GB1178570A - Automated Tube Multiple Bending Machine and Method - Google Patents

Abstract

1,178,570. Transferring blanks. BEND-RITE Inc. 14 Nov., 1967, No. 51809/67. Heading B3E. An automated tube multiple bending machine for use with a press having a bed and a plurality of vertically movable tube-bending means comprises a support on the bed, a pair of longitudinally spaced guides on the support, a vertically adjustable upright in each guide, an elongated horizontally disposed tube carrier slidably mounted on the uprights longitudinally of the support, power means for intermittently reciprocating the uprights vertically and the carrier horizontally, a series of tube gripping means to receive a tube which is transverse to, and has its centre over the carrier, the gripping means being spaced to correspond to stations for loading, bending and unloading the tube and pairs of upright tube-supporting die blocks spaced longitudinally along the carrier and at the tube-bending stations, the carrier having a high position above the supporting die blocks and a low position below the blocks and disengaged from the tubes, each gripping and supporting means being movable from one station to the next and back, for successively transporting tubes to each station. The bed 11 of the press has mounted on it a support 12 to opposite ends of which are attached a pair of upright guides 13, shown in Figs. 1 and 2, which taken together show the whole apparatus. An upright 17 is slidably mounted in each guide and carries a rack 19 which meshes with a pinion 20. Each pinion 20 also meshes with a rack 30, the two racks being connected to the oppositely projecting ends of the piston-rod of a fluid cylinder 34, so that reciprocation of the cylinder causes simultaneous reciprocation of the uprights 17. A carrier 48 is horizontally slidable between guide rollers 42, 44 and 47 mounted on each of the uprights 17 and is reciprocated by a fluid cylinder 54. Mounted on the carrier 48 are the fixed jaws 59 and 60 of tube clamping devices, the vertically reciprocable jaw 79 of a tube manipulating clamp and a U-shaped tube transferring bracket 87. There is a longitudinal groove in the carrier in which slides a bar 61 which carries the yieldably mounted movable jaws 65 and 67 of the tube clamping devices and the jaw 70 of the manipulating clamp. A fluid cylinder 77 mounted under the carrier has its piston-rod 76 attached to a downward projection of the bar for reciprocating the movable jaws relative to the fixed jaws. A tube which is to be bent in two planes is fed from a hopper to the clamping device 64, which grips the middle of the length of the tube. The tube is also supported by a rod 89 which has upturned ends 91. The cylinder 34 is actuated to raise the carrier 48 and the cylinder 54 to move the carrier forward so that the tube is above a pair of bending die blocks 92. The carrier is lowered to position the tube in the die blocks, the clamping device is released as the carrier moves to its lowest position and is then returned horizontally to its original position. After the press has operated to bend the tube, the carrier 48 repeats its cycle of movements, the tube being held by the jaws 67 and 60 and transferred to the manipulating device. After the jaws 70 and 79 have gripped the tube a cylinder 84, the stroke of which is limited by an adjustable stop 83, lifts the jaw 79, which rotates the tube, on the rollers 71, to the desired position. At the manipulating station the tube is supported by a rod 96, similar to the rod 89 and is lowered into support blocks 97. After the second bending operation the tube is tranferred to the bracket 87 and die blocks (99), Fig. 4 (not shown), for a final bending operation before being moved on to a sloping discharge shoot 101.