Improvements in the Manufacture of Washers, Rings, Tyres, and Hoops of Steel or other Metal.
Year: 1896

page_text: Date of Application, 21st Dec., 1896
Complete Specification Left, 18th Sept., 1897-Accepted, 6th Nov., 1897
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in the Manufacture of Washers, Rings, Tyres, and
Hoops of Steel or other Metal.
I, FREDERICK WILLIAM WALKER, of Hunslet, Leeds, in the County of York
do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:-
I take a cylindrical ingot or forged bloom and place it within a die. The die
is open at the ends and it fits closely around the ingot or bloom excepting at the
upper end where the mouth of the die is enlarged to the form of the washer,
ring, tyre, or hoop which I desire to produce. Then by pressure with suitable
tools I spread the end of the ingot or bloom to completely fill the enlargement
of the die and finally I bring a punch to bear upon the ingot or bloom and so
I force it back in the die shearing off the ring at the same time and this remains
in the mouth of the die.
The ingot or bloom is left of its original form but shortened by the removal
of the ring. The operation can be repeated again and again the ingot or blooni
being reheated when necessary.
The power required to perform the above mentioned operations may be applied
by hydraulic rams.
Dated this 19th day of December 1896.
Improvements in the Manufacture of Washers, Rings, Tyres, and
Hoops of Steel or other Metal.
I, FREDERICK WILLIAM WALKER, of Hunslet, Leeds, in the County of York,
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:-
I take a cylindrical ingot or forged bloom and place it within a die. The die
is open at the ends and it fits closely around the ingot or bloom excepting at the
upper end where the mouth of the die is enlarged to the form of the washer,
ring, tyre, or hoop which I desire to produce. Then by pressure with suitable
tools I spread the end of the ingot or bloom to completely fill the enlargement
of the die and finally I bring a punch to bear upon the ingot qr bloom and so.
I force it back in the die shearing off the ring at the same time and this remains
in the mouth of the die.

page_text: The ingot or bloom is left of its original form but shortened by the removal
of the ring. The operation can be repeated again and again, the ingot or bloom
being reheated when necessary.
The power required to perform the above mentioned operations may be applied
by hydraulic rams.
Figure 1 of the annexed drawings shows a plan partly in section, cf a machine
suitable to be employed in carrying out my invention.
Figures 2 to 8 show tools which may be employed and successive stages of the
manufacture.
a and a are two hydraulic cylinders very firmly connected together by tie
rods b b. c¹ and are rams working in these cylinders. d is the ingot or bloom
to be operated upon, it is squeezed between two rams when water under high
pressure is admitted to the cylinders a¹ and a².
Suitable valves are provided as is well understood to control the entrance of the
water into and its passage from the cylinders e e are small pistons connected
with the crossheads of the rams. f f are cylinders in which these pistons work;
water under pressure is constantly supplied to the cylinders f and acting against
the pistons it withdraws the rams when the outlet valves from the main
cylinders at a are open.
g is the die and gl is the moulding recess in the mouth of the die. The moulding
recess g may be of any desired form, that shown in the drawing is adapted to
produce a plain ring, but flanged rings as for tyres may be produced in like
manner.
Various tools may be employed in spreading the end of the ingot or bloom
into the moulding recess. The use of the tools which I will now describe
I have made the subject of another application for Letters Patent No. 1662 in
the year 1897 and in my present specification I neither confine myself to these
tools nor do I make any claim to the same.
With such tools the operations are carried on in the following manner: The
ingot or bloom suitably heated at one end is brought to the machine and by the
ram cit is thrust into the die g until it rests against the face of the ram²
leaving however sufficient metal projecting from the die to fill the moulding
recess g. Then by means of a tool h shown in Figure 2 an end pressure is
exerted on the ingot or bloom which brings it approximately to the form shown
in Figure 3, the moulding recess gl of the die being imperfectly filled and a
projecting button or nose d¹ being left upon the ingot. The next operation is
illustrated by Figures 4 and 5. The metal is flattened down into the moulding
recess by means of a tool i. This tool leaves the work as represented by Figure 5.
The next operation is to press upon the nose or button d¹ so as to drive it back
into the ingot or bloom, a flat tool & such as is shown in Figure 6 is employed,
by this pressure the nose is driven back into the hottest part of the ingot or bloom
and the metal is caused to flow in such a way that the moulding cavity g¹ becomes
completely filled and the ingot or bloom is left as shown in Figure 7.
It is possible to expand the end of the ingot or bloom into the moulding cavity
by a single pressure but to do so a very much heavier pressure would be needed.
The final operation is indicated by Figure 8, the ram c is allowed to retire
whilst the ram c¹ with the tool 7 advances; thereby the ingot or bloom is driven
back in the die and the ring in the moulding cavity is detached, the central holo
being formed in it as shown in Figure S.
It will be observed that the ingot or bloom is now of its original form, its length
only being somewhat decreased. By repeating the operation ring after ring may
be made in like manner until but a short length of ingot or bloom remains.
It may in some cases need more than one operation for the severance of the
ring from the ingot or bloom, then the separation of the ring may be commenced
in the operation illustrated by Figures 6 and 7 or even at an earlier stage.
Sometimes especially when working ingots or blooms of large diameter, I com-
mence with a tool such as is shown at m in Figure 2 in place of the tool h

page_text: indicated in Figure 2. I then obtain an annular ridge on the ingot or bloom,
the metal in which is near to the moulding cavity which it has finally to fill.
Among the advantages which this method of manufacture presents is that work
is put upon the metal in the direction of the axis of the ring where it most needs it.
Waste is reduced to a minimum, ring after ring being made in the manner
described so long as sufficient metal remains. Polygonal rings suitable for heavy
nuts may be produced by my invention, also rings with flanges.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be perfonned, I declare that what I
claim is:-
1. The production of washers, rings, tyres, and hoops of steel or other metal.
by placing an ingot or bloom in a die, then spreading its end into and causing
it to fill a moulding cavity around the mouth of the die and afterwards forcing
back the ingot or bloom so detaching the ring and punching out the central hole
substantially as described.
2. The apparatus consisting of the die g, its moulding cavity g and the two
rams carranged to approach the die from opposite ends and to operate sub-
stantially as described.
Dated this Oth day of Santamban 180