GB1406152A - Apparatus for producing expnaded metal - Google Patents

Abstract

1406152 Making expanded metal EXMET CORP 2 May 1973 20967/73 Headings B3W and B3A An elongated sheet 9 is formed into expanded metal by means of a plurality of toothed wheels 18-20, each co-operating with a shearing edgeas shown the edge of a roller 25-and each being continuously rotated to form a series of longitudinally aligned spaces opening about an axis perpendicular to the longitudinal direction in which the sheet is moved. The wheels are staggered laterally to produce laterally offset lines of openings. Each wheel has a sprocket shown as 33-35 respectively, a single chain 36 engages all the sprockets and means, sprockets 41, 42 as shown, engage the chain between the wheels forming each successive pair of wheels to enable the relative angular position of the wheels of a pair to be adjusted, while the sprockets and chain remain meshed, so that each wheel is half a tooth pitch out of phase with the wheels immediately fore and aft of it and each opening is located between two successive openings in each adjacent line of openings. The sprocket 33 is driven by a motor 32. To adjust the angular phase of, say, wheels 18 and 19, the arm 43 and thus sprocket 41 is raised or lowered by means of an adjusting screw 46 which rotates the wheels 18 and 19 in opposite directions. The chain is tensioned by an idler sprocket 37 mounted on an arm pivotable on the shear frame 10 and urged downwards by a spring 40. Rollers 21 and the rollers 25 grip the sheet during the shearing. In an alternative embodiment, Fig. 6, a toothed wheel 20, 20<SP>1</SP> is mounted at each end of a roller 21 to act on the edges of a strip to be expanded with the spacing between the two wheels decreasing with each successive roller so that the whole strip is expanded. Alternatively, a central imperforate strip may be left to be slit by a disc cutter 58. A reciprocating transverse shear may cut the expanded metal into lengths, to form, e.g. electrodes.