AU748238B2

AU748238B2 - Pressing apparatus

Info

Publication number: AU748238B2
Application number: AU37520/97A
Authority: AU
Inventors: Mitsuo Matsuoka
Original assignee: Umix Co Ltd
Current assignee: Umix Co Ltd
Priority date: 1997-09-11
Filing date: 1997-09-11
Publication date: 2002-05-30
Anticipated expiration: 2017-09-11
Also published as: AU3752097A

Description

P/00/0 1 1 Regulation 3.2

AUSTRALIA

Patents Act 1 990

ORIGINAL

COMPLETE SPECIFICATION STANDARD PATENT S.

S

Invention Title: PRESSING APPARATUS The following statement is a full description of this invention, including the best method of performing it known to us: GH REF: P25138-A:MHK:RK PRESSING APPARATUS Detailed Description of the Invention Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a pressing apparatus for shaping a metal sheet.

Background of the Invention For shaping a metal sheet, a material to be worked, into a recessed form stepping into a lower die from a downward path of an upper die, a slide cam is commonly used.

In general, when a metal sheet, a material to be worked, is shaped into such a recessed form, the material to be worked is put on the lower die and then the upper die is lowered vertically to drive a passive cam of the 15 lower die via a driving cam of the upper die, so as to .i work the material to be worked from a lateral side.

After completion of the working of the material, the upper die is raised up and then the driving cam is moved back by a spring.

20 In this general type pressing apparatus, a shaping portion of the passive cam, which is slid from a lateral side of the material to be worked at the outside thereof to shape the material, is formed in one piece to have the same shape as the shaped portion of the material, but a 25 shaping portion of the lower die on which the material to oooeo be worked is put must be taken out from the lower die after completion of the working of the material. Due to this, it is necessary for the removal of the worked material after completion of the working of the material that a recessed portion of the lower die is divided and then backed, or that a rear part of the recessed portion is eliminated and the worked material is moved forward.

In a case where the magnitude of recession is slight, little problem arises. However, in a case where the magnitude of recession is big or in a case where the worked material is an elongate frame-like part having a groove-like shape in cross section, such as a front S:25138A -2pillar outer of an automobile made of a metal sheet, since the grooved part of the worked material is narrow in width, the division or elimination of the recessed portion of the lower die arises not only a problem that the material is not shaped clearly by the shaping portion of the passive cam but also a problem that strength of the lower die is lacked so that the shaping of the recessed portion cannot be achieved.

In addition, with the structure in which the passive cam must be slid linearly over a rather long distance to shape the material into a recessed form by use of the slide cam, it is not necessarily easy that the passive cam is slid repeatedly between specified positions with accuracy, and thus it is difficult to manufacture .0 15 products with stable levels of quality.

00 0.

*Further, there are some occasions when twist or distortion occurring in the products must be corrected, but, since components of an automobile, outside plate portions, such as a side panel, a front fender, a 20 roof, a bon-net, a trunk lid, a door panel and a front pillar outer, have three-dimensional curved surfaces and lines, it is substantially impossible to correct such "products. When the metal sheets of an automobile are assembled, the twist or distortion in the products makes it difficult to combine with other parts. As a result of this, an automobile metal sheet structure of high level of quality cannot be furnished and the required accuracy of the shaped metal sheet is not able to be maintained.

Also, the use of this slide cam requires that a large passive cam and a heal are provided at a side of the lower die on which the material to be worked is put and increases an area of the lower die, with the result that the pressing apparatus increases in weight and costs to that extent.

Summary of the Invention In accordance with the present invention, there is provided a pressing apparatus comprising a lower die S:25138A having a supporting portion on which a material to be worked of a metal sheet is put and an upper die movable downward linearly with respect to said lower die to abut on the material to be worked, so as to shape the material to be worked, said pressing apparatus further comprising a cylindrical member rotatably disposed in said lower die, said cylindrical member having a groove opening to an outer surface and engraved along its axial direction and a recess forming portion formed at an edge portion of said groove near to said supporting portion and stepped inside from a path of said upper die; a slide cam having a recess forming portion and slidably arranged on said upper die confronting said cylindrical member; and an automatic return element, provided in said lower die, for 15 rotationally backing said cylindrical member to a position at which said material after shaped can be taken out from said lower die, whereby said material to be 99 worked put on said supporting portion of said lower die is shaped by said recess forming portion of said 20 cylindrical member being rotated and said recess forming 00 0portion of said slide cam being slid, and thereafter said cylindrical member is rotationally backed by said 9.oke "automatic return element so that the worked material can be taken out from said lower die.

25 Brief Description of the Drawings 9..

Preferred forms of the present invention will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings in which: Fig. 1 shows sectional views of a front pillar outer of a metal sheet of an automobile before worked and after worked with a pressing apparatus constructed in accordance with one preferred embodiment.

Fig. 2 is a longitudinal sectional view of an upper die of the pressing apparatus positioned at a top dead center before shaping the front pillar outer into a recessed form; S:25138A Fig. 3 is a longitudinal sectional view of the upper die of the pressing apparatus of Fig. 2 lowered and contacting with the lower die; Fig. 4 is a longitudinal sectional view of the upper die of the pressing apparatus of Fig. 2 positioned at a bottom dead center; and Fig. 5 is a longitudinal sectional view of the upper die of the pressing apparatus of Fig. 2, raised up and positioned at the top dead center after shaping the front pillar outer in the recessed form.

Description of the Preferred Embodiments Accordingly, in view of the above said problems, a pressing apparatus for converting a vertical linear motion of a press into a rotary motion has been developed.

Fig. 1 shows sectional views of a front pillar outer 6 of a metal sheet of an automobile before worked and after worked with the pressing apparatus. The front pillar outer, which forms a part of a front door frame 20 and a part of a windshield frame and also serves as a part of a frame supporting a roof panel, has a lot of joints to other parts and its product accuracy is strictly required. If the product does not meet the requirements of product accuracy, a car body made of 25 metal sheets of high quality will be unable to be ooeoo furnished.

Also, the front pillar outer forming an outer plate portion of an automobile has three-dimensional curved surfaces and lines.

The front pillar outer is shaped into a recessed form as illustrated by the pressing apparatus of the invention. In the press working, the front pillar S:25138A outer is first subjected to drawing and then trimming at its outer region into a state shown in Fig. 2. At the next third step the shaping is done.

The lower die 1 is provided at a top portion thereof with a supporting portion 12 for the material 6 to be worked. In the lower die 1, a cylindrical member 5 is rotatably arranged which has a groove 2 opening to an outer surface and engraved along its axial direction and a recess forming portion 4 formed at an edge portion of the groove 2 on the supporting portion 12 side and stepped inside from a path of an upper die 3. A top surface of the lower die 1 is formed as the supporting portion 12 to put the material 6 to be worked thereon.

A recess forming portion 4 is formed at an edge portion of the groove 2 of the cylindrical member 5 near to the supporting portion 12 of the lower die 1. An S" automatic return element 7 for rotationally backing the cylindrical member 5 is placed in the lower die 1 so that the material 6 to be worked can be taken out from the lower die 1, after shaped. In this embodiment, the automatic return element 7 includes a coiled spring 8 placed in the lower die 1. The automatic return element 7 allows a push pin 9 biased by the coiled spring 8 to contact with a bottom surface of a rotary plate 11 at the tip thereof fixedly mounted on a surface of the cylindrical member 5 confronting the recess forming portion 4 of the groove 2 with bolts Alternatively, the automatic return element may be composed of another suitable element, such as a pneumatic power unit, a hydraulic power unit, a linkage, a cam, or the like.

The upper die 3 is provided with a slide cam 13 slidable to a position opposite to the cylindrical member. The slide cam 13 is provided at a lower end thereof with a recess forming portion 14 and is guided by a guide (not shown).

The slide cam 13 is biased toward the outside of the die by a coiled spring compressed and interposed between an upper surface of the slide cam 13 and a slanted guide portion 19 and is stopped in place by a stop 20 projecting from the slanted guide portion 19.

A pad 16 is biased downwards by a coiled spring 17 and is hung from the S:25138A -6upper die 3 via a hanging bolt 18. The pad 16 serves to press the material 6 to be worked against the lower die 1 so strongly that the material 6 can be prevented from being out of position before shaped into a recessed form.

Operations of the pressing apparatus of the invention is described below.

First, as shown in Fig. 2, the upper die 3 is in the upper dead center, when the material 6 to be worked is put on the supporting portion 12 of the lower die 1. At that time, the cylindrical member 5 is rotationally backed by the automatic returning element 7.

Then, the upper die 3 begins to move down, and, as shown in Fig. 3, the pad 16 presses the material 6 against the supporting portion 12 first and then the bottom surface of the slide cam 13 comes to contact with the rotary plate 11 without intervention in the recess forming portion 4 of the cylindrical member 5, to turn the cylindrical member 5 clockwise as viewed in Fig. 3.

When the upper die 3 continues to move down, the slide cam 13 biased toward the outside of the pressing apparatus is moved transversely to the left side against a biasing force of the coiled spring 15 by the action of cam and comes into a state as shown in Fig. 4 in which the material 6 to be worked is shaped into a recessed form by the recess forming portion 4 of the as-turned cylindrical member 5 and the recess forming portion 14 of the slide cam 13.

After completion of the shaping of the recess, the upper die 3 begins to move up. The slide cam 13 biased toward the outside of the pressing apparatus by the coiled spring 15 is moved to the right side as viewed in Fig. 5, so that the slide cam is raised up without intervention with the worked material 6 shaped into the recessed form.

On the other hand, the cylindrical member 5 is rotated counterclockwise as viewed in Fig. 5 by the automatic return element 7, as the slide cam 13 restraining movement of the cylindrical member 5 is moved up. As a result, when the worked material 6 shaped into the recessed form is taken out from the lower die 1, the worked member 6 does not intervene with the recess forming portion 4 of the cylindrical member S:25138A

I

This embodiment of the present invention, which is so designed as to convert a linear motion of a press into a rotary motion to shape the material to be worked into a recessed form, as mentioned above, enables the metal sheet to be shaped into a recessed form even in a case where the magnitude of recession is big or in a case where the product of the metal sheet has an elongated frame-like form having a narrow width and threedimensional curved surfaces and lines.

Also, the preferred embodiment allows the cylindrical member to rotate requires no divided parts or eliminated part for prevention of intervention, thus enabling the pressing apparatus to have sufficient strength and also enabling a strong bottom-butt work.

15 This can provide the result that even the product having oooo three dimensional curved surfaces can be shaped with no twist or distortion occurring, to eliminate the need for correction of the manufactured product. This can provide most improved product accuracy, and no problems occur when the products are put together.

V- In addition, since the pressing apparatus constructed in accordance with the preferred embodiment has a sufficient strength, it needs little repairing, Sunlike the conventional slide cam type pressing apparatus.

Further, the pressing apparatus constructed in accordance with the preferred embodiment needs little Srepairing, unlike the conventional slide cam type pressing apparatus.

Furthermore, unlike the conventional slide cam type pressing apparatus in which the slide cam provided at the side of a product mounting portion of the lower die requires a large area, the pressing apparatus constructed in accordance with the preferred embodiment in which the cylindrical member is provided directly at the mounting portion for the material to be worked requires a reduced area of the pressing apparatus, thus reducing size and weight and resultantly reducing costs of the pressing apparatus considerably.

S:25138A

Claims

2. A pressing apparatus as substantially described herein with reference to the accompanying drawings. Dated this 8th day of September 1997 UMIX CO., LTD. By their Patent Attorney GRIFFITH HACK S:25138A