forming-machine

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A machine used for bending tin-plate, and in making hollow ware.
2. n. An apparatus for shaping articles made from fabrics of various kinds, as hats from plaited straw.
3. n. A machine for twisting strands of fiber into rope.
4. n. In hat-making, a felt-forming machine. It is the second machine used in the process of hat-making and follows the blowing-machine. It consists of an air-tight chamber having an air-inlet at the top and an air-outlet at the bottom. When ready for use a hollow cone or form of perforated metal is placed in the chamber in such a position that it covers the outlet, so that when an air-suction or exhaust is started all the air must be drawn through the perforations of the cone. When the chamber is closed and the exhaust started, a blast, bearing a cloud of loose hair from the blowing-machine, is turned on and the floating hair gathers in a film on the former, being pressed down by the air pressure and held in place by the suction through the perforations. When this film is sufficiently thick, the blast and exhaust are cut off, the chamber is opened, and the former is removed and plunged into water, when the film readily slips off in the shape of a felt cone the exact shape of the former and ready for the next process of working and matting together to form a felt hat-body. See blowing-machine.