US1559272A - Tool or apparatus for bending metal fabric - Google Patents

Description

Oct. 27 1925- 1,559,272 E. M. MONAGHAN ET AL TOOL OR APPARATUS FO R BENDING METAL FABRIC Filed June 6. 1922 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 1 7 J J. l 1 J 3 t fi (wwmgi%ww WM Oct. 27, 1925- v 1,559,272

. E. M. MONAGHAN ET AL @001. on nun/nus FOR BEnmNeuB'r-AL mmuc Filed June 6. 1922 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 WM @244 M Patented Oct. 27, 1925.

UNITED, [STATES PATENT OFFICE.

EDWARD MARTIN MONAGHAN AND RICHARD RIGBY, OF LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND, AS- SIGNORS TO THE BRITISH REINFORCED CONCRETE ENGINEERING COMPANY LIM- Iran, or MANCHESTER, ENGLAND.

TOOL OR APPARATUS FOR BENDINC: METAL FABRIC.

Application filed June 6,

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, EDWARD MARTIN lvIoNAGI-IAN, of the city of Liverpool, in the county of Lancaster, a subject of the King of Great Britain and Ireland, and RICHARD RIGBY, of the city of Liverpool, in the county of Lancaster, England, a subject of the King of Great Britain and Ireland, have jointly invented an Improved Tool or Apparatus for Bending Metal Fabric, for which we have made application for patent in Great Britain and Ireland, No. 15,662, dated June 7th, 1921, of which the following is a specification. I

This invention relates to the bending of metal fabric and particularly such as is used in building construction in the reinforcement of concrete and the invention will be described in detail in this particular application of it.

In reinforced concrete work and princi pally where slabs or floor portions extending between'and over beams are to be reinforced, the fabric customarily employed is made up of parallel longitudinal wires spaced regularly apart (and some 25 to 30 in number) and united by regularly spaced transverse wires welded thereto. The desired disposition of this fabric in the finished slab is such that over the beams it is near the top of the slab and between the beams it is near the bottom of the slab and this involves a regular cranking or bending of the fabric which as far as we are aware has hitherto proved impracticable or has in volved slow and unreliable operative procedure.

Itis an important feature of the invention to overcome this difficulty and the invention provides for obtaining the desired resultwith certainty with extraordinary celerity and by means of so simple a character and robust a form as to satisfy the peculiar requirements of building operations.

One feature of the invention is a metal fabric bending apparatus comprising means (e. g. hooks passed between the strands) to enter into engagement on a line transverse to the strands, with a plurality of strands of the fabric by movement (between said means and the fabric) having a component transverse to the general plane of the fabric, means (e. g. the edge of a plate) to engage the fabric at the same part of its width 1922. Serial No. 566,259.

line and from the same face of the fabric as that from which the first mentioned means entered into engagement with the said strands, and means (e. g. a long handle) for causing the two aforementioned means respectively to exert oppositely directed pressures on the fabric to bend the portions of said strands between the lines aforesaid relatively to portions of the strands'beyond the same.

Another feature of the invention is in the production of reinforcedfconcrete the employment of an apparatus which at one application of the apparatus to reinforcing fabric comprising parallel strands of wire bends a plurality of the. strands by applying to each strand, simultaneously at points spaced apart along it, oppositely directed forces transverse to the general plane of the fabric.

The above and other object and features of the invention will become fully evident to those skilled in the arts in question from a consideration of the following description with reference to the accompanying drawings of two forms of hand tool according to the invention.

In the accompanying drawings Figure 1. is a diagram indicating generally the problem presented in the case of that application of the invention which is particularly under consideration.

Fig. 2. is a side, part sectional, elevation of a hand tool according to the invention for bending the fabric in the manner required for reinforced work as indicated in Fig. 1.

Fig. 8. is a front elevation of the tool shown in Fig. 2.

Fig. 4:. is an inverted plan view of the tool, and I v Fig. 5. is a diagram illustrating the mode of operation of the tool.

Fig. 6 shows diagl'amn'iatically a modified form or tool according to the invention.

The tools shown are intended to bend at a single operation seven of the strands of the reinforcing fabric although the same may be designed, as will be evident, to bend simultaneously any larger or smaller number of the wires. They are intended to bend the wires more or less as indicated in Fig. 1 so that a gentle slope of say 30 or thereabouts connects the portion 3 ofthe wire which to be (between the bean'is 5, 5) near the bottom of the slab '4", with the portion 9 which is to lie over the beams, near the upper surface of the slab.

Referring now to Figs. 2, 3 and s, the tool has a bed plate 11 from the front edge of which depends a number of hook members 13 with bevelled portions 13*. Tl-iese may be formed by cutting portions of the plate 11, made in such a case of angle iron, or may be secured to or in the plate 11 There is an eighth member or guide 15 which is not hookec The seven openings 16 between the hooks and between the guide and adjacent hook are spaced apart .t a spacing corresponding to that of the wires of the fabric but the openings are SHl'JEEtZHltially wider than the thickness of the wires so as to facilitate the entry therein of the fabric even when, as commonly occurs, wires of the fabric are somewhat distortet laterally.

An extension plate 18 is secured underneath the bed plate by bolts 20 secured to it (the plate 18) and clamping nuts 22 threaded on to the bolts, the latter passing through slots 24 in the bed plate so that the extension plate may be clamped in dii' terent positions to the bed plate. A long handle 26 is suitably secured rigidly to the bed plate and has pivoted thereto at 28 a leg 30 which straddles an arcuate member 32 provided with a series of holes 34; with any of which a thumb screw 36, passing through appro priate holes in the leg, may co-operate to lock the leg in definite angular relationship to the handle.

The fabric having been spread out upon the bottom of the mould or form of temporary floor the workman lowers the tool upright upon the section to be bent and with the guide i5, which is longer (say by some three-eighths of an inch) than the hooked i'ncmbers, between the last of the group of wires to be bent and the next adjacent wire which is not then to be bent or has already been bent. He then slides the tool laterally over the surface of the fabric so as to move the guide towards said last wire of the group, and in this way the tool is, without special attention on his part, brought to a position in which the group of wires will be opposite the openings 16 and the tool then drops home on to the fabric with the respec ive wires between the hooked members. The extra length of the guide prevents excessive movement of the tool in the direction referred to. The tool is now moved back in the opposite direction to lining the wires behind the horizontal portions of the hook members 13 and the operation of engaging the tool with the group of wires is complete. It will be evident that by reason of the provision of the guide 15 this operation can be easily and quickly performed. The actual bending is then a mere matter of tipping the tool, with the edge of the extension plate pressed down upon the fabric, until the free end of the leg 30 meets the bottom of the mould (see Fig. 5) the we-i 'ht of the fabric beyond the hooks, or, it may be, pressure applied (as indicated in 5 by the arrow), by the workman on the fabric just past the hooks completing the double bending.

This supplementary duty disappears if, as may be done when desired, two workmen each use a tool at the same time to form the opposite bends in the fabric at each side of a beam location in the mould.

It will be evident from a consideration of 5 that the adjustment of the extension plate 18 relatively to the bed plate 11, which the slots 2&- allow of, determines the length of the inclined portion of the wire, i. e. the length AB, while the inclination at which the leg 30 is set relatively to the handle 26 determines the inclination of the bend, i. c. the angle at D.

/Vhen the bending of one section is complete the fabric is released by tipping the tool back a little and performing the opposite movements to those oy which the tool was threaded upon the fabric, the bevelled portion-s 13 of the hooks facilitating the unthreading. The tool may then be moved laterally to the next section of the fabric and the whole width of it bent step by step in this way.

In Fig. 6 is indicated an addition to such a tool as has been described, which addition positively secures that both bends which to give the wire its cranked form shall be made by the tool and at the single operation. The handle 26* which is conveniently cranked as indicated is not rigidly secured to the plate ll but is pivoted thereto as at 4-0. Projecting from it is a cam icce acting upon one arm a l of a lever pivoted at l6 to the plate 11 and the other arm of which at its end has a cross bar 48 rigidly securec to or in one therewith and extending along the row of hooks from end to end and parallel thereto. A spring 50 secured to the handle 26* and bearing on the arm 41 i normally holds the cam 42 down on the plate ll. so as to bring the handle upright in relation to the plate, and holds the cross bar 4-8 elevated so as not to im petle threading of the tool on to the wires. To the back of the handle is secured a spur piece adapted to limit the relative movement of the handle and plate 11 about the pivot l-O. This piece 52 is adjust-able heightwise of the handle, being slotted for the passage of clamping bolts 54L and havingteeth of sa 1 one eighth of an inch pitch to ensimilar teeth on the handle which resist movement of the spur piece height-wise of the handle and so assist the clamping fabric resting on the bottom of the mould,

causes relative movement of the plate 11 and handle 26 (until the spur piece bears upon the plate 11) which moves the cam piece 42 along the rear surface of the lever arm 44 thus camming the lever about its pivot, against the action of the spring 50, and lowering the cross bar 48 forcibly upon the fabric to bend it beyond the hooks as indicated. The adjustment of the spur piece on the handle determines the angle of the bend thus formed beyond the hooks, which for any given setting of this spur piece the adjustment of the leg 80 relatively to the handle determines, as already described, the angle of the other bend.

What we claim is 1. Apparatus for bending metal fabric comprising a handle an adjustable plate on said handle, the rear edge of which is adapted to engage and bend a plurality of strands of the fabricand means on said handle forward of the said adjustable plate, to engage the'opposite side of the fabric, as set forth.

2. Apparatus for bending metal fabric comprising a handle, a bed plate on said handle, an adjustable extension plate on the bed plate, means on said bed plate to pass through and engage the opposite sides of a plurality of strands of the fabric along a line parallel to the rear edge of the adjustable plate, substantially as described.

I 3. Apparatus for bending metal fabric comprising a handle, a bed plate on said handle, means on said bed plate to engage a plurality of strands of the fabric along a line parallel to the rear edge of the plate, an adjustable extension plate on the bed plate, and an adjustable leg to limit the inclination of the bed-plate, substantially as described.

l. Apparatus for bending metal fabric comprising a manipulating handle, a bed plate on said handle, a plurality of hooks along one edge of the bed plate with the open ends towards one end, an adjustable extension plate at the other edge of the bed plate and an adjustable stop to limit the turning movement of the bed plate, substantially as described.

5. Apparatus for bending metal fabric comprising a handle on saidbed plate, a plurality of hooks along one edge of the bed plate, an adjustable extension plate at the other edge of the bed plate, a handle and means tolimit the turning movement of the handle about the extension plate, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof they have signed their names to this specification.

EDWARD MARTIN MONAGHAN.

RICHARD RIGBY.

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