Improvements in Machines for Making Cords and Ropes.
Year: 1892

page_text: Date of Application, 19th July, 1892-Accepted, 2nd June, 1893
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Machines for Making Cords and Ropes.
I THOMAS WOOD NORMAN, of No. 44 Bromfield Street in the City of Boston,
State of Massachusetts, United States of America Art Dealer, do reheby 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 has relation to machines for manufacturing cords and ropes, in
which, spooled yarns are twisted into strands and the latter are drawn off and
twisted or laid up into a cord or rope, which is in turn drawn off and spooled and
bundled.
The invention consists of improvements upon the machine throughout, and the
purpose, organization and use of the various features of the invention will be
stated in the general description hereinafter given.
Reference is to be had to the annexed drawings forming a part of this
Specification in which-
Figure 1 is an end view of the machine.
Figure 2 is a side view partially in section of the first part of the machine by
which the yarns are formed into strands.
Figure 3 is a similar view of the central part of the machine which pulls down
or draws off the strands and lays the same up into a cord or rope, as the case
may be.
Figure 4 is a view, similar to Figs. 2 and 3 and shows the part of the machine
whereby the rope is spooled and bundled.
Figures 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 are detail views of parts of the machine drawn to an
enlarged scale, and hereinafter more fully described.
It is to be noted that Figs. 2, 3, and 4, considered together, constitute a side
elevation, partially in section, of the entire machine.
Referring to Figs 1 and 2, a is the driving shaft upon which are suitable pulleys
to effect its rotation. designates the spool carrying frames which are adapted to
rotate upon the shafts c of the rotary hub or disks which are made to take the
place of the usual "outside flier so called.
Upon the shaft a is affixed a gear e which meshes with the driving gears fon
each of the shafts c so as to drive the disks or hubs d in unison. Gearing of the
character mentioned is provided at both ends of the spool shafts and their adjuncts
in order to drive the same without exerting torsional strain thereon.
9
In the hubs or disks d, at one end of the spool frame are journalled short shafts,
to one end of each of which is fixed a gear which meshes with a gear secured
upon the bearing of the shafts c, and on the other end is a gear i which engages a
gear j on the hub of the spoolcarrying frame or flier b, which construction and
arrangement of gearing secures the rotation of the spool frame, or "inside flier"
in one direction, and the hubs or disks, which take the place of the outside flier in
the other direction in proper time and manner to effect a double twisting of the
cords or yarn led from the spools, to form the same into strands.
Suitable friction devices may be applied to the spools to prevent their too free
rotation in order to put the yarns drawn therefrom under requisite tension.
The yarns are led through suitable guides to the head of frame k, (shown enlarged
in Fig. 5) which is connected with the spool frame, and which is provided with two
pulleys for each yarn, and which pulleys are variously positioned with respect to
each other and the axis of the spool frame, in order to guide the yarns to a common
centre to be laid or twisted into a strand, without liability of abrading or breaking
the same, as is the case with the devices for the same purpose now commonly
employed. Furthermore by this means knots or bunches occurring in the yarn

page_text: .
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can readily pass the head, and it is made feasible to secure a more even tension on
the yarns than where they are passed over rigid guides in the head.
The twisted strands pass through a suitable former on the inner ends of the
shafts c, and partially through the said shafts to guide pulleys journalled therein,
or in the hubs or disks d, whence they pass outward to pulleys m journalled in the
outer part of the disks, and then rearward to guide pulleys similiarly positioned in
the disk at the inner end of the spool frame, where they pass through the inner
shaft c to the strand "pull-down so called, to be presently described.
C
n designates hoops supported by the frame of the machine. which encircle the
spool frames, and prevent the ballooning of the strands.
By the means described, the usually employed outside flier is dispensed with, the
'construction of the machine is simplified and made lighter and easier of operation.
The main shaft in that part of the machine which forms the strand into a rope, is
dropped down, or journalled in a lower plane in the frame than in that part of the
machine herein before described, the lower or drop shaft" being geared with the
other part thereof, by gears on said shaft and an intermediate or idle gear, (not
shown).
The pull downs for the strands consist of three fliers o, though but two are
shown in the drawing, which is a vertical section, the nearer of the two lower fliers
being cut away. Each of the fliers is provided with two reversely arranged
frusto conical capstans p, around which the strands are wound several times. The
rearward capstan is geared with a gear on the inner end of a hollow shaft g, which
extends to the rearward journal of the flier o. On the rearward end of the shaft
is a gear which is driven by a gear orrs from the main shaft a. The fliers o
being connected with the spool frames are driven thereby and the shafts are
driven in the same direction, though at a different speed, so as to effect a turning
of the capstans p and a pulling down or drawing off of the strands which pass
.through, the hollow shafts g and are led to a suitable former where they are
twisted or "laid up" into a rope by the rotation of the flier which is equipped
with a rope pull-down, consisting of a rotary capstan s geared with
worm wheel t
on a shaft journalled in the flier which latter is rotated by a gearing from the
main shaft. is a stationary worm with which the worm wheel is engaged and
around which the flier revolves, so that when the latter operation takes place the
capstan s will be rotated in proper time to effect a pulling down of the rope, which
passes over suitable guide pulleys in the flier and through the hollow rearward
journal of the latter to the take-up or bundling flier v passing through the forward
hollow journal of the same around guide pulleys arranged somewhat similar (as
shown) to the guide pulleys in the.disks d.
:
.
**
The rope next passes around a guide pulley won one of the bars of the flier V, to
a pull-down" mechanism on another bar of the said flier, which pull-down
mechanism is shown on an enlarged scale in Figs. 6 and 7. Said pull-down is
arranged on a sleeve y. On the rearward end of said sleeve y is secured a gear ol
which is operated by a sprocket wheel secured on a short shaft passing through flier
frame.
n" is a chain which passes over the sprocket wheel just mentioned to another
sprocket wheel m11 on a collar connected with the same and with a spur gear m
which meshes with a gear on the worm shaft . The said shaft being driven by
a gear which engages with another gear ¹ on end of the flier shaft.
Said pull-down mechanism consists of a grooved pulley or hub rigidly secured
upon said sleeve y, in holes formed in one disk or part of which pulley are arranged
a series of sliding bolts provided on one end with square heads and having their
opposite ends adjacent to the groove of the pulley. Next to the pulley on the
fier shaft is a hub d' splined upon the shaft so as to move longitudinally thereon
⚫ to a limited extent. A collar is secured to the flier bara short distance back
of the hub d' and a strong spring c³ is interposed between the said collar and hub,
(see Fig. 6) so as that the hub e' may be held normally up against the pulley with
a yielding pressure.
=

page_text: The outer portion of the face of the hub d'adjacent to the pulley is constructed
as a cam c¹ against which the heads of the bolts & rest, being pressed back there-
against by springs, as shown, interposed between the heads of the bolts and the
bottom of the countersinks formed in the pulley. By adjusting the collar c² toward
and from the hub d' the force with which the bolts may be made to engage the
rope may be regulated, and the spring interposed between the collar and hub,
provides means which permit knots, lump, &c. to pass through the pull-down
without injury thereto.
It will now be understood that if the rope should be arranged in the groove of
the pulley and the latter should be rotated, as the heads of the bolts ride upon
the higher part of the cam, the rope will be grasped by the inner ends of said
bolts and be carried around and drawn off or down until the heads of the said
bolts leave the higher part of the cam when they will release the rope.
In connection with my present improvements I will describe a spool having a
bearing longitudinally of the flier and the improved form of means employed to
operate the spool in order to coil the rope perfectly thereon.
The rope being fed slowly and regularly through the pull-down to the empty
spool, hauls the latter after the flier at a speed of say one twelfth slower than that
at which the flier moves, the speed of the spool increasing only as the diameter of
the coil or bundle of rope on the spool increases, thereby producing a variating
differential motion between the flier and spool.
o' designates a dog on the spool shaft which is adapted to engage one end of
the spool a¹ and spool shaft n¹ so as that they will turn in unison.
The gear m on the outer end of the spool shaft connects with the gear rigidly
fixed on the friction and fork sleeve shaft k and operates the latter in unison with
the spool.
Upon the inner end of the sleeve shaft and supported by the same is the
traveller or fork ell which traversing the worm groove" as the said sleeve shaft
is rotated by the spool at a different speed from the worm bar, rotated by the
flier, effecting a movement of the carriage 3 and spool sleeve ' to and fro.
2
It will be noted that the spool a¹ backs up somewhat as it follows the speed of
the flier. Now if the rope pull-down on the bar did not operate to feed out the
rope to the spool, the latter would run in unison with the Hier and no action would
be given to the traveller or fork e", that is there would be no differential motion
between the worm shaft and the fork sleeve shaft *, but the pull-down aforesaid
being operated at a given speed, as shown, feeds forward the rope at a regular rate,
and the drag on the rope being the propelling power of the spool and its adjuncts
hauls the latter along at a slower rate than the flier, the friction between the flier
and the spool equalling one revolution less each time the rope encircles the spool,
no matter what the circumference of the bundle on the spool may be. This
operates to give one differential revolution of the spool with respect to the flier in
cach circle of rope laid upon the spool. This differential motion between the flier
and spool is exactly sufficient to wind the rope up into even and close coils upon
the spool and even though the diameter of the coil or bundle increases as the spool
fills, this differential motion decreases at the same time in the same ratio, thereby
effecting the action of the spool reciprocating devices as shown more fully hereafter
and giving the necessary extra time for the machine to furnish more rope for the
extra circumference caused by each successive layer, and so it becomes of its own
accord its own governor in laying the rope outo the spool in regular close coils.
The differential motion hereinbefore described 1 employ in operating and
controlling the operation of the traveller or fork e" which at each revolution of
the spool operates to move the carriage k³ and spool a¹ the required distance to
make room for the next coil or circle and so on.
Now it will be noted that the gear on the flier.shaft and the gear on the
worm shaft with which the gear engages are of different size and the same thing
is true of the gear m³, on the spool shaft and the gear below on the traveller of
friction shaft . This variation in the size of the gears is inade in order to effect

page_text: the slowing down of the side to side traversing action of the traveller or fork in
this instance to such a degree that the traveller will make but one half a revolution
of the worm shaft while a complete coil is being laid upon the spool, the reason for
this being that the "pitch" of the groove " on the worm shaft I" is double that
described by the rope wound upon the spool.
I find that I can vary the side to side feed motion of the spool to any other
proportion than that above mentioned by varying the size of the four gears last
hereinbefore noted.
32
It will be apparent that a "drag "will be produced on the rope by the said
reciprocating action which will tend to retard the rotation of the spool. This drag,
however, will not produce a sufficiently "taut wound coil, or bundle of rope,
hence, I have added an extra drag or means of retarding the movement of the
spool by providing gears and on the spool and friction sleeve shafts and of
different dimensions from those of the gears m' and and have added friction
flange which runs free on shaft to further retard the movement of said gears
and increase the friction. Friction flanges and e' are splined on shaft A.
Again, as the diameter of the coil or bundle of rope on the spool increases, the
leverage of the rope upon the friction also increases, and to offset this to preserve
a uniform tension on the coil, I have added means for automatically increasing the
friction.
designates a disk constructed as a pulley splined on the sleeve arranged
to reciprocate upon the worm shaft (and which sleeve carries the friction gear and
disks employed to control the motion of the spool) between which disk e' aud gear ¹
are interposed one or more friction disks, as shown.
The outer face of the hub of the disk » is constructed as a cam, which is
arranged to co-operate with a similar cam formed on the inner face of the hub of
the clutch part w'.
Teeth are formed on the periphery of the outer face of the clutch part w² which
teeth, as the reciprocating carriage
adapted to be engaged by a dog
cam projection on the outer face of
with the lower arm all of the dog
a
reaches the outward limit of its travel, are
pivoted upon the worm shaft, by reason of a
nut made rigid on sleeve coming in contact
as shown.
It will be remembered that the flier rotates at a somewhat faster speed than the
spool, hence the engaging of the dog with the teeth of the clutch part w' can
only be of momentary duration. During this period, however, the clutch w
tightens up' on the disk by reason of the action of the cam faces before
mentioned.
27
As soon as the cam on the nut passes from under the lower arm a" of the dog 1,11
the spring will operate upon the said arm to disengage the dog from the teeth
of the clutch part.
I have found that the frictional connection between the dog and the cam on
the nut together with the force required to tighten up the clutch w¹ is greater than
the friction drag of the gear and the friction flanges. This causes the spool to
lock with the flier and the two to rotate at the same speed, resulting in a failure
of the rope to wind round the spool. To avoid this I have supplied the momentary
extra friction shown, wherein a belt " is shown as passed about the periphery of
the disk and engaged with the head of a thumb screw above. The latter passes
through the outer portion of a bar and is pivoted at its inner end upon a lug
or bracket connected with the carriage 43, and has its outer end bevelled so as to
ride up on a pulley or roller " having bearings in the frame g¹ at the time the
carriage reaches the outward limit of its movement, and at the moment the dog b
engages the teeth of the clutch w¹, so as to supply enhanced friction to the disk v¹,
and compel the dog to operate and avoid locking of spool and flier as before
mentioned. The dog operates on the clutch only at every other layer of rope or
when the carriage reaches the limit of its outer travel.
In order to effect a perfect bundling of the rope wound upon the spool, and to
take the same therefrom in the form that it is wound upon the spool.barrel, I make

page_text: the heads a removable from the barrel, as is shown in Fig. 4, and construct the
barrel in sections a*, each section having in cross section the form of a segment of a
circle, so that when the spool heads are removed the barrel of the spool may
collapse, and be removed from the bundle.
To further effect a perfect bundling of the rope, in setting up a spool I place
upon the ends of the barrel adjacent to the heads, metal rings d³, see Fig. 10, each
having four bands or cords connected therewith, which cords are led up or
outward through the grooves 3 formed in the inner surfaces of the spool heads, over
the peripheries of the latter, securing the ends under the spring cleats ou the
outer faces of the spool heads, so that just before the spool is filled, the heads
removed, and the barrel collapsed and withdrawn from coil, the said bands may be
tied around the coil, and the bundle taken from the spool may have the form
shown in Fig. 9.
In this way I am enabled to obtain a bundle in which it is feasible to unwind
or draw off the rope from the centre, since there are no cords or other obstruc-
tions passing through the centre of the bundle to prevent this thing being done.
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-
1. A machine for making cord and rope comprising in its construction a rotary
spool frame, and the disconnected hubs or disks d, as set forth.
2. A machine for making cord and rope comprising in its construction mechanism
substantially as described for twisting yarns into strands, and the hoops n surrounding
said mechanism to prevent the ballooning of the strands, as set forth.
3. A. machine for making cord and rope comprising in its construction the rotary
spool frame and disks or hubs d, the hollow shafts c, and the guide pulleys in said
shafts and disks, as set forth.
4. A machine for making cord and rope comprising in its construction the yarn
guiding head consisting of the frame k, and guide pulleys for the yarn supported
thereby, variously positioned with respect to each other and the axis of the spool
frame, as set forth.
5. A strand pull-down for cord and rope making machines consisting of the
flier o, the rotary frusto-conical capstans therein, a rotary hollow shaft extending
through one of the journals of the flier, and gearing connecting the inner end of
said hollow shaft with the shaft of one of said capstans, as set forth.
6. A rope pull-down for cord and rope making machines consisting of the flier r,
the hollow shafts forming the journals thereof, the capstan in the flier, the stationary
worm u, the worm gear t on a shaft journalled in the flier, gearing connecting said
worm gear shaft with the capstan shaft to operate the latter, and the guide pulleys,
as set forth.
7. A flier for cord and rope making machines provided with a rope pull-down on
one of the flier bars, as set forth.
8. A rope-pull-down, comprising in its construction a pulley or hub affording a
guide or bearing for the rope, longitudinally movable bolts in the said hub for
engaging and being disengaged from the rope, and means for operating the said
bolts, as set forth.
9. A rope-pull-down, comprising in its construction a pulley or hub affording a
guide or bearing for the rope, longitudinally movable bolts in the said hub for
engaging and being disengaged from the rope, a cam for moving the said bolts into
engagement with the rope, and springs for moving them in the opposite direction,
as set forth.
10. The flier frame, a rope pull-down on a shaft of the frame, and means for
driving the pull-down as the flier frame revolves, as set forth.
11. A rope-winding mechanism comprising in its construction a flier and its
shaft, a sleeve on the shaft adapted to be moved longitudinally thereon, a spool on
the sleeve, a pull-down on the flier for positively feeding the rope to the spool,

page_text: frictional means for retarding the rotation of the spool by the drag of the rope
connected therewith, and traversing means actuated by the said drag to reciprocate
the sleeve and spool, as set forth.
12. A rope-winding mechanism comprising in its construction a flier, a positively-
operated pull-down on the flier, and spool arranged to rotate in the flier, the
pull-down being operated by the drag of the rope on the spool, as set forth.
13. A rope-winding mechanism comprising in its construction, a flier, a spool
adapted to be rotated and reciprocated in the flier, frictional devices for retarding
the rotation of the spool, a traversing device connected with the spool, the latter
and the traversing device being adapted to be operated alone by the drag of the
rope on the spool, and means for increasing the frictional resistance to the rotation
of the spool upon the completion of each two layers of rope on the spool.
14. A collapsible spool provided on its ends with the spring cleats "c³," as set
forth.
15. A. collapsible spool, combined with rings on the ends of the barrel, for
attachment of the bundling cords, as set forth.
16. A ball of rope or cord having a ring at each end, and bundling cords attached
thereto and tied over the bundle, as set forth.
17. A rope-winding mechanism comprising in its construction, a flier, a spool
adapted to be rotated and reciprocated in the flier, frictional devices for retarding
the rotation of the spool, a traversing device connected with the spool, the latter
and the traversing device being adapted to be operated alone by the drag of the
rope on the spool, as set forth..
18. In a rope-making machine, means as described for feeding the rope at a
given speed to the spool journalled longitudinally in the flier, means for causing the
spool to rotate at a slower speed than the flier to take up the rope, means as
described for increasing the speed of the spool with reference to the flier as the
circumference of the rope wound on the spool increases, said last mentioned means
being connected with the means for moving the spool longitudinally, all as herein-
before set forth.
19. A rope-winding machine comprising in its construction a flier and its shaft,
a spool and its shaft, a worm feed screw, a carriage k and fork or traveller connected
with the same, and connections between the parts, all constructed arranged and
operating substantially as herein set forth and explained.
Dated this 19th day of July 1892.
HASELTINE, LAKE & Co.,
45, Southampton Buildings, London, Agents for the Applicant.