US2040629A - Spring packing for journal boxes - Google Patents

Description

v May 12 193%. c. T. RIPLEY SPRING PACKING FOR JOURNAL BOXES Filed Dec. 21, 1934 k ,1 i V f 6 1 5x511 l a A j g Patented May 12, 1936 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 4 Claims.

This invention relates to certain new and useful improvements in spring packing for journal boxes, and more particularly to an improved composite material for packing journal boxes or analogous purposes, the material being of the general character described and claimed in my prior Patents 1,298,794, granted April 1, 1919, and 1,542,098, granted June 16, 1925.

Cotton waste or woolen waste when used alone as a packing material for journal boxes have not either proved satisfactory in practice because of the lack of resiliency of the waste when it becomes impregnated with oil. The waste becomes soggy and its resiliency is insufficient to hold it up against the journal. The improved packing material, as disclosed and claimed in my prior patents, consists of a body of absorbent, fibrous or capillary, or other loosely aggregated material, such as cotton or woolen Waste for example, having embodied therein or interwoven therewith coiled spring elements to give the material a resiliency even when the waste is saturated with lubricant, so that it will retain unimpaired its loosely aggregated condition and its capacity for absorbing the lubricant, and will remain in yieldable contact with the journal at all times.

The packing material disclosed in this present application is improved by the use of a new form of spring insert which has added and more enduring resiliency in more than one direction, and which has other advantages that will be brought out hereinafter.

The principal object of this invention is to provide an improved composite packing material for journal boxes of the type briefly described hereinabove and disclosed more in detail in the specifications which follow.

Another object is to provide an improved form of spring insert for use in composite journal box packing material.

Other objects and advantages of this invention will be more apparent from the following detailed description of one approved form of packing constructed and operating according to the principles of this invention.

In the accompanying drawing:

Fig. 1 is a transverse vertical section through a journal box with some of the improved packing material positioned therein.

Fig. 2 is a perspective View of the improved spring member.

Fig. 3 is a front elevation of the spring member looking toward the open side thereof.

Fig. 4 is a top plan View of the spring member as seen in Fig. 3.

Fig. 5 is a side elevation of the spring member, with the open side at the right.

Fig. 6 is a top plan view of the spring member as shown in Fig. 5.

Fig. 7 is a plan View of a bent spring wire before it is rolled into the form shown in Figs. 2 to 6 inclusive.

At A is indicated a railway car journal box of well known type, supported through brass B on the axle or journal C. At D is indicated a mass 10 resiliency without being hard enough to scratch or injure the journal.

The improved form of spring insert is shown in Figs. 2 to 7 inclusive. While this spring member preferably has the general size and shape of the coiled spring helix heretofore used, it differs in that the helix is so modified as to be split or 5 open at one side thereof. In the preferred form shown it consists of a plurality of connected but alternately reversed helical coils, each coil being somewhat less than 360 in length. In the form shown there are three of these connected coils I, 0

2 and 3. The first coil 1 extends from the hooked end 4 in a clockwise direction (as viewed from above in Figs. 3 and 5) through an arc of about 315 or seven-eighths of a circle, and is then joined by the bowed end 5 with one end of the coil 2 which extends in the opposite or counter-clockwise direction through a similar arc. The other end of coil 2 is connected by the bowed end 6 with the third coil 3 which extends in a clockwise direction and is terminated by the hooked end portion I.

It will be understood that the several coils might be of greater or less arcuate extent than shown in the example just described, and that the number and size of the coils can be varied as found convenient or desirable. While preferably the arcuate length of the constituent coils is such as to leave one side of the assembly open,

as indicated at 8, the coils might be of such length as to extend through agreater are than 360, that is, the end portions 4, 5, 6 and 7 would overlap or extend between one another.

The shape and construction of this spring member may perhaps be better understood from a consideration of Fig. 7 which illustrates a partly formed spring member according to one method of construction. A suitable length of the spring wire is first bent into the form shown in 5 Fig. "I, that'is consisting of three straight lengths of wire I, 2' and 3 extending at angles to one another and connected by the bowed ends 5 and 6. The inwardly bent hooks 4 and I are also formed on the two ends of the wire at this stage in the manufacture, the entire spring member lying in substantially the same plane as indicated in Fig. '7. This assembly may now be rolled around a suitable cylindrical mandrel, and the spring member will then take the form shown in Figs. 2 to 6 15 inclusive. It will be understood that this member might be constructed in other manners, or by a different succession of steps, than hereinabove disclosed by way of example.

This improved type of spring element F is com- 20 pressible and resilient, not only longitudinally of the spring, but also transversely or at right angles to the longitudinal axis, since the several coils may be compressed so as to tend to close the open side 8. The spring is also compressible in 25, diagonal directions so that a resilient action is obtained in practically any direction.

The spring elements F are inserted into or interwoven with the waste in any convenient manner, preferably so that the waste material is 30 .intertwined with the coils both inside and between the several loops or coils. The open side 8 permitsscrewing the end and loop (for example 1 and at one side of the opening directly into the waste by a partial rotation of the spring in- 35 sert about its longitudinal axis. The several spring elements will extend in various directions throughout the mass of waste, and since these spring elements are yieldable in all directions the composite packing material D will retain its re- *"ously stand up within the journal box so as to apply oil to the journalC.

The hooked ends 4 and l engage the strands of waste and interlock therewith so as to prevent 45 separation of the constituent elements of the "composite packing. It will be noted that these hooks are positioned substantially in the cylindrical surface of the assembled coils and do not project outwardly, thus minimizing the danger of 50 injury to workmen while handling this material. This improved spring is also stiffer and more resistant to longitudinal stress and deformation, due to the intermediate bends or loops 5 and 6 which strengthen and stiffen the assembly. In

siliency even when soaked with oil and continuthe process of reclaiming used packing material, it is subjected to a centrifugal process to throw out the oil, and then to a violent shaking process to remove dirt and these processes tend to deform the ordinary coiled spring heretofore used. The added strength and stiffness provided in this new type of spring element is more resistant to deformation during this reclaiming process.

While a preferred form of spring element has herein above been disclosed in detail, it should be understood that the specific shape and proportions of the element can be varied without departing from the principles of this invention. The coils need not be truly helical, and the different coils need not all have the same diameter.

I claim:

1. A packing material for journal boxes or the like, comprising a mass of lubricant-absorbing material, and a plurality of metallic springs interwoven therewith, each spring being in the form of a continuous length of spring wire coiled alternately in opposite directions about a central longitudinal axis.

2. A packing material for journal boxes or the like, comprising a mass of lubricant-absorbing material, and a plurality of metallic springs interwoven therewith, each spring being in the form of a modified helix consisting of a plurality of connected alternately reversely directed helical coils, the coils being of substantially equal length and somewhat less than 360 in length so that the spring is continuously open from end to end at one side.

3. A packing material for journal boxes or the like, comprising a mass of lubricant-absorbing material, and a plurality of metallic springs interwoven therewith, each spring being in the form of a modified helix consisting of a plurality of connected alternately reversely directed helical coils, both endsof the spring being bent back substantially in the cylindrical surface of the helix to form hooks which engage the absorbent material.

4. A packing material for journal boxes or the like, comprising a mass of lubricant-absorbing material, and a plurality of metallic springs interwoven therewith, each spring being formed from a continuous length of spring wire so coiled about a longitudinal axis as to be open from end to end at one side, thus being adapted to yield and react to compressive forces either in the direction of the longitudinal axis or transversely thereof.

CHARLES T. RIPLEY.

Images