EP0907432A1

EP0907432A1 - Sheet metal bending machine with offset press rollers

Info

Publication number: EP0907432A1
Application number: EP97919438A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Michel Gravier
Original assignee: Jammes Industrie SA
Current assignee: Jammes Industrie SA
Priority date: 1996-06-06
Filing date: 1997-03-28
Publication date: 1999-04-14
Anticipated expiration: 2017-03-28
Also published as: DE69705221D1; CN1221360A; WO1997046336A1; CA2257192A1; EP0907432B1; ES2158553T3; TW383236B; FR2750061A1; CN1089282C; FR2750061B1; AU2391497A; ZA974614B; DE69705221T2; US6079247A; DE69705221T4; ATE202020T1

Abstract

PCT No. PCT/FR97/00563 Sec. 371 Date Nov. 27, 1998 Sec. 102(e) Date Nov. 27, 1998 PCT Filed Mar. 28, 1997 PCT Pub. No. WO97/46336 PCT Pub. Date Dec. 11, 1997The invention features a sheet metal bending machine constituted by a smooth carrying roller around which the sheet metal is rolled, after bending, and by smooth press rollers against which the carrying roller presses, is characterized in that the carrying roller (2) is supported at one end by a fixed bearing (15) and at its other end by a retractable bearing (18), and in that the press rollers (3, 4) are supported, directly or indirectly (support rollers) by a plurality of bearings (5) supported by a control mechanism called "inclined blocks". (7, 8).

Description

MACHINE FOR BENDING SHEETS WITH OFFSET ROLLERS

The present invention is do¬ maine of the work of sheet materials, such as sheets _f in order to bend them, and more precisely for ob¬ jet a machine, called "rolling machine", intended to bend sheets.

A breyet FR-974.789 (BIGWOOD ^{*) is known for} a sheet metal rolling machine with a pivoting upper support roller and a retractable bearing; however, such a machine implements a complex mechanism for adjusting the bending radius by means of screws with motorized drive.

We know from a patent FR-2,528,334 of the Applicant a rolling machine with pivoting support roller, and being similar by this arrangement to the aforementioned device, located above a pair of two smooth rollers of smaller diameter, called pressers, parallel to each other and separable from one another in order to obtain different bending radii; these machines of more modest performances than the preceding ones, but of a lower cost are suitable for the boilermaking workshops in which the bending constitutes only a part of the stain, it is more precisely with such rolling machine that is related that of the present invention.

Patents FR-2,528,335 and FR-2,637,206 from the same Applicant are not known for so-called crenellated rollers consisting of a large so-called support roller and a double plurality of so-called fairly small press rollers diameter with respect to that of the support roller and interpenetrating so as to be able to have contact lines with the support roller, closer together than would be possible with solid rollers, in order to increase the precision of the bending and of reduce as much as possible the parts remaining straight at the ends of the sheet metal at the inlet and at the outlet of the bending operation; in this type of machine the notched rollers, located at the above the large roller, are grouped into two parallel trains of rollers, each train itself being composed of several coaxial rollers; in some machines of this type, the bending radius is determined by varying the distance between the pres¬ rollers (crenellated) and the support roller, by means of a device with inclined planes (cams and sloping wedges) that can be moved against each other by a crank with a gravitational indicator dial. These machines, of very high productivity and maneuverability, are generally intended for workshops specialized in the mass production of ferrules (bent and welded sheets).

These latter machines have as a common characteristic the fact that the pressure and support rollers always remain parallel; however in the case of thin sheets (for example of thickness less than two millimeters) or of soft material (for example aluminum) they have the drawback of "marking" the sheets by the fact of the crenellated nature of the pressure rollers. The object of the present invention is to make available to non-specialized workshops a bending machine which allows the bending of sheets of fairly large width, of small thickness, and / or made of a material of low hardness. According to the present invention a machine for bending sheets, called rolling machine, of the rolling machine type mainly consisting of a roller, said support, around which is intended to wind the sheet after bending, and smooth rollers, called pressers , intended to put pressure on the support roller, is characterized in its generality in that the support roller around which the sheet is wound after bending, is connected at one end to a motor and is supported at this first end by a fixed bearing, and at its other end by a retractable bearing (tilting), the axis of this support roller remaining fixed, and in that the pressure rollers are smooth rollers arranged in pairs with a fixed center distance and supported by a plurality of bearings, or rollers , themselves supported by a beam resting itself on the frame by means of the sloping wedges

It is therefore in the new combination of known means, and the verification of the effectiveness of such a combination, with a view to achieving a result, namely the bending of soft and / or thin sheets, with the possibility of rapid change. and precise of the bending radius, that it is necessary to seek the inventive activity, more than in the novelty of the means taken independently.

Preferably the support roller with fixed axis is disposed above all of the pressure rollers so that the latter can be maneuvered vertically from bottom to top by the sloping wedges when they are applied against the sheet metal to be bent , and from top to bottom by the effect of their weight after the bending operation.

It follows from these provisions that the choice of the bending radius can be controlled simply by reading a graduation of the gravitational indicator dial of said adjustment means and that, in general, a single passage of the sheet between the rollers is sufficient to give it the desired bend; however, it will be noted that the operator will always have the choice of bending the sheet metal in a single pass or in several, since it is the rolling machine which will ensure the precision of the bending and no longer the operator itself.

It will be noted at this stage of the definition of the invention that there are two difficulties to be resolved : one concerns the flexibility of the pressure rollers, the other the flexibility of the support roller.

The first difficulty resides in the fact that, so that the contact lines of the pressure rollers with the support roller can be fairly close to one another, relatively to the measurement of the diameters of the pressure rollers, such so that a sheet introduced between the first pressure roller and the support roller, comes into oblique contact with the upper quarter of the second pressure roller, it is necessary that the diameter of the pressure rollers is much less (about 1/3) than diameter of the support roller, and that these rollers are as close as possible to each other; or since the resistance to bending of a cylindrical beam varies roughly as the power four (D ^) of its diameter, their small diameter will cause significant flexibility, in practice unacceptable, of the pressure rollers.

To clarify the concepts mentioned above, the term "as close as possible" means that their center distance e is between d and l, 5xd, this being the diameter, preferably identical for each, of the press rollers. , d being itself between 0.2 × D and 0.5 × D, D being the diameter of the support roller, the effective length of the latter being between 5 × D and 10 × D, the smallest bending diameter that is possible to obtain with a determined machine being between approximately 1.2 and l, 4xD; it will be noted that the choice of these dimensional relationships also falls within the scope of the invention because of the innumerable theoretical possibilities which they offer, a large number of which would prove to be inappropriate in practice, and which only an intuitive appreciation based on extensive experience has eliminated a priori.

A solution proposed by the invention to solve the problem of bending the pressure rollers, consisted in dividing the pressure rollers into sections, each section being supported in rotation, at its ends, by a support piece, the support pieces resting themselves on a beam, preferably in I, called intermediate, itself taking indirect support on the general frame of the machine.

However, the rollers being con¬ formed into sections, it remained to solve the problem of "marking" of the sheets by the end edges of the sections; this problem has been solved by shifting the sections in the axial direction, so that the end edge of a section of a pressure roller is always opposite a cylindrical part of a section of the other roller , except for the ends of the rollers themselves; preferably the offset chosen is only very slightly greater than the thickness of the pi¬ these support, which thickness has been made minimal by a judicious choice of the suspension of the sections, and thanks to a Z-shape of the support parts; whereby even very thin sheets can be bent without being marked.

Finally, there remained to be solved for such a machine the problem of the flexion, however weak, of the support roller, as well as that of determining the bending radius; it was adapted to the rolling machine of the invention, a solution already applied in another type of machine (cf: FR-2.637.206, fig. 6 and 7)), namely the interposition between the general non-flexible frame and the beam supporting the pressure rollers, with a "cam ramp" and "sloped shims" mechanism, the contact surfaces of the cams and sloping shims being planes forming with the plane of the axes of the pressure rollers, dihedrons having their edge oblique to said axes; it is recalled that the obliquity of the shims and their transverse displacement allows adjustment to compensate for the bending of the support roller; in the new application which is made of it, the mechanism is interposed, below the pressure rollers, between the beam which supports these rollers and the frame.

All of these combined arrangements, namely pressure rollers with reduced center distance, adjustment of the bending radius by cam ramp and sloping shims, and adjustable stop by graduated dial, allows precise adjustment by an unqualified operator, and the bending in a single pass therefore with great productivity.

A second solution proposed by the invention, more particularly suitable for bending along a smaller radius, but still considering the problem of bending, consisted in adding to the pressure rollers divided into sections supported in rotation, a second stage of rollers small diameter arranged above the previous ones and also supported by the same support parts shaped as Z.

Finally, according to a third solution proposed by the invention, more particularly suitable for bending thin and fragile sheets (thickness <0.6 mm), the rollers of the second stage are continuous over the entire width of passage of the sheets, and rest either on rollers sectioned with support parts in Z, or more simply on rollers distributed over the passage width and supported by ordinary support parts.

It should therefore be understood that the rolling machine of the invention is represented as an assembly resulting from the combination permanent characteristics of the support roller and of its members, of bending compensation, drive and maintenance, and of the means for maneuvering the pressure rollers, and

- alternative characteristics, roughly three in number, the actual pressure rollers and their supporting means

The present invention will be better understood, and details will be apparent from the description which will be given of the solutions proposed by the invention, in relation to the figures of the attached plates in which:

- fig.l; is a side elevation of a rolling machine of the invention comprising, as such, the first and second characteristics, the latter pertaining to a first solution for producing the pressure rollers,

FIG. 2 is a section along AA of the rolling machine of the previous figure, schematically and on a larger scale illustrating the arrangement and the dimensional relationships of the different rollers,

- Fig.3 illustrates in plan and on a larger scale the constructive arrangement of the pressure rollers and their support parts,

- Fig.4 is a perspective illustration of a bearing in the previous figure, and

- fig.5 is a partial cutaway perspective view of the rolling machine of fig.l, - fig.6 is schematic illustration in cross section of a rolling machine according to the second embodiment of the pressure rollers,

- Fig.7 is a section along AA of the previous figure - Fig.8 is a perspective illustration of a bearing in the previous figure, and

FIG. 9 is a simplified schematic illustration in perspective of the rollers of a rolling machine according to the third solution for producing the pressure rollers, and

- Fig.10 and 11 illustrate, seen at the end, the pressure rollers of the previous figure with their support rollers and their end (fig.10) and intermediate (fig.ll) support parts, and

- Fig.12 illustrates in a direction perpendicular to that of the previous figures, the arrangement of the support rollers on their support part.

In fig.l and / or 2, a rolling machine of the invention consists mainly of a frame consisting of a massive beam-frame 1 in I, an upper roller of large diameter D, called support roller 2, in the direction of which can be requested from bottom to top, two trains 3,4 of rollers of smaller diameter, called pressure rollers, each consisting of a plurality of sections of rollers; the pressure rollers are sup¬ carried by means of support parts such as 5 by an I-beam called intermediate 6.

The intermediate beam 6 can be maneuvered in vertical translation, between end guides 26, by an operating device of the kind with a ramp 7 of cams and sloping wedges 8 bearing on the frame beam 1; the ramp 7 is moved in horizontal translation by a pair of jacks such as 9; the adjustment of the amplitude of the vertical displacement of the support beam, therefore of the gap between the pressure rollers and the support roller, the gap which determines the bending radius, is effected by the horizontal displacement of a stop 10, by means of a screw 11 which can be driven manually in rotation tation by a crank with gravitation¬ indicator dial 12.

The support roller 2 is supported at a first end 13, from which it is rotated by a hydraulic motor 14, by a very robust first bearing 15 with double bearing, and at its other end 16 by a retractable bearing 17 formed in a tiltable part called "gate" 18; this arrangement allows the axial withdrawal of the sheets after bending

In relation to fig. 1 or 2, the following dimensional quantities are located d: diameter of the pressure rollers (113 mm), e: distance between the pressure rollers (120 mm), D: diameter of the support roller O (310 mm) ),

L: efficient length of the backing roller 2080 mm); it will be noted that the dimensions given in parentheses are that of a particular rolling machine, that they respond to the above-defined ratios, and that they should in no case be considered as limiting the scope of the invention.

In Figs. 3 and 4, the pressure rollers each consist of a plurality of sections 31, .32, 33 .. of equal length, and it is noted that the adjacent ends of four adjacent sections are supported by a common support piece, such as

51, consisting of a thin wall 53 in Z forming with a sole 54 an angle assembly, this conformation gives the support part a particularly high rigidity, which allows the desired small thickness of the wall and allows two adjacent ends to two sections of the same roller to be as close as possible and thus to have to offset two facing rollers, for example 31 and 41, that a minimum distance 1 Because of the thinness of the king, which does not allow the formation of bearings for the rotating support of a hub, the roller sections each consist of a hollow cylinder, such as 44 visible in section, rotatably mounted on a coaxial central shaft 45 by bearings such as 46 arranged in the vicinity of each of the ends of the section; the shaft itself being fixedly engaged in an opening bore 57 of the adjacent wall 53 of a support part 5 (fig.4); each bore, with the exception of those of the support parts for the end of the rollers, thus supports two adjacent coaxial shafts.

In fig. 5, we have used certain elements from the previous figures with the same references; we also note the sloping wedges such as 8 are maneuverable in oblique directions relative to the cam ramp 7 and the intermediate beam 6 which supports them by means of an oblique glis¬ base (see Figure 6 of the aforementioned patent), ma-levelles of gravitational indicator dials with a crank such as 24 and 25, analogous to the aforementioned dial 12, which each allow the displacement of the respective sloping wedge, such as 8, to which it is re¬ bonded, so as to compensate for the bending of the support roller depending on the thickness or the nature of the sheet subjected to bending.

The ramp 7 itself is maneuverable in thrust by a pair of hydraulic jacks such as 9 by means of a transverse piece called "stirrup" 23, to which the ramp is connected.

The gate 18 with bearing 17 is articulated on the frame 1 in order to be able to tilt (arrow 19) under the effect of a jack 20 between a vertical position in which the bearing 17 encloses the cylindrical-conical end 16 of the roll of support 2, and a horizontal position pillowcase (not shown) in which it releases the end of the roller to allow the withdrawal of the bent sheet. _It should be noted that the cylindro-conical, or even rounded, shape of the end 16 of the support roller, allows the axis of the latter to remain fixed during the maneuvering of the gate, or even during the extraction of the curved sheet.

The cylinder 20 of the gate, the vines for operating the ramp 7 and the hydraulic motor 14 for driving the support roller 2 are supplied with pressurized fluid by a common hydraulic power unit, not shown but which is advantageously fixed to the around the end of the general frame where the engine is located.

Thus, thanks to the adjustment means mainly constituted by the gravitational dials, it suffices for the operator, who does not have to have a particular qualification, to carry out the various adjustments from a table established empirically, to obtain the desired bending. It will be noted that, without departing from the scope of the invention, the hydraulic motor can be replaced by a simple electric geared motor or by an electric motor with a "brushless" type axis, and the hydraulic jacks by screws. balls and spindle motor; it will also be noted that the manual operating device can adjustment means can be replaced by an assembly placed under numerical control so as to be able to vary in a programmed manner the bending radius during the passage of the same sheet, and thus obtain finally an oval, elliptical or polygonal shell with rounded angles.

In Fig. 6, a rolling machine that relements the second solution, has a lower stage of rollers such as 31, of axis 31 ', which are three in number and which serve as support for the two pressure rollers 32, of axis 32 ', of small diameter and fairly close together, located above them. in fig.7 it appears that a roller 32 of the previous figure is a solid roller while a support roller 31 is mounted on ball bearings on a fixed shaft 33; the rollers 31 and 32 are supported by support parts 34 in Z such as the part of fig.8, similar to that of fig.4, on which are shown the axes 31 'and 32' of the rollers. It is clear from fig.7 that the rollers, both presser 32 and support 31, of the rolling machine of fig.6 to 8 are discontinuous sections.

In FIG. 9, the pressure rollers 42, according to the third solution, and unlike those of the preceding figures, are continuous, that is to say that they extend over the entire width of passage of the sheets, lengthwise of the rolling machine; the rollers 42 are supported from place to place by pairs of rollers such as 43 arranged on either side of an intermediate support part such as 44, or on one side of an end support part such as 45 .

Finally, it should be noted that the machine can be provided with means for automatically varying the radius of curvature during the rolling operation, so as to produce ferrules (rolled sheets) with a non-circular profile (for example elliptical, or triangular with angles rounded, etc.).

Claims

1.-sheet bending machine, called rolling machine, of the rolling machine type mainly consisting of a roller, said support, around which is intended to wind the sheet after bending, and smooth rollers, called pressers, intended applying pressure to the support roller,, characterized: in that the support roller around which the sheet is wound after bending, is connected at one end to a motor and is supported at this first end by a bearing fixed, and at its other end by a retractable bearing (tilting), the axis of this support roller remaining fixed, and, in that the pressure rollers are smooth rollers arranged in pairs with a fixed center distance and supported by a plurality bearings, or rollers, themselves supported by a beam itself resting on the frame by means of sloping wedges

2.-rolling machine according to claim 1, characterized: in that the support rollers are divided into sections (31,32,33, ..), each section being supported in rotation, at its ends, by a support piece ( 5,51,52, ..) the support parts themselves resting on a so-called intermediate beam (6), itself taking indirect support on a general frame (2) of the rolling machine; in that the sections (31,32,33) of one roller are offset from those (41,42,43) of the other roller in the axial direction, and are supported by support parts (51) are incorporated of a thin wall (53) in Z forming with a sole (54) in an angle assembly so that the end edge of a section of a support roller is always facing a cylindrical part of a section of the other roller, with the exception of the ends of the rollers themselves;

3.-rolling machine according to claim 1, characterized: by a second stage of pressure rollers of small diameter disposed above rollers or rollers

4.-rolling machine according to claims 2 and 3, characterized: in that the rollers of the second stage are sections also supported by the same support parts shaped as Z.

5. rolling machine according to claim 2, characterized: in that the rollers of the second stage are continuous over the entire width of passage of the sheets,

6. rolling machine according to claim 5, characterized: in that the rollers of the second stage rest on sectioned rollers with support parts in Z,

7.-rolling machine according to claim 5, characterized: in that the rollers of the second stage rest on rollers distributed over the width of the passage and supported by ordinary support parts

8.-rolling machine according to claim 3, characterized: in that the spacing e of the pressure rollers (3,4) is between d. and l, 5xd., d. being their diameter, preferably identical for each, d. itself being between 0.2 × D and 0.5 × D, D being the diameter of the support roller (2), the effective length L. of the latter itself being between 5 × D and 10 × D;

9.-rolling machine according to claim 8, characterized: in that the roller sections each consist of a hollow cylinder (44) rotatably mounted on a coaxial central shaft (45) by rou¬ lements (46) arranged at vicinity of each of the ends of the section, the shaft itself being fixedly engaged in a through bore (57) of the adjacent wall (53) of a support piece (5), each bore, with the exception of those of the end support parts of the rollers, supporting two neighboring coaxial shafts.

10.-rolling machine according to claim 1, characterized: in that the support roller is supported at a first end (13) by a first bearing (15) with double bearing, and at its other end (16) by a bearing retractable (17) formed in a tiltable part (18) called a gate, and in that the gate (18) with bearing (17) is articulated on the frame (1) in order to be able to tilt (arrow 19) under the effect of a jack (20) between a vertical position in which the bearing (17) encloses a cylindrical-conical end (16) of the support roller (2), and a horizontal position in which it releases the end of the roller to allow the removal of the bent sheet.