US26045A - Austin w - Google Patents

Description

Nirnn vSrilrrns Armar WWE@ AUSTIN XV. MOSES AND JOSEPH H. SPRINGER, OF PHILADELPHIA, PA.

IMPROVEMENT IN CASTING CAR-WHEELS.

Specilication forming part of Leiters Patent No. 26.01515, dated November S, 18:19.

To all whom, it may concern:

Be it known that we, AUSTIN W. Mosns and JOSEPH H. SPR1NGnR,both ofthe city of Philadelphia and State of Pennsylvania, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Casting Railroad-Car Vheels; and we do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, and to the letters of reference marked thereon.

Our invention does not relate to any particu lar pattern or shape of wheel, but consists in So cont-riving the molding and casting of the same as thereby to obtain with the plainest forni of wheel the all-important object of freedom from strain in its parts, thus combining with lightnessvthe greatest Strength that can be obtained from cast-iron. Our invention allows, moreover, the employment of two distinct kinds of metal in the same casting, whereby the best chilling 'effect can be produced in the tread of the wheel by employing hard metal for this portion, while the center andintervening part can be cast of soft metal, thus saving a great amount ofthe time and labor con sumed in boring out the eye of the wheel without being limited in the hardness of the metal employed for its tread.

To enable others skilled in the art to make and use our invention, we will now proceed to describe its construction and operation.

On reference to the drawings, which forni a part of this specification, and in which the same letters of reference allude to similarA parts throughout the several views, Figure l is a plan of a mold containing our improvements. Fig. 2 is a transverse section of the same when in the proper condition and arrangement of its parts for casting the center portion of the wheel. Fig. 3 is also a transverse section7 representing the mold'when containing a complete wheel-casting.

A is the base of the flask, on which rests the chill B, both being constructed in the ordinary manner. The top part or cope ofthe ask is composed of the central part, C, and annular part D, which are united by means of staples a a and pins b b in a manner allowing a ready disconnection for the purpose of removing the outer part, D, the object of which is hereinafter fully described. The eye-core E is confined between A and O in the usual manner. A niet-al ring composed of any convenient num* ber of seginents,F F, (the drawings represent-v ing it in four,) is made of such shape and diameter as to correspond with the annular recesses c c, which are produced in the mold by the pattern, and into which said ring is placed for the purpose of confining the iirst poured metal within its limits, it being, to prevent any chilling effect upon-the metal, thinly coated on its inner surface with a non-conducting material, such as clay, plaster-of-paris, &c.

Operation: XVhen, by means of a whcelpat tern of the desired shape, the mold has been prepared in the usual manner, it is, previous to being closed, provided with the above-mentioned ring F F, and in this state (See Fig. 2) ready to receive the metal required for cast ing the central portion of the wheel. flhis being done, and the molten metal having lost suilicient of its heat to assume a crystalline state, the pins b b are withdrawn from staples a a, and the annular part D of the cope lifted off to permit the disconnection and removal ol segments F F, whereupon D is again returned and secured to its position in the mold, and the wheel completed with a Second pouring of metal, thus forming the tread by lfilling the space which was previously kept empty by the ring F F.

Aside from the great facilities which our invention offers for the employment of two kinds of metal in the casting of these wheels, its most important feature consists in avoiding with this method the dangerous strain which by the ordinary manner of casting is produced in the wheel from unequal contraction of its parts in cooling, which difficulty has heretofore been more or less successfully removed by making wheels of such patterns which will allow the parts affected by this strain to yield in the proper direction. These attempts have, however, mostly resulted in producing wheels of undue weight, or of such form as to be objectionable for expeditious molding, it having, further, been found difficult to make wheels of such shape as to present on their outside a blank-unbroken surface, whereby the fanning of dust so objectionable in passenger-trains is in a great measure prevented. By casting the central portion of the wheel iirst, (independently of the tread,)and allowing the same to cool so much as to cause the greater portion of contracti on to'take place before the tread is added, we obviate that strain which would otherwise be thrown on the outer portion of the plate by a more rapid cooling of the latter (arising from inferior thickness) and by a consequent tendency to separate from the tread by contracting in advance of the latter, which strain is in many cases so great as to burst the casting during the process of cooling.

lVe have found from practice that even by adding the outer metal when the greater portion of contraction has already taken place in the central part we obtain the desired result of. shrinking the tread tightly to the same without making the former in the least liable to burst, the only strain produced being simply a slight crushing tendency, which, acting in a direct line from the surface of the wheel toward its center, cannot impair its strength and safety.

As the time required for the removal of the ring F F and the rcclosing ofthe mold for the second pouring of metal may be easily reduced to two minutes, or even less, during which, while the metal has barely attained a crystalline siate, it will be evident that the amount of contraction allowed i'or the central portion previous to adding the outer metal is entirely at the option of the workman. From the difference in the amount of contraction which takes place in varying qualities of metal it would be impossible to adhere to any fixed space of time, the best result being, however, easily determined by experiment.

It will be evident that our invention is equally practicable for the making of locomotive driving-wheels with chilled tires, thereby saving the tediousv and expensive labor of turning the wheel and boring out the tire.

Having now described the nature of our invention, we do not wish to be understood as claiming broadly the casting of car-wheels of two distinct kinds of metal, this being claimed in the patent of A. A. Needham, dated December 22, 1857, who disposes the iron within the mold by giving the same a rotating n10- tion. XVe further do not wish to confine ourselves to the described construction of the ring F F or other parts of the ilask in every minutia, as the same may be modiied without impairing our invention, but

lVhat we claini,and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is u The described method of casting railroadcar wheels by pouring the central portion of the wheel independently and in advance oi' the tread,to allow said central portion to cool and contract to any desired degree before adding the metal forming t-he tread of the wheel, when said end is accomplished by the employment of a ring composed of any convenient number of segments,F F, or their equivalents, and arranged to operate in combination with the annular part D of the ilask, substantially in the manner and for the purpose specied.

AUSTIN XY. MOSES. JOSEPH H. SPRINGER.

W'itnesses:

JEREMIAH NAGLE, TnnoDoRE BERG-NER.

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