GB1153053A - Armouring Flexible Hose or Rope - Google Patents

Abstract

1,153,053. Coiling helices. ENGLISH ELECTRIC CO. Ltd. 3 Aug., 1967 [5 Aug., 1966], No. 35113/66. Addition to 1,018,954. Heading B3E. [Also in Divisions D1 and F2] A flexible hose or rope having a metallic outer surface is armoured by winding on to it a steel wire which has been heated to a higher temperature than the metallic outer surface, the hose or rope being rotated about a common axis defined by a pair of axially spaced apart guides and moved along the said axis, so as to define a straight portion of the hose or rope between the guides, the heated wire being drawn on to the straight portion so as to form, on cooling, a continuous flexible helical coil. In an apparatus for carrying out the method, the hose or rope 10 is drawn from a rotatable drum 20 and reeled up by a drum 34 after wire 13 from a spool 59 has been wound around it. The drums 20 and 34 are each mounted in carriers 21 and 35 respectively which rotate on stub axles supported in bearings 27, 28, 39 and 40, and are driven by chains 42 and sprockets from a shaft 44 which is driven by an electric motor through a change speed gearbox . The hose or rope passes through the hollow stub axles 26 and 36 and between a grooved roller 53 and a pressure roller 67. The roller 53 is driven through a worm 51 mounted on the same shaft as a sprocket 50 which is engaged by a chain which also passes round a sprocket 48 fixed to the stationary bearing 39. The wire 13 passes through a stainless steel guide tube 61 which is resistance heated to 900‹ C. If the hose has a tendency to twist the speed of one of the carriers relative to the other is varied by inserting a differential gear 69, Fig. 4, in the drive shaft to the take-up drum 34. The annulus 75 of the differential is connected by a chain to a hand wheel for manual adjustment of the speeds as necessary, or is connected to a pawl and ratchet or variable speed drive mechanism for continuous rotation of the annulus.