Improvements in Apparatus for Fitting Metal Tyres to Wheels.
Year: 1897

page_text: Date of Application, 21st Oct., 1897-Accepted, 9th July, 1898
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Apparatus for Fitting Metal Tyres to Wheels.
I, FLORENTIN MORANE, Junior, of Paris, in the Republic of France, 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:―
This invention relates to machines for fitting tyres to wheels and is an improve-
ment on the machine described in the Specification of prior Patent to J. B. West
No. 10920 of 1894.
In West's improved machine, the operative mechanism is mounted in a
stationary frame receiving the ring which supports the movable cylinders adapted
to operate in conjunction with stationary pistons, provided with sections, which
at each return stroke, are subjected to the action of a spring, and which jointly
form a circular table, the several divisions whereof, towards the centre, operate
upon the peripheries of the wheel-tyres through the medium of movable blocks
or cheeks.
These arrangements whilst leading to the desired results, are somewhat com-
plicated and costly; and what particularly adds to the difficulty of attending to
machine thus arranged, is the necessity, which that attendance involves, of con-
tinually handling the above-mentioned movable blocks or cheeks, which have to
be placed on the sectors, and exchanged, whenever it is desired to fit a wheel of
different diameter with tyres. These cheeks, being set loosely upon the said
sectors, have the drawback of shifting out of position, so that the work is not
in all cases performed with the desired precision or neatness.
I have devised certain means for perfecting the existing apparatus in this par-
ticular, the said means being hereinafter described.
In the accompanying drawing,
Figure 1 is a vertical central section of an apparatus embodying my invention,
Figure 2 is a similar view showing the apparatus in a different position, and
Figure 3 is a plan of the same.
Instead of the sectors above referred to, constituting the table, and of the
movable cheeks, I employ single pieces A, Figures 1, 2 and 3, the bases B,
Figs. 1 and 2, of which are provided, each, with a central slide-way, C rest upon a
circular table D, having grooves corresponding to the slide ways C. The parts A,
which may be described as "off-set sectors are fitted, like the sectors of the old
arrangement, with a spring E, and they operate in conjunction with the table D,
the piston head F of the compressing cylinders, and the five steps or off-sets G, H,
I, J and K (Figures 1 and 2), the peripheries of which correspond to most of the
usual wheel diameters.
The novel off-set sectors press upon hydraulic pistons F working in cylinders F",
which are joined together, and these compressing cylinders, attached to the
ring L, have their operative strokes so timed, that all the wheel diameters from
M to N, Figure 2, in the several offsets receive pressure simultaneously.
In order that such pressure may as far as practicable be exercised in the centre
of the cylinder (see the shaft o Fig. 1 and 2), the circular table is made movable

page_text: in the vertical direction. It is shown in Figure 2 at the top of its stroke and in
Figure 1 at the lower end thereof. This operation is performed by four additional
hydraulic cylinders P, supporting the said table, and adapted to move it to any
position comprised within either limit of their stroke.
A bed-plate R receives these four cylinders, the four pillars or standards sup-
porting the ring and the compressors; the table D is supported centrally by the
guide S. It will be readily understood from the foregoing description how these
compressing cylinders operate the off-set sectors and how the periphery of a wheel
placed upon any one of the offsets, moved up to the shaft by the vertical cylinders,
are acted upon. The wheel is held in place by means of a screw T.
The pressure pistons F, may, if desired, work in cylinders formed in the ring, L, the
object of such an arrangement being to save the space occupied by these cylinders,
which are now secured within the ring; and consequently to enable the operation
upon larger wheels within the diameter of that ring.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what
I claim is:-
A novel off-set sector constructed in one piece and adapted to effect, at different
essential points, the horizontal compression of wheel tyres; with the addition of
a moving table which receives the said sectors and is adapted to bring the off-sets
of such sectors into correspondence with the compressing cylinders F¹, within
which rises the wheel tightening screw T.
Dated this 20th
1
1007
HASELTINE, LAKE & Co.,
45, Southampton Buildings, London, W.C., Agents for the Applicants.