Metal working – Means to assemble or disassemble – To apply or remove a resilient article
Reexamination Certificate
2000-02-16
2001-11-06
Watson, Robert C. (Department: 3723)
Metal working
Means to assemble or disassemble
To apply or remove a resilient article
Reexamination Certificate
active
06311378
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is in the field of “crimp on flange” tools used to crimp or rollform primary door seals around automobile doorframes.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Crimp on flange (“COF”) tools are handheld devices with a pair of motor or air-driven crimping rollers used to continuously crimp or rollform a generally U-shaped door seal or edge protector to an automobile body flange, usually an automobile door well. Prior art COF tools generally use a pair of pressure rollers to crimp the seal on the flange, sometimes with a third lateral “guide roller” associated with a vertical pair of pressure rollers. Prior art COF tools are awkward to use for several reasons: they are heavy; they are somewhat difficult to initially engage with the seal; and they are not easily adjusted for use on different types of seals or where different driving means (pneumatic, electric) are required.
FIGS. 1 and 2
illustrate a prior art handheld COF tool
20
used for crimping a doorseal
12
on a door well flange
10
in known fashion. Tool
20
generally comprises a roller head
22
having a pair of vertical pressure rollers
24
and a lateral guide roller
26
for engaging and continuously crimping or rollformiing the malleable seal
12
onto flange
10
.
Pressure rollers
24
are driven by gearing and spring loading mechanisms (not shown) contained in housing
23
, which in turn are driven by an electric or pneumatic motor contained in a motor handle
28
. The motor in motor handle
28
is controlled by an operator's lever
30
which, when squeezed, activates the motor to drive pressure rollers
24
.
Lateral guide roller
26
is unpowered but freely rotating to maintain downward pressure on the gripping section portion of the flange in known manner.
FIG. 3
illustrates an alternate version
20
′ of the tool
20
shown in
FIGS. 1 and 2
. The primary difference between the tool
20
′ of FIG.
3
and tool
20
of
FIG. 2
is the angle of motor handle
28
′, which in the
FIG. 3
embodiment is connected in-line with the gear housing
23
′ and roller head
22
′. Details of the construction and operation of the types of tool shown in
FIGS. 1 through 3
can be found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,068,952, for example.
The prior art tool
20
′ in
FIG. 3
is specifically illustrated as having a drive fluid inlet
27
and a drive fluid outlet
28
for supplying a pneumatic motor drive in handle
28
′.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In its broadest form, the present invention is an improved, handheld COF tool in which the motor drive is separated from the handheld tool by a flexible drive coupling, which along with improvements to the roller head and gear drive reduces the total weight of the handheld tool to around one and one half pounds, less than half the weight of even the lightest known prior art tools. The rollers are driven by a novel worm gear drive adapted to receive a flex shaft drive coupling.
Another aspect of the invention is an improved roller arrangement for the tool roller head, in which two pairs of parallel, spaced rollers engage the seal to crimp or rollform it onto a flange. A first pair of rollers functions as guide rollers, being relatively widely spaced so as to easily feed and guide, rather than crimp, the seal. The guide rollers are aligned with a more narrowly spaced set of crimping rollers to accurately guide the crimping rollers over the seal. In one embodiment, one of the guide rollers is a driven roller, and one or more of the remaining rollers is a driven roller. In another embodiment, one or both pairs of rollers are yieldably slide mounted, for example on a pneumatic slide mount, to maintain constant pressure on the seal around a doorframe as the thickness of the doorframe varies. Accordingly, the first embodiment with fixed-mount rollers provides constant roller distance, while the second embodiment with slide-mounted rollers provides constant roller pressure with variable distance.
A further feature of the invention is the use of a worm gear drive which results in a more compact roller head, is easily replaced for gear ratio adjustment, and which allows the use of both pneumatic and electrical drives with a simple drive adapter fitting.
Another feature of the invention is an improved handle arrangement in which a vertical handle coaxial with the roller array is mounted on the back or top of the roller head. The handle is preferably swivel mounted with an anti-pinch feature and has no connection to the drive system. This vertical “joystick” type handle can be the sole handle provided on the roller head, or it can be used in conjunction with the more traditional lateral, drive-type described above in connection with the prior art.
In yet a further form of the invention, the drive and crimp rollers are individually replaceable, such that the roller head can be adapted to different seals merely by replacing one or more of the rollers to adjust the overall spacing between the roller pairs. It has been found that for many applications only the downstream crimping roller needs changing in order to adjust the tool to accommodate different seals, since the more widely spaced guide rollers accommodate the resulting offset caused by the change in spacing between the crimp rollers.
These and other features and advantages of the invention will become apparent upon reading the detailed description of the following drawings.
REFERENCES:
patent: 2954653 (1960-10-01), Harvey
patent: 3974953 (1976-08-01), Klose
patent: 4878368 (1989-11-01), Toutant et al.
patent: 4989323 (1991-02-01), Casper et al.
patent: 4996756 (1991-03-01), Bright et al.
patent: 5031293 (1991-07-01), Goedderz
patent: 5048170 (1991-09-01), Kuppers
patent: 5065486 (1991-11-01), Goedderz
patent: 5068952 (1991-12-01), Hennen
patent: 5155890 (1992-10-01), Goedderz
patent: 5169081 (1992-12-01), Goedderz
patent: 5237730 (1993-08-01), Goedder
patent: 5237741 (1993-08-01), Goedderz
patent: 5752235 (1998-05-01), Bright
patent: 5765276 (1998-06-01), Pichot
The Roll Form System R.F.S.,Draftex GmbH & Co. KG Am Schluff 18-20, D-41748 Viersen, pp. 1-9.
SaarGummi Americas, Inc.
Watson Robert C.
Young and Basile, P.C.
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