US958813A - Press. - Google Patents

Description

G. KELLY.

PRESS.

PLIOATION FILED JULY 25. 1907.

Patented May 24, 1910.

I will be obvious that even with GEORGE KELLY, OF MINERAL POINT, WISCONSIN.

PRESS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented May Application filed July 25, 1907. Serial No. 385,676.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, GEORGE KELLY, a citizen of the United States, residing'at Mineral Point, in the-county of Iowa and State of Wisconsin, have invented a new and useful lress, of which the following is a specificatlon.

In the manufacture of thin strips, sheets and plates, for instance, vulcanized insulating boards, slabs, and the like, it has hereto ore been difiicult to press, heat and dry a, large number of the same in one because of thebulk of the division ates. Moreover these structures are exceedingly expensive.

It is the primary object of the present invention to provide means which will eflectively press, heat and dry insula-ting' slabs, boards, sheets or other material, said means permitting the employment of a comparatively great number of combined heating and division plates, which are thin, and will consequently allow a large number of slabs or sheets to be simultaneously acted upon.

Heretofore in the process of vulcanizing thin sheets of material as above referred to, it has been found necessary to use steamheated platen-s, that is, a series of hollow boxes into which steam is conducted, these boxes being interposed between the sheets of material. These steam-heated platens are expensive, they are relatively diflicult to connect up with steam supply ipes, they must be made heavy to Withstan the steam pressure and the com ressin force, and they have to be made of oonsi erable thickness-each hollow platen in practice bein about four inches thick. As above stateti such presses are expensive, in a ratio dependin upon the number of platens they use. ere presses have only two latens, formed by the follower and the bed plate, the presses are in no way adapted for vulthin sheets of material in large quantities, for the reason that 0111 one sheet at a time can be properly pr and vulress,

oanized. If more sheets are placed between the latens, the outer ones are properly drie but the inner ones are either not dried sufiicieutly at their middles, or then the margins of the sheets are burned before the interior of the sheets is properly dried. It larger presses having interposed steam-heated platens, it will be impossible to press and vulcanize any quantity of thin sheets at a time and properly heat them, for the reason that the sheets must be separated by platens four inches in thickness. Hence, only a few sheets at the best can be dried in these'presses, because for every two sheets 12 inches s ace must be taken up by three platens.

f course, a plurality of sheets may be placed between separated platens, but when this is done the same difiiculty occurs as above stated, namely, that the sheets are unequally heated and dried, and that, ifthe middle sheets are properly heated, the outer sheets are very liable to be burned or heated too much. There cannot be, under these circumstances, any uniform heating of the sheets. These thin flat sheets of vulcanized board or insulator material are particularly troublesome to dry because of their tendency to warp, and heretoforebecause of the fact that presses could not be used practically for this purpose-it has been customar to dry the sheets by spreading. them out an weighting them down, a step naturally rezgiliiring a very large floor s ace and a cat eal of work, with hardly t e best resu ts.

I overcome these difficulties and render possible the use of a press for drying a multiplicity of thin flat sheets by using, with an ordinary press, a series of thin flat electrically-heated plates. A sheet ofmaterial is firstplaced in the press and then a sheet of thin metal, then a sheet of material and then another sheet of metal, and so on until the press is filled. As these metal sheets 01' plates are very thin, they practically take up very little room, and, as a consequence, the press may be filled with a. large number of sheets of material to be vulcanized. Each of these interposed plates of metal is conneeted to a suitable source of electric current to heat the same, and it will be obvious that each of the plates will be heated evenly over its entire s'urtace and that this heat may be re ulated to just the required amount. It wi 1 be plain, therefore, that every. sheet of vulcanizln material in the press will be uniformly eated without regard to its position in the press, that the heat will be distributed over the entire surface of the sheet, thatin consequence of the uniformity of the heat, all sheets willbe dried in the same length of time without danger of some sheets being burned and some under-dried, and, that, therefore, the entire process will be very much expedited. It Wlll also be seen that the sheets are dried and held under of press wit compression at the same time so that they cannot warp, and that far less floor s ace is required than with the process now fo owed.

It will also be plain that my invention may tion is illustrated in the accompanyingdrawing, which is a side-elevationof a press, constructed in accordance with the present invention, and showing the electric current supplying means diagrammatically.

In the embodiment illustrated, a press is employed comprising a frame 1, in which are mounted relatively movable pressing members 2 and 3. These members may be of any suitable structure or type well known to the art, and in the present embodiment,

the movable member is uppermost and is operated by hydraulic devices 4..

Located between the pressing members are a plurality of comparatively thin division plates 5 which constitute electrical heaters, and are therefore preferably made of suitable resistance material. Through these plates a current of electricity is passed, and the slabs, sheets or other material, shown at 6, are placed between them.

While the electric current may be supplied to the plates in different ways, in the referred form of construction, spaced con uctor bars 7 and 8 are located at each end of the press longitudinally of the path of movement of the plates, and leads '9 and 10, connected respectively to the conductors 7 and 8, extend from a suitable enerator 11. In the leads 9 and 10 are locate an ammeter 12, a voltmeter l3, a-suitable switch 14, and fuses 15. -The generator, which is preferabl of the alternating type, is provided a suitable rheostat 16. and an exciter 17.

The current may be supplied from the conductors? and 8 to the heating or resisting plates 5 in a plurality of ways. Thus in the embodiment disclosed, collars 18 are slidably mounted on the conductors, and have suitable sockets 19, in which connecting devices 20 may be engaged, said devices being also connected in sockets 21 formed in the ends of the plates. In the structure disclosed, the plates are located in series, and therefore one of the conducting devices 20 is connected to one of the collars 18 on one of the conductors 7, the other end being connected to the u permost plate. The lowermost plate in l' e manner, is connectductor 8.

V the plates,

ed at its op osite end with the opposite conlhe adjacent lates are furthermore connected b fiexi le conductors 22. It will thus be evi ent that when the circuit is closed, the current will pass throu h all and dry the material laced between them. At the same time, the material will be pressed and held thoroughly dry, and in case material that can be vulcanized is placed between the plates, said material will be vulcanized.

One of the particular advantages secured in the present structure is the equal heating,

drying and vulcanizing action with thin "sheets the central properly dried and vulcanize secured, for (portionsare completely and heating the same, wil =-heatin flattened condition until Y through without the outer portions or faces being tage follows from the use of relatively thin combined heating and divlsion plates, in

that the capacity of the press in which the burned. Another important advanplates are substituted for steam heated platens, is materially increased. For instance, in a hydraulic press having a sufiicient number of steam heated platens for compressing about four sheets of rubber mattin or the like, it is possible, by the use of p ates, to compress as many as fifty sheets of vulcanized insulating boards, and in some presses the output in the number of sheets canbe increased twenty or more times.

Instead of arranging the plates in series, as disclosed, they may be cennected in multiple in which case, it is evident that each plate is separately connected to one of the conductors 7, a'nd the opposite conductor 8, the additional collars 18 being employed for this pur ose. Thus it will be evident that the elec fie current can be supplied to the plates in a variety of ways, and simple means is thus provided, whereby a la e number of sheets, slabs, boards and the hie can be thoroughly heated, dried, and at the same time held in flattened condition.

From the foregoing, it is thought that the construction, operation, and many advantages of the herein described invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art, without further description, and it will be understood that various changes in the size, shape, proportion, and minor details of construction, may be resorted to without departin from the spirit or sacrificing any of the a vantages of the invention.

Havin thus fully described my invention, what I c aim as new, and desire to secure by LettersPatent, is

1. In a press of the class described, the

combination of upper and lower relativelyperature on the assage of an electric cur rent therethrou ll, said sheets being arranged alternate y with the material to be compressed and dried, and means for connecting the sheets in circuit with a source of electro-motive force whereby opposite sides of the plates in contact with the material are substantially uniformly heated.

' 2. The combination with a drying press having upper and lower platens, of a plurality of movable division plates adapted to be located between and in the midst of the material being pressed, said plates being flat and smooth on opposite sides and composed of thin imperforate solid homogeneous sheets of electrically-resistin material with means whereby a current 0 electricity may be passed into each of them.

3. In a drying press, opposed platens, a series of thin solld homogeneous metal plates of electricall -resisting material adapted to be interpose alternately between the sheets of material to be dried, and means for separately and uniformly heating said plates by connecting them to a source of electrical energy.

4. In a press for drying and pressing sheets of material, the combination With pressing platens, of a plurality of thin fiat solid imperforate drying plates of material having electrical resistance, adapted to be interposed between layers composed of material being dried and in contact therewith, and movable conductingmeans connected to the several plates for heating the same.

5. In a press for drying and pressing sheets of material, the combination with pressing platens, of a plurality of fiat solid imperforate drying and pressing plates of material having electrical resistance adapted to be interposed between layers of said material and in contact therewith, an electrical conductor located longitudinally of the path of movement of the plates, and a conducting device connected to each plate and freely movable with the same, sald device having a freely movable engagement with the conductor.

6. In a press for drying and pressing sheets of material, the combination with pressing platens, of a plurality of flat solid imperforate drying and pressing plates of material having electrical resistance, said plates ada ted to be interposed between the layers of t e material being dried, electrical conductors disposed longitudinally of the ath of movement of the plates, connections between the conductors and certain plates adapted to permit a free movement of the plates, and electrical connections directly between the plates.

7. In a press for drying and pressing sheets of material, the combination with pressing platens, of a plurality of fiat solid nnperforate drying and pressing plates of material having electrical resistance, adapted to be interposed between layers of the material being heated, conducting rods arranged at the ends of the plates and connected to a source of electricity, devices freely slidable on the conductors and connected to the plates, connections between the conductors and certain of the plates to effect the movement of said devices with the plates, and flexible electrical connections between the plates.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing as my own, I have hereto afiixed my signature in the presence of two witnesses.

GEORGE KELLY. Witnesses:

PHIL ALLEN, Jr., FRANK E. HANSCOM.

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