US1544269A - Expanded-metal manufacture - Google Patents

Description

June 30, 1925. 1,544,269

H. M. NAUGLE ET AL EXPANDED METAL MANUFACTURE Filed May 19 1924 2 Sheets-Shet 1 IQ. C Q Q June 30,1925. I 1,544,269

H. M. NAUGLE ET AL EXPANDED METAL MANUFACTURE Filed May 19,1924, 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 W W m WW M "AliHMIMMMMMIWHI ma'n'rmmwmwnmu ll II Patented June 30, 1925.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

HARRY M. NAUGLE AND ARTHUR J. TOWNSEND, 0F CANTON, OHIO; I

EXPANDED-METAL IVIANUFACTURE.

Application filed May 19, 1924. Serial No. 714,335.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, HARRY M. NAUGLE and ARTHUR J. TOWNSEND, citizens of the United States, residing at Canton, in the county of Stark and State of Ohio, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Expanded-Metal Mahufacture, of which the following is a specification.

The invention relates to methods and apparatus for making expanded metal lath and the like, and involves further improvements in the methods and apparatus set' forth in our pending application, filed June 1, 1922, Serial No. 565,127.

The objects of the present improvements are to eliminate the preliminary steps of pickling, cold rolling and annealing in the production of expanded metal, to avoid im perfections in the product, losses in production, and decrease difliculties in operation, resulting from the expansion of a Wide strip into a sheet having a plurality of expanded zones connected by integral ribs, thereby reducing the cost of manufacture.

Prior to the improved methods set forth insaid former application for expanded metal lath, expanded metal lath has habitually been made from steel sheets having characteristics and imperfections necessarily resulting from the methods employed in their production, which impede the operation of the lath machine and impair its efficiency; especially when the sheets are slit longitudinally to form strands which are stretched or elongated for expanding without shortening the sheet. The deficiencies referred to are the lack of uniformity in thickness and temper, the presence of transverse pipe flaws; and also the lack of uniformity in the drawing qualities of the metal.

Such steel sheets are made from sheet bars which have been reduced by a longitudinal hot rolling from an ingot or a bloom to a width of eight inches or more, and a thickness of about one-fourth of an inch or more. These bars are cut into sections of some twenty-four inches long, which are heated and rolled crosswise of the original bar and reduced by hot rolling and doubling to'produce a sheet from eight to twelve feet long, and slightly over twenty-four inches wide, with a thickness of about twenty-four gauge when intended for use in making expanded metal.

The hot rolls used for reducing ordinary sheets are of such a length that however well they may be turned, there is sufficient spring in the rolls to make the side and edge portions of the finished sheets thinner than the intermediate portion thereof; and likewise the annealing processes make the side and edge portions of the sheets softer and more ductile than the'intermediate or middle portions.

These differences of thickness and temper may be so slight as to be negligible when sheets are used for ordinary purposes, but where they are cut into three longitudinal strips of eight inches wide for making expanded sheets, the middle of each strip is so much thicker and harder than the side strips, and each side strip is so much thinner and softer at the outer edge than at the inner edge, that it is impossible to adjust a lath machine to properly handle the doubly differential strips without frequent faults in the operation of the machine. These difficulties are accentuated when a sheet strip so produced is expanded into a sheet having a plurality of expanded zones with intervening non-expanded ribs.

The method habitually employed for producing ordinary sheets also positions the original longitudinal grain of the sheet bar transversely in the finished sheet; -and even though the grain may be partially or entirely eliminated by the cross rolling and doubling, there yet remains the pipe flaws originating in the ingot which extend longitudinally in the sheet bar and then trans-,

versely in the finished sheet, and are frequently ruptured and parted by the longitudinal stretching of the strand formed by the longitudinal slits in the sheet strips.

Furthermore, the necesslty of trimming the side edges of an ordinary sheet to makestrips of the exact width required for an expanded sheet, and the necessity of trimguides of a lath machine without buckling in sheet bars to prevent sticking of the sheets in the hot rolling and doubling proc esses, has prevented the production of sheets with the desired ductility for the expanding processes, wherein the slitting, stretching and expanding operations can best be performed upon a comparatively soft metal having deep drawing or ductile qualities.

It has been sought to avoid or ameliorate the described deficiencies in the product and the difficulties in the operation of a metal lath machine by the methods set forth in our said prior application, but in the production of strip sheets, as described therein, from hot rolled strips, skelp or sheet bars, the necessary reduction of the strip sheets to the exact width and gauge required for the slitting, stretching and expanding operations, involves not only pickling and cold rolling operations, but also a subsequent annealing of the metal to render the same sufficiently soft and ductile for the slitting, stretching and expanding operations.

The present improvement involves the direct reduction by a hot rolling operation, of a billet or bar to a long'thin narrow strip or band, and a winding of the band in a tight coil before cooling, followed by slitting, stretching and expanding operations to form a single panel with a rib flange on each edge, and a subsequent joining of a plurality of such panels by securing their rib flanges directly together to form a commercial sheet comprising a plurality of expanded panels with intervening ribs.

The method of producing a thin band directly from a billet or bar, permits the use of metal having the phosphorous content reduced to a minimum, with a resulting increase in the ductile and drawing qualities thereof; and the narrow faced disk rolls used for reducing the billets or bars gives the bands an absolutely uniform thickness from edge to edge, while the tight winding of the hot bands before cooling, prevents the formation of an objectionable scale thereon and avoids the necessity of a pickling operation, and also results in a gradual cooling of the bands Which preserves the soft, ductile and uniform quality thereof, which is desirable, if not necessary, for the slitting, stretching and expanding operations.

Furthermore, the extended length of the band greatly reduces the number of forward ends which must he passed through an expanding machine, and eliminates the intervals which would occur between a series of shorter sheets; and finally, the longitudinal reduction to a thin gauge, maintains the grain and pipe flaws lengthwise of the sheet, and eliminates the danger of rupture arising from a crosswise gram or a transverse pipe flaw.

The improved method may be carried out by the apparatus diagrammatically illustrated in the accompanying drawings, form: ing part hereof, in which- Flgure 1 is a side elevation of hot rolling ap aratus, illustrating the reduction of a bil et from a heating furnace to a thin band tightly coiled, and showing sections at different stages of the reduction Figs. 2, are plan and side elevation views in two sections of slitting, stretching, expanding, straightening, flattening and shearing apparatus, illustrating the expansion of a thin band from a coil thereof into a single panel with rib flanges on its edges;

Figs. 3, are plan views of rib welding assembling tables with and straightening and sheet shearing apparatus, illustrating the formation from a single expandedpanel of a commercial sheet comprising a pluralof expanded panels with intervening r1 s;

Figs. 4, are cross sections showing different stages of the slit-ting, expanding the rib flange forming operations; I

Fig. 5, is a fragmentary plan view of the completed product; and

Fig. 6, a section of same on Fig. 5.

Similar numerals refer to corresponding line 6-6,

parts throughout the figures of the draw- 1 mgs.

For the purpose of the present invention, a thin narrow band 7 is made by a longitudinal hot rolling operation, directly from a billet or bar 8, which has previously been heated preferably in a continuous furnace 9, by a train of roughing rolls 10 and a train of reducing rolls 11 and the band is imme-' diately wound in a tight coil 19. before it has cooled enough to form an objectionable scale on its surface, all as conventionally illustrated in Fig. 1.

In this manner, a billet 8 having a section of about two and one-half inches square and 1 a length of some thirty feet, may be reduced by a single heating to a sheet band about two and one-half inches wide and prefer ably of twenty-four gauge U. S. standard, or twenty-five thousandths of an inch. in thickness.

The tight windin not only prevents the formation of an ob ectionable scale on its surfaces and renders a subsequent pickling operation unnecessary, but also causes the metal to cool so gradually as to preserve'it in the soft and ductile condition required for slitting, stretching and expanding operation, without the necessity of annealing the same.

When the coiled band has cooled, it may then be formed and expanded by an apparatus and the methods of the general type illustrated and described in our Patent No. 1,472,679, granted October 30, 1923, for expanded metal manufacture, to produce a single panel with rib flanges on each side and having the form of mesh illustrated and described in our Patent No. 1,472,774, granted October 30, 1923 for expanded metal.

As shown in Figs. 2, the apparatus may include flanging rolls 13, strand slitting rolls 14, strand flattening'rolls 15, bond corrugating rolls 16, flange ribbing rolls 17, diverging rib guides 18, 18 and 18" with intervening bond-corrugating strand- stretching rolls 19 and 19, followed by rib conveyer rolls 20, sheet straightening rolls 21, mesh flattening rolls 22, and strip shearing rolls 23.

The edge portions of the band are bent by the rolls 13 to form normal flanges 7 on each side, as shown at section (Zd in Figs. 2 and 4; and the intervening web portion 7 is cut by the rolls 14 into series of interrupted staggered slits to form strands 24 and bonds 25 in well known manner.

The slitted web portion of the band is then corrugated by the rolls 16 to laterally incline and initially stretch the strands 24 and reversely corrugate adjacent rows of bonds 25; and the normal edge flanges 7' are bent by the rolls 17 to form one side and the arched portion of a rib 26, as shown at section ee in Figs. 2 and 4.

The rib flange 26 are then slidably engaged and separated by guides 18, 18' and 18" and the strands are further stretched and the bands further corrugated by the rolls 19' and 19' to completely expand the Web portion of the sheet band and form meshes between the strands 24 and the bonds 25, as shown in Fig. 5; after which the expanded band is straightened by rolls 21 and the expanded meshes are flattened by the rolls 22 to complete the formation of a single panel of expanded metal between rib flanges on each edge thereof, as shown at section ff in Figs. 2 and 4 and also in Fig. 6.

The expanded panel 7 may then be cut by shearing rolls 23 into sections of convenient length of say thirty-two feet, which may be delivered on to a table 27 as shown in the left of Figs. 3; after which a plurality of expanded panel sections may be assembled by engaging one rib-flange with another on a table 28 on one side or the other of the delivery table 27.

The rib flanges thus engaged may then be secured together as by a spot welding apparatus 29 provided with disk electrodes 30, as shown in Figs. 3; which completes the formation of an expanded sheet having together by intervening ribs, and the ribs may then be straightened by rolls 31 and the sheet sheared by rolls 32 intocommercial lengths of say eight feet.

The described method of preparing bands entirely by longitudinal rolling into very long lengths, of the required width and uniform thickness and temper throughout, and with a longitudinal arrangement of the grain and such flaws as there may be in the metal; not only facilitates the operation, reduces the losses, and increases the eflicienc and output of the lath machine, as describec but also improves the product by giving the same a uniformity of thickness, strength and quality in each and all of its individual bonds and strands.

The extensive and rapidly increasing use of expanded metal lath as a reinforcement in concrete floors and other building construction, requires a uniformity in the strength of the individual bonds and strands, which perform the function of tension truss members in such construction, to avoid a failure in any portion thereof which would be detrimental or destructive of the whole; and the described method of making expanded metal lath produces the same without any transversely extending flaws in its tension members and eliminates such cause of a failure therein.

Furthermore, the method of expandin single panels from narrow strips hot rolled longitudinally and tightly coiled as described, eliminating the steps of pickling, cold rolling and annealing which are otherwise required; and by directly interengaging and securing together the rib flanges of such single panels, an expanded sheet can be made of any desired width and number of panels, which is not. only more uniform in the thickness and strength of its expanded meshes, but is stronger in the overlapping arched portion of its ribs.

The scope of the invention is not limited to the particular hot rolling and spot welding apparatus used herein for illustrated purposes; nor to the particular lath making machine and methods described herein, for obviously the improved method of making expanded metal lath is applicable to other lath making machines and methods, with many if not all the advantages and beneficial results which are set forth herein.

We claim 1. The method of making expanded metal, which includes heating and hot rolling billets or bars longitudinally only to form thin bands directly, and then slitting the bands to form bonds and strands and expanding the resultant meshes.

2. The method of making expanded metal, which includes heating and hot rolling billets and bars longitudinally to form thin a plurality of expanded panels connected bands and tightly coiling the same before cooling, then slitting the bands to form bonds and strands and expanding the resultant meshes.

3. The method of making expanded metal, which includes heating and hot rolling billets or bars longitudinally to form thin bands and tightly coiling the same before cooling, then slitting the bands to form bonds and strands and expanding the resultant meshes by longitudinally stretching the strands.

4. The method of making expanded metal which includes heating and hot rolling billets or bars longitudinally only to form thin bands directly, then expanding the middle portion and forming rib flanges on each edge portion of the band, and then securing the rib flanges" together to form a sheet with a plurality of panels and intervening ribs.

5. The method of making expanded metal which includes heating and hot rolling billets or bars longitudinally only to form thin bands directly, then expanding the middle portion and forming rib flanges on each edge portion of the band, and then interengaging and securing the rib flanges together to form a sheet with a plurality of panels and intervening ribs.

In testimony that we claim the above, .We have hereunto subcribed our names.

HARRY M. NAUGLE. ARTHUR J. TOWNSEND.

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