checking the others. This secures independent
nction of the wires, and any accident which may affect one need not affect the others.
For this purpose the spool is preferably composed of several parallel rotary shafts 18,
arranged within the furnace and at their ends provided with gear wheels. 19 .inter-
meshing with a common driving pinion 20 (figures 3 and 4). Around the shafts, 18
and supported thereby are a number of rings 21 with grooved peripheries, arranged
,side by side as shown in figure 4. The rings a prevented from side movement by
enlargements.or collars 22 on the shafts 18 which fit within grooves on the interiors
of the rings 21. The rotation of the driving pinion 20 drives all the shafts 18 and
as the rings 21 are in contact therewith they are driven with a rotary motion all
revolving together, but as they are driven by friction and not by positive mechanical
connections any one of the rings may be stopped without disturbing the rotation of
the others. The wires are wrapped around the rings and passed through the heating
chamber in the same manner as already described with reference to the first and second
sheets of drawings.
In order to permit easy adjustment of the rings 21 I prefer to make them in
segments and to bolt the segments together by bolts 23 as shown in figure 4.

page_text: '
The shafts 18 are preferably made hollow and cooled by the passage through them
of streams of water in the usual way. The apparatus may be variously changed in
form, position, and details of construction without departing from the principles of
the invention.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said Inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed 1 declare that what, I
claim is :-
First. In an apparatus for heating wire &c. the combination with a heating chamber
of a coil spool arranged therein and adapted to receive one or more wraps or turns.
of the wire to be heated and mechanism for. rotating said spool whereby the wire is
continuously drawn in and delivered from the heating chamber by the rotation of
the coil spool and rolls or reels for discharging or receiving the wire substantially as
and for the purposes described.
Second. In an apparatus for heating wire &c., the combination with a heating
chamber, of a power driven horizontally journalled tapering coil spool arranged
therein and adapted to gradually and progressively receive and discharge one or
more wraps or turns of the wire to be heated, and rolls or reels for discharging and
receiving the wire substantially as and for the purposes described.
Third. In an apparatus for heating wire &c. the combination with a heating
chamber of a coil spool arranged therein and adapted to receive a series of coils or
turns of the wire &c. to be heated, said coil spool being composed of separate
independently rotary annular sections, substantially as and for the purposes
described.
$
Fourth. In an apparatus for heating wire &c., the combination with a heating.
chamber, of a coil spool arranged therein and adapted to receive a series of coils or
turns of the wire &c. to be heated, said coil spool being composed of separate
independently rotary annular tapering sections, substantially as and for the purposes
described.
Fifth. In an apparatus for heating wire &c., the combination with a heating
chamber, of a power driven hollow coil spool arranged therein and adapted to receive
a series of coils or turns of the wire &c. to be heated, said spool being mounted
upon a hollow shaft or shafts connected with a water supply, substantially as and for
the purposes described.
Sixth. An apparatus for heating wire &c., which consists in a beating chamber
and a power driven rotative spool arranged therein, having devices (such as a notch
on the spool) for detachably securing the end of a wire thereto, whereby the wire on
being wrapped on the spool and drawn through the heating chamber may be subjected
..to heat for a length of time depending on the number of its convolutions around the
spool, substantially as and for the purposes described.
Seventh. The method herein described of treating wire for the purpose of
subjecting it to protracted heat, which consists in passing the same through a heated
chamber in a spiral course or coil of one or more convolutions, and simultaneously
withdrawing the same from the chamber at one end of the coil and feeding it
thereinto at the other end, substantially as anḍ for the purposes described.
Dated this Tenth day of April 1890.
Ter pro J. I. KING,
J. Johnson.