Cutting – Cutter assemblage or cutter element therefor – Having diverse cutting elements
Reexamination Certificate
2000-07-03
2002-06-25
Goodman, Charles (Department: 3724)
Cutting
Cutter assemblage or cutter element therefor
Having diverse cutting elements
C083S168000, C083S100000, C083S788000, C030S376000, C030S381000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06408730
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The invention concerns a cutting device for tooling sandwich plates with a motor-driven cutting tool that can move in the cutting direction relative to the sandwich plate being tooled and has a cutting element moved by means of a guide mechanism in a plane of movement that runs transverse to the plane of the plate.
Sandwich plates are multilayer workpieces whose individual layers are not uniform in mechanical strength. They are generally composed of a foam core and cover layers on both sides of it in the form of thin metal sheets. Sandwich plates are typically 40 to 200 millimeters thick, and the metal sheet, which is most often steel, is approximately 1 millimeter thick.
A generic device for tooling sandwich plates is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,984,615. The cutting tool of the known device has several cutting elements in the form of cutting knives that are arranged one after another in the cutting direction and are moved in a straight line in that direction. The leading cutting knives in the cutting direction run transverse to the plane of the plate and are inclined to one another in a V shape. A trailing cutting knife that trails the cutting knives inclined to one another is aligned perpendicular to the plane of the plate in the cutting direction. The leading cutting knife cuts a strip of material out of a cover layer of the sandwich plate, which has relatively high mechanical strength, and that way the core of the sandwich plate is cut free. Then the relatively soft core of the sandwich plate is cut through by means of the cutting knife running perpendicular to the plane of the plate.
The disadvantage of the known cutting device is that it allows sandwich plates to be tooled only from the free edge of the plate.
Starting from the state of the art described, the problem of this invention is to expand the ways of tooling sandwich plates separately so the cutting surfaces have at least uniform quality.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The invention solves this problem, in the case of the type of cutting device mentioned at the beginning, by making the cutting tool a cutting chain with cutting elements in the form of chain links and a chain guide as the guide mechanism, where the chain links, lying one after the other in their direction of movement, are moved relative to one another, so they can swivel on swivel axes running transverse to their plane of movement by means of a chain guide in the plane of movement, sometimes in a straight line, sometimes turned in a curve, and have several cutting teeth one after another in their direction of movement which project radially on the cutting chain and have cutting edges that run transverse to the plane of movement of the chain links, where the perpendicular projections of the cutting edges in the plane of movement are arranged at least partially along a line curved radially to the outside. Because of the features described, the cutting device in the invention has the option of tooling sandwich plates separately from their free edges out or starting from any point on the surface of the plates. Depending on the requirements, it is possible to make the cut go through or not go through. The part of the cutting chain in which the chain links are turned around can go into the sandwich plate to be tooled. If the cutting chain is in contact with the straight guide of the chain links, a smooth cutting front bordering the cutting slit made in the cutting direction is produced. These types of smooth cutting fronts need the peak line on the corner of the cutout where two cutting slits meet to run straight, in the corners of the cutouts on the sandwich plate in question. The design in the invention for the cutting teeth ensures that the different materials in a sandwich plate can be cut by means of the cutting device, with no hooking which would impair the quality of the cutting results. Qualitatively high cutting results are also achieved by the invention's feature whereby the perpendicular projections on the cutting edges are arranged at least partially along a line curved radially to the outside. The curve of said line can be chosen so that all cutting edges of all chain links in the area where they are curved move on one and the same path, but in any case on approximately identical paths.
Experience has shown that good cutting results are achieved when—as is provided in one preferred embodiment of the invention—the radius of curvature of the line, along which the perpendicular projections of the cutting edges are arranged on the chain links in the plane of movement, is 0.8 to 2.5 times the smallest radius of curvature of the path of movement, which the perpendicular projections of the cutting edges describe in the plane of movement for the curved turn of the chain links.
Besides the precautions described already above, a number of measures have been taken on the cutting devices in the invention to guarantee good cutting results.
They can be added or used alternatively. In this sense, one variation of the invention provides that the cutting chain has three adjacent rows of chain links, where the chain links in the two outer rows form outer links and the chain links in the row in the center form center links, and where the adjacent outer links are flush with one another, and the center links are arranged staggered to the outer links in the direction of movement of the chain links and overlap with the outer links, lying one behind the other in their direction of movement and/or that the cutting edges of at least the adjacent outer links are flush with one another and/or that the outer surfaces of the chain or outer links are flat and/or that at least one of the outer surfaces of the chain links or outer links forms a free angle and runs opposite the assigned cutting surface on the sandwich plate and/or that the chain links have at least five cutting teeth respectively and/or that the cutting surfaces of at least some of the center links on the cutting chain project radially opposite the cutting edges of the outer links and/or that the distances between the cutting edges of adjacent cutting teeth on a chain link vary.
On the type of multi-row cutting chains described above, the intermediate space that remains between the cutting teeth, next to one another in the direction of movement, of two outer links following one another in said direction can be closed, if necessary, by means of the cutting teeth of the center link of the cutting chain overlapping with the outer links in question arranged in said intermediate space. Seen in the direction of movement of the cutting links, there is therefore a close sequence of cutting teeth and cutting edges. A flat design of the outer surfaces of the chain links or outer links is used for precise guidance free of unwanted shaking on the cutting surfaces of the sandwich plate being tooled in the cutting direction. The cutting chain is kept from being clamped fast to the sandwich plate,by the free angle set by the invention between the outer surface of the chain links or the outer links of the cutting chain and the cutting surface opposite said surfaces on the sandwich plate. The variation in the distances in the cutting edges of cutting teeth adjacent to one another on a chain link described above makes the cutting chain run quietly and smoothly, allows high cutting and tooling speeds and produces superior quality cutting surfaces.
If the cutting devices in the invention have several rows of cutting links, the outer and center links next to one another, for the sake of simplicity, are connected to one another with connecting bolts, whose axes form the swivel axes on which the chain links lying one behind the other in their direction of movement are able to swivel in relation to one another. Said connecting bolts preferably expand radially into a band in their axial sections assigned to the center links.
In the interest of environmental and worker protection, the cutting dust formed when tooling sandwich plates must be vacuumed up. For this purpose, in the case of one preferred desi
Accola Matthias
Tinner Andreas
Goodman Charles
Pepe & Hazard LLP
Trumpf GmbH & Company
LandOfFree
Separating device with cutting chain for processing sandwich... does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Separating device with cutting chain for processing sandwich..., we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Separating device with cutting chain for processing sandwich... will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-2919589