Metal working – Expanded metal making
Patent
1990-02-28
1992-02-18
Eley, Timothy V.
Metal working
Expanded metal making
B21D 3104
Patent
active
050881701
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The present invention relates to a device expanded material from foil, in particular expanded metal from aluminium foil. The device comprises a cutting unit for the continuous production of individual, discontinuous incisions in a foil, the cutting unit consisting of a cutting roller and a pressure roller, said device further comprising stretching means for expanding the cut foil transversely to the longitudinal direction of the cuts.
Expanded metals are thin strips or foils, usually of metal, which, to start with, are provided with a large number of discontinuous incisions before being expanded, i.e. stretched, transversely to the longitudinal direction of these incisions; the result is that the strips of metal which were previously located between the incisions are expanded to form a lattice structure. If this lattice is located in the same plane as was previously the metal foil in its starting condition, then the lattice is broader and shorter than the foil in the starting situation relative to the direction of the incisions in the foil, which is taken as the longitudinal direction. In addition, metal strips which form the struts of the lattice are located transverse to the plane of the lattice, so that when the latter is viewed from above the struts appear in each case only in the thickness of the original metal foil. When the foil is formed into a lattice, the original longitudinal incisions are converted into mostly honeycomb-like or rhomboidal openings in the latter.
Although the device of the present invention described hereinafter can be used to produce expanded material out of all thin materials, such as plastic, paper, wood and metal, in the following, only the conversion of metal foils into the generally known product "expanded metal" will be considered by way of example.
Such expanded metal is required for a wide variety of applications. For example, if expanded metal is used to provide an explosion-preventing sheath around naked flames, it is sufficient to manufacture it from metal foils which are only a few hundredths of a millimeter thick. When non-metallic starting materials are used, the expanded material can be used as a filter, as a packaging material, as a carrier layer in the construction industry, and for many other purposes. On the other hand, it is possible in the same manner to produce a very stable expanded metal from sheets up to several mm thick and this material can be used, for example, as a platform surface in scaffolding, as a step, or similar. Naturally, many other uses, for example as sieves, peeling knives, and other devices are conceivable.
Therefore to manufacture such expanded metal, it is necessary to use machines which, to start with, are capable of making a large number of defined incisions, all having the same longitudinal orientation, in thin metals, i.e. metal foils; next, these machines must pull the metal foils apart transverse to the longitudinal direction of the incisions, thus making the metal wider, but also shorter and causing it to assume the shape of a honeycomb-like lattice.
Since continuous manufacturing processes are usually more economical than discontinuous processes, a decision was taken at a very early stage to use metal foils in the form of very long metal strips wound up on spools. These strips are provided with the required incisions as they pass between a cutting roller and a pressure roller.
If these incisions run in the longitudinal direction of the metal strip, subsequent expansion must be in the transverse direction of the strip, although the incisions may also be made transversely to the longitudinal direction of the strip, so that the expansion must take place in the longitudinal direction of the strip. Of course, a hybrid form is conceivable in which the incisions run obliquely to the longitudinal direction of the foil strip. For the purpose of the following explanatory remarks, it is assumed that the incisions run longitudinally, i.e. parallel to the longitudinal axis of the strip.
For this purpose, the two rollers are both cylindrica
REFERENCES:
patent: 4486927 (1984-12-01), Hunter et al.
patent: 4621397 (1986-11-01), Schrenk
patent: 4649607 (1987-03-01), Kuhn, II
patent: 4881307 (1989-11-01), Gaissmaier
patent: 4921118 (1990-05-01), Gass
Eley Timothy V.
Gossett Dykema
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