US821843A - Art of expanding sheet metal. - Google Patents

Description

PATENTED MAY 29, 1906.

H. E. WHITE. ART OF EXPANDING SHEET METAL.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE 1 rs arana orrion HERBERT EUGENE WHITE, OF YOUNGSTOWN, OHIO, ASSTGNOR TO THE GENERAL FIREPROOFING COMPANY, OF YOUNGSTOWN, OHIO, A

CORPORATION or orno.

AT OF EXPANDENG SHEET METAL Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented. May 29, 1906. 7

Application filed June 10,1905. Serial No. 264,596.

town, Ohio, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in the Art -of Expanding Sheet Metal, of which the following is a specification accompanied by drawings.

The invention relates particularly to socalled expanded metal for laths and other uses of the well-known type as exemplified in Figure 1 of the accompanying drawings, wherein a reticulated or mesh-like structure is formed from a plate of sheet metal.

Briefly stated, my resent way of treating the metal consists in st crimping, corrugating, or otherwise shortening the sheet so as to provide substantially for the formation of the meshes, as hereinafter explained, and then after such preliminary step to simultaneously cut and expand or open one row of halfmeshes or part meshes after another in a single straight line along the sheet.

In the accompanying drawings, Fig. 1 illustrates one form of the finished sheet. Fig. 2 is a section on line 2 2 of Fig. 1. Fig. 3 illustrates a sheet after the preliminary crimping, corrugating, or shortening and just after the first row of strands has been cut and formed into part meshes. Fi 4 is a View of the same after three rows 0 strands have been out and formed. Fi s. Sand 6 illustrate the process as performed by articular tools, one being a view edgewise o the metal and lengthwise of its corrugations and the other a view at right angles thereto.

The best may of shortening the metal to afford the slack or margin requisite to the simultaneous cutting and expanding without material stretch is by corrugating the metal regularly in a direction at ri ht angles to the slits that are to be formed. referably, also, the corrugations should be spaced to correspond one with each row of joints where the adjacent rows of strands are united. This 1 be clear from Fig. 4, wherein the hollows of four corrugations are shown corresponding with the four joints or points of union a b c d. The degree of corrugation should be calculated so that the original length of the sheet before corrugation shall correspond with the final length of one strand as measured along its curvesas, for example, from a to c in Fig. 4. The degree of corrugation 0r crimping is therefore dependent on the degree which it isdesired to open the slits to form the meshes. When this is done, the corruated or shortened sheet will correspond in ength as measured across the corrugations with the final length of the expanded sheet as measured in a similar direction as between a and c,Fig. 4. When such a sheet is slitted, one row after another can be opened out by hand, because there is no necessary stretching of the metal, or by the use of a chisel or other suitable hand-tool one slit after another in the same straight line may be out and opened out, as in Fig. 3, without stretching. A tool having a row of cutters, as shown in the upper portions of Figs. 5 and 6, may be employed in connection with a lower cutter which has a corrugated or crimped surface to adequately support the sheet of metal and to cooperate with the row of cutters, as plainly shown in Figs. 5 and 6. Such a row of cutters a after making the first row of cuts, as seen in Fig. 6, and of any desired width determined by the position of the metal on the lower cutter I may then be employed in a precisely similar way in making a second row of cuts and meshes alternate with the first row, the intervals between the cuts in each row determining the uncut point of union or joints, as at 1) ad in Fig. 4, between adjacent strands. The advancing of the metal to the right in Fig. 6 after each cut will of course determine the width of the strand that is to be out and formed. In this way I have found it is possible to make expanded metal with a width of strand that is even less than the thickness of the metal, and I have ap lied the process successfully to other materlals than metal for the purpose of demonstrating whether the meta was subjected to any severe stretching or injurious strains. Thus I have been able to use my method on blotting-paper and other materials of exceedingly-weak tensile strength and substantially no ductility. The process is not, therefore, limited in use with metal and other materials, such as sheet-celluloid and the like, may be treated in the same way asthe full equivalents of metal in this process.

The process is entirely capable of being carried out by machinery, and machines such as set forth in my copending application,

'ered joints or connections between the rows of strands so formed, for substantially the purposes set forth.

2. In the art of making expanded metal and the like, the iIYi rovement that consists in first corrugating t e sheet to shorten it and afford provision for the expansion or opening without substantial stretching, and then slit ting transversely to the said corrugations and pressing and forming the strands away from the general plane of the corrugated sheet.

thereby straightening out the corrugations to form a row of meshes or part meshes and then successively slitting and forming other rows in like manner leaving uncut connections between the strands of adjacent rows, substantially as described.

3. In the art of making expanded metal and the like, the improvement that consists in first crim ing or corrugating the sheet in a manner to s orten it in the direction of the slits to be formed and then simultaneously slitting and bending portions of the sheet in such manner as to substantially straighten out the corrugations in the strands so formed while leaving such strands connected to the body of the sheet between such slits, and then simultaneously slitting and bending in like manner in places alternate to the firstmentioned portions, thus producing the finished expanded sheet metal of substantially the same length as the corrugated or shortened sheet, substantially asdescribed.

4. The improvement in the art of making expanded metal and the like, that consists in first corrugating, crimping; or shortening the sheet in the direction of the slits to be formed, and then simultaneously slitting and opening portions of the sheet thereby straightening out the corrugations to form meshes or part meshes. n

5. The improvement in the art of making expanded metal and the like, that consists in first corrugating, crimping, or shortening the sheet in the direction of the slits to be formed, and then slitting and ex anding portions of the metal thereby straig tening out the corrugations to form an open or reticulated exanded structure without substantial stretchmg of the metal itself.

6. The method substantially as herein described of making expanded or reticulated metalwork, which consists in simultaneously slitting and bending portions of a sheet of metal without stretching or elongating the strands connecting the slit'portions and body of the sheet, and then similarly slitting and bending in places alternate to the first-mentioned portions, thus roducing the finished expanded sheet meta of the same length as the original sheet.

7. The method substantially as herein described of making expanded or reticulated metal-work, which consists in simultaneously slitting and bending portions of a corrugated sheet of metal without stretching or elongating the strands connecting the slit portions and body of the sheet, and then slmilarly slitting and-bending in places alternate to the first-mentioned ortions, thus producing the finished expand ed sheet metal of the same length as the original sheet.

In testimony whereof I have signed this specification in the presence of two subscrib- 1ng witnesses. I

HERBERT EUGENE WHITE.

Witnesses:

WILLIAM A. KINesLEY, ORSON D. KAISER.

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