Metal fusion bonding – With means to handle work or product – Including means to orient work or position work portion...
Reexamination Certificate
2001-05-23
2003-06-03
Dunn, Tom (Department: 1725)
Metal fusion bonding
With means to handle work or product
Including means to orient work or position work portion...
C228S044300, C228S004100, C228S005700, C228S144000, C228S153000, C219S101000, C219S105000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06572003
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to, for example, a seam welding apparatus for cutting a trailing end of a leading plate and a leading end of a trailing plate and bonding them together in a process line of metal plates, and more particularly to a seam welding apparatus including a movable portion of a leading plate clamp means adapted to be tiltable for holding the leading plate for overlap alignment, a movable portion of a trailing plate clamp means adapted to be movable toward the leading plate while holding the trailing plate, a shearing, means adapted for cutting the trailing end of the leading plate held by the movable portion of the leading plate clamp means and the leading end of the trailing plate held by the movable portion of the trailing plate clamp means before the overlap alignment, a trailing plate clamp moving means adapted to move the movable portion of the trailing plate clamp means for overlapping and aligning the leading end of the sheared trailing plate with the trailing end of the leading plate toward the leading plate, and a welding machine adapted to weld the overlapped alignment portion of the trailing end and the leading end in a transverse direction of the plates, and a seam welding method.
2. Related Art
FIGS. 17
,
18
and
19
show a conventional seam welding apparatus used in a process line of metal plates, which is substantially the same as that shown in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 5-212549.
FIG. 17
is a schematic frontal view of
FIG. 1
of that publication for the sake of simplification,
FIG. 18
is a left side elevational view and
FIG. 19
is a cross-sectional view taken along the line A—A of FIG.
18
.
Also,
FIGS. 20
to
23
are views showing the steps of the conventional seam welding apparatus shown in
FIGS. 17
to
19
.
FIG. 24
is a plan view of the conventional apparatus.
FIG. 25
is a side elevational view showing the overlap condition.
FIG. 26
is an enlarged perspective view showing the overlap portion.
FIG. 27
is a perspective view showing a carriage C frame.
In
FIGS. 17
to
27
, for example, in the case where a thickness of the final welded overlapped alignment portion of the two components (plates) to be welded may exceed 130% of a thickness of the original single plate or alternatively in the case where the restrictive weld quality is not needed, the amount of the overlapped alignment portion of the two plates is increased; that is, the width of the overlapped alignment portion is increased so that a width from a start of weld to an end of weld, i.e., the overlapped alignment amount may be kept constant.
However, in contrast, for example, in the case where the thickness of the final welded overlapped alignment portion must be very small like the case where the thickness is not to exceed the range of 105% to 130% of the original single plate, or alternatively in the case where a very high standard is to be applied to the enhancement of the joint quality including the weld strength, if the width of the overlapped alignment portion from the start of weld to the end of weld is kept constant, in order to maintain the amount (width) at a certain level upon welding, it is necessary to impart the function for fixing the components to be welded firmly thereto. However, it is more effective and general to give the function for compensating the overlapped alignment amount thereto.
For instance, in advance, in view of an escape amount of the overlapped and aligned plates generated gradually from the start end side of weld to the end side of weld assuming that the most suitable overlapped alignment amount at the weld start end be represented by L
1
in accordance with various parameters such as material, thickness, hardness or the like of the leading plate
1
and the trailing plate
2
, the overlapped alignment amount at the end of weld is compensated for to the overlapped alignment amount L
2
that is larger than the overlapped alignment amount L
1
at the end of weld by the escape amount. It is less expensive to impart such a compensation function to the apparatus than to provide a strong fixing means in manufacturing the seam welding apparatus.
Working steps in the conventional seam welding apparatus provided with such a compensation function will now be described with reference to
FIGS. 17
to
27
.
Old First Step
First of all, in
FIG. 20
, the trailing end of the leading plate
1
and the leading end of the trailing plate
2
are kept stopped at a suitable cutting distance in a cutting position within the seal welding apparatus.
Old Second Step
Subsequently, in
FIG. 21
, a moving portion
3
a
of a leading plate clamp means for holding the leading plate
1
and a movable portion
4
a
of a trailing plate clamp means for holding the trailing plate
2
are moved to predetermined positions, and the leading plate
1
and the trailing plate
2
are firmly clamped by the two clamps, respectively.
Old Third Step
Subsequently, in
FIG. 22
, the shearing means is provided integrally with a trailing end cutter for cutting the trailing end of the leading plate and a leading end cutter for cutting the leading end of the trailing plate that are engaged with each other from above and from below, respectively. In this example, a double cut shear provided in the carriage C frame
5
serves as this. A lower blade unit
6
of the double cut shear having a U-shaped cross-section is raised and at the same time, an upper blade unit
7
having a U-shaped cross-section is lowered to thereby simultaneously cut the trailing end of the leading plate
1
and the leading end of the trailing plate
2
in parallel.
Old Fourth Step
Subsequently, in
FIG. 23
, after the completion of the shearing action by the above-described shearing means, the lower blade unit
6
is lowered and at the same time, the upper blade unit
7
is raised to bring the double cut shear back to the original position.
Old Fifth Step
In this example, subsequently, in order to overlap and align the trailing end of the leading plate
1
and the leading end of the trailing plate
2
with each other, the movable portion
3
a
of the leading plate clamp means is tilted so that the trailing end of the leading plate
1
is located over the other.
Old Sixth Step
Subsequently, during the operation from the above-described old first step to the old fifth step, i.e., to the original position, in order to overlap and align, an advance end stop position for stopping when the movable portion
4
a
of the trailing plate clamp means is advanced toward the movable portion
3
a
of the leading plate clamp means is adjusted in advance.
This will be described with reference to FIG.
19
and
FIGS. 24
to
26
.
In
FIGS. 24
,
25
and
26
, first of all, in order to obtain the optimum overlapped alignment amount L
1
at the weld start end, an interval between a weld start end adjusting stopper
9
mounted on the moving portion
4
a
of the trailing plate clamp means for moving toward the moving portion
3
a
of the leading plate clamp means, and a weld start end adjusting stopper
11
mounted on a fixed portion
4
b
of the trailing plate clamp means for moving by a weld start end overlapped alignment amount adjusting and driving unit
10
is adjusted to a distance obtained by adding L
11
in view of the mounting width position W
2
of the weld start end adjusting stopper
9
and the weld start end adjusting stopper
11
to the cutting width L
0
with respect to the plate width W
1
of the plates to be welded.
On the other hand, in order to obtain the optimum overlapped alignment amount L
2
at the weld terminal end, an interval between a weld terminal end adjusting stopper
12
mounted on the moving portion
3
a
of the leading plate clamp means for moving toward the movable portion
3
a
of the leading plate clamp means and a weld terminal end adjusting stopper
14
mounted on a fixed portion
4
b
of the trailing clamp means for moving by a weld terminal end overlapped alignment amount adjusting and driving unit
13
is adjusted to
Miyata Junji
Nakatani Nobuyoshi
Dunn Tom
Edmondson L.
Mitsubishi Denki & Kabushiki Kaisha
Sughrue & Mion, PLLC
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