Improvements in the Manufacture of Weldless Steel or other Metal Tubes.
Year: 1896

page_text: Date of Application, 30th May, 1896
Complete Specification Left, 16th Mar., 1897-Accepted, 1st May, 1897
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in the Manufacture of Weldless Steel or other
Metal Tubes.
JAMES DAVIES of Meeting Street Engine Works Wednesbury in the County of
Stafford Mechanical Engineer and Ironfounder do hereby declare the nature of
this invention to be as follows:-
My invention consists in the constructing a machine which I will describe as a
reeler rolling machine with 3 disc or edge rollers at equal distances of the circum-
ference, & form a triangle a mandril is placed in the center of rollers to resist the
pressure of disc rollers on the tube the tube & mandril revolving & is heated as it
passes through the rollers..
The great expense in drawing weldless steel or other metal tubes, at present by
a powerful machine called a draw bench is the slow process caused by the very
heavy pressure required to reduce & elongate the tube even a small fraction of an
inch in diameter & so closes the grain of the steel & makes it brittle & hard. The
annealing of the tube is to make it soft. Which causes a scale on the tube which
has to be removed by placing it in chemicals called pickling & this every time it is
drawn or passed through the die with the mandril inside.
Now in my process instead of drawing the tube through the die by a. powerful
machine called a draw bench I place the tubes between 3 or more revolving disc
rollers.
The way in which my machine is constructed is as follows.
By placing 3 disc rollers on the spindles in a frame with journals so constructed
that they can be twisted single or collectively across the plane of tube or obliquely
& at different angles to the plane of the tube. The disc roller is fixed on one end
of spindles or shafts to the other end are fixed suitable wheels to drive the said
spindles & rolls. The angle of spindles across the plane of tube causes the tube to
be forced or drawn through the rolls while revolving. Or by an internal tooth
wheel which revolves all the spindles in one direction the centre or internal wheel
is the driving wheel for the 3 wheels on spindles & driven by other suitable wheels.
or pulley's for the driving power.
place a mandril between the disc rollers to allow the length of tube to slide
over the mandril.
This mandril continues right through the frame of the machine & through the
hole of hollow spindle or trunnion (which carries the centre driving wheel) & allows
the mandril & tube to go straight through the machine. A stop is fixed at the
opposite end of mandril to that which is in between the disc rollers. To hold the
mandril from moving endways when the tube is forced over the mandril &
between the disc rollers. While the mandril & tube are revolving together. The
mandril has a sharp or conical end to open or pierce & lead its way through the
metal or tube as it is rolled between the disc rollers & over the mandril. A little
end or lateral motion to relieve itself is given. The tube or metal to be reduced in
thickness is forced between the disc rollers & over the mandril which is in
the centre of the rolls which projects a little through the centre of the 3 disc
rollers.
The tube is forced or drawn through the disc rollers over the mandril as the tube.
is rolled & reduced in thickness & sufficient pressure is brought to bear on the

page_text: 3 disc rollers (by means of set screws) to reduce in thickness by compression of
rollers on the tube, the mandril being inside the tube to resist the pressure as an
abutment.
In order to heat the tubes or metal to be rolled or drawn to make the metal soft
& easier to work & avoid annealing & pickling tube. I fix a small portable
furnace close to front of the rolls & so heat the tubes or metal as it passes through
the furnace to the rolls & is kept hot by the furnace. I heat the tubes or metal by
a portable or fixed furnace heated either by oil or gas or other convenient fuel
through which the tube or metal passes through to the rolls or die as required.
The tube revolves in the furnace & is only heated a given distance from the rolls
or die.
This application applies to ordinary rolls as well as disc rolls.
Improvements in the Manufacture of Weldless Steel or other
Metal Tubes.
I, JAMES DAVIES of Meeting Street, Engine Works, Wednesbury, in the
County of Stafford, Mechanical Engineer and Ironfounder, 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 improvements in the manufacture of, or to a new method
or process of producing, weldless steel and other metallic tubes, and also to
machinery and appliances to be used in connection with such new or improved
process and comprises an arrangement of three or other number of skew disc rolls
carried by angularly adjustable spindles mounted within suitable frames at one end,
and at the other being fitted with universal or other joints, with the journal
ends also being carried within a frame and having universal connections so as to
admit of the said spindles being driven by spur wheels in gear with a driven wheel
receiving its motion from a principal shaft mounted upon a bush or sleeve carried
by holsters or housings through which the alter end of the mandril bar passes and
wherethrough the billet or tube under operation is also traversed.
Fitted on the front end of the mandril bar and coming between the nips of the
rolls is a rotatory mandril or plug surrounded by the peripheries of the skew rolls,
whose outer circumferences may differentiate in diameter from their outer sides to
their inner sides, that is, their peripheries may increase in diameter from the outer
to the inner sides, thus making the said peripheries to an extent conoidal, and with
the parts of the cones of larger diameter so disposed with regard to one another as
to run practically parallel, so that the gradual increase of diameter of the rolls
gives, at the same time, both a rotatory motion to the tube or billet under operation
and exercises a horizontally traversing draw or pull upon it.
In conjunction with the said rolls I use an oil or like portable furnace with an
end coming close up to the pass of the said rolls, so that a billet or tube, when in a
heated and soft state, is fed from the furnace and operated upon immediately,
without any material reduction of temperature occurring in its passage from the
furnace to the rolls, the tube being thin.
Figure 1 of the accompanying drawings represents a topside plan of a set of rolls
for the production of weldless metallic tubes, driven and mounted and with the
cognate parts arranged according to my invention and with the exit end of a
portable oil furnace brought closely approximate to the pass of the rolls.

page_text: Figure 2 represents a front elevation of the rolls showing a tube nipped between.
the triangularly disposed rolls and the mandril carried by the mandril bar which.
runs longitudinally through the middle of the machine.
Figure 3 represents a part longitudinal vertical section and part elevation of
the machine, with the section of the fore end part taken upon the dotted liner,
Figure 2.
Figure 4 is a section upon the dotted line 2, Figure 3, showing the arrangement.
of the driving and coupling up gear looking in the direction of the arrow.
Figure 5 represents sections of the nipping parts of the rolls showing how they
reel or act laterally upon the walls of the tube and by their applied pressure,
expand the inside bore of the same to a greater diameter than that of the mandril,
whereby the said tube is slipped freely and longitudinally over the mandril.
Figure 6 represents a section of Figure 5 upon the dotted line a³.
Figure 7 shows the arrangement of the fore parts of the rolls and the portable
oil furnace, in which a jet of oil spray is burned and intense heat is generated by
means of a blower or air forced in under pressure for heating the tube or billet
prior to the passage of the same to the said rolls.
The same letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in the several figures
of the drawings.
a, a¹ are the housings or supporting uprights, with the forward housings a, fitted
with frames a², containing within them, spherical bearings at, clamped in their
adjusted positions by the screws a³, and through circular holes a, in which the
spindles-b, having disc rolls c, at their ends, pass in order to admit of the rolls.
being skewed or set at an angle relative to the axis of the billet or tube under
operation.
The after end ', of each spindle is connected to the journal 2, which works in
suitable bearings let in the rear upright a', through the medium of a hook or
universal joint 3 or flexible shafting of any well known construction may be
employed so long as the angles of the spindle can be changed according to the
amount of skew to which the rolls are to be set.
Made fast on the end of each of the journals is a pinion e, intergearing with a
central wheel or pinion e², made fast to pulley, both of which rotate about a
hollow central bush or sleeve e, carried by the back housing of the machine and
around which the driving pulley and centre wheel rotate whilst admitting of the.
mandril bar f, and the billet or tube under operation being directed longitudinally
through its hollow bore or passage
Situated upon the fore end of the mandril bar and rotating upon it is a mandril
bulb or plug 9, coming within the space located between the meeting peripheries of
the rolls, which are placed at an angle so as to bring the larger and slightly coned
portions c', of their peripheries parallel or nearly so, whilst making the smaller and
more tapered or quicker coned parts c², form a mouth or lead to the pass of the.
rolls, thus facilitating the introduction of a billet or tube onto the mandril which
lies within the middle of the said pass.
Now owing to the peripheries of each of the said rolls tapering and increasing
in diameter from the front c³, to the back c', and owing to the succeeding parts of
the peripheries rotating at a proportionally increased velocity, the walls of a billet
or tube are progressively laid hold of and the rotatory motion of the rolls expended.
on the walls of the said tube or billet (which is internally supported by the rotating
mandril) is partly resolved into a rectilinear movement which transverses the tube
forwards and expands the same, and the other part of the motion of the rolls.
rotates both the tube and its mandril but at varying speeds owing to the said
mandril being partly retarded by the friction of the rectilinear movement of the
tube over it.
Situated immediately in front of the rolls is a portable oil or gas or like liquid
fuel furnace or muffle ½, in which the tubes or billets to be rolled are heated and
made soft, the tips are passed into the nips of the rolls and are then whilst still in,
a heated and solt condition, drawn out of the furnace and their walls elongated and

page_text: reduced in thickness at each pass, so the inside bore of the tube may be expanded
and its walls both reduced and elongated at one and the same operation, by the
combined reeling and drawing process created by the particular dispositions of the
rolls, which may be flat upon their peripheries but placed at angle so that different
parts of their peripheries shall impart varying rotatory speeds to different parts of
the billet as the operation of reduction and elongation proceeds whilst when
the metal is required to be laterally stretched or expanded more than would be
normally effected by the reeling process, by the increase of the bore of the tube
or billet at the same time that the walls have been increased in length and
reduced in thickness, I propose to mouth or flare the said tubes or billet either
at each pass or as often as may be required.
Instead of employing a plug mandril as described, I may employ a rotating bulb
mandril, or instead of a rotating bulb mandril I may employ a stationary plug
situated between the rollers or die and over which the heated tube is drawn, and I
also wish it to be understood that the arrangement of portable furnace for heating
the tubes or billets can be. applied to ordinary rolls as well as to disc rolls as
described.
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 :-
First. The manufacture of seamless metallic tubes by rolls having conoidal or
graduated peripheries or by skew rolls having flat surfaces arranged radially
around a rotatory mandril so as to form a pass between the said rolls and the said.
mandril and to impart a combined rotatory and rectilinear movement to the tube or
billet under operation, whereby the said tube or billet is both circumferentially
expanded, elongated and drawn longitudinally over the mandril whilst hot.
Secondly. In machinery for the manufacture of seamless and other metallic tubes,
the construction, arrangement, and combination of the operating parts of the rolls
and the rotatory mandril located between them with the mandril bar passing
through a sleeve or bush or thoroughfare passage around which the driving wheel
and mechanism of the rolls is mounted or arranged, substantially as and for the
purpose described and set forth.
Thirdly. In machinery for the manufacture of seamless metallic tubes, the
general construction, and arrangement of the rolls with their mountings, driving
gear, rotatory mandril and cognate parts, substantially as and for the purpose
described and set forth.
Fourthly. The employment in connection with machinery for the manufacture
of seamless and other metallic tubes as referred to in the preceding claims, of a
portable oil or gas or other like furnace arranged in front of the rolls substantially
as and for the purpose described and set forth.
Fifthly. The employment in connection with rolls for the production of metallic
tubes, of a portable oil or gas or other like furnace arranged in front of the rolls,
substantially as and for the purpose described and set forth.
vated this 15
15th day or
MIRICH 1001.
JAMES DAVIES,
By Henry Skerrett,
24 Temple Row, Birmingham, Agent for Applicant.