US724570A - Art of manufacturing armored electric cables. - Google Patents

Description

No. 724,570. PATENTED APBn 7, 1903. E. T. GREENFIELD.

ART OF MANUFACTURING ARMORED ELECTRIC GABLES.

APPLICATION rum) JULY 31, 1902. no MODEL. 1 =5 sums-sum 1,.

1m mummy:

Grier/11c 'PATENTED APR, 7,1903. E. T. GREENFIELD. ART OF MANUFACTURING ARMORED ELECTRIC GABLES.

APPLICATION FILED JULY 31, 1902.

5 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

KO' MODEL.

Even 62":

No. 724,570. PATENTED APR, 7, 1903. E. T. GREENFIELD.

ART OPMAN'UPAGTURING ARMORED ELECTRIC GABLES.

APPLICATION FILED JULY a1, 1902. 50 MODEL.

5 SHEETS-SHEET s.

ul q} in ax No. 724,570. PAIENTED APR. '7, 190

E. T. GREENPIELD. ARTOF MANUFACTURING ARMDRED ELECTRIC GABLES.

APPLIOATIOI? FILED JULY 81, 1902. N0 MODEL.

6 SHEETS-SIUJET 4.

' PATENTED APR: 7, 1908.

E. T. GREENPIE ART OF MANUFACTURING ARMORE LEQ TRIG GABLES. APPLICATION FILED JULY 31, 1902.

OOOOO BL. 5 SHEETS-SHEET 6 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

EDWIN T. GREENFIELD, OF MON TI CELLO, NEW YORK.

ART OF MANUFACTURING ARIMORED ELECTRIC CABLES.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 724,570, dated April 7, 1903. A plicant]; 516a July 31, 1962.. we at. 117, 09. (No model.)

To all? whom, it may concern:

Be itknown that I, EDWIN T. GREENFIELD, acitizen of the United States,'residin g at Montl'celloi, in'the county of Sullivan and State of New York, have made a new and useful Inv'en:

ftion in the Art of Manufacturing Armored Electric Cables, of which the following is a specification.

My invention is directed particularly to improvements upon the method of armoring cables and manufacturing tubes disclosed in United States Patents Nos. 6,30,502aud I 630,503, granted to me on the 8th day of August, 1899; and it has for its object the manufacture of armored electric cables of;great lengths-such, fol-instance, as are used in oce an telegraphy or in various conductor systems of electricity. 1 With the mechanism disclosed in my'before-mentioned United States 'Patent No. 630,502 only a limited amount of cable may be armored, owing to the fact that with such mechanism the cable is rotated as it is armored and-is-wound upon a reel, which also rotates with it. It is obvious, therefore, that a cable of great length cannot be thus arrnored, owing to the immense mass or weight thereof, as it is'wou-n'd upon the reel.

' The essential feature of my present invention isitherefore to permit of the manufacture of this type of cable in such lengths as can conveniently be transported from place to place, the weight of the same when completed constituting the only limit "as to the length of cable thus armored.-

Inpracticing the improved method hereinafter described and claimed the ar'moring mechanism and armoring material rotate around the cable, and the latter does not rotate, but is fed continuously forward by the ar'moring action, so that it is pOssibIe'toar- I mm a cable of indefinite length, and this is ary to armor electric,v cables by winding wire.

accomplished by forcing the armoring material }constautly forward around the cable and giving to it a fixed orfset position when to unwind-therefrom,

Prior to my invention'it had been custom spirally therearound 5 but with a cable so arthe armor, which consists of thin metal strips, is forced endwise aroundthe cable continumored it is necessary when the same is severed or cut to bind with other material the ends of the armor about the severed ends, owing to the fact that said armor is not set or fixed closely about the exterior surface of the insulated cable. My improvement con-. templates thepractice of a method whereby ously and in such manner that when in place it will assume a set or fixed position, such that the cable may be severed at any point and that there will be no tendency for it to unwind. In the application of this generic principle in the manner hereinafter described, so as to manufacture cables of great length, lies the essence of my invention.

- For a full. and clear understanding of the invention, such as will enable others skilled; in the art to construct and use the same, "ref-n erence is bad to the accompanying drawings, in which Figure 1 is a side elevational view of the entire machine. Fig. 2 is a planview thereof as seen looking at Fig. 1 from the top toward the bottom of the drawing, some of the driving'gear-wheels and the brake-controlling levers being shown in dotted lines. Fig. 3 is a sectional view taken on the broken line mm, Fig. 2, and as seen looking thereat from the bottom toward the top of'- the drawing in the direction of the arrows. Fig. 4 is an enlarged plan view of that part of the mechanism which controls the movements of the armoring-strips, the interior of the dies being also illustrated in this view with the top die removed and an insulated electric cable shown in position in the act of being armored. 0

vational view. a Referring now to the drawings in detail, and first to Figs. 1 to 3, inclusive, 2 2 rep the frame which supports all of said parts,

the dies being shown in this figure in endfele j '1 resent the legs or standards of the machine, '10

preferably four in number, secured directly .to the floor by bolts, and 1 the base or frame thereof, secured'in turn in a similar manner directly to the upper ends of saidlegs or ,motion to all oflthe interconnected standards. 6 represents a rotary table, made, preferably, of iron and secured directly by bolts to the upper end of a hollow rotatable shaft 5, journaled at its upper end in the frame 1 and at its lower end in a spider having radial arms 3 3, secured directly to the legs 2 2, the lower end of said shaft resting, directly upon a metal hearing, which is supported in turn by a number of metal standards 4 4, rigidly secured directly to the floor, as clearly illustrated in Figs. 1 and3. The

rotary table 6 carries upon its upper surface.

all of the mechanism and material for effecting the armoring of the cable, and said mech upper face of the rotary table 6, the reels being held in position by adjustable screws, as clearly illustrated in Fig. 3. 43 43 43 are guiderolls secured directly to the rotary table 6 and standard 7 by rigid arms 44 .44 44, their function being to guide the armoring-strips to the guideways before-they enter the armoringdies. 33 is an electric motor orequivalent source of power-secured beneath the frame 1 of the machineiand-liaving on one end of its armature-shaft a beveled pinion adapted to drive a bevel gear-wheel 18, secured directly to the hollow shaft 5. 1-9 is a gear-wheel journaled directly to an upward extension of the frame 1, said gear-wheel meshing with a gearwheel 20, which in turn is adapted to drive a gear-wheel 2lva-nd apinion 22, carried upon 1 the same shaft and meshing with an additional gear-wheel23, carried by another shaft having upon its ppper end a pinion 24,'meshing with a gear-wheel 25 upon a shaft carrying a beveled pinion 26, which meshes with a bevel gear-wheel 27 upon a shaft carrying at its other end a pinion 28, meshing with pairs of gear-wheels '29 29, adapted to drive two pairs of feeding-rolls1212 13 13 in such manner as tofeed the metal armoring-s trips 14 14 through the guideways in the trough 11 to the dies 8 8, said trough, dies, and supports '9 and 10 for the dies, together with the immediately-connected gear-wheels and pinions 20 to 29, inclusive, being supported and carried by the rotary tab le6, so that the gear-wheel 20 as it rotates around the gear-wheel 19 will impart gearing. The dies 8 8, trough 11, feeding-rolls 12 12 13 13, and guideways in the trough are substantially like the same parts disclosed in the before-mentioned patents and need no further description here. 30 is a bevel-pinion meshing with the bevel gear-wheel 27 and also with an additional hollow bevel gear- Wheel 31, which is journaled'in the upper end ism for effecting the resultsought. It is found, however, that with such a mechanism.

there is necessarilymuch momentum, owing to the weightof the table 6and the mechanism and armoring material carried thereby,-

and that serious damage maybe imparted to thecable upon varying or stopping the application of power to the driving gear-Wheels 18. For-the purpose of overcoming the evil effects of this momentum I have provided braking mechanism in the, nature of} two curved-brake-shoes 34 34, having movement toand from the outer cylindrical face ofthe I table 6, saidbrake-sh oes, being connected by toggle-levers 35 35 to rigid. arms, 36 36, supported at their inner ends directly by the framel, K

37 37 are links connected at their upper ends to thetogglede'vers-35 351 and at their lower ends to brake-controlling.levers 38 38,

fulcrumed as shown and connected in turn by links 39 39 and a cross bar. or pin 40 to' a treadle 41, 42 being a strong spiral spring for normally maintaining the outer end of the treadle in its upper position and the brakeshoes 34 out of mechanical contact with' the cylindrical face of the rotarytable 6. l a

The operation is as follows: The insulated;

cable 16, as shown in Fig.4 of the drawings,

'is passed downward from a supply-reel (not shown) located in a room and; on afloor above 1 the machine and in such quantity as may be desired. The armoring-strips-14 l4 arewound upon the reels 15 15 and secured. in positions inthe manner shown in 'Figs. land 3 of the The free ends thereof-are then passed around theguide-rolls 43 43 43 43 and into the guideways in the trough 1-1 and bedrawings.

tween the feeding-rolls 12 12 and 13 13 to the dies 8 8, after. which the machine is set in motion by applyingpower in the 'proper direction in any. preferredmanner to the bevel gear-wheel 18, thereby rotating-the hollow shaft 5, and hence the rotary tablet, in the direction shown by the arrow in Fig.2 of the drawings. Consequentlythegear wheel 19 imparts motion to theseveral-gear-Wheels 125. indicated by the arrows, thereby-imparting 20, 21, 23, 24, 25, 26, and 27 in the directions to the two pairs of feeding-rolls1212 and 13 13 motion in the proper directions to feed said strips forward to the dies'in thesame man- 1 as disclosed in my before-mentioned patents. Hence as the table rotates around the cable 16 it is armored and drawn forward by the armoring action of'th'e mechanism, passing downward through the hollow shaft 5 and opening in the floor as a completed article 17.

At the same time motion is imparted by the gear-wheel 27 to the bevel-pinion 30 and from it-to the bevel gear-wheel 31, thus causing the 5 friction-rollers 32 to prevent the cable from being unnecessarily twisted or strained by the armoring action already described. In other words, the friction-rollers act as a brake upon the forward or twisting action due to the pressure of the armoring action upon the suspended insulated cable 16, so that as the cable is thus armored it passes out and is received and stored in a room below in such quantity as may be desired. Should there be any tendency for the rotary table and its supported mechanism and armoring material to run wild by reason of its momentum, the attendant simply applies the brake by placing his foot upon the treadle 42, thereby causing the brake-shoes 34 to come into mechanical contact with the lateral face of the rotary table through the agency of the connecting mechanism described and shown. When the supply of armoring-strips becomes exhausted, it is only necessary to supplant the reels shown in the drawings with an additional pair of reels having a further supply of armoring-strips and to splice the outer or free ends of the strips already used, after which the process of armoring is continued as before. In a similar manner when it becomes necessary to add further cable it is only required to splice and insulate the adjoining end of an additional cable to the end of the one already being armored in a manner well understood by those skilled in the art. In this way armoredcables may be constructed of any desired length.

For practicing my improved method of armoring cables I do not limit myself to the use of the specific mechanism illustrated in the accompanying drawings and hereinbefore described. I believe it is broadly new with me to armor a cable of indefinite length by forcing one or more armoringmtrips around the cable in the manner disclosed in my before-mentioned patents and in such manner as to give to the armor when in place about the cable a fixed or set nature and to carry the mechanism which thus effects the armoring and the supply of material for such apparatus continuously around the cable to be armored, and in the application of this generic feature lies the essence of this invention; nor do I limit the practice of my invention to the armoringof electric'cables, as

it may obviously bev utilized in the manufacture of fiexible tnbes of indefinite length composed of one or more metal strips forced through dies in the manner hereinbefore described, and my claims are designed to be of such scope as to include the manufacture of such tubes; nor do I make any claim hereinafter to the mechanism disclosed in the present application for practicing the method of armoring electric cables, as hereinafter claimed, as such mechanism constitutes the subject-matterof a separate application filed of even date herewith and bearing Serial No. 117,810.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States, is"

1. The described method of armoring an insulated electric cable, consisting in continuously rotating the armoring material around the cable and simultaneouslycausing it to be forced into successive spirals about the outer surface thereof with a set which prevents it from unwinding.

2. The described method of armoring an insulated electric cable, consisting in continuously rotating the armoring material around the same and simultaneously forcing itforward therearound with a set which prevents it from unwinding, the operation being such that the cable is fed continuously forward by the armoring action thereon.

3. The described method of armoring an insulated electric cable, consisting in continuously rotating one or more metal armoringstrips around the same and simultaneously forcing said strip or strips forward therearound with a set which prevents it from unwinding, the operation being such that the cable is fed continuously forward by the action of the armoring strip or strips.

4. The described method of armoring an insulated electric cable, consisting in continuously rotating two armoring-strips around the same and simultaneously forcing said strips therearound and giving to them a set which causes them to secure the cable and overlap each other, the armoring action also causing the completed armored cable to be fed continuously forward.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

ED'WIN T. GREENFIELD.

Witnesses:

WILLIAM T. RUETE, CHARLES J. KiN'rNIJR.

IOC

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