US1578366A - Apparatus for the production of expanded metal - Google Patents

Description

March 30 192.

E. T. REDDING ET AL APPARATUS FOR THE PRODUCTION OF EXPANDED METAL 1922 4 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed June 27,

5' 1 VENTORS Md MTORNEYJ YWIYTNESS March 30 I926. r 1578,366"

E. T. REDD'ING ET AL APPARATUS FOR THE PRODUCTION OF EXPANDED METAL Filed June 27, 1922 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 WITNESS WWN YS v7 I v OJNVE'TORS J ta eous method or process,

Patented Mar. 30, 1926.

UNITED STATES- PA ENT OFFICE.

Enwann mnnnnme am) 1301mm: w. cross, or swrss'vnnn, rmsy'nvanfa, assmnoas 'ro consomna'rnn nxrannnn-unrar. comramns, a eonromrrron Q1 PENNSYLVANIA.

I arranarps non 'rnn rnonncrron or EXPANDED Marat...

Application filed June 27, 1922. "Serial No. 571,227. I

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, EnwAnn T. RED- DING, a citizen of the United States, and LEONARD W. CRoss, a citizen of Great Britain, both residing at Swissvale, 1n the county of Allegheny and State of Pennsylvania, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Apparatus for the Production of Expanded Metal, of which the following is a specification. I

Our invention relates to the production of expanded metal fabric, and more especially to apparatus for this purpose. tion permits and facilitates'production of the fabric by a novel andhighly advanwhich may be briefly explained as follows:

Metal fabric is ordinarily. made according to two processes, one the Golding, which is suitable for heavy stock and in which the diamonds are sheared from the blank by reciprocating-die members, and the other the deployed method, suitable for lighter gauge stock such as used, for example, for metal lath and the other like meshes, some of which may be of material of heavier weight than ordinarily employed "in lath.

In this last process the blank is slit in a manner well understood and the metal expanded by grasping the edges. of the slit sheet and pulling them apart, so that the metal is deployed to produce the diamonds, the stretching of the strands being slight as com ared with the stretching incident to the oldi'ng process.

The novel process to which we have 1 above referred diners from this old deploying one in that the various portionsof ihc sheet separated by the slits are displaced transversely out of the original plane of the sheet as a whole to expand it and 0 on up its mesh, instead'of being simply ti ted in I th-e original plane of the sheet by a direct -i-1JP1111 on the opposite edges in thatplane. Aside from any differences in the final product of these two methods, that of deploying by. transverse displacement afiords Our invenvarious practical advantages, such'asgreater rapidity and reduced cost of manufacture;

reduction in floor space required; and continuous production of the expanded product in practically any. width desired.

.How't'hese and other advantages can best be secured will appear from our description hereinafter of the preferred form .of apparatus embodying our present invention in connection with the production of expanded metal fabric therewith by our method of transverse deploying.

In the drawings, Fig. 1 is a plan VleWDf a portion of a longitudinally slit sheet metal' blank resulting from the preliminary operatlD'flS, and adapted for deploying by the transverse method; Fig. 2' is an end view of the blank; Fig. 3 is a view of the partially expanded blank looking edgewise at the unexpanded portion, illustrating the preferred mode of deploying in our apparatus; Fig. 4

is a side view of the fully expanded product, witlra portion broken out; and Fig. 5 is an end view of such product; Fig. 6 shows a longitudinal vertical section through our preferred apparatus orqnachine, illustrating the various operations therein; Fig.- ,7 is r i mainly fin end view, from the right of Fig.

6, showing certain partsin section as indicated-b' the line 7 -7 in Fig. 6; 8 and 9 s low transverse sections through the "apparatus, taken as indicated by the lines 88 and 99 in Figs. 6 and 10 respectively Fig. 10 is a side elevation of the apparatus, on a smaller scale; and Fig. 11is a frag mentary plan-view. of the left hand portion of the apparatus as larger'scale. I

In the production of expanded metal shown in Fig.310, onca fabric with our apparatus by the transverse deploying method, we prepare a slitted blank A y passing a blank sheet through slittin rolls of ordinary general construction an operation (such as the rolls B, B shown at the extreme left of Fig. 6 and in Fig. 11).

Preferably, the rolls employed for this purpose are designed to slit the blank with portion 8, besides leaving it with unslit se connecting the strands.

vage portions 9,10 along the edges. The slits of each group are staggered in the usual manner, asshown.

Instead of further upsetting the slit portions of the blank A (as heretofore customary), we preferably pass it through flatten? ing rolls (such as the rolls C, C shown near the left of Fig. 6 and in Fig. 11) to take out the slight upsetting of the strands incident to the slitting'operation; for we find that this gives a greatly improved'product, retaining maximum strength at the bridges From the flattening rolls C,'C, the slit blank A passes to the deploying mechanism of our apparatus (comprehensively indicated at D in Figs-6 and 10), where it is deployed by transverse displacement, about as indicated in full lines in Fig. 3. As there shown, the extreme end portions of the sch- ages 9 and 10 have been brought down to a point such that the diamonds a at such end of the blank have been fully deployed 'or expanded, such expansion being progressively "less 'full or complete toward the right. Successive lengths of the slit portions are progressively .brought down in this manner, as indicated diagrammatically in the dotted'lines in Fig. 3. Where the blank. is'composed of such stock that the selvage will not accommodate itself to the slight foreshortening of the sheets which takes place under the expanding process, such selvage can be c-rimped slightly, as indicated in exaggerated form at 11in Fig. 3. The progressive displace.- ment of the'metal lends'itself very well to the crimping operation as it will be apparent that it is only as diamonds are fully dcployed that crimping may be necessary. This crimping, it,will'be understood, will only be slight at most as the amount of foreshorteningis relatively small,

By deploying the metal downward at both sides of the intermediate selvage portion 8 in Fig. 1, the fully expanded sheet will ultimately be brought into an inverted V-shape (when looked at end-on), with the selvage 8 extending approximately; parallel to the sel'vages 9 and 10, and the expanded portions 12 and 13 (which will ultimately constitute separate sheets) sloping off at' an angle to one another. See Figs. 4 and 5. The sel vages 9 .and 10' may occupy exactly their original relative positions, without ever being moved apart at all.

Ultimately, the selvage portion 8, which is. preferably of, double width, is slit, leaving two separate sheets with margins of the de-" sired width. g I With this general explanation of the procedure, the specific details and operation of The blank A first passes through the slitting rolls B, B, which cut theg'ro'ups of slits 7, and then through the flattening rolls C, C, which take out the upsetting incident to the shttin'g,as alreadydescribed. If deslre'd, the flattening rolls 0, C may also have middle port-ions shaped to crimp the .inner marginal portion or middle selvage 8 (see Figs. Sand 8). The rolls B, Band C, v

C act to pull the slit blank A forward, and thus also feed and advance it to the rest of the machine, including the'expanding or deploying mechanism D. v

As the slit blank A enters-the mechanism D from the rolls B and C, C the middle selvage or marginal portion 8 rides on to and along supporting means suchas a bar 19, which serves to sustain the'pull of the deploying means necessary to draw transversely corresponding portions of the sheet at either side of said selvage down out 'of the original plane of the sheet, so as to deploy it and open up its mesh. (In reference tov the sheet as a whole, of course, the pull at either side of the selvage 8 is really and ultimately sustained by the deploying" means pulling on the sheet at the other side,the support 19in this aspect serving as a mere guide to change the direction of pull)- Asi which deflect and direct these slit portions downward to the first pair of rolls'31, 31,

Y whence they pass to the next pair of rolls,

and 'so on. Owing to the downward inclination or divergence of the guides. relatively to the guide support 19 and the original plane of the sheet, the selvage 8 and the portions of the sheet acted on by the guides and rolls are advanced in diverging planes, and the latter are thus progressively-drawn farther and farther out. of their original plane, and the sheet thus progressively deployedand expanded.

'As shown in Fig. 7, especially, the guides 20, 21,- 22, 23, etc., not only diverge (downward) from the supporting guide 19 inreference to the original plane of the sheet,

but also diverge crosswise of the sheet, to

either side from positions closely'adjacent said guide 19 and the selvage portion 8 supported thereby. Likewise, the successive pairs of rolls 31, 32, 33, etc., along the path of the advancing sheet are. not onlylocated at greater and greater distances down from the guide 19 and the originaLplane of the sheet, but also terminated at greater and greater distances to either side of guide 19 and selvage 8, in correspondence with the positions of the immediately adjacent corners of the proceeding and succeeding guide plates 20, 21, 22, 23,24, etc. In .every' case, the upper roll of a pair engages the metal between slits at the lower edge of the slo mg expanded portion (12 or 13) of the s eet, while the transversely corrcspondin 11118X panded portion of the sheet exten s horizontally outward between the rolls. In the onward progress of-the sheet, therefore, portions farther and farther from theselvage 8 (and hence nearer and nearer'the. selvage's 9 and 10) loose the shelter of guide plates and rolls,so to speak,and. are drawn out of their original plane and expanded. In other words, various portions across the width of the sheet (and. of' each ultimate sheet 12, 13) are progressively and" successively. drawn and deloyed farther and farther out of their original plane.

The crimping of the edge selvages or marginal portions 9, 10 may be done y rolls 4 0, and theinner margin or selvage 8 may be split by the cutters 41, 41.v These rolls 40 and 41 serve to pull the sheet or blank through the machine, as well as-the rolls B, o, 31,32,533, etc. I

The various guide plates and rolls may all be suitably supported by a strong framework 42, 42. As shown in Fig. 9, the various pairs of rolls; have intermeshing gears 43, and

Y idlers 44 are also provided, so that all may and continuous,

be driven from any suitable source of power, as by means of a pulley 45 and gears 46, 47 of which the latter is mounted directly on the shaft of oneof-the rolls 35. The cutters 41, 41 may conveniently be driven-from the rolls 40, 40,-as by means of chain belts 48. Obviously, the production of expanded metal fabric in this apparatus is progressiye and the unbroken length in which the fabric can be produced is limited only by the length of plain sheet. fed in.

We claim 1. Apparatus for the production of ex- A panded sheet metal comprisin means for progressively and successiveiy awing portions nearer and nearer an outer unslit marin of a slit sheet out of their original plane,

to deploy the sheet and open up its mesh,- and means for engaging the ad acent unsht margin and thereby sustaining the pull exerted in deploying the sheet.

2. Apparatus for the production of expanded sheet metal comprising guide means for loosely engaging and thereby sustaining a marginal portion of an advancing slit sheet, and pairs of revolving rolls arranged at successively greater distances from the and plane of said marginal portion for drawing the various portions across the width of the sheet farther and farther out of their original plane.

3. Apparatus for the production ofexpanded sheet metal comprising means' for sustaining a marginal portion of an advancing slit sheet, interrupted guide means diverging from said sustaining me'ansin. ref-. erence to the original plane of the sheet, pairs of revolving rolls arranged in their intervals for drawingthe sheet along the guides to deploy it and open up its mesh.

4. Apparatus for the production of expanded sheet metal comprising means for sustaining a marginal portion of an advancing slit sheet, interrupted i'de means diverging from said sustainin means both transversely of the sheet and in reference to its original plans, and pairs ofrevolving rolls arranged in intervals of said. guide means. I

5. Apparatus for the production of expanded sheet metal comprising. means for slitting the sheet; means for crimping one marginal portion; means for progressively and successively drawing portions farther and farther away from such marginal one out of their original plane, to deploy the sheet and open up its mesh; and means for crimping the other marginal portion as the slit portions adjacentthereto' are deployed.

6. Apparatus for the, production of expanded sheet metal comprising means for supporting an intermediate portion of a slit sheet, and means for progressively and successively drawing portions further and further away 'from that supported as aforesaid downward to either side of the support to open up its mesh. I

7. Apparatus for the production of expanded sheet metal comprising guide means for supporting an intermediate port-ion 'of an advancing slit sheet, and means diverging outward from one another and downward to either side from said supporting means for progressively and successively drawing portions of the sheet further and further to eitherside of the supported portion down out of their original plane, so as to deploy the sheet and open up its mesh.

8. Apparatus for the production of expanded sheetmetal comprising guide means for, supporting an intermediate portion of an advancing slit sheet, interrupted guide means diverging downward and to either side-from that first mentioned, and pairs ofrevolving rolls arranged in intervals of said guide means for successively and progressively drawing portions of the sheet farther and farther to either side of the supported portion downward out of their original plane, so as to deploy the sheet and open up its mesh. 1

9. Apparatus for the production of expended sheet metal comprising means for supporting an intermediate, portion of an advancing slit sheet; and overhung rolls for progressively andsuccesslvely drawlng portions farther and fartherzaway from the successively greater distances'from the plane of the support-ed portion of the sheet and N with their free-ends at successively greater distances to either side of such portion.

- In testimony whereof, we have hereunto' signed our names.

EDWVARDT. BEDDING. LEONARD V. CROSS.

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