IMPROVED MACHINERY OR MECHANISM FOR THE MANU- FACTURE OF IRON AND STEEL TUBES, AND OTHER LIKE STRUCTURES
Year: 1876

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Robert Anderson Malcolm at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 23rd February 1870.
ROBERT ANDERSON MALCOLM, of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark, North
Britain, Engineer. "IMPROVED MACHINERY OR MECHANISM FOR THE MANU-
FACTURE OF IRON AND STEEL TUBES, AND OTHER LIKE STRUCTURES."
This Invention has reference to the manufacture of wrought-iron tubes, or of
steel or malleable metal tubes, or pipes and such like structures, and to the new
or improved construction or arrangement of machinery or mechanism for that
purpose. The first part or improvement being for the rolling and drawing or form-
ing of the skelps or rough shaped tubes out of the ordinary or prepared blank
plates or strips of metal, and which scarfs the edges in reverse directions to any
desired width to suit any particular size of tube; then bending and rolling it into
the tube form with the lap scarfs or butt joints all laid down close, ready for
welding; and the second part or improvement is for the welding and final
shaping or finishing of the tube by an improved construction and arrangement of
mechanism for that purpose, perferably before allowing the skelps to cool, by taking
them direct from the shaping or skelp making machine through a weld heating
furnace to the welding mechanism; and the third or last improvement is for the
cutting of the tubes to the lengths required, by an improved construction and
arrangement of revolving cutting disc or saw.
The nature and novelty of the first part of these improvements consist in the
arrangement of two horizontal rollers carried in bush bearings in side standards
and geared by wheels on one end of their shafts, so as to revolve at the same rate,
having a bevilled flange or rim on the reverse ends of each, and having the other
plain or cylindrical end made so that it can pass in through a hole in the side
frames, either clear or as in a bush bearing, so that these rollers could each be
traversed longitudinally in reverse directions, and set with their flanges to any desired
width to suit the plate to be gripped and drawn in and be scarfed by the bevilled

page_text: edges when that is desired, so that these rollers would draw the plate in always in the
centre of the machine through a hollow conical mandril or bore placed close up to
the back of the rollers with its under inner surface lying nearly horizontal or
tangential to the upper surface of the upper roller, the front end of this mandril
which receives the plate from the rollers being curved nearly to the shape of the
two rollers. The interior shape of the mandril or bore at this end is of a semi-
elliptic or flat shallow U shape tapering gradually backwards to a nearly circular
form at the delivery end, but with a slight step or check at the end in the
upper side where the thickness of the one scarf or edge has to be left over the
other for welding. The upper edge of this hollow mandril is open back to near
the delivery end, where it is solid at the nearly round part, and over the
open part two rollers are mounted in journal bearings, either driven by gearing or
allowed to run loose in their bearings, the back roller being larger and flatter than
the front one, which is narrower and nearly simicircular on its edge, so as to
nearly fit and roll on the upper or inner part and surface of the plate, being
formed into a skelp within the mandril or bore, and assists in feeding and main-
taining its shape during the progress through the mandril; and when desired
another roller might work up through a groove in the under side of the bore, so as
to gripe the plate between it and the front upper roller, and have a pair of vertical
semicircular geared rollers some distance in advance of the delivery end of the boro
or mandril, and with a solid mandril between these rollers, held by a stem carried
at one end by a knee fixed in the solid part of the hollow mandril or bore, at the
part just before the edge of the blank plate or partly formed skelp closes into the
tube form, all so as to press down the joint or scarf edges and shape the skelp into
the tube form over the solid or internal mandril and deliver it ready for welding
into the weld heating furnace in front, so as to save heat and time.
The nature and novelty of the second part of the improvements consist in the
arrangement of a pair of horizontal and vertical geared rollers, with nearly semi-
circular grooves in them, working opposite or with their peripheries on each other
at the same speed for drawing the tube out of the furnace, and welding the joints
with an internal mandril passing through and between both pairs of rollers, over
which the joint is welded and the tube accurately shaped into the cylindrical or
tubular form, and with its long retaining stem carried forward and fixed in the
usual holding or retaining block in front for the whole length of tube to be delivered
on to it, and which is disengaged from its retaining block and re-engaged after the
withdrawal of each tube; and for the more clean and perfect forming of tubes in
the welding rollers, the first pair of rollers is inade slightly oval in the direction of
the joint formed by the two semicircular grooves in the rollers, the second pair
being more nearly spherical or slightly elliptical in the direction of their joints at
right angles to the former, removes all scales, and the streaks usually formed by the
joints at the grooves of the rollers, when made in the usual manner, thus delivering
a perfectly round and much smoother tube than hitherto.
The nature and novelty of the third part of the improvements consists in cutting
the welded tubes into lengths after being welded as described, by a thin revolving
steel disc, with or without teeth, secured between two large collars on a short
portable screw spindle, much in the same manner as that of circular saws, working
on centres passed through the two side standards of a strong frame with stay rods
above, the centres being screwed and secured on each side of the standards by jamb
nuts, and with turning heads on them outside, so as to accurately adjust the centres
for the spindles of the disc, cutter, or saw, to revolve steadily much in the same manner
as the centres of lathes and boring machines, the spindle of the saw being driven
by a pinion on it from a large wheel gearing thereinto on an adjacent driving shaft
carried on the end of the same, or on a soparate frame; all so that the saw works
steadily although driven at a very high speed. The tubes are quickly and easily
cut cold or nearly so by griping them in a pair of broad tongs for the purpose, with
long handles and a fulcrum spindle through them in or near their joints, which are

page_text: inserted in open bearings in the top of a standard sufficiently close to and under
the breast of the cutter or saw, that the person in using the handles of the tongs
operates them as a powerful lever to press the tube up and forward against the
cutter with a turning action which speedily severs the tube at the same time
squaring and cutting the ends to their proper lengths; or they may be pressed
against the disc by means of a screw.