GB401139A - Improvements in the manufacture of steel pipes - Google Patents

Abstract

401,139. Making helical tubes. FERGUSON, A. G. H. and FERGUSON, M. J., Gordon Street, Footscray, Victoria, Australia. Jan. 30, 1933, No. 2857. [Classes 83 (ii) and 83 (iv).] Angular bending; coiling; uniting by fusion.- In making heavy gauge lap welded helical steel pipes a plate is coiled by feeding it tangentially into a cylindrical forming ring through a longitudinally disposed entrance mouth therein. The strip B is drawn over a table T under scrapers 14 and under guide plates 13, 18 and edge rollers 12, 18a, by driven rolls 16 which have shaped edges to form spigots and faucets at the opposite edges of the strip as shown in Figs. 4 or 5. The rolls 16 which may be milled to increase the grip are under hydraulic pressure. The strip is fed tangentially through the entrance 19 of an obliquely arranged ring FR which is carried by a housing 21 angularly adjustable on a pivot 23 by adjustable stay rods 24, so as to vary the pitch of the helix and thus the diameter of pipe. The ring is anchored by a rod 25 pivoted over the axis 23 and hooked to a bar 27 secured to the roll housings 17. The ring is provided at its mouth with a liner 28 so as to produce an initial curvature of less radius than that of the finished pipe, the plate expanding elastically to its ultimate radius while still in the ring. A scraper 29 is provided in the ring to clean the outer surface of the plate to reduce friction in the ring. The plate is supported during coiling by an internal roll 31. The coiled helical tube on emerging from the ring is received on rollers 35 mounted on angularly disposed parallel plates. When the required length of pipe emerges from the forming ring it is cut off and is then welded by passing under one or more welding heads over a series of pairs of driven rolls 36 arranged on pivoted arms 37, which are angularly adjustable by a common rod 37a to suit the pitch of the helix. The pairs of rolls are geared to each other by chains, one roll of each pair being universally jointed to the corresponding roll of each pair and driven from a shaft 41. The pipe is raised or lowered from the rolls by pairs of rolls 42 mounted on shafts which are vertically moved in guides by links and bell cranks from a common rod 48.