AN IMPROVEMENT IN ROLLING MILLS
Year: 1883

page_text: 17
LETTERS PATENT to Charles Denton Abel of No: 28 Southampton Buildings
Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex for an Invention of "AN
IMPROVEMENT IN ROLLING MILLS" communicated to him from abroad by
William Garrett of Beaver Falls, Beaver County, State of Pennsylvania,
United States of America
+
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Charles Denton Abel at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 4th December 1883.
w
CHARLES DENTON ABEL of N°,28 Southampton Buildings, Chancery Lane in the
County of Middlesex "AN IMPROVEMENT IN ROLLING MILLS" [communicated
to him from abroad by William Garrett of Beaver Falls, Beaver County, State of
Pennsylvania, United States of America]
This invention relates to the arrangement of a rolling mill for heating and
reducing a steel bloom which may be about two feet in length, and about four
inches square in cross section, at one heat by a continuous rolling operation, to a
rod or wire several hundred feet in length, and reeling the same as it is delivered
from the last pass of the rolls, so that it shall be in convenient form and condition
for handling or further working.
* Heretofore, in working such blooms into rods or wires it has been usual first to
heat the bloom and then, by suitable rolls, constituting what is known as a "billet
train," to reduce it to a bar about an inch square or a little more called a "billet,"
which was reheated and passed through the rod train.
This reheating is objectionable as it involves loss of time, expense and waste of
material by scaling or oxidation.
By the improved arrangement about to be described, the bloom can be taken
from the beating furnace and reduced to wire at one heat and by one" continuous
rolling, the bloom, bar or rod passing from one pair of rolls to another with such
speed and rapidity that it is reduced to the size and form required before it
becomes too cold to be worked: As the wire is delivered from the last pair of rolls,
it is reeled while it is still hot enough for that purpose.
Practically, with such an arrangement of rolling plaut, two to thre: blooms can
be operated on per minute, about 90 or 100 seconds being required for the

page_text: reduction of each. The rapidity is such that, before one wire has left the rod
train, a succeeding bloom can be started in the billet train.
The arrangement of Rolling Mill for this purpose is as follows. The steam boilers
preferably occupy one corner, and near them are ingot furnaces of usual kind,
from which the ingots as heated, are taken to a set of blooming rolls and reduced
to a convenient size of blooms. These are cut to lengths of about 2 feet, which
are reheated for the subsequent operations. They are first passed through a train
of billet rolls, which are arranged in line with grooves successively becoming
smaller, so that the metal is gradually extended in length and reduced in section.
The last rolls of this train have in line with their feed a pair of intermediate rolls
to which the metal is conducted along a trough and by which it is formed into a
rod of round, oval or square section of about 1 to 3 inch in diameter. The
trough along which the metal is led to the intermediate rolls, is made long enough
to allow of the metal rod being turned one quarter round by band, so that as it
comes from the billet train flatwise it can be sent to the intermediate rolls edgewise.
After passing the intermediate rolls, the rod is again conducted by a trough to the
first rolls of the finishing train through which it is passed to and fro until it
becomes reduced to rod or wire of the required size. As it leaves these rolls, the
rod or wire is led along a trough to one of a pair of reels attended by a workman,
who, by suitable clutches stops and starts them alternately, so that while the one
is winding on the wire or rod supplied from the rolls, the other can be removed
fully wound, another being put in its place ready for a succeeding winding. As
the lines of the axes of the billet rolls, the intermediate rolls and the finishing rolls
áre all parallel, they are driven by straps from pullies on the crank-shaft of the
engine, and it is advantageous to provide the engine in duplicate, employing one 1
to drive the billet rolls and the intermediate rolls and the other to drive the
finishing rolls.
The number of pairs of rolls and the order of the grooves may be varied
according to the work to be done, care being taken that the material, as it issues
from the last pair of rolls of each train, is of size and form suitable for entering
the first pair of rolls of the succeeding train.
Billet and finishing roll trains have been and are separately used, but have not
been combined by means of an intermediate train, in any such way as to enable a
bloom to be worked without reheating at some intermediate stage of the operation,
directly into a rod so small and in such condition as to be reeled as it is delivered
from the rod train. A matter of especial importance in such an arrangement is
the disposition of the billet train, the rod train and the intermediate train so that
the last pair of rolls of the billet train, the first pair of rolls of the rod train and
the single pair of rolls of the intermediate train are all in, or approximately in, one
line of feed.
It has been proposed to do the work by a continuous series of rolls arranged in
line with each other, with a common line of feed through the whole series, and
with the several pairs of the series so close together that each pair, in delivering,
act as feeders to the next pair; but such an arrangement has not practically.
succeeded, except when the series is very short, and the reduction and elongation
of the bar are comparatively small. In rod and wire making, the reduction of
section and elongation are so great; often drawing a bloom two feet long to a rod
from 600 feet long to 800 feet long, that it is exceedingly difficult; it may be said
practically impossible, properly to proportion the grooves, to space the rolls and to
adjust the speeds in a continuous.mill.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed
by the said Charles Denton Abel in the Patent Office on the 21st May
1884.
CHARLES DENTON ABEL of N° 28 Southampton Buildings Chancery Lane in the
County of Middlesex "AN IMPROVEMENT IN ROLLING MILLS" A communi-
cation to me from abroad by William Garrett of Beaver Falls, Beaver County,
State of Pensylvania United States of America
-
This invention relates to the arrangement of a rolling mill for heating and
reducing a steel bloom which may be about two feet in length, and about four
inches square in cross section, at one heat by a continuous rolling operation, to a
rod or wire several hundred feet in length, and reeling the same as it is delivered
from the last pass of the rolls, so that it shall be in convenient form and condition-'
for handling or further working
Heretofore, in working such blooms into rods or wires it has been usual first to
heat the bloom and then, by suitable rolls, constituting what is known as a "billet
train," to reduce it to a bar about an inch square or a little more called & billet,"
which was reheated and passed through the rod train.
"
This reheating is objectionable as it involves loss of time, expense and waste of
material by sealing or oxidation. By the improved arrangement about to be
described, the bloom can be taken from the heating furnace and reduced to wire at
one heat and by one continuous rolling, the bloom, bar or rod passing from one
pair of rolls to another with such speed and rapidity that it is reduced to the size
and form required before it becomes too cold to be worked. As the wire is
delivered from the last pair of rolls, it is reeled while it is still hot enough for that
purpose.
Practically, with such an arrangement of rolling plant, two or three blooms can,
be operated on per minute, about 90 or 100 seconds being required for the
reduction of each. The rapidity is such that, before one wire has left the rod
train, a succeeding blooin can be started in the billet train.
'
.
The general arrangement of rolling mill for this purpose is represented in the
plan Fig. 1 of the accompanying drawings. The other figures which are drawn to
an enlarged scale are, Fig 2. an elevation of the billet train of rolle, Fig. 3 an
elevation of an intermediate train of rolls which reduce the billets delivered from
the rolls of the train Fig. 2 to a form suitable for entering the rod train. Figs 4
and 5 elevations of the two parts of the rod train marked respectively C and C¹ in
Fig. 1. Referring to the general plan Fig. 1; G G are the steam boilers, H H ingot
furnaces of ordinary construction from which the heated ingots are taken to the
blooming train h. This train is worked by power from an engine g transmitted
through gearing a. The ingots reduced by the blooming rolls are cut by shears
at A' to lengths of about 2 feet each, which are reheated in the bloom furnaces A. A'
for the subsequent working. The reheated blooms are passed to and fro through
the successive-rolls n¹ to n³ of the billet train B, these rolls being geared by
pinions n and preferably arranged and grooved as, shown in Fig. 2. For steel'
rolling, the last pair of rolls, through which the billet is usually passed only once,
may be flat or smooth, for iron rolling they are better-grooved. By the rolls of
the train B, which are driven by the engine g, the bloom is reduced to a bar

page_text: having a rectangular section of about 1 inch by 1/2 inch, or an oval section of
about the same area. From the last rolls n³ of the train B the bar is led by a
conducting trough 6 to the intermediate or feed train D such as is shewn in Fig. 3,
having rolls m geared by pinions m², these rolls grooved to reduce the metal to a
round, oval or square rod having a sectional area of from /, inch to ³/ inch square.
From the intermediate rolls D the rod is led by a conducting trough b' to the first
rolls of the right hand rod train C, and then through the successive rolls of the
train C and C¹ which, as shewn in Figs. 4 and 5, should consist of about 8 pairs
8 to those of C geared by pinions 8 and those of C¹ by pinions ¹, and all
driven from either or both engines 7 and r¹, by which also the rolls D are driven.
It is to be understood that there is sufficient distance between the rolls B and D
and between D and C to allow of the bar being passed to and fro through the
rolls. The conducting trough b should be somewhat longer than the bar so that,
while the bar lies in it, the workmen can turn it one quarter round from lying flat
wise to enter the rolls D edgewise. On leaving the last roll 88 of the train O' the
rod or wire runs for some distance along a guide b' towards the reels R R on one
or other of which it is wound. A single workman can attend to both reels which
are provided with suitable clutches. The workman taking the end of the rod with
a pair of tongs, inserts it in one of the reels and while this reel is winding on a
length, the other filled reel can be removed. Thus the product of the mill can be
reeled and removed as fast as it is produced. In arranging a mill as above
described the number of pairs of rolls and the order of the grooves may be varied
according to the work to be done, care being taken that the material as it issues
from the last pair of rolls of each train, is of size and form suitable for entering
the first pair of rolls of the succeeding train.
Billet and finishing roll trains have been and are separately used, but have not
been combined by means of an intermediate train in any such way as to enable a
bloom to be worked without reheating at some intermediate stage of the operation,
directly into a rod so small and in such condition as to be reeled as it is delivered
from the rod train. A matter of especial importance in such an arrangement is
the disposition of the billet train, the rod train and the intermediate train so that
the last pair of rolls of the billet train, the first pair of rolls of the rod train and
the single pair of rolls of the intermediate train are all in, or approximately in, one
line of feed.
It has been proposed to do the work by a continuous series of rolls arranged in
line with each other, with a common line of feed through the whole series, and
with the several pairs of the series so close together that each pair, in delivering,
act as feeders to the next pair; but such an arrangement has not practically
succeeded, except when the series is very short, and the reduction and elongation
of the bar are comparatively small. In rod and wire making, the reduction of
section and elongation are so great; often drawing a bloom two feet long to a rod
from 600 feet long to 800 feet long, that it is exceedingly difficult, it may be said
practically impossible, properly to proportion the grooves, to space the rolls and to
adjust the speeds in a continuous mill.
Having thus described the nature of this invention and in what manner the
same is to be performed, as communicated to me by my foreign correspondent, I
claim -
First. In a rolling mill for rolling wire rods directly from blooms, the combination
of a billet train B, a rod train CC₁ and an intermediate train D having its rolls
approximately in line with the last rolls of B and the first rolls of C, sufficient
space being provided between the successive trains for the to and fro movements
of the metal rod operated on by the rolls, substantially as herein described.
Second. In combination with the billet train, the intermediate train and the rod
train of rolls, the conducting troughs 6 and 6' and reels R, substantially as
described

page_text: Third. In a rod rolling mill the arrangement of ingot furnaces H, blooming
rolls h, shears A¹, bloom furnaces A, the roll trains B, D, C and C and the reels R
substantially as described and shewn in Fig. 1.
In Witness whereof I the said Charles Denton Abel have hereunto set my hand
and seal this twenty first day of May in the year of our Lord One thousand eight
hundred and eighty-four.