Untitled record

Application filed December 31_t 1886* Serial Xo. 223,118, (Xo model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, William C. Dalzell, of South Egremont, in the county of Berkshire and State of Massachusetts, have in5 vented a certain new and useful Improvement in the Manufacture of Axle-Boxes from Solid Stock, of which the following is a description, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, where— io Figure 1 is a view of the original stock' made use of—a round bar of iron or steel of indefinite length. Fig. 2 is a view of a blank cut from such a bar as is shown in Fig. 1, the blank being of a length suitable for the sub15 sequent operation. Fig. 3 is a view from above (apian view) of the dies and plunger made use of—the dies closed and the blank in place for being operated upon. Fig. 4 is a face view of one of the dies made use of. Fig. 5 is a 20 view in central longitudinal section of the blank after it has been operated upon by the dies and plunger, and subsequently bored out to form the axle-chamber.

This improvement is an improved process 25 for making from solid stock axle-boxes for vehicle-axles, and is especially applicable to the manufacture of very large and strong axleboxes.

The original stock is a commercial bar of 30 iron or steel of indefinite length sufficiently indicated in Fig. 1. Such a bar is first sawed into blanks of suitable length, one of which is sufficiently shown in Fig. 2. A single blank is then taken, and the end which is finally to 35 form the inner end of the axle-box is heated to a forging-heat—that is, to a heat suitable for forming and manipulating in dies—the other end being left in a cold or substantially unheated state. The blank thus heated is 40 next to be operated upon by a pair of dies and a plunger, which are shown in Figs. 3 and 4 of the drawings. The letter a denotes one of these dies, and the letter b denotes the other. The die a is stationary, and the die b 45 is movable. They are both just alike. The faces of these dies are vertical, so that the die b in moving toward and from the die a moves horizontally, and it is this mode of placing and operating the dies that is meant by the 50 phrase “horizontally-moving dies,” as used in the claim at the end of this specification, although I do not mean to exclude by this explanation the idea of having both dies move in opening and closing. There are two rea55 Sons for thus specially placing and operating these dies—to wit, first, it is almost impracticable to operate such dies vertically, and, second, by having the face of the dies vertical the scale and debris falls away and out of the dies automatically. These dies a and b 60 are each formed with a recess, c, for giving shape to the inner and the large end of the axle-box, and they may have the recess /, for forming the little wings, which are desirable upon axle-boxes. These dies do not extend 65 the whole length of the blank. The cold end of the blank projects to a very substantial degree and rests against the abutment e, which is a powerful screw, and is made a screw for purposes of adjustment. One great utility of 7c making the dies shorter than the blank is that the workman is thereby enabled to grasp the cold end of the blank with his tongs, and hold it in a proper place and relation in the dies.

The letter f denotes the plunger, which, 75 after the dies a and b have closed together upon the blank, moves forward in the direction indicated by the arrow, penetrating the end of the blank, upsetting the inner end of the blank, and substantially forming the in- 8c ner end of the blank. After the dies have thus closed and the plunger moved forward, the plunger then moves back, the dies open, and the workman removes the blank.

Subsequently the blank is interiorly bored 85 out from end to end, forming an axle-chamber, as represented in Fig. 5. After that the exterior of the blank may be turned to any desired taper, or, as is the case sometimes, left unturned. 9°