Metallurgical apparatus – Means treating a continuum of work – With heating means
Reexamination Certificate
2000-04-17
2001-09-18
Kastler, Scott (Department: 1742)
Metallurgical apparatus
Means treating a continuum of work
With heating means
C266S252000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06290898
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates, in general, to an apparatus for heat treatment of impact beams for use in automobiles and, more particularly, to an improvement in such an apparatus to uniformly and effectively heat-treat impact beams having a non-circular cross-section, such as an elliptical cross-section, in addition to impact beams having a circular cross-section.
2. Description of the Prior Art
As well known to those skilled in the art, impact beams are installed in the interior of doors of automobiles so as to reduce damage or deformation of the doors caused by external impact in the case of collision of the automobiles against something else and thereby to protect passengers from such external impact.
In order to allow such impact beams to have desired structural properties, such as desired impact resistance and desired impact absorptive power, without increasing weight of the chassis of automobiles, the impact beams have been typically produced by appropriately processing, such as heat-treating, hollow metal tubular members having a circular cross-section. In recent days, another type of impact beam having a non-circular cross-section, such as an elliptical cross-section capable of improving the structural strength and impact resistance of the impact beam, has been proposed and used.
In order to continuously produce such impact beams through a mass production process while accomplishing desired productivity, a plurality of impact beams, having the same dimension, are unidirectionally and continuously conveyed to a desired position using an appropriate conveying means, such as a chain conveyor. During such a unidirectional and continuous conveying process, the impact beams are continuously heat-treated through an induction heating process. In such an induction heating process, the impact beams pass through the center of an annular induction coil at a constant speed.
Therefore, conventional apparatuses for heat treatment of impact beams are designed to horizontally convey the impact beams while allowing the impact beams to pass through the center of an annular induction coil. Such conventional heat treatment apparatuses somewhat effectively accomplish a desired uniform heat-treating effect in the case of impact beams having a circular cross-section since the circular cross-section of the impact beams agree with the profile of the annular induction coil. However, the conventional heat treatment apparatuses are problematic in that they fail to uniformly heat impact beams having a non-circular cross-section, such as an elliptical cross-section. That is, even when the impact beams, having such a non-circular cross-section, precisely pass through the center of the annular induction coil of an apparatus, the impact beams fail to be uniformly heated by the induction coil due to a difference in distance between the external surface of each impact beam and the annular induction coil. In such a case, the resulting impact beams, having a non-circular cross-section, may be undesirably reduced in structural strength in addition to flexural deformation.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, the present invention has been made keeping in mind the above problems occurring in the prior art, and an object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus for heat treatment of impact beams for use in automobiles, which is designed to uniformly and effectively heat-treat impact beams having a non-circular cross-section, such as an elliptical cross-section, in addition to impact beams having a circular cross-section.
In order to accomplish the above object, the present invention provides an apparatus for heat treatment of impact beams for use in automobiles, comprising: a step feeder carrying a plurality of impact beams thereon and orderly and continuously feeding the impact beams in a predetermined direction; a conveying unit and a guide unit, both being orderly positioned in back of the step feeder and being used for orderly, horizontally and continuously moving and guiding the impact beams from the step feeder in the direction at a constant speed; an impact beam rotating and moving unit positioned at the outlet end of the guide unit and consisting of a rotary drum and a plurality of support rolls, the rotary drum cooperating with the support rolls to orderly and continuously move the impact beams from the guide unit in the direction, each of the support rolls having a tapered profile; and a heat-treating unit positioned at the outlet end of the impact beam rotating and moving unit, the heat-treating unit being used for heating the impact beams using an annular induction coil while guiding the impact beams from the rotating and moving unit to the center of the induction coil so as to allow the impact beams to pass through the center of the induction coil.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5487795 (1996-01-01), Kim et al.
patent: 5653937 (1997-08-01), Kim et al.
Cooper & Dunham LLP
Dongwonmetal Ind. Co., Ltd.
Kastler Scott
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