HYDRAULIC TYRE-SETTER.

Auckland Star, Volume XXIX, Issue 21, 26 January 1898, Page 5

HYDRAULIC TYRE-SETTER.

A VALUABLE INVENTION.

An exhibition of West's patent hydraulic tyre-setting machine was given this afternoon by Messrs John Chambers and Son, at Messrs Cousin and Cousins, coachbuilders, Lome-street. • About "200 invitations were issued, among those invited being the Mayor (Mr P. Dignan) and City Councillars, the President (Mr B. Kent) and members of the Chamber of Commerce, the Chairman (Mr W. J. Napier) and Secretary (Mr J. M. Brigham) of the Harbour Board, Mr P. A. Philips, Town Clerk, the leading merchants and business men, and a number of other prominent citizens.

A number of wheels, both new and old, were tested by means of the new tyresetter. In one experiment a new 5-feet wheel was placed inside a hoop or tyre which measured 4in more in circumference than the wheel. The tyre was compressed by the setter until it fitted tightly against the wheel, the whole process occupying about a minute and alialf. Other trials were made with old wheels, 6n which old tyres were set without removing the latter, or in any way affecting the wheels. Another 5 feet tyre, measuring 3in by lin in section, was compressed about Gin in circumference. As an illustration of what the ■ machine can do, it may be stated that yesterday Messrs Cousins and Cousins set a tyre Gin wide and -j'in, thick in less than 10 minutes, an operation which by the ordinary method of setting would occupy at least half a, day.

The machine, which, is the invention of Mi- J. I). West, Rochester, New York, consists of a circular bed-piece with six j arms which support a heavy weldless steel ring. To this ring are attached by set screws 18 rams, each entering a corresponding hydraulic cylinder. Eighteen segments are cast with the cylinder and form the | table of the machine, upon which the tyre rests. All the segments are moved uniformly towards the centre cf the machine j by pressure derived from an hydraulic pump. This delivers) into a central distributing chamber, and from thence by pipes to each cylinder. A spiral spring is placed beneath each segment, so that when the pressure is released from the cylinders the latter are forced outwards by the springs until the cylinders are empty. When a tyre already welded is placed upon the table of the machine the pump is put in action,'and a uniform pressure brought to bear upon the outside of the tyre, somewhat similar to that of the steam upon the convex surface of a boiler Hue. By the continued application of the hydraulic pump (in this machine usually worked with oil) a cold tyre, for example 3 feet 6" inches in diameter, and 3 inches by 1 inch section, may in a few moments be reduced considerably in diameter, and thus squeezed to lit upon the felloe of the wheel. Owing to the uniform distribution of stress, the operation is carried out without buckling the lyre. 'Various diameters of tyres may be fitted in the same machine by the insertion of segmonta! .packing pieces between the tyre ami the rams. Altogether the machine is a marvel of ingenuity, simple in construction and admirably adapted for the purpose which it serves. Tire essential feature of the invention is th.it cold-wrought iron can be and is compressed within certain limits without any change in its other dimensions. Many of the highest engineering authorities in England have tested this tyre-setter, and they are unanimous in its praise. Hundreds of machines are now being used by leading English, American and Continental carriage builders and wheelwrights. They have been adopted by the British and Belgian (iovernments. The advantages of the machine are briefly that it sets tyres cold, and hardens and improves the material of the tyre ; it makes wheels perfectly round, and obviates the charring of the rims, 'inseparable from the old process by lire. It also enables tyres to be tightened without removing the bolts or injury to the paint, and it does them " while you wait.

A company has been formed to purchase the rights of the invention for the North Island of New Zealand, the South Island rights having already been sold for £1,800 cash. The machines will not lie sold, but will be leased out on payment of an annual license. Applications may be made to Messrs John Chambers and Son, or to the Company.