Improvements in Machines for Moulding or Impressing Designs upon Wood by the Combined Action of Heat and Pressure.
Year: 1889

page_text: Date of Application, 14th Mar., 1889
Complete Specification Left, 26th July, 1889-Accepted, 7th Sept., 1889
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Machines for Moulding or Impressing Designs
upon Wood by the Combined Action of Heat and Pressure.
1, ABRAHAM MARTIN, of 177, Aston Lane, Birmingham, in the County of
Warwick, Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:-
My Invention relates to machines for moulding or impressing designs, by the
combined action of heat and pressure, upon wood particularly fine wood in thin
sheets intended for veneering wood of a commoner kind to be made into fancy
boxes and other goods such as mouldings, medallions, and ornamental woodwork in
general. The machine is composed essentially of a moulding or improssing cylinder
bearing on its periphery a counterpart of the design to be roproduced, said cylinder
being heated by internal gas-jets and mounted above a traversing bed similar to that
of a planing machine.
The present improvements relate first to the application of heat to the traversing
bed or fable upon which the sheet of wood to be impressed or ornamented is supported
and by which it is carried beneath the impressing cylinder. The object of heating
the bed or table is to ensure the oqual distribution of the heat throughout the
whole thickness of the sheet of wood, in order to render the wood thoroughly pliable
and therefore better adapted to receive the imprint of the design without injury
to the fibro of the wood and enable, in certain cases, the wood to be imprinted or
moulded on both sides at once, moulds bearing counterparts of the design being in
that case interposed between the wood and the bed or table. For the purpose of
heating the bed or table and likewise the moulds (if any) thereon I provide rows of
gas-jets beneath the table.
My Invention relates secondly to the construction of the impressing or moulding
cylinder; and has for its object to greatly reduce the cost of producing the same, and
enable the designs to be varied without the use of different cylinders. For this
purpose, I construct the impressing surface of the cylinder of a number of rings of
steel placed side by side around an inner supporting cylinder, the rings being clamped
tightly together by pressure screws. The design is produced upon this permutation
cylinder by milling, slotting, drilling, and other machine tools, whereby grooves,
holes, cavities and other variations of surface are produced in the first instance in
straight spiral or other lines, rows, or any other simple or elementary forms such as
After the whole surface
are capable of being worked by the tools above referred to.
of the cylinder has been thus shaped or worked, the rings are separated and
rearranged upon the cylinder either by moving them circularly to different points
thereon or by varying their order or juxtaposition on the cylinder or by variously
combining rings which have been machined in different ways. By this means I break
up the simple elementary forms produced by the machine tools and with the elements
thus obtained, constitute designs of a more or less complex character and susceptible
of an indefinite number of variations.
In combination with the above described machine, I employ a veneering press
placed in such position that the sheet of wood which has just been impressed by the
cylinder and which is still in a heated state shall on leaving the impression cylinder
be received on the foundation of common wood to which it is to be veneered, this
latter being already coated with glue, the foundation resting on a heated bed and,
together with the veneer, placed thereon as above described being then passed
together into one of a series of presses and held together under pressure and in the bost
conditions to ensure a firm union of the two.

page_text: The designs produced as above described may be supplemented by engraved or
other plates or medallions let in or applied to the surface of the cylinder in the same
way that stereotyped plates are applied to the cylinders of printing machines.
Dated this 14th day of March 1889.
By A. M. & Wm. Clark,
53, Chancery Lane, W.C., Patent Agents.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Machines for Moulding or Impressing Designs
upon Wood by the Combined Action of Heat and Pressure.
I, ABRAHAM MARTIN, of 177, Aston Lane, Birmingham, in the County of Warwick,
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 :-
My Invention relates to machines for moulding or impressing designs, by the
combined action of heat and pressure upon wood; particularly fine wood in thin
sheets intended for application in the form of veneering to wood of a commoner kind
to be made into fancy boxes and other goods such as mouldings, medallions, and
ornamental wood-work in general.
The general construction and operation of the machine is more particularly
described hereafter with reference to the accompanying drawings forming part of
this specification; wherein figure 1 is a longitudinal side elevation of the machine,
partly in section. Figure 2 is a plan, partly in section, and figure 3 is a cross-
sectional elevation, of the same; Figures 4 and 5 illustrate the mode of producing
the design upon the moulding or impressing cylinder. The same letters of reference
indicate like parts in all the figures.
The machine is composed mainly of a framework A, a traversing bed B supported
thereon and operated by mechanism such as hereafter described somewhat in the
manner of the bed of a planing machine. This bed is traversed upon its guides by
means of a leading screw D actuated by suitable gearing which it is unnecessary to
describe.
The bed B is composed of an open cast iron frame of honey-comb or grid-like
structure supported upon sliding ways on the main frame and the table proper on
which the sheet of wood to be impressed or ornamented is supported for the purpose
of being carried beneath the impressing cylinder C is constituted by a thin iron plate
resting upon the open work frame. Beneath this table are mounted perforated gas
pipes Z supplied with gas by a flexible connection, the gas-jets being directed to play
against the underside of the bed, the honey-comb or grid-like structure of which
admits of the rapid heating of the thin plate forming the table. The object of heating
the table is to ensure the equal distribution of the heat throughout the whole thick-
ness of the wood sheet in order to render the wool thoroughly pliable and, therefore,
better adapted to receive the imprint of the design without injury to the fibre of the
wood. By this means also, the wood may if required, be moulded or imprinted on
both sides at once, in which caso a flat mould would be laid upon the table B upon
which the wood is placed for the purpose of impressing it on the underside, simul-
taneously with the moulding produced on its upper face by traversing it beneath the
moulding or impressing cylinder O.
The impressing or moulding cylinder C is constructed in a particular manner
designed to greatly reduce the cost and to enable the designs to be varied without
the use of different cylinders. For this purpose, the cylinder or the circumferential
portion thereof is constructed of juxtaposed rings preferably of steel placed upon a
hollow cylinder, the rings being clamped tightly together by means of pressure
screws. The rings having been thus combined to form a cylinder, are machined on
their circumference by milling, slotting, drilling, and other machine tools, producing

page_text: grooves, cavities, and other variations of surface in longitudinal, spiral, wavy, or
other lines or rows or according to any other simple or elementary form or arrange-
ment such as may be easily produced by the straightforward working of the tools
above referred to.
After the whole surface of the cylinder has been thus shaped or worked, the rings
are separated and re-arranged upon the cylinder either by moving them circularly
or by varying their order of juxtaposition or both, or by variously combining rings
which have been machined or figured in different ways. By this means, the simple
elemental forms produced by the machine tools are broken up and by variously
re-combining the elements thus obtained, designs of a more or less complex character
may be produced, the combinations of which these elements are susceptible being
infinite in their variety. The rings may be combined with plain rings placed
alternately or otherwise with those above described and the designs thus produced
may be supplemented by engraved dies let into, or appliod to, the cylinder. Thus,
the design on the cylinder shewn in figures 1 and 2 is produced by grooving the
juxtaposed rings in the longitudinal direction of the cylinder, as shown in figure 4,
and then shifting the alternate rings circularly, so as to produce the chequered
design. The cylinder shown in figure is produced by spirally grooving juxtaposed
rings as in figure 5, and anothor set in the opposite direction, and combining rings
from the two sets to form one cylinder with zig-zag grooves, as shewn.
The rings are fixed upon a cast iron cylinder whose shaft O is supported in
bearings which are vertically adjustable by means of pressure screws N geared
together for adjusting the pressure of the cylinder on the wood. The cylinder
is heated internally by gas-jets burning at radial orifices of the hollow shaft O
upon which the cylinder is fixed or built.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is;
1. In a machine of the kind, and for the purpose, specified; the combination, with
an internally heated moulding or impressing cylindor, of a traversing bed and of gas-
jets beneath the said bed, substantially as specified.
2. In the herein described machine, the construction of the traversing bed of a
grid-like or honey-comb open frame and of a sheet metal table top fixed thereon
for presenting the wood to be moulded to, and supporting it under the pressure of,
the impressing cylinder and the employment in combination with a bed so constructed
of gas-jets beneath for heating the same, as specified.
3. In a machine of the kind, and for the purpose, specified; the construction
of the moulding or impressing cylinder of juxtaposed permutable rings having
elements of design produced upon them and fixed upon a core, substantially as
specified.
4. In a machine of the kind, and for the purpose, specified; a moulding or
impressing cylinder constructed of permutable rings bearing on their periphery
elements of the design to be produced, the rings being juxtaposed or clamped
together upon a hollow cylinder provided with means of heating it internally,
substantially as specified.
5. A moulding or impressing cylinder formed of permutable rings, as described,
having
a complex design produced upon it by machining the peripheries of the rings
according to a simple form and then breaking up and re-arranging or interchanging
the rings, as herein described.
Dated this 20th day of July 1889:
A. MARTIN.
By A. M. & Wm. Clark,
53, Chancery Lane, London, Patent Agents.