Metal deforming – By use of 'flying tool' engaging moving work – Including orbitally-moving tool-face
Patent
1999-04-29
2000-02-01
Larson, Lowell A.
Metal deforming
By use of 'flying tool' engaging moving work
Including orbitally-moving tool-face
83328, B21D 2836
Patent
active
060189738
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
TECHNICAL FIELD
The invention relates to a rotary forming apparatus, for forming strip sheet material while it is moving continuously along a forming line and to a method of rotary forming. The formations may take the form of indentations, or openings, or any other shapes which may be formed in such strip sheet material.
BACKGROUND ART
The forming of shapes or openings in moving strip sheet material has usually been confined in the past to forming longitudinal formations by what is called roll forming. Various different methods have been proposed for forming openings, or transverse formations, in moving strip material. In simple cases, a series of stationary presses are located along a production line and a piece of strip material is moved along in a start-stop fashion. Every time the material stops in registration with a press, the press closes and makes a formation after which the press opens and the material moves once more. However, these systems are relatively slow, since the material must stop at each press, and start again, for each formation.
Another system is the use of flying dies. These flying dies are somewhat similar to flying shears used in roll forming of continuously moving strip material. Various forms of piercing or forming dies can be placed on a flying die apparatus, and the strip material can move slowly through the flying die apparatus. By suitable movement mechanisms in the die apparatus the dies are first of all accelerated up to the speed of the moving material. And they are then closed on the material while the material is moving. The dies must then be opened again and returned to their starting position.
This system again is relatively slow, since the flying die apparatus must move forwardly and backwardly along the axis of the moving sheet metal in a repetitive manner.
Certain improved systems for rotary forming are shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,732,028, dated Mar. 22, 1988, inventor E. R. Bodnar.
In this system two rotary die carriers are provided with a plurality of separate die supports each having dies mounted on the supports. There are upper and lower dies, to operate on both sides of the sheet of metal, and the upper and the lower rotary carriers had to be carefully synchronised to ensure that each pair of dies are closed and opened on the sheet of metal in precise registration. However, this system required that each of the die supports be rotatable relative to the rotary carriers. Consequently, some form of guide means had to be provided to guide the rotary die supports so that they came into registration with one another, and just prior to closing on the metal and remained in registration until they had opened again.
The system provided die support guides which guided the leading and the trailing edges of each die support by means of guide pins and end guide cams for guiding the pins so as to ensure such registration. The end guide cams were located at opposite ends of the die carriers. One guide cam guided the leading guide pins and the other guide cam guided the trailing guide pin, of each die support. This arrangement was therefore relatively complex to engineer and build.
Another of the problems with this system was that when the system was used for piercing openings in the sheet of metal, the blanks or slugs or a sheet of metal which had been removed from the opening tended to remain in the dies, and there was some difficulty in ensuring that they were removed.
The die carriers themselves were rotatably mounted on bearings at each side of the carriers, and were suitably driven through gear means known in the art. However, the die supports were supported in generally semi-cylindrically shaped transverse grooves formed along the length of the die carriers, and it was found to be somewhat of a problem to both lubricate the semi-cylindrical grooves and at the same time keep them free of dirt and other contaminants.
A still further problem associated with the earlier apparatus described is the problem of matching the rotary movement of the dies with the linear movement o
REFERENCES:
patent: 1581236 (1926-04-01), Speer
patent: 3066542 (1962-12-01), Einhiple
patent: 4732028 (1988-03-01), Bodnar
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