Metal deforming – By tool-couple pressing together adjacent surface portions... – To form helically-seamed tube
Patent
1985-12-11
1986-10-14
Combs, E. Michael
Metal deforming
By tool-couple pressing together adjacent surface portions...
To form helically-seamed tube
B21C 3712
Patent
active
046164952
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to an improved helically wound pipe winding machine and in particular it relates to a machine of the type in which a strip of any specific configuration is helically wound so that the edges of the strip overlap and lock together to form a pipe.
THE PRIOR ART
With machines of this type it is customary to use a strip which has a flat body section from which extend outwardly projecting ribs running longitudinally on the strip and spaced apart one from another to provide reinforcement to the body of the strip. In its usual form such a strip has along one edge a projecting locking member which is shaped so that it can engage in an appropriately shaped socket at the other edge of the strip when the strip is being helically wound to form a pipe, and various shapes of joining members are known which may be reinforced with added flaps or extensions on at least one of the edges of the strip.
The machine for winding such a strip may take various forms but according to one form, a series of rollers are positioned annularly about a longitudinal axis on which the tube is being formed and the strip is forcibly fed into a helical formation by being driven around under guidance of the rollers of the annulus which define the diameter of the finished pipe.
According to another form, the helical curvature of the strip is achieved by using special feed rollers such for instance as where the part which engages the strip and the overlapping portion has two diameters so that, when the two overlapping edges of the strip are forced together to provide the interlock, the strip being fed, and the pipe being formed, have differential pressures applied to them so that the join is made under such differential pressure.
The differential pressure is also used to give a required curvature to the strip to form a tube of a selected diameter, and various prior art literature refers to different methods of using such pressures to form a helical convolution at the joining rollers of the strip.
While the art of forming pipes from plastic strips is now well advanced and successful, certain problems exist in maintaining accuracy of the final tube and ease of formation as considerable pressures are applied to the strip when forming it into a pipe because of the rib construction.
Such mechanisms also require to be able to readily produce pipes of varying diameters and in some cases to vary the diameter during formation to produce tapered configuration but the present invention relates patricularly to the production of pipes of selected sizes by a simple mechanism which uses a feed roller or rollers to move the strip into the mechanism and then guides the strip into a helical convolution to cause one edge of the strip to engage the lock to the other edge of the strip as the pipe is produced.
OBJECTIVES AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
One of the problems which exists with this type of apparatus is to be able not only to vary the diameter of the pipe being formed but to arrange the helical angle to allow correct relationship between the width of the strip and the diameter of the pipe and it is an object of the present invention to provide certain improvements to the mechanism to achieve this.
It is a further object to allow the diameter of the pipe being formed to be varied by simple adjustments to the mechanism.
It is a still further object to so arrange the mechanism that the rollers which guide the pipe during its helical convolution are sufficiently closely spaced to avoid bulging of the strip between the rollers.
It is a further object to move the strip to allow this helical winding to be effected in a better manner.
A further object is to provide an exact balance of the differential pressure which will form a strip of selected cross section into a helix to join contiguous edges of the strip to form a continuous pipe.
Basically the present machine comprises a roller cage formed by a pair of rings of generally circular form spaced apart and supporting between them annulus rollers to define a circle
REFERENCES:
patent: 2868265 (1959-01-01), Williams
patent: 3538728 (1970-11-01), Trihey
patent: 3566643 (1971-03-01), Westerbarkey
patent: 3595046 (1971-07-01), Malkki et al.
patent: 3865146 (1975-02-01), Meserole
patent: 4058997 (1977-11-01), Siegwart
patent: 4337564 (1982-07-01), Menzel et al.
Combs E. Michael
Rib Loc Hong Kong Limited
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