Improvements in the Production of Flutes or Grooves in Metal or other Surfaces, More Especially in the Surfaces of Rollers Intended for Use in Textile Manufactures, in Polishing the said Rollers, and in Machinery or Apparatus therefor.
Year: 1888

page_text: Date of Application, 19th June, 1888
Complete Specification Left, 19th Mar., 1889
Complete Specification Accepted, 4th May, 1889
Improvements in the Production of Flutes or Grooves in Metal or
other Surfaces, More Especially in the Surfaces of Rollers
Intended for Use in Textile Manufactures, in Polishing the said
Rollers, and in Machinery or Apparatus therefor.
I, GEORGE FREDERICK REDFERN, of the firm of G. F. Redfern & Co., of the General
Patent Office, No. 4, South Street, Finsbury, in the county of Middlesex, Patent
Agents, do hereby declare the nature of this invention (a communication from
abroad by the Société Industrielle pour la Schappe of Bâle, Switzerland) to be as
follows:-
This invention relates to the production in a rapid and economical manner of straight
and highly polished flutes or grooves in the surfaces of metal, or other substances and
more particularly in rollers used in the manufacture of textile materials and for
polishing the periphery and neck or spindle of such fluted rollers.
By these improvements rollers for textile industries can be produced from steel the
hardness of which can be made to suit the purpose for which the rollers are to be
used and the rollers have a polish that is equal to that of glass.
له
It is not necessary to employ the case hardening process which is so expensive and
raises the cost of production 60 to 70 per cent. and which moreover has the great
objection that it tends to deform' the finished pieces. Rollers can therefore be
produced which are absolutely round and this result cannot be obtained with' case
hardened rollers even when employing the best straightening process.
The deformation of such rollers increases with their length and it is quite impossible
to make very long rollers. Such rollers have to be made in several pieces which have
to be joined and this causes' greater expense and a rapid deterioration of the rollers
and often produces defects in the manufacture of the threads or fibres.
This fluting process consists in running in the longitudinal' direction' of 'the” roller a

page_text: .
steel wheel of small diameter and of triangular section which, being forced against
the metal forms a groove therein without removing any metal.
The polishing of the periphery or surface and the collars of the rollers is effected by
employing plain steel pressing-rollers.
The machine has the general appearance of a metal-planing machine and comprises
a frame over which a carriage is moved by any suitable mechanism. On this carriage
is fixed a frame provided with tie bolts and having toothed cross pieces to receive the
steel rollers to be fluted, the said rollers having been previously turned in the usual
way.
The tool, which is used to make the flutes or grooves, consists of a steel-wheel of
small diameter, the periphery of which is of a triangular section like the flutes or
grooves to be produced-this wheel may be termed the "cutting-wheel."
The steel-wheel has cylindrical portions on each side of its cutting periphery, turns
freely on its axis and is held in a tool holder. Against the cylindrical parts bear
corresponding parts of a large roller which has a circular groove to guide the rib or
cutting edge of the cutting wheel. It is mounted on a pivot strong enough to resist
great pressure.
The pivots of the cutting wheels and guide roller are held in the forked end of the
tool-holder.
Several tool holders can be placed parallel in a frame or carriage covered with a
plate the carriage is mounted as in an ordinary planing machine on a cross bar held
between uprights.
The number of tools varies with the size of the machine, an elementary tool for
fluting or grooving a roller occupies 10 centimetres. A machine of 6 centimetres
can therefore groove 5 or 6 cylinders at the same time.
The tool holder is so arranged as to allow of exactly regulating the position of the
cutting wheel in relation to the roller to be fluted or grooved.
The tool holder is placed between two hanging brackets which allow it a little
play; horizontal screws are provided passing from one bracket to the other and a nut
is placed on each of the screws and works in a slot in the tool-holder. The nut can
be turned in either direction in the slot by means of a lever placed in a hole in the nut
and in this manner the tool-holder can be moved towards the right or the left hand
side as required.
At each passage of the carriage which supports the rollers to be operated on the
latter are submitted to the action of the cutting wheels arranged above them; each
time the carriage returns the rollers are caused to revolve slightly by means of the
following arrangement.
A shaft is provided on which are fixed bevil pinions geared into bevil wheels formed
integral with sockets in which the rollers are adjusted and centred.
Each socket is split and receives a screw nut for the purpose of tightening the
same.
The shaft is turned by a lever carrying a spring pawl actuating a ratchet wheel the
number of teeth of which correspond with the number of grooves to be made in each
of the rollers.
The tools are independent of one another and their height is regulated before com-
mencing to operate on a series of rollers; each of them is then fixed in a split socket
carrying a tooth wheel gearing with a worm fixed on a horizontal shaft. All the tools
will be thus firmly held and can be worked by means of a hand wheel.
The flutes or grooves can be made of any required depth in three passages of the
carriage and they are better made and more perfect than those of rollers as hitherto
produced.
The rollers are finished by polishing their peripheries between the flutes or grooves
as well as the necks or spindles by revolving the rollers between small or plain
rollers somewhat similar to the cutting wheels. These plain rollers are arranged in a
socket which is placed on the bar of a turning lathe.
The rollers which are very small, transmit their pressure to larger rollers mounted
in bearings which can be tightened up by means of a pressure screw.

page_text: By this polishing operation the necks or pivots and the surfaces become harder
than the metal itself; and therefore they will not become injured by the materials
to be treated; the rollers will remain round and last much longer than ordinary
rollers.
By polishing the flutes or grooves, grease and gum from the textile materials being
treated, is prevented from adhering to the rollers, and the sticking of hairs, fibres or
fluff is thus avoided, and the rollers are therefore kept much cleaner.
Dated the 10th don of Tn 1000
G. F. REDFERN & Co.,
4, South Street, Finsbury, London,
Agents for the Applicant.

page_text: Improvements in the Production of Flutes or Grooves in Metal or
other Surfaces, More Especially in the Surfaces of Rollers
Intended for Use in Textile Manufactures, in Polishing the said
Rollers, and in Machinery or Apparatus therefor.
I, GEORGE FREDERICK REDFERN, of the firm of G. F. Redfern & Co., of the General
Patent Office, No. 4 South Street, Finsbury, in the county of Middlesex, Patent
Agents, do hereby declare the nature of this invention (a communication from
abroad by the Société Industrielle pour la Schappe of Bâle, Switzerland) 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 the production in a rapid and economical manner of
straight and highly polished flutes or grooves in the surfaces of metal or other
substances and more particularly in rollers used in the manufacture of textile materials,
and for polishing the periphery and necks or spindles of such fluted rollers.
By these improvements rollers for textile industries can be produced from steel the
hardness of which can be made to suit the purpose for which the rollers are to be
used and the rollers have a polish that is equal to that of glass.
.
It is not necessary to employ the case hardening process which is so expensive and
raises the cost of production 60 to 70 per cent. and which moreover has the great
objection that it tends to deform the finished pieces. Kollers can therefore be
produced which are absolutely round and this result cannot be obtained with case
hardened rollers even when employing the best straightening process.
The deformation of such rollers increases with their length and it is quite impossible
to make very long rollers. Such rollers have to be made in several pieces which have
to be joined and this causes great expense and a rapid deterioration of the rollers and
often produces defects in the manufacture of the threads or fibres.
The improved fluting process consists in running in the longitudinal direction of
the roller a steel wheel of small diameter the periphery of which is of triangular
section and which being forced against the metal forms a groove therein without
removing any metal. The polishing of the periphery or surface and the collars of
the rollers is effected by employing steel wheels or pressing-rollers having plain
peripheries.
In order to enable the invention to be fully understood I will describe the same
by reference to the accompanying drawings which illustrate a machine or apparatus
which has been found to answer well in carrying the invention into practice.
Figure 1 is a front elevation, partly in section, of the fluting or grooving machine.
Figure 2 is a longitudinal section and
Figure 3 is a plan of part of the said machine.
Figures 4 to 8 are detached views of parts of the machine.

page_text: The machine has the general appearance of a metal-planing machine and comprises
a frame A over which a carriage B is moved by any suitable mechanism. On this
carriage is fixed a frame (provided with tie bolts a and having toothed cross
pieces b to receive the steel rollers & to be fluted, the said rollers having been previously
turned in the usual way.
c is the steel wheel of the tool which is used to make the flutes or grooves
such wheel being of small diameter and having its periphery formed of a triangular
section like the flutes or grooves to be produced. This wheel may be termed the
cutting-wheel."
One of the tools and tool holders is shewn detached in front elevation, partly in
section at Figure 4 and in transverse section at Figure 5 both of which figures are
drawn to an enlarged scale.
Figure 6 is a horizontal section on the line M N of figure 4.
The steel-wheel c has cylindrical portions d d on each side of its cutting periphery ;
it turns freely on its axis e and is held in a tool holder D. Against the cylindrical
parts d d bear corresponding parts of a large roller E which has a circular groove el
to guide the rib or cutting edge of the cutting wheel. It is mounted on a pivot f
strong enough to resist great pressure.
с
The pivots e and of the cutting wheel c and guide roller E respectively are held
in the forked end of the tool holder D.
Several tool holders can be placed parallel in a frame or carriage F covered with a
plate G the carriage is mounted as in an ordinary planing machine on a cross bar or
frame H held between uprights I, J¹.
The number of tools varies with the size of the machine; a tool for fluting or
grooving a roller occupies 10 centimetres. A machine of 60 centimetres can therfore
groove 5 or 6 rollers at the same time.
The tool holder D is so arranged as shewn in Figures 4, 5 and 6 as to allow of
exactly regulating the position of the cutting wheel c in relation to the roller to be
fluted or grooved.
3, 9
The tool holder D is placed between two hanging brackets which allow it a
little play, horizontal screws h, h are provided passing from one bracket to the other
and a nut is placed on each of the screws hand works in a slot j in the
tool holder. The nut i can be turned in either direction in the slot j by means
of a lever placed in a hole k in the nut i and in this manner the tool holder can be
moved towards the right or the left hand side as required.
At each passage of the carriage which supports the rollers a to be operated on,
the latter are submitted to the action of the cutting wheels arranged above them;
each time the carriage returns the rollers are caused to revolve slightly by means
of the following arrangement.
A shaft K is provided on which are fixed bevil pinions geared into bevil
wheels m formed integral with sockets in which the rollers are adjusted and centred.
Each socket n is split and receives a screw nut o for the purpose of tightening the
same.
The shaft K is turned by a lever L carrying a spring pawl p actuating a ratchet
wheel g the number of teeth of which corresponds with the number of grooves to be
made in each of the rollers.
The tools are independent of one another and their height is regulated before
commencing to operate on a series of rollers; each of them is then fixed in a split
socket carrying a tooth wheels gearing with a worin t fixed on a horizontal
shaft O. All the tools will be thus firmly held and can be worked by means of a
handwheel.
The flutes or grooves can be made of any required depth in three passages of the
carriage and they are better made and more perfect than those of rollers as hitherto
produced.
The rollers are finished by polishing their peripheries between the flutes or grooves
as well as the necks or spindles by revolving the rollers between small smooth or plain
rollers somewhat similar to the cutting wheels.

page_text: This arrangement is illustrated in Figures 7 and 8 which represent a section and an
elevation respectively of this portion of the machine.
The plain rollers are arranged as shewn at vin a circular recess m or box which is
moved over a bed.
The rollers which are very small, transmit their pressure to larger rollers N
mounted in bearings P, P which can be tightened up by means of a pressure
screw Q.
By this polishing operation the necks or pivots and the surfaces become harder
than the metal itself; and therefore they will not become injured by the materials
to be treated; the rollers will remain round and last much longer than ordinary
rollers.
By polishing the flutes or grooves, grease and gum from the textile materials
being treated is prevented from adhering to the rollers, and the sticking of hairs,
fibres or fluff is thus avoided and the rollers are therefore kept much cleaner.
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 1
claim is :-
(1) The manufacture of fluted or grooved rollers for use in textile manufactures
by the use of a cutting wheel having a triangular periphery and running lengthwise
of the roller to be fluted or groove so as to penetrate the latter and form a longitudinal
groove therein:
(2) The arrangement of wheel holder adapted to be adjusted laterally in its support
and to be regulated vertically, a movable support for the rollers being arranged
underneath and the pressure on the cutting wheel being borne by a larger wheel with
strong journals.
(3) The arrangement for allowing the rollers to be revolved (after each journey
of the carriage of the machine) to an extent corresponding with the spaces between
the grooves.
(4) The arrangement of loose, plain or polishing wheels for polishing the
peripheries and necks or spindles of the rollers between which polishing wheels the
grooved rollers are revolved the said loose wheels being placed in a tube which moves
parallel with the axis of the roller.
(5) The various details of construction of the parts of the machine substantially as
herein before described with reference to the acconipanying drawings
Dated the 10th dow of Morob 1880
G. F. REDFERN & Co.,
4, South Street, Finsbury, London,
Agents for the Applicant.