The object of the invention ^' is a spike plate which will be explained more closely in the introduction of patent- claim 1, and the method and device for manufacturing it.

The spike plate is usually rectangular in form, ^' made of a thin steel sheet which has on one or both plane surfaces perpendicularly projecting spikes made from the plate blank by punching in such a manner that the spikes remain fasten¬ ed to the plate by means of their bottom parts, and they are bent outwards from the plate.

The spike plate is generally used, in connection with wood joints, for example in the making of ceiling lattices. In this manner wooden parts can be .joined together by placing. the .parts to be joined next to each other and by "pressing the spike plate on top of them, a convenient manner being by means of a press, so that the spike plate is placed equally on both parts. Thus the spikes of the plate are supported in the wood so that the plate itself is against the surface of the wood. Another spike plate can be press¬ ed on the opposite side. •

he strength of the spike plate joint is determined partly according to the tension strength, compression strength and stiffness of the plate itself, partly according to the holding force caused by the friction between the spikes of the plate and the wood, and partly according to the strength ^" of the wood material.

The frictional force between the spikes of the plate and the wood material is a very decisive factor. If it can be increased, the thickness of the plate material used can be decreased,'' -and thus raw material cost and tool cost, etc. are reduced significantly. In addition, smaller spike plates can be used, while the strength values remain

the same, the number and length of the spikes can be decreased, etc. Thus the cost of the spike plates cam. be reduced indirectly, while the earlier, accepted strength values remain the same. In addition, other indirect ^" benefits may be achieved.

la order tα increase the gripping force of the spikes of the plate, it has been known already earlier to make the spikes in such a manner- that on the edges of the spikes there are barbs or teeth which by penetrating into the 0 ^' wood' are fastened more firmly, thus increasing the hold¬ ing of the spikes. This spike form has been introduced.. in the Pinnish patent: application 790210, for example, and in some older American patent publications. In these applications the spikes of the spike plate are arrow-like. 5 in form, or they have several"barbs on the edges. These spike- forms are, however, very hard to manufacture, mainly due to the fact that, the manufacturing tools are compli¬ cated. For this reason the service life of the tools is short and their maintenance extremely laborious. Tool 0 cosi and manufacturing cost along with it are thus un- economically high. In addition, due to their small cross- section the barbs on the edges of the spikes do not increas the holding force.of the spikes significantly. i_t least not so much that the benefit achieved would correspond to 5 the increased manufacturing cost.

The purpose of the invention in question is therefore to introduce a new type of spike plate, in: which compared with known structures the holding force of the spikes ^" , has been increased by means of a special improved, construction 0 in accordance with the invention, so that correspondingly stronger spike plate joints are achieved with still less cost. Also, a purpose of the invention is to introduce a manufacturin ^' άethod and device for making a spike plate- in accordance with the invention.

The invention is mainly characterized in that the spike plate has been formed in such a manner as has been explained more closely in the enclosed claims, an<3 in that the method and device for making the spike plate have been made in accordance with the claims concerning them.

According to the main characteristic of the invention at least on one flat surface of the spikes on the plate there:- are teeth or ridges placed transversely in relation to the length of the spikes. With help of these, the holding force of the spikes in the wood is increased considerably.

According to one development of the invention the spikes have been placed mainly on sectors which run the length of the plate, so that the parts of the sector areas have been elevated slightly from the plate surface. The -benefit of this kind of structure is that the manufacturing of the said teeth or ridges on the spikes is easier and the manu¬ facturing cost smaller.. At the same time the stiffness of the spike plate is increased.

According to one special embodiment the cross—section of the spikes has been made convex on the said toothing side, nearly along the whole length of the spike. As a benefit from this the stiffness and the holding force of the spikes is increased.

One special characteristic of the manufacturing method in accordance with the invention is that the said toothing on the spikes is made to the blanking strip of the spike plate, at the places where the spikes will be punched out, but before this has been done. This method makes it possible to make the toothing on the spikes economically.

According to one special development of the manufacturing nethod in accordance with the invention, before the punching there have been formed to the blanking strip adjacent shaping sectors, running the length of the strip,

5r- where the plate material has been elevated groovelike-

. slightly upwards from the original level in a convenient manner, after which the said transverse toothin -or roughening is made to these sectors at the places where the spikes will be punched out. As a benefit from

10 this the making of the toothing will be cheaper, especially with regard -to tool cost.

A device for making the spike plate in accordance with the invention comprises a straightening device, known as such, which straightens the strip by means of a rolling

^■ 1 ^~ - principle, in order to roll the said elevated sectors of the device lengthwise the strip, -to. form the said tooth¬ ings on the elevated sectα s where the spikes will be punched out, to straighten the spikes of the device, and to punch the blanking strip of the device or to cut it

20 into desired pieces.

According to one advantageous embodiment, the device in accordance with the invention has been arranged to function continuously while the strip moves mainly at constant speed through the device so that the device for punching

25 ^" out the spikes includes mainly two drum-like parts, arranged to ratate against each other, nearly touching, on the circumferences of which there are tool combinations com¬ prising punch and die combinations operating opposite _ ' each other, through which the blanking strip is fed at

30 the same constant speed as the said drum-like parts operate: in order to punch out the spikes.

Other characteristics and details of the invention, as well as benefits achieved by it are explained more closely

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in the following explanation, in which some embodiments of the invention have been explained in_:more detail ^' ,by examples and by referring to drawings.

In the enclosed drawings

Pig. 1 shows one embodiment of the spike plate in accordance with th'e invention, viewed from above in different stages of manufacturing,

Pig. 2 shows an enlarged cross-section of the spike plate in accordance with figure 1 , with some of the spikes in perspective representation,

Pig. 3 shows a section A-A of figure 2,

Pig. 4 and 5 show enlarged one spike form of the spike plate in accordance with the invention, viewed from above and from the side,

Pig. 6 and 7 show enlarged sections B-3 and C-C of figure 5, i

Pig. 8 Bhows in schematical representation one embodiment of the device in accordance with the invention, viewed from the side,

Pig. 9 shows enlarged a roughening roll of the device shown in figure 8, viewed from the side,

Pig. 10 shows enlarged the tooth form of the roughening roll in cross-section,

Fig. 11 shows in schematical representation the device in accordance with another embodiment of the invention, viewed from the side,

Pig. 12 shows the punching tool in accordance with figure 11 enlarged, viewed form the side,

Pig. 13 shows the punching tool of figure 12 in axial section,

^* Pig. 4 shows the upper part of the punch in the- punching tool enlarged, viewed from the side,

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Pig. 15 and 16. show enlarged sections B-JD and E-S. of figure 14,

Pig. 17 ^' and 18 show enlarged the partial section of two 0 spike plates, in which "the invention has been applied to slightly different spike forms from those in the'spike plate in accordance with figure 1 , the spikes having been shown punched but not ^' yet bent.

5 The spike plate in accordance with the invention (figure 1) has been made of suitable steel sheet 1, coated in a conven ent manner or possibly coated in some other manner, by punc ing out of the -plate spikes 2 in the known manner, project ing almost perpendicularly from it so that the material forming the spike is partly unfastened from the plate, but remains fastened to the edge of the opening formed of the bottom part of the spike. The punch of the punching tool has been made such that after punching the plate it pushes : the spike so as to project perpendicularly. Primarily due 5" to reasons of manufacturing technique and strength factors the spikes have:.been arranged in more or less regular groups, in this case rows 3, in which the spikes 2 are formed by turns in different ends of the punching opening, as shown in figures 1 and 2.

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In accordance with the invention, on the flat surface of the spikes, in this case on the back side, transverse toothing or roughening 4 has been formed nearly along the whole length of the spike. The roughening or toothing has been made in a convenient manner such that the barbs on it slope towards the bottom of the spike so that the spike goes more easily into the wood in the joint, and also holds better. It is convenient to limit the roughened area in such a manner that there is no roughening on the bottom of the spike, because it may cause the ^' spike to break while it is being formed by punching.

According to one special embodiment of the invention the spikes 2 have- been placed on the spike plate mainly on adjacent sectors 5, running the length, of the plate, made by forming the plate in such a manner that the part of tϊie sectors 5 is elevated convexly in a convenient manner slightly above the plate level, ais shown in figure 2 and 3, in particular. The benefit of this construction is especially that the making of the roughening is easier and cheaper. In addition to this, the strength and stiff¬ ness of the spike plate is improved. The spikes can also be formed in such ^' a manner that their cross—sectional shape is slightly convex towards the said toothing or roughening (figures 5-7). Thus the stiffness of the spikes is increased and, at the same time, the holding capacity of the roughening is improved.

Within the invention the spikes can also be made in such a manner that two or even more spikes are formed from one punched opening. Thus the distribution of material of the • spike plate can be made more advantageous so that the proportion of solid material in the plate is increased, while the number.^of the spikes remains the same. Thus the transverse sheer strength in the plate is increased. >

According to the main characteristic of the manufacturing method in accordance with the invention the transverse toothing or roughening made to the spikes is made on the blanking strip, at the places where the spikes will be 5" punched out, but before this has "been done.

When using the method in accordance with one embodiment of the invention, the blanking strip of the spike plate, is fed from the reel 6 to'the press 7 (figure 8) or the like, in which the punching of the spikes to the blank ia

10" made in the known manner.. The punching is made, by means of the punching tool 8, which has been attached to the machine and is of known construction, comprising a series of punches 3 ^' .- and punching dies 10.corresponding to them. __x the figure the punches and dies have been shown only

15 schematically. The tool operates in such a manner that the punch penetrates through the plate to be punched into the correspondingly formed aperture in the die so that between each punch and die a part of the plate correspondin to the cross-section of the aperture, is cut from the plate

20 to form the spike of the spike plate, which is bent by the punch at least to a nearly perpendicular position in: relation to the level of the blanking strip, and remains fastened to the-edge of the opening by means of its bottom part, because the clearance between the punch and die is

2$ sufficiently large at this place so that no cutting takes place there.. The punching tool with its punches and dies is known as such, and therefore it has not been explained here more closely by a drawing. The cross-section of the punch and die aperture corresponds ±-X- this example to the

30. spike form shown in figures 1 and 2, but naturally it'can also be different according to the particular βpike in question _*

Bymeans of a suitable feeding attachment, not shown in the 5 ^" figures, the blanking strip is fed to the punching tool . successively so that the tool punches to the spike plate one or several row pairs of spikes by each stroke. Por example

by means of a device shown in figure 8, two row pairs of spikes are punched at a time to the blank in accordance with figure 1,- hile the strip moves forward successively.

In accordance with the invention, before the punching of the spikes, roughening sectors 4 running the length of the strip, that is the feeding direction, are formed to the blanking strip, these having mainly transverse or diagonal grooves, teeth or ridges iij. relation to the length of the strip, at 1-3 mm distance, for example. These sectors have been arranged to run on the strip in such a manner that they are at the places where the spikes will be punched out. Thus the spikes are transversely roughened, which improves the gripping force of the spikes and the strength of the joint.

The method introduced makes it possible to make .the roughening on the flat surface of the spikes economially, which has not been possible by means of methods known earlier.

The roughening can also be made successively in parts corresponding to the length of the spikes, as shown in figure 1 on the right part of the spike plate, in which the spikes have not yet been punched out.

When the roughening is made in ^' a convenient manner by forming, such as rolling or pressing, the strength of the plate material is increased in the known manner so that also this fact partly improves the strength of the manu¬ factured spike plate, and that possibly thinner plate - material can be used. Thus saving in raw-material cost is also achieved.

The roughening is usually made only on one side of the plate blank, that is the side to which the spikes of the spike plate project. This is done so that the end of the

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punching tool will smooth the roughening on one side, while it punches the spike out of the plate. In order that the conveyance forward of the punched plate shall take place without disturbance _. the punching phase has been arranged in such a manner that the punches 9 are below the blanking strip and the dies 10 above it (figure 8) so that the spikes project outwards and the punched blank can move better to the next phase in which the cutting of the blanking strip to desired 'lengths is done by means of a cutting die 11-operating successively..

CF ϊor the roughening of the blanking strip, the roughening tool 12 has been placed on the punching machine or in front of it before the punching tool .8-. According to one advantageous embodiment, on the roughening tool there are. two rolls 13 and -14. running in bearings ^' with parallel 5 axles mounted on a common body. The height position of at least on of the rolls must be adjustable, according to t thickness of the blanking strip which is fitted to go between the rolls. A sufficient compression between the rolls must also be achieved so that the teeth of the 0 roughening roll shall penetrate into the surface of the plate to be roughened, ϊor this purpose there are parts in the device, known as such, which have not been explained here. In an advantageous embodiment the roll 13 which has the roughening pattern on it is placed above in the tool 5 and the smooth counter roll below it (figure 8).

The roughening tool 12 can be placed in a convenient manner to operate at the same time as a feeding device of the blank which feeds the blanking strip from the reel 6 to the ^* punching tool 8. In order to straighten the strip before it comes to the roughening tool, it must be put through a straightening device 15 which is of known construction and comprises several- successive rolls.

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The roughening tool 12 can thus be attached to this kind of straightening roll combination, to its end part.

In order that the roughening tool could operate as the feeding device, it has driving parts to rotate the roll pairs successively, to correspond to the length. of the feeding move. These parts have not been shown here, because they are of known construction. ΪTaturally the feeding mover has to be such that it takes place during the return stroke of the punching tool and is locked during the working stroke.

According to one advantageous embidoment of the invention, the roughening pattern of the roughening roll has been made in such a manner that it comprises a set of adjacent parts of the jacket 13a and 13b, toothed in a saw blade manner. These have been made in such a manner that every second part 13a has a parallel toothing and the parts in between 13b halve a toothing ^' going in the opposite direction. This is done in order to make the roughening on the back side of the spike such that it goes easily into the wood, but the holding force against pulling out is however considerable. This also requires the construction of the spike plate to be of the kind in which every second spike of the row is right-hand and ^' every second is left-hand, viewed from the side as has been explained above.

In accordance with the invention, the said kind of _.. roughening roll (.figure 9) can be made in a convenient manner such that it is composed of discs having a hole in the center, the width of which corresponds to the sideways spacing of the spikes, and which- are hardened, polished smooth and fastened to a common axle, after which the roughening teeth are ground to the outer surface, to all discs simultaneously. After this the disc combination is unfastened and every second disc in the combination is turned round so that the toothing

of these discs will be of opposite direction in relation to the other discs, after which ^" the disc combination can be tightened to a common axle by means of a screw, for example _•

The roughening toothing of the roll can be relatively close and low. A tooth depth of about 0,2-0,5 mm should be appropriate, and the tooth pitch can be 1-3 Jam, for example (figure 10). '

The above mentioned roughening roll is only one example of the embodiments of the roughening tool. The roughening can also be made by means of another kind of tool. One possibility would be a tool which would have a hewing edge in the same manner as in connection with manufacturing files. The roughening can als _t o be made by using a chip- producing machining method by means of an appropriate tool.

The method of operation and construction of the roughening tool naturally depends upon the manner in which the spikes of the spike plate are thought to be punched out of the blanking strip. Differing from the method introduced above, the spike blanks can also be placed transversely in relation to the blanking .strip so that the roughening toothing coming to their surface is made the length-of the strip in order that it will be transverse on the spikes. Thus a roughening tool can be used in which the grooving runs in the same direction.

Yetanother method of roughening is that the roughening is made by pressing by means of special roughening dies so that these dies press the- roughening pattern to the blanking strip of the spike plate, at the place of each spike, but before the spikes are punched out.. This kind of tool can be constructed -in. such a manner that it is attached to the actual punching tool of the spikes. The said roughening, pattern has been made to the ends of this kind of tool, and the punching tools operate against a flat surface counter die. The ^" said roughening can alsobe made on both sides

of the plate blank, especially when the spikes have been made in such a manner that they project in turn to both sides of the plate.

When using the method in accordance with the invention the roughening can be made to the spike plate blank already in the works in connection with the manufacturing or otherwise at a separate phase, away from the actual punching machine of the spike platev

According to one advantageous embodiment of the method in accordance with the invention, the roughening phase can be made yet more effective in such a manner that to the blanking strip of the spike plate are made continuous or successive elevated sectors which run next to each other the length of the blank or the length of the roughening, through the places where the spikes will be punched out.

This phase is done particularly before the said roughening, and the purpose of it is to decrease the strain imposed on the roughening tool. The shaping force or working force needed in the roughening are thus decreased compared with the roughening made to a completely flat surface blank in which the tooth.of the tool has to penetrate into the material to be formed even on the borders of the cutting or forming lips. In the sectional view shown in figure 3 there are adjacent elevated sectors 5 made to the spike plate blank 1, which project from the plate surface to about the thickness of the plate. This kind of forming can be made to the plate blank by means of appropriate grooving rollers, known as such, or the like. The rollers can be placed to a common axle, with a suitable distance between each other, to be adjusted in the known manner.

In addition to .the fact that the above mentioned making of the elevated sectors for the roughening facilitates the , making of the roughening or toothing tn the blanking strip

directly, it also has an advantageous affect on the tool indirectly in such a manner that the toothing of the tool can now be uniform and continuous in the direction of the axle. Thus the wear of the tool can be compensated by

^' 5 moving the tool in the direction of the axle so that the unused part of the tool can still te made to cut. Thus the service life of the tool is made longer, which i practice may be of very greaij economical importance. In accition, other benefits concemirg tool technique can be 0 achieved in addition to the increase in the strength and the stiffness of the blanking strip itself.

In the device for making spike plates in accordance with another embodiment of the invention, the spike plate blanking strip is fed from the reel 6 to the machine 7, 5 which has here been marked by a broken line only (figure 11). In this device the first phase comprises the straightening rolls 15, after which come the profiling rolls 1β which - can operate as stamping device as well, by which the product is provided with the manufacturing numbers and marks. The 0 profiling roll pair makes the above mentioned elevation pattern 5 to. the strip. After this comes the tool 12 which " makes the above mentioned roughening pattern 4 _* The roughening tool can be a roll pair or a hewing or-cutting tool. Eor the next working phase, the punching of the spikes, 5 there have been arranged two rollers, the punch roller 17 and the die roller 18, rotating against each other, nearly touching, on the circumferences of which the punches 9 and dies 10 have been arranged according to the same circum¬ ferential spacing correspending to the spacing of the spike D rows so that when the punch and die rollers rotate at ^' a constant speed attached to each-other, the punches and dies meet each other exactly. The blanking strip 1 of the ^• spike plates has been directed to move between the punch and die rollers at'^he same speed. Thus the punching of the 5 spikes takes place- continuously without strokes, ___ _s spikes are cut out of the plate except their bottom parts which remai

fastened to the blanking strip. The projecting of the spikes outwards from the plate surface is achieved by an appropriate forming of the punch and die, which corresponds to the forming of the bottom part of the spike.

5. The rotation of the rollers is carried out by. eans of suitable transmission, for example toothed wheel gearing. The punches and dies used in the punching of the. spikes have been arranged in rows on the curcumferences of the rollers, according to the spacing corresponding to the

10 spacing of the spike rows.

5he spike rows of the spike plate in accordance-with figure 1 are mainly placed perpendicularly in relation to the length of the blanking strip. ' Adjacent spikes open _^ to the opposite sides of the row in cutting. By means of this 15 arrangement the strain on the spikes can be divided more evenly on the plate. The construction can be advantageous with regard ^" to the construction and maintenance of the tool.

The spike rows can naturally be arranged in such a manner that they run diagonally across the strip. Thus the punches 20 and dies are placed correspondingly in diagonal rows on the rollers 17 and 18. The benefit of this, kind of diagonal row arrangement is primarily that the strain on the tools Is divided more eyenly, because, the tools of the row come to the cutting position at different timeis;

25 A particular benefit of the said arrangement of tools in which the punches and corresponding dies operate on rollers rotating against each other, through which the blanking strip to be punched moves, is that the service life of .the tools is greatly increased. la addition, vibration and

30 sounds due to sudden impulses, which may have a very harmful effect on environment, employees, and machinery and equipment, are no longer present. Koreover, a great benefit, compared with earlier constructions is that multiple production per time unit is achieved, because tbe blanking

35 strip moves continuously. Taking into consideration the quality of the product, this is of immense importance.

16

The construction of the above mentioned rotating punching tool has been shown more closely in figures 12 and 13 in partial representation, the punch roller 17 being under¬ neath and the die roller 18 above. Por the sake of clarity, only one row of punches and dies has been shown in the figure. The diameter of the rollers 17-and 18 has to be sufficiently large in order that the angle of contact becomes small when'the punching tool contacts with the surface of the blanking strip.

The punch roller can be constructed in a convenient manner such that it is composed of the fastening discs 19 and intermediate discs or plates 20.in between, which are fastened to a common axle by means of a bolt, for example. The thickness of the discs 19 and 20 is determined on the basis of the mutual sideways distance between the punches. Por the fastening of the punches there are radial scores 21 on the circumference of the disc 19 placed ^' evenijv The score 21 have been made and formed with a relatively accurate tolerance in order that the helves of the punches will fit to them with a sufficient accuracy. In connection with the scores there may also be parts for tightening the punches to their, places. However, these have not been shown in the drawing, because they may be .of some common¬ ly used construction in tools. The tightening of the punches to their places can be done in this case in such a manner that the whole punch row is tightened by means of a bolt which has been marked by the broken line 22 in figure 13. The thickness of the punches is thus slightly bigger than the thickness of the discs 19, in order that the punches should tighten between the discs 20.

The fastening roller 18 of the dies can in principle be of similar construction, thus comprising a set of fastening discs of the dies and intermediate discs in between. According to one very simple embodiment (figures 12 and 13)

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the die roller does not usually have attached to it separate counter rollers, which would have an aperture corresponding to the cross-sectional shape of the punch, but the dies are simply composed of several discs 23 and intermediate discs 24 between them, which have been arranged in a group to a common axle, and fastened near the circumferential surface by means of bolts parallel to the axle. The intermediate d-^scs 24 are slightly smaller in diameter than the die discs 23, and they are about a cutting clearance thicker than the thickness of the punch. Thus the dies are formed on the circumference of th.e die discs, each on the score between the adjacent discs, to which to punch reaches in the cutting phase. As the cutting in case of the spike plate is so narrow, this kind of a simple die is completely sufficient, though the score is ^: open lengthwise ^' . The die discs-have been hardened on their circumferential surface, and the sharpening grinding of them is easily done by means of cylindrical grinding. The said tool construction is very advantageous as far as the maintenance is concerned, because it is easy to sharpen, and installing does not require excessive accuracy..

The operation of the punch is also shown in figure 12, when it cuts the spike of the spike plate and when it strikes the plate during the rolling motion. The face of the punch has been bevelled in a convenient manner such that it starts the cutting from the tip of the spike. Thus the cutting is continued towards the bottom of the spike during the mutual rolling motion of the punch and die, and at the end of the cutting the spike is turned to nearly erect position in relation to the blanking strip.

According to one special embodiment shown in figures 4-7 the spikes of the spike plate have been punched in such a manner that froiβi ^' the same cutting opening two spikes are formed, a longer 2a and a shorter 2b. The tip of the spikes is thus bevelled to a different direction as shown

in the. figures. The spike being of different lengths at opposite places, the compression force needed by the spike plate in the joining is divided more evenly so that the pressing home takes place without disturbance. ^' The _. cross- sectional shape in accordance with figures 5-7, which is convex towards the roughening, -increases ^' the stiffness ; f the spikes and improves their holding force.

The punching of the said*spikes by a method in accordance with the invention is done in a convenient manner by means of punches in accordance with figures 14-16. A bevelled, stepped face lip 25 has been formed to the face of the punch, which at the first stage of the cutting forms the bevel cut by which the tip of the spike is formed. After that the outer side lips 26 of the face of the punch cut out the side cuts of the longer spike 2a, and the

^• - formed face 27 in connection with the end -part .of the lips 26 turns the spike outwards. The cutting of the shorter spike 2b starts slightly after the cutting of the spike 2a, because the lips 28 cutting it come after the cuttin of the lips 26. due to the difference in height. In connection with the lips 28 there is also the formed face 29 which • turns the spike outwar s in the final stage of cutting. The face of the punch between the lips 26.and 28 can be made convex in a convenient manner such that accordingly the shape of the spikes will be convex ^" in the cross- section.

After the spikes have been formed between the said punch and die rollers rotating in conjunction with each other, and the blanking strip moving at corresponding speed, -the next phase is the straightening of the spikes which are. possibly slanting. In accordance with the invention this is don by means of a roller pair in which one roller 30 is of cylindrical shape and the other 31 has transverse grooves similar τo the teeth of a toothed wheel, with

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evolved surface, but in which the tooth gaps are narrower. The spacing corresponds to the distance between the spike rows. -When the spikes encounter these tooth gaps they are straightened at least to a nearly erect position in relation to the surface of the plate. -

After the straightening of the spikes the cutting of the blank to desired lengths ^s done. This takes place in a convenient manner by means of a cutting roller pair which has the edge rollers 32 and 33 above and under the blank, both of which have the opposed cutting edges 34 and 35 with circumferential spacing corresponding to the desired cutting length. The edges have been fitted in such a manner that while the roller pair is ^" rotating at a constant speed corresponding to the forwarding speed of the blanking strip, they engage each other' ^" in cross-cutting .pairs so that the spike plate blank is correspondingly cut out. The edge rollers can be changed if necessary. Naturally another kind of known tool construction can act as the cutting tool.

It is clear that the construction, manufacturing method and device in accordance with the invention are suitable for making many types of spike plates witiling the invention.

To give examples, figures 17 and 18 show yet two other spike forms of the spike plate, in the making at which the invention can be used. With regard to the strength of the spike plate, it is advantageous if those constructions can be used in which two or several spikes have been formed from the same punching opening. It is easy to apply to those constructions the roughening of the spike?s flat surface in accordance with the invention. Thus it is possible to make spike plates in which the solid areas between the openings of the spikes will be significantly broader so that the transverse sheer strength is increased noticeably compared with the usual constructions.

The spike plate in accordance with the invention, the manufacturing method and device for making it can vary within the enclosed patent claims.