US2391793A - Mechanism for treating wire rope - Google Patents

Description

Dec. 25, 1945 H. J. MISCHE 93 MECHANISM FOR TREATINQ WIRE ROPE Filed July 7, 1943 Patented Dec. 25, 1945 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE American Chain & Cable Company,

Inc'.,

Bridgeport, Conn., a corporation of New York Application July 7, 1943, SerialNo. 493,798

4 Claims.

This invention relates to mechanism for treating wire, wire strands, wire cable, and wire rope.

Various ropes or the like as they come ofi the rope making machine possess residual, torsional, and bending stresses due to the method employed. Devices have been provided for removing these stresses from regular-lay ropes by drawing the rope through ofiset rolls, sufficiently offset to subject component wires to a bending stress which coupled with the tensile stresses from drawing the rope through the rolls, exceeds the elastic limit. This is done to give the component wires a permanent set tending to make them lie inert in the rope.

I am familiar with machines which comprise a set of offset rolls ofiset in a single plane and at least another set of ofiset rolls also oifset in a single plane but which extends at right angles to the plane of the first set. These machines include provision for changin the amount of offset between the rolls requiring is many adjustments as there are rolls in the several sets. These adjustments must be made with care. Furthermore no provision is made in these machines for adjusting the rolls relatively in the direction of the travel of the rope and it is practically impossible to use rolls of sufficiently small diameter and sufliciently closely spaced as required for best performance when the machine is to be used for treating very small diameter wires, wire strands, wire cables, or wire ropes.

Among the objects of my invention is the provision of a wire, strand, cable, or rope treating mechanism which is inexpensive to construct and in which the ofiset bending elements may be closely spaced and readily adjustable in the direction of the travel of the rope, etc. and also at right angles to the travel of the rope and in which many of these elements may be arranged in a small space and in which provision is made for adjusting such elements to bring any part thereof into functioning position. In the accomplishment of these objects I employ two helices in each set of rope treating devices which have their convolutions intermeshed to such an extent as to provide an opening between the opposed inner faces of the respective convolutions of the helices to receive a wire, strand, cable, or rope to be straightened with provision for changing the amount of intermesh and with provision for changing the pitch of the helices.

Other objects of this invention will appear from the following description taken in connection with the drawing, in which- Fig. 1 is a top plan view of one embodiment of my invention;

Fig. 2 is a side elevational view looking upwardly in Fig. 1; and

Fig. 3 is an end elevational view looking to- Ward the left in Fig. 1.

For the purpose of disclosure I have shown a preferred embodiment of my invention as comprising a supporting base 5 on which are mounted two sets of straightening devices A and B disposed at right angles with respect to eachv other as indicated in the drawing.

The straightening device A comprises two intermeshed helices l and 8 preferably of opposite turn. The helices may be of spring material and normally cylindrical. The helix 1 is supported on a bracket 9 secured to the base 5 by screw bolts as indicated in Fig. 3. This helix is preferably secured to the bracket 9 by means of a clamping plate 10 provided with threaded studs or bolts ll extending through the bracket and equipped with nuts l2 for drawing the clamping plate toward the bracket. As indicated in Fig. 1 the clamping plate is longer than the helix 1 providing for an axial extensionor contraction of the helix for the purpose of adjusting the longitudinal spacing of the parts of the convolutions which engage and treat the rope.

The helix 8 is similarly supported on a bracket M the base of which is provided with slots 15 receiving threaded bolts l6 which are threaded into the base 5 so as to provide means for adjusting and varying the distance between the axes of the helices I and 8 to adjust the amount of intermesh of the helices and the amount of offset of the rope treating parts of the convolutions of the respective helices.

The rope treating device B is of substantially the same construction as that of the device A. It includes the helices l1 and IS. The helix I1 is directly secured to the base 5 by a clamping plate In. The helix [8 is secured by means of a clamping plate ID to the horizontal portion IQ of an L-shaped bracket whose vertical portion [0 is slotted as indicated at 2| to receive bolts 22 extending through the upwardly extending portion 23 of an L-shaped bracket, the base 24 of which is secured to the base 5 by screw threaded bolts 25 as indicated. The bolts 22 are provided with nuts 26 by means of which the helix l8 may be held in adjusted relation with respect to the helix l1 and the operative and functioning parts of the convolutions to the respective helices held offset the desired amount.

The helices provide transversely extending cushioned working elements which have oppositely facing concave working faces which function to center the rope as it is drawn through the devices. The helices may be rotated to present new parts to the rope in case of wear. The oilset relation of the operative or functionin parts of the helices may readily be changed as found desirable for different diameter ropes and degrees of bending necessary to straighten the rope and to render it inert. The longitudinal spacing of the operative or functioning parts may readily be adjusted by clamping the helices in position when stretched or compressed the desired amount. The use of helices of opposite turns provides a construction in which the operative or functioning parts of the convolutions of the helices lie in arallel planes.

Instead of employing helices of small pitch and closely spaced convolutions as disclosed I may use helices of greater pitch and space the helices laterally. By using intermeshed helices of close- 1y spaced convolutions the rope will'be worked by transverse compression not only as it is drawn over the inner faces of the convolutions but also as it is drawn between the adjacent side faces of the closely spaced adjacent convolutions of the respective helices.

For convenience of claiming any invention, I employ the term rope in a generic sense to cover ropes, cables, strands, wires, etc. which may be straightened in the apparatus of my invention.

While I have illustrated and described with particularity what I regard as the best form of one embodiment of my invention, it is to be understood that I reserve the right to all such changes and embodiments as fall within the principle of this invention and .the scope of the appended claims.

I claim:

1. A straightening mechanism comprising two sets of parallel helices with the convolutions of each set intermeshed to an extent to provide an interior opening between their inner opposed faces to receive a wire rope to be straightened and with the axes of all the helices parallel, the common axial plane of one set being disposed at right angles to that of the other set and the openings between the convolutions of the sets lying in the same line.

2. A wire rope treating mechanism for rendering wire rope inert, comprising a pair of parallel helices intermeshed to provide between their overlapped portions a tortuous path for the wire rope, and means for adjusting the distance between the axes of said helices and for holding said helices in fixed spaced relation to each other.

3. A wire rope treating mechanism for rendering wire rope inert, comprising a pair of parallel cylindrical helices intermeshed to provide between their overlapped portions a tortuous path for the wire rope, and means for securing said helices in any rotated position and in fixed spaced relation to each other.

4. A wire rope treating mechanism for rendering wire rope inert, comprising a pair of parallel helices intermeshed to provide between their overlapped portions a tortuous path for the wire rope, said helices being elongatable and contractible and means for securing said helices in elongated, contracted and normal conditions and in fixed spaced relation to each other.

HENRY J. MISCHE.

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