An Improved Method of Manufacturing Hubs for the Wheels of Cycles and other similar Vehicles.
Year: 1896

page_text: Date of Application, 1st Aug., 1896
Complete Specification Left, 26th Mar., 1897-Accepted, 15th May, 1897
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
An Improved Method of Manufacturing Hubs for the Wheels of
Cycles and other similar Vehicles.
ALFRED BENJAMIN DAVIS, 6 Bacchus Road, Winson Green, Birmingham,
Machinist and Toolmaker, do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as
follows:-
In the manufacture of the hubs I propose to use seamless steel or other suitable
metal tubing of a suitable quality and gauge or to make said tube by drawing
through a flat blank in presses, or other like means. The said tube to have a bead
rose or spun on each end in lathes, the bead being then closed together to form
flange or collar (to receive spokes) which is then drilled in the usual way, and the
ordinary steel cups forced in each end up to a stop (which is made by forcing a
small bead into the tube), the cones, balls & spindle are added in the usual way
the hub is then complete, excepting polishing & plating. Hubs so made are
cheaper to construct and equal to those at present in use. The saving is effected
by dispensing with the steel stamping and substituting tube, which does not require
boring and turning as stampings do.
Dated this 31st day of July 1896.
ALFRED BENJAMIN DAVIS.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
An Improved Method of Manufacturing Hubs for the Wheels of
Cycles and other similar Vehicles.
I, ALFRED BENJAMIN DAVIS, 6 Bacchus Road, Winson Green, Birmingham,
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 :-
This invention relates to the manufacture of hubs for the wheels of cycles and
other similar vehicles, and relates in the one part to the manufacture of such hubs
by the process or combination of processes hereinafter described, and in a further
part, to the manufacture of such hubs from lengths of solid-drawn metallic
tubings.
According to the first-named part of this invention a circular blank is cut out
from sheet metal, cupped, drawn through and the walls elongated and the diameter
decreased into a long cup or tube open at one end and closed at the other, and the
closed end is cut out, leaving an open-ended tube which has its walls near the outer
ends, operated upon to form annular bulbs, beadings or swells produced by raising
or spinning through the means of rolls.
In the second process, which is alike unto the first the hub is fashioned from a
cut off length of solid drawn or seamless tubing.
Figure 1 of the accompanying drawings represents in vertical section, a cup
made from a blank of sheet metal and from which the hub is to be made.
Figure 2 represents the said cup further elongated and its diameter contracted.
Figure 3 represents the still further elongated and narrowed cup, and

page_text: Figure 4 shows a section of the finished blank which is produced by a drawing-
through process.
The bottom closed end of this finished blank is then cut off about on the dotted
line, Figure 4, thus producing the open-ended piece of tubing a, shown in Figure 5,
which is next placed upon a double-bulbed mandril 6, as represented in Figure 6,
and the mandril may either be rotated or remain stationary, is then brought up to,
or has brought up to it an annularly and corresponding grooved outside roller c, as
shown in Figure 7, and by the one being made to gradually approach the other the
walls between the opposed surfaces of mandril bulbs 6', and roller grooves c¹, are
expanded into enlargements or bulbs a', such as shown in Figure 8, which comprises
the length of tubing a, having at or near its outer ends, the annular bulgings a',
which when closed by being upset, or by the application of end pressure by suitable
tools, (the blank being meanwhile internally supported by a mandril) form the
annular spoke flanges a², terminating the waist a³, of a hub, as represented in
Figure 9.
In producing a hub from tubing, I take a length of seamless or solid drawn steel
or other metal tube, of the same or like dimensions to that shown in Figures 5
and 6 and operate upon it by the same series of processes as described in connection
with the first part of my invention or I may take a short thick piece of tube and
draw it down to any suitable size and then fashion the drawn length into a hub as
described.
Figure 10 represents a hub with another form of spoke flanges made according
to my invention. In producing this form, the flanges are produced from annular
enlargements as in Figure 8, which are collapsed into spoke flanges as shown in
Figure 9. Then by a subsequent operation of spinning out by shaped rolls, the
particular section of flange a*, is produced.
Figure 11 represents another form of hub produced according to my invention
in which annular shoulders or contractions are formed, at the junctions of the
flanges with the hub ends, by a separate spinning process, although these shoulders,
which constitute supports for the ball-bearing cups, may be formed at the same
time that the annular enlargement is produced.
Figure 12 represents another form of hub produced according to my invention
from a blank or from a length of weldless or seamless tubing, and with the ends
of the heads c', turned over upon the edges of the hardened steel ball-cups d, in
order to secure the same in position and retain oil within the hub.
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
First. Making wheel hubs from a blank of sheet metal raised and drawn into
a tubular length, or from a length of seamless metallic tubing subsequently
operated upon by a drawing process, and then forming annular enlargements near
the ends by rolling or by spinning, which enlargements are subsequently collapsed
and spoke flanges thereby formed.
Secondly. Making wheel hubs from a length of seamless tubing of suitable
dimensions, by forming annular enlargements or bulgings near the ends, by rolling
or spinning, which enlargements are subsequently collapsed into spoke flanges,
substantially as described and set forth.
Thirdly. The employment in combination with the processes of producing hubs
referred to in the first and second claims, of he and she inside and outside
rolls b, b, c, c, substantially as described and set forth.
Dated this 25th day of March '1897.
ALFRED BENJAMIN DAVIS,
By Henry Skerrett,
24 Temple Row, Birmingham, Agent for Applicant.
ALFRED BENJAMIN DAVIS,
By Henry Skerrett,
24 Temple Row, Birmingham, Agent for Applicant.