US1118986A - Method of making metal wheels. - Google Patents

Description

W. H. WILLIAMS.

METHOD OF MAKING METAL WHEELS.

APPLICATION FILED AUGflS, 1912.

Patented Dec. 1, 1914.

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W. E. WILLIAMS. METHOD OF MAKING METAL WHEELS.

APPLICATION FILED AUG.15, 1912.

1,118,986. Patented Dec. 1, 1914.

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WILLIAM ERASTUS WILLIAMS, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

METHOD OF MAKING METAL WHEELS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Dec. 1, 19141.

Application filed August 15, 1912. Serial No. 715,236.

To alt whom it may concern Be it known that I, WILLIAM En'As'rUs WILLIAMS, a citizen of the United States,

- with a residence .at Chicago, in the county of Cook, in the State'of Illinois, and a postoffice address at .331 South Clinton street, in said city, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Methods of Making Metal -Wheels, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates more particularly to car wheels than any other, but may be used for other purposes.

For car wheels it is desirable to have a" very hard, tough and durable wearing tread on the rim and to have a strong, safe, light and cheap body or central portion, or web as it is sometimes called. The hub must be soft enough to permit machining, but it is desirable to have the rim so hard for wearing purposes that it cannot be machined except by grinding. The parts which connect the. hub with the tread or rim must be sufficiently strong and not be liable to be cracked by shocks or be over strained by severe variations in temperature, occasioned by the heat developed by long application of the brake shoe on the rim of the wheel when the train is going down long and severe inclines, the greatest of which occur in the mountainous regions. Thus it practically requires three kinds of metal to properly make a wheel, namely :a tough and very hard tread, a strong and machinable hub, a strong, light and elastic web that connects the hub with the rim. Such a construction I obtain by my invention.

Reference will be had to the accompanying drawings in which- Figure 1 is a perspective view of'the web section. Fig. 2 is a plan view of the web section. Fig. 3 is a sectional view of the web. The above three figures show the web formed ready to be used in my method of making the wheel. Fig. 4 shows the wheel partly made by my method after the rim and web have been formed together. Fig. 5 shows the next operation in the method after the form shown in Fig. 4, is made. Fig. 6 is the completed wheel. Figs. 4, 5, and 6 are central sections.

In making my wheels I first take a strip of metal the equal in width to the width or radius required for the web of the wheel and of a suiiicient length to equal the circumference of the desired web. This primarily plane, approximately rectangular sheet is curved laterally or edge wise to form a disk, by giving it transverse corrugations all tapering in the same direction, thereby bringing together what were at the outset end margins of the sheet, which marginal portions are then united by welding or by any other suitable means. In making this disk I may first form the sheet into a tube the length slightly greater than the radius and the circumference equaling the circumference of the required disk and then by tapering corrugations form this tube down into a disk such as my drawings show, it being clear that if each corrugation is properly tapered, one end of the cylinder will be re .duced in diameter much more than the other end, so that the short cylinder will become frustum 01' even a true disk. However, with my method of manufacturing I do not bring it down flat at first, but allow the disk to margin the corrugations are slight and they increase in depth toward the hub. The depth of the corrugations at the hub is such that there is just as much metal in the web around the-hub hole 3, as on the line of any circle concentric with the hub. The nature of this disk when formed thus is such that it may be expanded or contracted in diameter to a considerable extent with little or no injury to the metal of the disk, the dis tances being taken up or let out by the bending of the sheet at the curves of the corrugation corners, The cone of the disk facilitates this contraction or expanding movement.

After the cone is formed as is shown by Figs. 1, 2 and 3, the disk is then placed in a suitable holding device which has an apparatus for expanding thedisk somewhat beyond its normal diameter. This device will be the subject ofanother patent and .is not shown here. Then the tire or rim 4: is cast thereon, or welded on when hot by any suitable means. However, I prefer to make what is known as a cast weld, casting the completed tire or rim upon the peripheral portion of the web by pouring into the molds wherein is held the corrugated center molten metal of a suitable kind to formvthe tire or tread, the heat of the molten metal fusing a complete union of the metal of the Web and that of the tire or tread.

I prefer to use manganese cast steel for the tire or rim but any other suitable material may be used. The manganese steel has shown itself to be the most durable for the wearing parts of rails and treads of car Wheels of any cheap commercial steel, but it is too hard to be machined easily and is not suitable for any part of the wheel except the tread.

After the casting of the tire is completed and before the intense shrinkage takes place due to the great cooling of the metal I loosen the expansion device and thus the natural elastic contraction of the corrugated center follows in the contraction occasioned by the cooling of the tire and does not disrupt or produce severe cooling strains in the cast on tire which would be the case were a solid center or web used.

It is not necessary at all times to use the cone of the disk and the expansion device or either of them, in order to produce a good casting for the tire, for in some cases the eX- pansive and contractile nature of the corrugated web permits of its being drawn together to accommodate the contraction on the cooling of the tire without producing strains that would be injurious to the tire as it cools. webs, either the cone or the expansion device or both of them may be necessary.

hen the cone of the disk is used to take up the expansion a central section of the wheel after the tire has been put on- Will look like Fig. 4. Then after the tire has cooled sufficiently to be handled or is entirely cold as may be desired, in my method of manufacture the cone of the disk is pushed down by applying pressure around the hub hole to the form shown by. Fig. 5. The corrugations bending at their corners to accommodate for this movement, then the parts thus made are again placed in a suitable mold and the hub 5, cast therein, making a cast weld of the hub to the corrugated center. This hub casting will be made of a suitable material that will permit machining such as cast steel or cast iron or any suitable metal. Instead of casting in the hub 5 or casting on the tire 4, they may be welded in or on as desired. The corrugated center or web 1 is made of a rolled section by preference but may be made in any suitable manner so long as it is tough and ductile and not liable to serious injury by the bending occasioned in the method of manufacture which I use;

With my method of making a Wheel I am permitted to use for the corrugated web or center material such as the best boiler plate or material of similar nature that may be But with heavy disks for the 1,11s,eaa

hammered, rolled and swaged When cola without serious injury and at the same time may be exposed to severe changes in temperature without serious injury all of which is a great desideratum for a car Wheel Web.

Lightness and cheapness are very desirable for'wheels since the weight of the wheel must be carried up and down the grades of the railroad and the lighter it is the less the cost for motive power. In the case of electric railroads Where the gradients are sometimes very steep, the difference in the cost of current in hauling cars with my wheels over that of the heavier styles will soon save the first cost of the wheels.

I am enabled by my method of construction to make a wheel less expensive and much lighter for a given strength than any car wheel heretofore used, so far as I am aware, and at the same time to secure a more durable tread than is obtained by usual methods.

What I claim is:

1. The method of making metal Wheels which consists in providing a radially corrugated central body or web of pliable metal, integrally uniting said web with a circumferential rim by means of heat, and after allowing cooling contraction of the rim adding a hub to said body. The method of making metal Wheels which consists in forming a conical Wheel web of corrugated metal, integrally securing av wheel rim to the base of the cone, and thereafter forcing the cone into disk form and adding a central hub thereto.

3. The method of making metal wheels which consists in forming an expansible to contract with the cooling contraction of said rim.

l. The method of making metal wheels which consists in forming an expansible wheel body web, mechanically increasing the normal diameter of the Web and holding it in expanded condition, integrally uniting a highly heated rim to the periphery of said web, releasing the expanded web from the holding devices to permit it to contract with the cooling contraction of the rim, and casting a central hub upon the contracted Web- In witness whereof, I have hereunto signed my name on this 7th day of August, 1912 in the presence of two subscribing Wit nesses.

WILLIAM ERASTUS WILLIAMS.

w ltnesses:

VICTOR J. BASENER, A. G. LUDIcK.

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