US727183A - Mine-car wheel. - Google Patents

Description

PATEN'I'ED MAY 5, 1903.

E. E. MQGONNELL. MINE OAR WHEEL. APPLIUATION FILED AUG. 20, 1902.

N0 MODEL.

FIG. I.

v WITNEQ SESI UNITED STATES Patented May 5, 1903.

PATENT OFFICE.

EDWARD E.MOCONNELL, OF PITTSBURG, PENNSYLVANIA, ASSIGNOR OF TVVO-THIRDS TO SIMON D. LAUFFER AND JAMES K. GALLAGHER, OF

IRWIN, PENNSYLVANIA.

MINE-CAR WHEEL.

SPECIFICATION forming partof were Patent No. 727.183, dated. m 5, 190? Application filed August 20, 1 902.

To atZZ whmn it may concern: I

Be it known that LEDWARD E. MOCONNELL, a citizen of the United States,residing at Pittsburg, in the county of Allegheny and State of Pennsylvania, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Mine-Oar l/Vheels, of which the following is a specification, reference being had therein to the accompanying drawings.

The wheels of mine-cars rotate on journals, formed on the car-axles rather than with the" axles, as is usual in railway and other cars. The wheels must thereforebe formed with journal-bearings, and the surfaces of these hearings should be sufticiently hard to withstand the excessive wear to which they are subjected. Also in this class of cars straight or cylindrical journals have become standard as contradistinguished from tapering journals or spindles common in carriages, wagons, &c., for which several reasons may be as signed, principal among them being the expense incident to turning up tapered journals and the tendency of the lubricant to work to and waste from the outer smaller endsthereof. The wheels are of ordinary cast-iron, being cast in sand with a suitable sand core to form the journal bearing or box, which is subsequently bored out and trued. This is the present usual method. Wheels are thus produced having ordinary cast-iron bearings which wear very rapidly on the wrought-iron axle-journals. This condition prevails notwithstanding its disadvantages, as no means has been known heretofore for casting the wheels with cylindrical chilled or hardened bearing surfaces. A cylindrical metallic chilling-core of usual form expands under the heat of the cast, and this expansion, together with the contraction of the metal cast, so fixes the core within the wheel that its removal is practically impossible, and even when removable the surface of the chill is so cut and roughened by the operation that thereafter it is practically useless. Hence, so far as I am aware, no cast-iron wheels are now made with cylindrical chilled bearings,

The present invention is directed to providing a mine-car wheel having a hardened or chilled cylindrical journal-bearing.

Serial No. 120,375. on model) The invent-ion is further directed to the manufacture of a wheel having chilled tread and journal-bearing with intervening straight spokes, all aswill be fully described hereinafter and claimed. 1

In the accompanying drawings, Figure l is a sectional view of a mold or flask, showing the cast wheel and chills in position therein, the Wheel being sectioned on line 1 1 of Fig. 3. Fig. 2 is a sectional view of the wheel after being removed from the mold, the bearingforming core being shown in position in the wheel in full lines, as when the wheel and core are removed from the mold, and in dotted lines after being removed from the wheel. Fig. 3 is a side elevation of the wheel.

Referring to the drawings, 2 designates a two-part mold or flask of usual or any preferred construction, and 3 the molding-sand. It is unnecessary to here describe the method of preparing the mold for the cast, manipulation of the pattern,'&c., these steps being familiar to those skilled in the art.

4 represents an annular chill within the mold, against which Wheel-tread 5 and flange 6 are cast. This being a chilled or hardened chill and not subject to expansion and contraction, an absolutely true wheel is assured. Tread-chills heretofore used have been of ordinary unchilled metal subject to expansion and contraction, which are liable to break,

spoiling the casts and not infrequently producing wheels not absolutely true.

The journal hearing or eye 7 within hub S is formed by a cylindrical hardened or chilled core 9, and not being subject to expansion and contraction it always retains the exact size, being unaffected by the hotmetal cast therearound, and hence capable of ready removal, as will be presently explained.

Opposite ends 10 and 11 of the hub are exposed to excessive wear, end 10 against the wheel-confining pin or other fastening at the outer end of the journal and extremity 11 against the rear end of the journal. To resist this wear, I provide for chilling said faces by employing two hardened chilling rings or surfaces 12 and 13, which are suitably placed in the sand, preferably embracing core 9, and against which the end faces of the hub are cast. Under the old methods of manufacture it has not been practicable to chill these faces, as they would then be too hard to be penetrated by the tool used for boring out the hub, above referred to. As soon after the cast as the metal has set, preferably when the same has cooled to a cherry-red, the wheel is removed from the mold and tread-chill, carrying with it the cylindrical chilled core 9. Said core is then removed from the wheel, preferably by application of pressure at one end, it being desirable to avoid striking the same,as the chilled core is very brittle. The core having undergone no expansion is thus readily removable and is not injured in the slightest either by the casting or. removing operations. The core leaves the bearing smooth and bright and ready for use. It is immaterial when rings 12 and 13 are removed. Ring 12 may remain in the sand after the wheel and chill 9 have been taken out, or it may stick to the core and be carried out therewith. Ring 13 may be lifted off before the wheel is taken out or afterward, as preferred.

The chilled chills herein shown and described are formed of ordinary cast-iron with chilled or hardened faces or surfaces which may be secured either by casting the chills against suitable chilling-surfaces or by form ing the same in metal molds. Their cost is trifling as compared with the cost of steel and other chills now in general use, and their surfaces are neither worn nor injured by the casting operation or by parting or separating the chills and casts. I believe myself to be the first to propose the use of a chilled chill or a chill incapable of either expansion or contraction, and I also believe myself to be the first to propose a mine-car wheel with a cylindrical chilled journal-bearing, as prior to myinvention no successful meanshas been known for making them.

It is further characteristic of the invention that by simultaneously chilling the journalbearing and tread, as above described, it is possible to produce a wheel with straight radial spokes 14, which are much stronger than the curved spokes heretofore formed in wheels having chilled treads and unchilled journal-bearings. In an ordinary cast-iron wheel withouta chilled tread it is possible to produce straightspokes, and such wheels are, in fact, made in considerable numbers; but when the tread is chilled without chilling the bearing or eye, as is now usual, the chilled treads become rigid before contraction of the unchilled hub is complete, making curved spokes necessary to compensate for the contraction, as straight spokes would snap or break under the excessive tension. By chilling both the tread and bearing the contraction of said parts is effected practically simultaneously, relieving the spokes of stress incident thereto. v

While the invention has been here shown and described in connection with mine-car wheels, other articles may be similarly formed without departing from the invention.

Having thus fully described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

l. A wheel having a cast-metal hub formed with a chilled journal-bearing of uniform diameter throughout its length.

. 2. A cast-iron mine-car wheel having a cylindrical chilled journal-bearing, substantially as described. 7 w

3. Acast-iron mine-car wheel havingchilled hub extremities, substantially as described.

7 4C. Acast-ir'on mine-car wheelhavingchilled journal-bearin and chilled hub extremities, substantially as described.

5. A cast-iron mine-car wheel having a cylindrical journal-bearing and chilled hub extremities, substantially as described.

6. A cast-iron mine-car wheel having a cylindrical chilled journal-bearing and chilled hub extremities, substantially as described.

7. A mine-car wheel having its hub, spokes and tread formed or cast integral, the hub being formed with a journal-bearing having its bearing-face relatively harder than the metal of the spokes, substantially as described.

S. A mine-car wheel formed in a single casting and having a chilled or hardened. tread and a chilled or hardened journal-bearing, and straight spokes, substantially as described.

9. A cast-iron wheel formed in a single casting and having a chilled journal-bearing of uniform diameter throughout its length.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

- EDWARD E. MOCONNELL. Witnesses:

W. F. SHROYER,

H. W. MOKALIP.

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