Plastic article or earthenware shaping or treating: apparatus – With apparatus assembly or dismantling means or with idle part – Plural wear or shaping surfaces mounted for alternative use
Reexamination Certificate
2000-04-03
2002-11-26
Silbaugh, Jan H. (Department: 1722)
Plastic article or earthenware shaping or treating: apparatus
With apparatus assembly or dismantling means or with idle part
Plural wear or shaping surfaces mounted for alternative use
C425S195000, C425S336000, C425S185000, C425S388000, C425S396000, C425S233000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06485286
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to a molding apparatus, particularly a corrugator for the manufacture of pipes, preferably corrugated pipes, with at least two series of circulating mold jaw parts or mold blocks, which preferably have a same molding shape. The circulating mold jaw parts form a molding channel in an assigned area and the series are guided in respective rotating guides. The molding apparatus has at least one exchange member along at least one of the circulation and/or pass round guides of at least one of the mold jaw series, wherein at least one alternating mold jaw is provided that has an optional profile or that has another molding design of the pipe.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Corrugators for the manufacture of corrugated pipes are well known in the state of the art. As long as corrugated pipes are to be manufactured with a constant shape in a longitudinal direction it is possible to use conventional infinite corrugators with circulating mold jaw parts without encountering any problems. However, if corrugated pipes are to be manufactured having certain optional profile sections, it is necessary that these optional profiles be fitted into a mold jaw part chain, such as mold jaw parts or mold blocks for sleeves for example. Problems arise from the fact that these optional designs of corrugated pipes or pipes in general can only be provided on a same and hence rigidly assigned place. A variable optional design in the course of a continuously produced corrugated pipe without an interruption of the production process in the corrugator is not possible. The usual procedure is to include optional designs at certain positions in the corrugated pipe, which needs to be done at regular intervals or sections. This regularity is a result of the specific length of a certain mold jaw part chain. This means, that if an optional profile is required, every third length of a mold jaw part chain, it appears three times in each respective section of the corrugated pipe but two of these optional profiles are unused. These unused optional profiles can cause problems since they can become weak points.
The prior art describes an experiment in U.S. Pat. No. 4,325,685 A1 for a vertically aligned corrugator in which certain flexibility is created by providing mold jaw parts with multiple profiles. Among those multiple profiles are also optional profiles. These types of very wide mold jaw parts can be shifted horizontally on a vertically aligned machine table via a switch arrangement, so that an optional profile can be inserted when required. This solution, however, requires that if a certain flexibility is desired, each mold jaw part in a mold jaw part series needs to be designed accordingly complex having multiple profiles as well as optional profiles. As a result, a corrugator of this known type is extremely complicated, expensive, and in addition to that also delicate. Furthermore, the lateral positioning causes a problem in that the mold jaw parts can not be exactly aligned to the molding channel such that irregularities within the pipe profile arise.
EP 0 048 113 A2 and U.S. Pat. No. 3,981,663 also show modifications of corrugators which are also not able to solve, the aforementioned problems.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a molding apparatus, particularly a corrugator, which can be flexibly used for the production of pipes and preferably corrugated pipes having an acceptable investment expenditure, and which can be flexibly provided with optional profiles.
The aforementioned object is partially or completely achieved in accordance with the invention by means of a molding apparatus having at least an exchange member along at least one of the circulation and/or pass round guides of at least one of the mold jaw series, wherein at least an alternating mold jaw is provided that has an optional profile or that has another molding design of the pipe.
It is evident that mold jaw parts or alternating mold jaw parts are used, which can provide more than one type of corrugated pipes or corrugated pipes with more than one diameter. The other types of corrugated pipes or corrugated pipes with different diameters can be used by adjustment of a machine table with respect to a nozzle of an extruder, from which the soft-plastic moldable plastic tube for the production of pipes or corrugated pipes comes out. For this it is necessary to interrupt the production process. Naturally, the extrusion nozzle can also be adjusted, or extrusion nozzle switches or extension pieces can be used in order to bring other mold jaw parts into action for the production of other types of corrugated pipes or corrugated pipes with different diameters.
Only a small number of mold jaw parts is replaced during a mold jaw part exchange, which occurs in accordance with the invention at a respective exchange member.
Advantageously, at least one exchange member is provided along each of the mold jaw part series. If required, two or more exchange members are provided along a mold jaw part series or a circulation and/or pass round guide.
The exchange member has at least two chambers, and each of the chambers has an entrance and an exit. The chambers are at least approximately similarly shaped as the circulation and/or pass round guides. This way, at least one of the chambers can be used as part of a pass round guide, so that it can serve as a guide for the mold jaw part series through the exchange member or the respective chamber of the exchange member. The respective chamber which is not used as a circulation and/or pass round guide serves as a reservoir for exchanging mold jaw parts, this means mold jaw parts with optional profiles, or for mold jaw parts that have been replaced with exchangeable mold jaw parts.
Of course, a respective exchange member can also be provided with three or more chambers, which are either included or excluded into the pass round guide, as desired, in order to include other mold jaw parts or exchangeable mold jaw parts with optional profiles, markings or the likes into the mold jaw part series that is used at a certain time.
At least one of the chambers of the exchange member has at least one exchangeable mold jaw part. Of course, a respective chamber can have multiple exchangeable mold jaw parts as per desired profile of a particular pipe product or corrugated pipe product.
The exchange member can be adjusted manually but it is advantageous to provide a drive section to remove a chamber with at least one mold jaw part from the pass round and/or circulation guide and to insert another chamber with at least one exchangeable mold jaw part, for example with an optional profile, into the circulation guide.
In accordance with the invention it is possible that the number of mold jaw parts in a mold jaw part series is smaller than the maximum number of mold jaw parts in a circulation guide. This requires a conveyor in order to move the mold jaw parts outside the molding channel faster than in the molding channel. This makes it possible to use less mold jaw parts in the corrugator than would be necessary for a closed mold jaw part series or a mold jaw part chain. This can be achieved for example by advance threads having different leads.
The changing of mold jaw parts is not so difficult in large corrugators because the low speed of circulation or passing round provides enough time to remove one mold jaw part and to replace it with another one.
Advantageously, the exchange member or exchange members are arranged in the area of the circulation guides where the molding channel is open. In other words, the mold jaw parts are not closed in the area in which the exchange member or exchange members are arranged, which means closed out of gear with the pipe. It is particularly advantageous to place the exchange members in the linear region of the return side of the molding channel of the apparatus or corrugators in accordance with the invention.
The drive section of the exchange member has preferably a cross slider that inserts one of the chamber
Hoffmann Thomas
Weppert Rainer
Frankische Rohrwerke Gebr Kirchner GmbH & Co.
Nguyen Thu Khanh T.
Pennie & Edmonds LLP
Silbaugh Jan H.
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