Improvements in Machinery for Moulding, Curling, Wiring, Edging, and Folding Sheet Metal.
Year: 1888

page_text: Date of Application, 31st July, 1888
Complete Specification Left, 30th Apr., 1889
Complete Specification Accepted. 1st June, 1889
Improvements in Machinery for Moulding, Curling, Wiring, Edging,
and Folding Sheet Metal.
I, DANIEL SMITH Junior, of Raglan Street, Wolverhampton in the County of
Stafford, Mechanical Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as
follows:-
This invention relates to improvements on my Letters Patent No. 3959 of 1885,
and to my application for Patent dated March 8th 1888 and numbered 3554. In the
machine as described in my Patent No. 3959 of 1885 I perform the operations of
moulding, curling and wiring, and plain curling and plain curling and wiring at one
operation or fixing of the sheet and in my application No. 3554 of 1888 I set forth a
means of edging sheet metal by an arrangement on the front of the moulding slide to
enable sheets to be edged in the machine without interfering with the mechanisin used
for the operations of curling, wiring, and moulding. Now when the machine is in
this form it necessitates the removal of the curling tool and replacing by a folding
tool, and the addition of a knife-edged blade on the upper moulding die to enable the
operation of folding a sheet to be performed.
Now according to my present invention I can perform the operations of edging,
folding, moulding, curling, and wiring without changing or removing any parts of
the machine. To accomplish this I make the addition of an edging arrangement
immediately to be described to the machine as described in my patent 3959 of 1885
and also the addition of a folding arrangement described hereafter.
On the front of the moulding slide I form a chamber or case containing a bar
preferably of hardened steel. Bolts pass through slot holes in this bar such bolts being
for the purpose of firmly securing the outer or front of casing to the main moulding
slide to prevent the lateral deflection of the steel bar contained therein when being
used for the purpose of edging a sheet. This steel bar has a vertical movement within
its casing. When it is not in use it is (if desired) retained up by suitable springs. By
a lever motion cause an excentric to partly rotate or a wedge to slide and force
down the steel bar below the lower face of the slide carrying the upper moulding, die
•

page_text: it is then in form for edging a sheet. I plane a groove along the upper face of the
lower moulding die near the front edge thereof, or I make use of a separate piece called
the lower edging die, and I place the sheet to be edged over this groove and against
suitable guages and as the steel bar descends it forces down the sheet over the edge
of the groove in the lower edging tool as will be readily understood.
I will now describe my improvements in folding. I cast a slot horizontally across the
front of the bed of the machine in position near the shaft that operates the moulding slide.
This shaft is placed through excentrics that revolve in bearings at each end of the
machine. In the slot before mentioned I place a steel plate having an acute-angled
groove cut along its edge to fold over the edge of a sheet and such plate slides on
a bracket projecting from the bed of the machine. On the outer end of this bracket
1 fix a steel plate having a knife edge which enters the groove in the steel plate
aforesaid. The operation of the folding is as follows:-A sheet is first edged and
placed with its turned down edge close up against the knife edge the shaft is now
operated and as it revolves excentrically it pushes against the inner edge of the steel
plate and the other edge with the groove in it pushes against the turned down.edge of
the sheet and folds it over the knife edge. The shaft is now brought back to its
starting place and the sliding steel plate is taken back by means of springs or
weights. Instead of operating the sliding steal plate by the shaft that operates the
moulding slide I may form projections on the curling slide to answer this purpose,
or I may operate it direct from the back shaft.
1 may construct the machine in an incline position for the purpose of facilitating
the entrance of sheets into the openings of machine and giving a better view to
the operator of the guages against which the sheets are to be adjusted, and this
causes the wires as they are fed into the partly curled sheets to adjust themselves
close to the inner side of the curl as it is being formed and thereby obviating the
necessity of guages to prevent the wire from rolling away or out of the curl.
1 construct the edging tool so as to be removable without disturbing the moulding
die,-and-its-guage-I-make-readily adjustable so as to vary-the-amount-of-edge to be
produced.
For the purpose of making the-machine to produce two depths of edging if desired
I cause the lower die to rest on springs and at back of such die I fix a block with
a bardened steel edge its beight being greater than the lower die Ledge with this
arrangement as follows:-The sheet is passed between the dies against the guage and
as the slide descends it grips the sheet and as the springs yield under the lower die
the sheet is forced down below the steel edged block and thereby forms the edge.
I may operate the folding tool by a lower slide moving vertically and compressing
against a projection formed on the body of the machine.
Dated this 30th day of July 1888

page_text: and Folding Sheet Metal.
I, DANIEL SMITH, Junior, of Castle Iron Works, Raglan Street, Wolverhampton in
the County of Stafford, Mechanical 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, reference being had to
the accompanying drawings and the letters of reference marked thereon, (that is to
say) :-
:-
This invention relates to improvements on my palents Nos. 3959 of 1885 and 3554
of 1888. In the machine as described in the specification of my former patent I
perform the operations of moulding, curling, and wiring, and plain curling and plain
curling and wiring at one operation or fixing of the sheet, and in the specification of my
patent No. 3554 of 1888 1 set forth a means of edging sheet metal by un arrangement
on the front of the moulding slide to enable sheets to be edged in the machine without
interfering with the mechanism used for the operations of curling, wiring and
moulding. Now when the machine is in this form it necessitates the removal of the
curling tool and replacing by a folding tool and the addition of a knife-edged blade
on the upper moulding die to enable the operation of folding a sheet to be performed.
Now according to my present invention I can perform the operations of edging,
folding, moulding, curling and wiring without changing or removing any parts of the
machine. To accomplish this I make the addition of the edging arrangement described
in the specification of my patent No. 3554 of 1888 to the machine as described in the
specification of iny patent No. 3959 of 1885, and also the addition of a folding
arrangement to be described hereafter. This invention will be readily understood on
reference to the drawings horewith of which figure I is a front view of a hand machine
similar to that described in the specification of my patent No. 3959 of 1885 with my
present improvements applied thereto, and figure 2 is a section taken on line xx of
figure 1. Sufficient only of these views are shewn to make the invention clear. I will
first describe the edging arrangement as applied to this machine. Parts corresponding
to parts on the drawings accompanying the specification of my patent No. 3554 of 1888
are similarly lettered and the operation of such parts is the same.
Instead of forming
rabates in the lower moulding die B to force the sheet into to form the turned up
edge I place a block D in the position shewn. This block is cut away as shewn to
allow the bar to turn down the edge of the sheet over the edge thereof. ff are
gauges to place the edge of the sheet to be edged against, and spindlus g g fixed thereto
stand forward therefrom, and are pieces fixed on flat parts of the spindles g g and
connected together by a spring i. jjare lock nuts on the spindles g g and it will be
seen that the gauges may be readily adjusted to suit the depth of edge required
upon the sheet. It will be seen that when it is desired to curl or mould a sheet
the key e is turned over in the opposite direction to that shewn on the drawing

page_text: as described in my specification 3554 of 1888 and the gauges ff do not mark the
sheet but readily yield, and when the pressure above is removed the spring i returns
them into position again. When the plate c is edging a sheet the back bottom edge
thereof bears against the front edge of the die B and this prevents such plate from
springing as will be readily understood.
I will now describe the means of folding according to this invention. E is the shaft
that operates the moulding slide A by means of connecting rods as described and
shown in the specification of my patent 3959 of 1885. This shaft E is keyed within
excentrics (one of which is shewn at F figure 2) at each end of the machine. G is a
plate fitting in a slot in the bed of the machine and H is another plate forming with
the plate G the complete folding tool. The plate H is hinged or jointed as shewn to
the plate G for a purpose to be explained hereafter. is a piece of steel formed to a
knife edge which enters into the groove formed between the plates G and H. II are
springs fastened to the bed of the machine and their upper parts enter the plate H
..and return the folding tool to its starting place after the shaft E has been revolved
back. is an inclined part formed on the plate H. The operation of the folding is-as
follows: The sheet to be folded is first edged and placed with its turned down edge
close up against the knife edge k the folding tool being of course in its backward
position and the shaft E in the position shewn by broken lines figure 2, the shaft E is
now operated and pushes against the edge of the plate G and just before the folding
tool has reached the end of its travel the inclined part 2 catches against an incline on
the projecting part J of the bed and this forces the part H into the position shewn by
the drawings and thereby folds over the edge of the sheet and compresses the fold
close onto the knife edge as will be readily understood. The shaft E is now brought
back to its starting place and the springs II also take back the folding tool, and as the
incline on the folding tool is reloased off the incline on the part J the part H drops
somewhat and thus liberates the sheet within the folding tool which may be readily
removed from the knifo edge k. m is a chamber formed along the upper part of the
part Hand the scale off the shoot iron-collects-therein. Of course the folding tool.
may be made solid if preferred.
I have shown the starting slido, starting plate, and curling tool upon the drawings
herewith and they are lettered K, M. and L respectively and correspond to the parts
lettered Q, R and ✗ respectively on the drawings accompanying my specification
No. 3959 of 1885 before referred to.
If it is desired to fold a sheet already curled, notches may be cut at intervals in the
knife edge k to allow the curled edge to fall within one of the notches.
I have described the arrangements for edging and folding as applied to the hand
machine only but it is evident that the arrangements may be applied to the power
machine as shewn by the drawings accompanying my said specification No. 3959
of 1885 but in the case of folding I should prefer to work the folding tool by means
of the cams lottered Y Y or Z Z on the shaft G (see specially figures 1 and 2 of the
drawings accompanying my said specification) and cause such cams to press against
levers fulcrumed at their bottom ends and having rods connected at or about the middle
thereof and to the folding tool.
Instead of operating the folding tool by the means above described I may if
preferred operate such tool by means of projections on the slide er saddle lettered UV
on the drawings accompanying my said specification 3959 of 1885.
I may construct the machine in an incline position for the purpose of facilitating
the entrance of the sheets into the openings of the machine and giving a better view
to the operator of the gauges against which the sheets are to be adjusted and this
causes the wires as they are fed into the partly curled sheet (in the case of a sheet
being curled and wired) to adjust themselves close to the inner side of the curl as it is
being formed and thereby obviating the necessity of gauges to prevent the wire from
rolling away or out of the curl.
I may operate the curling tool by a lower slide moving vertically and compressing
against a projection, similar to the projection J (see figure 2 of the drawings here-
with) but in a vertical position, standing out from the body of the machine.

page_text: 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 :-
(1) The gauges constructed so as to yield when the upper moulding slide descends,.
such gauges being capable of remaining in position and not marking or defacing the
sheet when the operations of moulding, and wiring etc. are being performed.
(2) Using the front edge of the die B, (or its equivalent) for supporting the back
edge of the plate c during the operation of edging a sheet over the lower edging
tool D.
(3) The folding tool constructed substantially as described and shewn, being made
so as to open or expand and allow the already folded sheet therein to be easily
withdrawn.
(4) Constructing the folding tool so as to be capable of compressing the folded, or
partly folded sheet, close on to the knife edge k.
The means for working the folding tool, substantially as described and shewn.
The combination of the edging arrangement on the front of the moulding die A,
with the folding arrangement, substantially as described and shewn.
(7) The combination of the folding tool (solid or otherwise) and tools D, c and k
substantially as described and shewn and for the purpose set forth.
(8) The combination of the parts A, B, C and D and folding tool (solid or other-
wise) and knife edge k, substantially as described and shewn and for the purpose set
forth.
(9) The combination of the parts K, M, L, A, B, C and D and folding tool (solid or
otherwise) and knife edge k, substantially as described and shewn and for the purpose
set forth.
Dated this Thewander ninth dow of Anil 1980