US1942451A - Woven wire and method of producing the same - Google Patents

Description

E. D. REYNOLDS WOVEN WIRE AND METHOD OF PRODUCING THE SAME Filed Feb.' 26, 1930 A Patented Jan. 9, 1934 UNITED STATES WOVEN WIRE AND METHOD OF PRODUC- ING THE SAME Elmer D. Reynolds, Dixon, 111., assignor to Reynolds Wire 00., Dixon, 111., a corporation of Illinois Application February 26, 1930. Serial No. 431,631

9 Claims My invention relates to wire cloth and has special reference to wide-mesh cloth wherein the wire employed in its manufacture is relatively fine or small in diameter.

In the past it has been necessary to manufacture wide-mesh cloth, for example, 2 to 10 mesh cloth, from relatively heavy wire, usually .02 of an inch in diameter or greater. By 2 to 10 mesh cloth I mean cloth having 2 to 10 strands W per inch. There are a great many uses to which wide-mesh cloth may be put wherein a heavy wire is not necessary and wherein the cost of such a cloth becomes prohibitive. Among such uses may be mentioned those wherein wire cloth i5 is placed between layers of paper, cloth, felt, or the like, or other materials of low mechanical strength for the purposes of reenforecement. In many cases heavy wire cloth is a positive detriment because of the reduction in the flexibility of the sheet resulting from its use. Fine Wire wide-mesh cloth, while considerably cheaper, because of the smaller amount of metal required in its manufacture, has been so unstable that it collapses during handling and before it can be positi ied between the sheets or imbedded in the sheet material with which it is to be used, and consequently has not been available commerciah 1y. However, after the cloth is positioned it is usually suitably held between the sheets or the like by adhesives whereby it is prevented from. collapsing. The problem therefore, is to provide a metal cloth of thischaracter at low cost having suflicient stability to withstand the abuse incident to its handling between the time of its manufacture and the time when it is finally positioned in the material with which it is to be used. When finer wire has been used it has been very dimcult to maintain the strands in their proper position, the strands spontaneously moving out of position, distorting the cloth sheet and rendering it practically valueless. As a matter of fact, when the wire becomes too small, the strands move to such an extent under the natural spring tension placed upon them during weaving, that the cloth collapses, becoming a mere mass of desired position to form the cloth These bending operations set up strains in the metal which result in a tendency for the wire to return to its prior condition. However, when fine wire is used for a wide-mesh cloth very little, if any, crimp is formed in the wire. This is, of course, neces-- sarily so, since, as the 'diameter of the wire increases and the width of the mesh increases, the size of the angle through which the wire must be bent to pass over one strand and under another, decreases. In reality when wire such as that contemplated in my invention is employed to form woven cloth, the individual strands are practically straight, and have no appreciable crimp. It is this crimp or bend in the wire which normally causes the individual strands of the woven cloth to maintain their position, against the spring tension of the wire, and thus lend permanent structure to the cloth. The absence of this crimp and the decrease in the rigidity of the wire itself, aided by thetension under which the wire is placed by weaving, results in the cloth having a tendency to collapse, as set forth. For these reasons it has been, if not impossible, highly impractical to manufacture satisfactory cloth of this characteri I have therefore aimed to provide a method for manufacturing wide-mesh wire cloth at a lower cost than has heretofore been possible.

Another object of the invention is the provision of a method for manufacturing wide-mesh cloth wherein -wire of substantially smaller diameter may be employed to produce a commercially usable product at a substantial reduction in material cost.

Another object of the invention is the provision of a wide-mesh cloth of a smaller wire than has heretofore been possible.

A still further object of the invention is the provision of a woven wide-mesh wire cloth wherein the individual strands are of small diameter and are held in position solely because of their weaving and require -no additional means for stabilizing the cloth.

Other objects and attendant advantages will become apparent to those skilled in the art from the following description and the accompanying drawing, in which Figure 1 is a diagrammatic view showing the manner in which the woven cloth emerges from the m and is wound into rolls;

Fig. 2'is fa diagrammatic view showing a crosssection of'an oven with the rolls of cloth posiiioned on end therein for treatment; and

of cloth showing-the manner in which the cloth Fig. 3 is a perspective view of a completed roll may be unrolled to lie flat afterit has been heattreated.

Heretofore it has been impractical to manufacture wire screen cloth of lessthan twelve-mesh ofwire having a diameter-less than .02 of an inch. 1 In commercial practice it has been found that the .use-of smaller wire results in a perishable product which cannot be satisfactorily stored or handled. The usual practice is to make no cloth of less than twelve-mesh of wire having a diameter less than .02 of an inch. However, cloth down to'six-mesh may be made of wire having this diameter. Five-mesh,cloth is made of wirenot smaller than .023, four-mesh cloth of wirenot smaller than .028,- three-mesh cloth of wire not smaller than .032, and two-mesh cloth of-wire not smaller than .041.

In carrying out my inve'ntionI employ wire of diameter substantially smaller than the small- 2 est heretofore consideredpractical. For example,

in commercial practice I have satisfactorily used wire of .01 of an inch in diameter. for the manufacture of four-mesh cloth. This fine wire may be used in the manufacture of 'cloth'of l2-mesh or less which may be stored and handled without material depreciation. The invention is particularly advantageous, however, in the manufacture of cloth of less than six-mesh, for as the mesh decreases below this point it has been necessary in the past to increase the diameter of the wire as previously set forth. I have found the invention of particular value in the manufacture of reenforcing cloth of four-mesh for which I have satisfactorily employed wire of a diameter of .01 of an inch.

According to-my invention the wire to be-used in the-manufacture of line wire wide-mesh cloth ismade by any of theusual wire-drawing processes. The cold drawing processes produce a wire whiclf'is hardened and has a considerable amount of springiness, such as cold drawnsteel wire. While the hardness produced in wires 'of this character is a desirable characteristic, the spring tendency of the wire becomes a problem in the 5 manufacture of cloth of this type. The wire is woven into cloth in the usual manner on the usual wire cloth loom, the numeral 6 designating the cloth as it comes from a loom indicated by the dotted lines bearing the numeral 7 in Fig. 1.

These looms continuously wind up the cloth, as it is being woven, into rolls 9 of desired size around center pieces indicated generally by the numeral 8. When the rolls contain several hundred'feet of the cloth they are tied up tightly and removed bodily from the loom, the center piece 8 being removed'therefrom. .The rolls as they are removed from the loom are taken to a heat treating'oven 11, as shown in Fig. 2, where they are placed on end and there exposed to a temperago ture of approximately 700 F..for about two hours.

I have found that any temperature in thev socalled bluing range, or the range of temperature in which a blue color is conferred upon the steel,-

, is well suited to bring about the desired results.

55 The period of time for which the heating must v be continued will, of course, depend upon the temperature to which the wire is exposed, tem-.

peratures at the lower side of the bluing range requiring more time than the temperatures at the upper edge of this range. Obviously also, the

heating time will depend upon the quantity of wire being treated and on the time required to bring the total mass to the bluing tempegature.

by the drawing and weaving operations, are relit. about two hours] will be required to bring about the desired results.-

I am led to believe that through the heating operation the strains which had previously been set up in the individual wires of the metal cloth lieved, thereby destroying any tendency which the wires may have tomove from their appointed places in the cloth. It is possible that a portion of the springiness is removed from the wire dur ing this process, but this has been found to be insufilcient to affect the strength of the cloth, if it does occur.

I have found that if the rolls, as they are removed from the loom, are permitted to stand, without this heating step, a gradual but continuous movement of the wiresor individual strands of the cloth occurs spontaneously, resulting in the gradual collapsing of the cloth. On the other hand, if the wire as it comes from the loom is immediately placed in the, treating oven and subiected to the heat treatment outlined, the cloth,

after being removed from the oven, may be permitted to stand for anindefinite length of time the usual manner without undergoing appreciable disintegration. This is in exact contrast with the untreated I cloth, which, if unrolled and spread out in sheet form, tends to curl up from all edges toward the center and becomes practically impossible to handle in the usual way.

Thus, the hard steel wires are bent into the desired shape in the loom. They still possess, because of the internal strain set up by this bending process, a tendency to return to their former shape. If the cloth is permitted to stand at this time the wires'will gradually return, at ieast-partially,'to their previous condition, distorting the cloth and causing it to collapse. However, when 15 the cloth issubjected to heat in the oven, the strains are removed from the wires while the cloth is yet firmly held in the roll and the tendency for the individual wires to return to their.

-'eration has occurred the wires of the cloth tend to remain in the desired position and may only be moved therefrom by actual mechanical force. Even when so moved they have a slight tendency to return to their desiredposition in the wire cloth fabric.

It will be seen that by my improved-process I have produced a wire cloth of wide mesh and fine strands which may be handled in every way as the ordinary wire cloth. The cloth may be unrplled'and handledin the usual manner. It may be positioned in materials of low mechanical strength to produce an article of substantia lower cost than heretofore possible. It-may be cut into sheets and placed between sheets of cloth, rubber, on the like, without material difliculty. Because of the wide mesh and the small size of the wire, only a small amount of metal is used to make a large amount of cloth. There is, therefore, a substantial saving in the cost of-1'40 materials, which is reflected in a cloth of low cost. The method is simple and involves no operations directed toward tying the individual st nds together other than the weaving operatio s themselves. I

While I have thus described and illustrated a specific embodiment of my invention 1 am aware thaQ numerous alterations and changes may be made therein without departing from the spirit of the invention, and I do not wish tolbe limited 150 except as required by the prior art and the scope of the a pended claims in which- I claim: a

1. The method of 'making wire cloth which includes weaving wire of a diameter less than .02 of an inch into cloth of less than 12 mesh, and heating the cloth to a temperature within the bluing range of steel for a suflicient length of time to substantially relieve the strains in the wire.

2. The method of making wire cloth which includes weaving ferrous wire of a diameter less than .02 of an inch into cloth of less than 12 mesh, and heating the cloth to a temperature in the region of 700 F. for a time sufficient to substantially relieve the strains in the wire.

3. The method of making wire cloth which includes weaving ferrous wire of a diameter less than.02 of an inch into cloth of less than 12 mesh, and heating the cloth to a temperature-in the region of 700 F.-for about two hours.

- 4. The method of making wire cloth which includes weaving ferrous wire of a diameter less than .02fiof an inch into cloth of about 4 mesh, and heating the cloth to a temperature in the region of 700 F. for about two hours.'

5. A wide-mesh woven wire cloth of mesh less than 12, the strands of which are held together solely by reason of their weaving, said strands being less than .02 of an inch in diameter, having includes weaving ferrous wire of a diameter less 'than .02 of an inch into cloth of less than 12 mesh,

winding said cloth into rolls, and heating said cloth in the rolls to a temperature in the region of 700 degrees F. for about two hours.

8. The method of making wire cloth which includes weaving ferrous wire ofa diameter less than .0201? an inch into cloth of less than 12' mesh by means of a loom, winding the cloth into rolls as it emerges from the loom, and heating the cloth in the rolls to a temperature in the region of 700 degrees F. for about two hours.

9. The method of making wire cloth which includes weaving wire of a diameter less than about .02 of an inch into cloth of less than 12 mesh, and heating the clothto a temperature suificient to substantially relieve the strains in the wire without materially affecting is strength and hardness.

. ELMER D. REYNOLDS.

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