Western States Mach. Co. v. SS Hepworth Co.

• Decision Date: 06 October 1943
• Docket Number: 1636.,No. 1544,1544
• Citation: 51 F. Supp. 859
• Parties: WESTERN STATES MACH. CO. v. S. S. HEPWORTH CO.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Eastern District of New York

51 F. Supp. 859

WESTERN STATES MACH. CO. v. S. S. HEPWORTH CO.

Nos. 1544, 1636.

District Court, E. D. New York.

June 21, 1943.

Supplementary Opinion October 6, 1943.

Hammond & Littell, of New York City (Albert C. Johnston and Nelson Littell, both of New York City, of counsel), for plaintiff.

Howson & Howson, of New York City (Charles H. Howson, of Philadelphia, Pa., and W. F. Sonnekalb, Jr., of New York City, of counsel), for defendant.

BYERS, District Judge.

These causes, consolidated for trial, present conventional issues of infringement and validity of five patents, three of which deal with mechanism to control the successive purging, washing and drying of sugar in centrifugal machines in sugar refineries and factories; the remaining two cover, respectively, a syrup separator, and a water cooled brake. These devices promote the successful accomplishment of the tasks of the contrifugal machines.

Purging is the first step in the sequence in which the so-called green syrup (containing about 95% pure sugar) is "centrifuged" or separated from the sugar grains and collected for subsequent treatment in the bottom of the jacket which encases the perforate basket into which the partially treated sugar—then known as massecuite or magma—had been placed; when that step has been accomplished, a period of centrifugal washing ensues as the result of introducing water into the whirling mass; when the washing has proceeded sufficiently (which is a critical and fairly precise requirement in the process), the water supply is cut off, and a drying period follows, upon the completion of which the centrifugal is stopped and the sugar is removed either manually or through an open bottom in the basket. This is the complete cycle of operation so far as the centrifugals are concerned.

Because it has been outlined tersely for brevity's sake, there is nothing casual or fortuitous about any of the steps. Each has its carefully calculated duration, based upon many factors to which allusion cannot serve any present purpose.

The plaintiff's patents were granted to Roberts, and were successfully embodied in commercial structures which found a ready market from about 1926 until the filing of these suits. In other words, plaintiff's commercial success is not questioned. Commencing in 1936 the defendant inaugurated its own efforts to compete with the plaintiff, and the pending and other litigations were instituted to determine whether its unpatented (except as to its water-cooled brake) structures infringe; and, if they do, whether the Roberts patents are valid.

The successive steps in centrifugal operation, which have been stated, were formerly controlled manually and in turn, by the operators of the machines. This involved eccentricities of performance and frequent repetition of one or more of the operations, whereby production costs were enhanced, and the entire process was unnecessarily costly. Preliminary grading of the massecuite—which varied widely in constituency—to induce uniformity in treatment is said not to have been practicable prior to the introduction of mechanical control of the operation of the centrifugal machines, but has since been introduced; the accomplishments fairly to be attributed to the plaintiff's patents have been in the public interest, in that production costs have been lowered through savings in labor and material wastage; also the operation of the centrifugals has been speeded up from around 850 R.P.M. to double that, and more.

The Roberts Patents in Suit.

It will be convenient to consider these in the order of their importance and in three parts:

I. The control patents—cause No. 1544.

II. The separator patent—cause No. 1636.

III. The brake cooling patent—cause No. 1544.

I. Roberts No. 1,758,901—Application filed December 8, 1925—"Means for Automatically Controlling Centrifugal Machines". Granted May 13, 1930.

The structure described is an intricate assembly of mechanical devices which together constitute an operable control of the centrifugal, best understood by consulting plaintiff's Exhibit 59.

The elements are:

A handwheel for manual operation, which turns a shaft 9 to which it is affixed.

Two separated gears on that shaft engage two other levers, 4 and 11, which have independent functions.

Lever 4 controls a clutch which in turn engages the pulley and thus the shaft which turns the centrifugal. As will be seen later, the application of the power which operates the centrifugal cannot coincide with the application of the brake. Those actions are mutually antagonistic and that relationship is maintained by the control mechanism.

Lever 11 performs two functions: (a) it releases through rod 50 the brake 55 which holds the centrifugal at rest, and (b) it causes the timer control to be engaged through rod 15, engaging bell crank 16, and associated element 17, so that the ensuing period of operation of the centrifugal can be established.

Clockwise rotation of the handwheel 8 therefore is responsible for the foregoing. A repetition, however, would not be possible with the mechanism thus far described. The brake must be reset, and the clutch must be disengaged, and a new cycle inaugurated. To accomplish this, the shaft 9 is equipped with a powerful coil spring 6 which is wound up by the rotation of the handwheel. The energy thus created opposes the action of lever 11 in releasing the brake 55 and in establishing the engagement of the timer control through 16 and 17.

That opposing energy is held in check by an ingenious latching device which engages the top of lever 11, whereby bell crank 13 is brought into play.

That is an angular member, held in position by a pin at the apex of the angle composed of the two arms. The lower arm contains a fixed roller 13c which falls into a notch at the upper end of lever 11 (which is prolonged laterally), when that moves in response to the lower end of lever 11 (which is pinioned by post 12 as shown). The clockwise rotation of shaft 9, transmitted through gear 11b to the cogs of the lower segment of lever 11, causes counterclockwise action there and the reverse at the upper aspect or top prolongation of 11, whereby the roller 13c slips into and remains held in notch 11c.

Thus the energy of spring 6 is latched until 13c disengages 11c.

That action results when the short arm of 13 is pulled laterally by the action of rod 15 in obedience to a downward pull thereon, through 16, of rod 40, which is caused by force applied at its lower angular end delivered by arm 23 of the timer mechanism.

When 13c is released from 11c, the torsion energy of spring 6 is freed and causes shaft 9 to rotate counter-clockwise, and the levers 11 and 4 to move clockwise, whereby clutch 3 is disengaged and brake rod 15 moves so as to put the brake on.

The timer mechanism, which brought this result about, consists of two elements, connected to rod 15, through lever arm 16 to which rod 40 is attached as shown. These elements are shaft 20 which terminates inwardly in clutch member 18, and a worm gear which forms part of a revolving member which also terminates in the second half of the clutch (no number). When the two elements of the clutch are engaged through the lateral movement of the lower segment of lever 17, the timer mechanism is ready to function.

It is caused to operate by power supplied from the spindle (shaft) which actuates the centrifugal itself, through friction disc 31 which engages that spindle. The rotation of 31 delivers power to shaft 20 (through the clutch 18) to enable it to turn two discs affixed to it, each containing a radial projection or arm, which respectively strike and thus actuate two other elements.

The shaft 20 rotates slowly so that the arc described by arm 23 (which is less than 360°) is completed in an adjustable changeable, and predetermined interval of, for example, 120 seconds.

The length of the interval is established by the position of the arm 23 which is adjustable according to the insertion of a pin through the arm, into holes in the disc radially disposed, as shown in the said exhibit. Thus the length of the arc to be traversed by the arm 23, from its starting position until it strikes the lower end of 41, is subject to predetermination. It measures the duration of the entire cycle from the application of power to spin the centrifugal, to the concomitant release thereof and application of the brake.

It will become important to recall that the energy which enables this device to function has its source not in the control mechanism itself, but in the agency which supplies power to operate the centrifugal.

Before leaving this subject, it is required to understand that there is of necessity a counter force which tends to oppose shaft 20 in its initial rotation and which comes into play to return it, and disc 22, and therefore arm 23, to their positions at the inception of the rotation of shaft 20. That force is supplied by coil spring 21, which rotates shaft 20 (and attendant elements) back to their initial positions, which spring is released and permitted to function immediately when 41 is tripped by 23. That is accomplished because 23 is set with reference to stop pin 22a which strikes rest 20b as 23 completes its arc, and thus spring 21 functions to reset the timer.

The second disc, also shown as 22, is another timer, which functions to open and shut off the water which is sprayed into the walled-up sugar, when the purging operation has been accomplished. Arm 24 projects from this disc as shown, and as the latter rotates with shaft 20 it strikes an attachment which starts the water to spray, and that independent mechanism continues for a predetermined interval until, by its own internal organization, that water is shut off. So much of the entire assembly is an embodiment of an earlier Roberts patent and is not involved in this litigation. Obviously this timer disc and the arm 24 begin and cease operation within the interval...