Improvements in the Manufacture of Rolled Steel Tires, Blooms, or Rings.
Year: 1889

page_text: Date of Application, 31st May, 1889-Accepted, 6th July, 1889
Improvements in the Manufacture of Rolled Steel Tires, Blooms, or
Rings.
I, JAMES MUNTON of Maywood, County of Cook Illinois, United States of America,
Manufacturer 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 :-
My invention relates to improvements in the manufacture of rolled steel tires, blooms
or rings.
In this manufacture it has heretofore been customary to cast a separate ingot for each
tire or bloom produced, each ingot being cast of a weight corresponding to the weight
of the tire or ring designed to be made therefrom, and each ingot being separately
hammered, punched, roughed out, rolled, or otherwise manipulated from the beginning to
the end of the process. In making rolled steel rings or tires in this way, considerable loss
is experienced from imperfect ingots, especially if it is attempted to cast them of an
annular form to save the labor and expense and injury to the metal incident to the punch-
ing operation; and the tires or rings produced are frequently also imperfect in character
and lacking in uniformity. Where separate ingots are cast and separately manipulated for
each ring produced, it also has not been found practicable to produce by rolling weldless
rings or tires of a very light weight or thin cross section, without very great expense.
It is the object of my invention to provide a process or means of manufacturing
rolled steel rings or tires, whereby they may be made much more cheaply and
expeditiously than heretofore, and of a much better and uniforın quality, whereby the
loss of metal heretofore incident to imperfect castings may be largely if not entirely
eliminated, and whereby even light and thin rolled rings may be made at comparatively
slight cost.
According to my invention I first cast an annular ingot, of a sufficient size and
weight to make several tires, blooms or rings of the size and weight desired, allowance
being also made for the removal of a sprue or thin scoria or imperfect annulus at the
top of the annular ingot. The ingot should thus be cast of from one to three tons
weight. This large annular ingot is next after being suitably heated, placed in a
suitable tire rolling or roughing mill, the rolls whereof are furnished with cutter
flanges or collars which sever the annular ingot by pressure of such cutter flanges,
into a number of separate rings, the metal displaced by the cutter flanges being
simultaneously pressed or crowded into the rings or blooms as they are formed, and
thus densifying the metal. The rolls are also preferably furnished with cutter flanges
or collars at or near their upper ends for simultaneously cutting off the imperfect or
scoria annulus from the top portion of the annular ingot and thus freeing it from
impurities. Though the cutter flanges or collars bear against the periphery of the
annular ingot the metal displaced by such cutter flanges is crowded laterally into the
edges of the contiguous rings or blooms produced by the severing operation, so that
the densifying work of the cutting operation is in fact done upon the edges of the
blooms produced and tends to edge them at the very time they are formed. The cutter
flanges upon the rolls are preferably not made deep enough to extend entirely across
or through the ingot, so that the latter part of the severing operation will be produced
by simultaneously rolling the ingot or partially severed rings or blooms to a larger
diameter. The whole series of rings or blooms produced from the ingot may thus all
be simultaneously rolled to a greater or less extent.
As, according to my invention, the annular castings are made of a comparatively
large mass, they may be easily made of a uniform quality and free from imperfections,
excepting at the top portion which is, or may be removed. And as several, two or
more, rings or blooms are simultaneously produced from the annular ingot and rolled

page_text: to a greater or less extent the rolled rings may be produced very rapidly, cheaply and
of a very dense and homogenous character, owing to the densifying or edging action
of the cutter flanges in severing the annular ingot by pressure.
In the accompanying drawing, which forms a part of this specification, I have shown
at Fig. 1 an annular ingot as produced according to my invention, and of a size and
weight suitable for making three locomotive tires. Fig. 2 shows the same after
being partially severed and densified by action of the cutter flanges or collars on the
rolls. At the stage of the process represented by Fig. 2 the periphery of the
revolving roll has not yet begun to bear against the annular ingot. Fig. 3 is a similar
view representing the annular ingot at a more advanced stage of the process in which
the periphery of the main roll has begun to bear against the periphery of the annular
ingot and thus to roll it to a larger diameter, while the cutter flanges or collars are,
at the same time, severing it into separate blooms and crowding or displacing.the
metal displaced thereby into the blooms or rings. Fig. 4 shows the rings or blooms
produced, or the completion of the operation.
In the drawing, A represents the annular ingot, as cast, according to the first step of
my process. The sprue or imperfect top portion of the ingot which is, or should be,
cut off, is represented at a. The depth or thickness of this seeria annulus will vary
according to the depth of the ingot and other circumstances, but it ordinarily should
be from one to three inches thick, more or less. The dotted lines a¹ a¹ in figure 1,
indicate the lines upon which the annular ingot is to be divided to form the separate
rings or tires B, B, B. C represents the main or driven roll of an ordinary tire
mill or bloom rolling mill, and D represents the inside movable or pressure roll. The
roll C is furnished with one or more collars or cutter flanges c for severing the annular
ingot by pressure against the same as the rolls and ingot revolve in the mill. The
number of cutter flanges or collars c, employed, may be varied according to the
number of rings or blooms desired to be made from a single ingot. The roll is also
furnished with collar or cutter flange c¹ for the purpose of simultaneously cutting off
the scoria annulus a from the ingot. The inner or movable roll D which bears against
the inner periphery of the annular ingot may also, preferably, be furnished with
corresponding collars or cutter flanges d, d, d', but they should be made comparatively
narrow, as indicated in the drawing. The collars or cutter flanges on the roll D may
if desired however be entirely omitted.
After the annular ingot is thus severed by pressure into two or more rings or
blooms B, B, the separate rings or blooms B B are then rolled in the ordinary way to
any shape or size required.
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 :-
.",
1st. The improvement in the manufacture of rolled tires or rings, consisting in first
casting an annular ingot heavy enough for two or more blooms, and then severing the
annular ingot into two or more separate blooms or rings, and simultaneously densifying
the same by crowding or depressing the metal displaced by the severing operation into
the blooms or rings, substantially as specified.
2nd. The process consisting in making a single annulus heavy enough for two or more
blooms or rings of the weight required and severing by pressure the annulus into two or
more blooms or rings and simultaneously densifying the blooms or rings by crowding the
metal displaced by the severing operation into the same, and finally rolling the blooms
or rings into the diameter and shape required, substantially as specified.
:
3rd. The process consisting in simultaneously rolling and severing by pressure an
annulus into two or more blooms or rings of the size required, substantially as
specified.
4th. The process consisting in first casting an annulus as A and then simultaneously
cutting off the imperfect top portion, as a, and severing by pressure the annulus into
two blooms or rings as B B and simultaneously densifying the same by crowding the
material displaced by the pressure severing tube into the body of the blooms or rings

page_text: whereby several blooms are produced at once, the same are densified and the loss of
metal incident to casting each bloom separately is saved, substantially as specified.
5th. The process of producing two or more blooms at once by heating and then
severing by pressure an annulus into two or more parts or blooms, substantially as
specified.