US1716933A - Method of manufacturing closed-link brake hangers - Google Patents

Description

June 11, 1929.

F. SCHAEF'ER ET AL METHOD OF MANUFACTURING CLOfiED LINK BRAKE HANGERS Filed April 13, 1927 2 Sheets-Sheet l INVENTORS 91111611, 1929. F AEFER ETAL 1,716,933

METHOD OF MANUFACTURING CLOSED LINK BRAKE HANGERS Filed April 15, 1927 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 FIG 4 FIG 5 2 14 III III PIE 7 Patented June 11, 1929.

-UNITED STATES PAraNr o-FFicE.

rnnnnnic scnanrnn, or PITTSBURGH, AND WILLIAM A. KERN, or mwoon CITY, PENNSYLVANIA; SAID KERN AssmNon :ro SAID scnanrm.

METHOD OF MANUFACTURING CLOSED-LINK BRAKE HANGERS.

Application filed April 13,

The invention relates to the manufacture of closed link brake hangers for suspending brake beams from the trucks of railway cars, coaches and the like.

Closed link brake hangers havecust-omarily been manufactured by bending a rod or bar to the desired shape of hanger and welding its adjacent ends to each other. Because of this necessity of welding, the hangers must be made of low carbon steel which cannot: be hardened by heat treatment to effectively resist the wear to which the hangers are sub jected. Furthermore, it is desirable to have the yokes of brake hangers of greater cross sectional area than their arms so that the yokes may adequately resist the wear to which they are subjected, in proportion to the required strength of their arms. To effect this unequal distribution of the metal between the yokes and arms of brake hangers formed of rods it is necessary to upset the portions of the rods which form the yokes, and such upsetting operations add materially to the cost of manufacture.

Theobjectofthis invention is to providean improved method ofmanufacturing closed link brake hangers so that they may be'formed from steel capable of increased resistance to wear, the brake hangers being free from weld joints and otherwise strong and durable, and whereby this 'type of brake hanger may be economicallyfonned with a proper disposition of metal to effectively utilize its available strength, and whereby they may be made true in shape.

According to this invention :a closed link brake hanger is formed from a suitable blank by a succession of forging and expanding operations. While various initial forms of blanks maybe used, a cylindrical blank is preferred, it having been found particularly suitable for the purpose among other reasons because its shape is such that scale is quite completely removed during the forging op eration. In the first forging operation a cylindrical or other suitable blank is shaped in the form of a parallelogram blank having ondsfor ultimately forming brake hanger yokes, and having sides for forming brake hanger yokes, the ends and sides being disposed at obtuse-and acuteangles to each other. The forged parallelogram blank is then expanded into a rectangular or equivalent blank which in outline is substantially the shape of the desired finished brake hanger, and during 1927. Serial 183,823.

the expandingoperation the ends or the sides of the blank-are stretched to remove any kinks which may be formed during the expanding operation so that the stretched portions will accurately fit the dies used in a succeeding forging operation. After this expanding and stretchin operation, positely (l isposed members of the blank are subjected to a stretching operation for the purpose just explained. The blank thus stretched is subjected to a final forging operation to shape it into the desired finished form of a brake hanger.

In the preferred practice of the invention the "blank formed in the first forging operation has its yoke-forming ends of largercross sectional area than its sides so that in the finished brake hanger the yokes may have increased oross sectional area to resist wear without the'necessity of increasing the cross sectional area of the arms beyond that required for service conditions.

The invention may be further explained with reference to the accompanying draw-' ings, 0f which F ig. 1 is a face view of a parallelogram blank after the first forging operation; Fig. 2 a transverse sectional view of the blank, the plane of view being indicated the line 11-11, Fig. 1; Fig. 3a plan view of the blank of Fig. 1 when engaged by expanding tools, the expanded and stretched form of the blank being indicated by dotted lines; Fig. 4 a plan view of a blank engaged by the tools or stretching its sides, the stretched form of the blank being indicated by dotted lines; Fig. 5 a View of the preferred form of brake hanger after the final forging operation; and Figs 6 and-7 transverse sectional views taken, respectively, on the lines VIVI :and VII-VII, Fig. 5.

In the first operation a cylindrical or other suitable blank is forged, preferably by a drop forge, into the general shape indicated in F 1 and 2, the forged blank being a parallelogram :havingsides 1 and ends 2 disposed at obtuse and acute angles, the sides being for the arms and the ends fiorthe yokes of a finished brake hanger. In this forging operation, the excess metal forms flashing 3 which is suitably trimmed from the parallelogram blank before the succeeding operation.

After the forged blank of Figs. 1 and 2 is trimmed, expanding tools 5 are placed in the opening formed between the ends and sides, and are then moved to expand the parallelothe unstretched opgram blank into the rectangular blank, shown in dotted lines in this figure as comprising sides 1 and ends 2. parallelogram blank may be engaged for effecting this expanding operation, it-is' preferred to engage the sides asindicated. During this operation the members Which are not engaged by the expanding tools, in this case the ends of the blank, are stretched to remove any kinks that may be in the blank, or that may be formed as a resultof the expands ing operation, the stretching rendering the ends in true form for the succeeding forging operation.

- In the next operation, illustrated in Fig. t, the ends 2 of the rectangular blank are engaged by suitable tools v6, which are then spread to stretch the sides 1 of the blank and thereby place them in true form for the finalforging operation. V

. In the final operation the stretched rectangular blank is forged to the desired finished form of a brake hanger having cylindrical sides 1" and yokes 2, as shown in Fig. 5.

This operation is effected principally for the purpose of shaping the ends of the blank into elongate hanger yokes capable of being applied to brakebeams now commonly provided with contracted slots for receiving hangers having yokes of this general shape.

Although the yokes may be of various shapes,

they may be of the asymmetric I-beam form shown. and claimed in, my Patent No. 1,470,121, or of the form illustrated in Fig. 6. As shown in Fig. 7, the sides'l? of the hanger are preferably cylindrical.

While all of the forging and expanding operations may be done Without reheating between any of thesuccessive steps, it is preferred to permit the blank of Figs; land 2' to cool before removing the flashing resulting from the first forging operation, and to then reheat the parallelogram blank for succeeding expanding, stretching and forging operations, all of which may be done Without further reheating. v

In the first forging operation resulting in the parallelogram blank of Figs. 1' and 2, the. cross sectional area of its yoke-forming I ends 2 is preferably greater than that of its arm-forming sides 1. By making such disposition: of the metal-.in the initial forging operation, the resulting brake hanger is provided'vvith yokes having increased. cross sectional areasto effectively resist the Wear t which they aresubjected in service.

1 It is charactertistic of the invention that a brake hanger may be formed of relatively high carbonsteel capable of being heat treated to increase its resistance to Wear. the brake hanger is formed Without Weld joints, and may have yokes of increased cross sectional area without. the necessity ofv an upsetting step such asrequired in the manufacture of-closed link brake hangers from rods.

While the ends of the.

' the metal of its ends.

Also,

effected by varying the amountof stretching of the sides of the blank as explained With ref erence to Fig. 4:. I I

According to the provisions of the patent statutes, we have explained the principle and operation of our invention, and have illustrated and described the preferred manner of practicing it. However, We desire to have it understood that, Within the scope of the appended claims, the invention may be practiced otherwise than as particularly described and illustrated. I 7

We claim asour invention: I

,l. The method of manufacturing closed link brake hangers,.comprising forging an elongate blank into the form of a parallelo gram blank having ends for forming hanger yokes and sides for forminghanger arms dissimultaneously expanding the parallelogram I blank into a rectangular blank and stretching the metal of two, of its oppositely disposed members. r

2. The method of' manufacturing closed iink brake hangers, comprising forging an elongate blank into the formof a parallelogram blank having ends" for forming hanger yokes and sides for forming hanger arms 'd1 sposed at obtuse and acute angles, expanding the parallelogram blank into a rectangular blank, stretching the metal of its sides, and forging the rectangular blank into the. form of a finishedbrake hanger. 1

3. The method of manufacturing closed link brake hangers, comprising forging a cylindrical blank into the form of a parallelogram blank having ends for forming hanger yokes and sides for forming hanger arms disposed at obtuse and acute angles, and then simultaneously expanding the parallelogram blank into a rectangular blank and stretching 4. The method of manufacturing closed link brake hangers, comprising forging an elongate blank into the form of a parallelogram blank having ends for forming hanger yokes and sides for forming hanger arms disposed at obtuse and acute angles, simultaneously expanding the parallelogram blank in to. a rectangular blank and stretching the metal oftwo of its oppositely disposed members, and thereafter stretching the other two of its oppositely disposed members.

5. The method of manufacturing closed link brake hangers, comprising forgingan elongate blank into the form of a parallelogram blank having ends for'forming hanger yokes-and sides for forming hanger arms disposed at obtuse and acute angles, expanding the parallelogram blank into a rectangular blank and simultaneously stretching the I lOl) metal of its ends, thereafter stretching the metal of the sides of the rectangular blank, and finally forging the stretched rectangular blank to the form of a finished brake hanger.

6. The method of manufacturing closed link brake hangers, comprising forging an elongate blank into the form of a parallelogram blank having ends for forming hanger yokes and sides for forming hanger arms disposed at obtuse and acute angles, the ends being of greater cross sectional area than the sides, and simultaneously expanding the parallelogram blank into a rectangular blank and stretching the metal of its ends.

7. The method of manufacturing closed link brake hangers, comprising forging an elongate blank into the form of a parallelogram blank having ends for forming hanger yokes and sides for forming hanger arms disposed at obtuse and acute angles, the ends bein of greater cross sectional area than the sides, simultaneously expanding the parallelogram blank into a rectangular blank and stretching the metal of its ends, and thereafter stretching the metal of the sides of the rectangular blank.

8. The method of manufacturing closed link brake hangers, comprising forging an elongate blank into the form of a parallelogramblank having ends for forming hanger yokes and sides for forming hanger arms disposed at obtuse and acute angles, the ends being of greater cross sectional area than the sides, simultaneously expanding the parallelogram blank into a rectangular blank and stretching the metal of its ends, thereafter stretching the metal of the sides of the rectangular blank, and finally forging the stretched rectangular blank to form its ends.

In testimony whereof, We hereunto sign our names.

FREDERIC SCHAEFER. WILLIAM A. KERN.

Images