GB1215675A - Metal billet piercing press - Google Patents

Abstract

1,215,675. Piercing press. KOBE STEEL Ltd. 5 May, 1969 [11 May, 1968], No. 22909/69. Heading B3H. A piercing press comprises a billet container 15 mounted in a holder 16, 18 for movement between a piercing centreline C 1 and an auxiliary centreline C 2 and a device mounted on the holder to attach a replacement piercing tool 28b to the mandrel 3 when the container is moved to the centreline C 2 . The mandrel is mounted on a holder 2 and has spring urged balls (31), Fig. 2 (not shown), which engage a groove (34) in a stem (33) of the piercing tool. The tool is seated on a cylinder 25 which has a fixed piston 27. After the piercing operation the mandrel 3 is withdrawn and the tool 28a released to fall through the die 6. The holder 16, 18 is displaced along guides 20 by a pistoncylinder unit 22 after being raised clear of the die by fluid pressure. At the centreline C 2 the pierced billet is ejected by a plunger 13, and the container cleaned and refilled with a hot billet. Simultaneously the tool 23b is inserted in the mandrel. In an alternative embodiment a mandrel cooling device 48 is arranged at the side of the tool loading device 49. The devices 48, 49 are provided on a swing arm 45 pivoted to the holder 16 and moved by a fluid rotary actuator 46. The swing arm 45 has a tool loading device 49 similar to that of the first embodiment and the mandrel cooling device comprises a chamber 56 with a drain hole on the end of a cylinder 54 with a fixed piston 53. The stem 1 around the mandre 1 has an inlet (40), Fig. 3 (not shown), and is spaced from the mandrel to provide a flow path for cooling water. In operation the cooling device 48 is brought into the centreline C 1 , raised to about the end of the stem 1 and water circulated to cool the mandrel. The tool is loaded by swinging the arm 45 to bring the device 49 into the centreline C 1 . Simultaneously the container is unloaded, cleaned and loaded on the centreline C 2 .