IMPROVE- MENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR MAKING RIVETS, SPIKES, NAILS, AND SCREW BLANKS, AND SIMILAR ARTICLES IN METAL
Year: 1858

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Robert Barr at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 31st March
1858.
I, ROBERT BARR, of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark, North Britain,
Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR MAKING RIVETS, SPIKES, NAILS, AND
SCREW BLANKS, AND SIMILAR ARTICLES IN METAL," to be as follows, that is
to say:-
This Invention relates to the manufacture of rivets, spikes, nails, and screw
blanks, and similar articles in metal, by the agency of a vertically acting ram
or presser, actuated by an overhead cam carried upon a horizontal shaft.
Under one arrangement the machine takes the general form of a vertical
drill; if single, the standard frame is arranged for being set against a wall,
and the driving power for it is obtained either from a small steam cylinder
bolted to the frame and actuating a crank on the first motion shaft, or from a
band pulley worked from any continuous mover. The movement of the first
motion shaft is communicated through a train of spur wheel gearing to the
horizontal cam shaft running in end bearings in the upper part of the framing.
This shaft has attached at its central part a cam, which in its revolution bears
upon the upper end of the vertical ram, being so connected to the latter as to
be capable of raising it after depression. This vertical ram is set in suitable
guides carried by the framing, its lower end having the die for the rivet head

page_text: in it. The counter die plate in which the lengths of severed rods are severally
deposited for being moulded to shape, is a circular disc formed with an annular
V piece on its lower side, to fit into a corresponding V recess on the fixed
carrying plate of the framing. The dic recesses are arranged in a circle on
the upper surface of this disc, in such manner that as the disc is turned each
die is successively presented to the action of the ram. The turning of the die
disc is effected by a continuously revolving vertical shaft driven from the main
gearing, and having at its lower end an arm, which acts upon suitable studs
attached to the die disc, so as to set round the disc to the extent of the
intervals of the dies at each turn. The lengths for the rivets are severed from
the bars by a segmental lever-action cutter, worked from a crank in connection
with the main gearing. Prior to each descent of the ram, a length of metal
or "blank" is deposited in a die aperture in the disc, and the subsequent
descent of the ram then shapes the rivet. Each die aperture has an adjustable
bottom central stud in it, and after each rivet has been shaped, a bottom
traversing wedge actuated by the gearing lifts up this bottom stud, and
elevates the finished rivet for removal. The rivet may then either be picked
off by hand, or struck off laterally by a small catch actuated by the gearing.
Instead of this rotatory die disc action, traversing die plates may be used with
two, four, or other number of operating rams. When four rams are used,
they are worked in pairs by two overhead cams, and the finished. rivets are
removed from the dies either by the wedge action already described, or by the
cam movements operating upon lifting rods for setting up the die studs from
below. The die plates are set in suitable guides on the fixed platform of the
framing, and are alternately traversed forward after each shaping action by an
operating movement worked from the gearing for the removal of the rivet and
the redeposit of a blank. The same general arrangements under various
modifications answer for making spikes, nails, and screw blanks.