GB1406494A - Forming sheet metal - Google Patents

Abstract

1406494 Punching; making fasteners; bending; stamping D LEONARDT & CO (HIGHLEY PENS) Ltd 12 Oct 1973 [13 Oct 1972] 47246/72 Headings B3W B3A B3E and B3Q In the making of an article from sheet metal, sheet is fed step-by-step to a blanking die at a first station, blanks fall one at a time through the die to a second station and are fed mechanically to a third station at which a forming operation is carried out, operations taking place simultaneously at the first and third stations and the moving of a blank to and from the third station taking place between successive such operations. Strip is fed to a blanking punch and die, 18, 37 disposed at 45 degrees to the feed direction. The blank 10, Fig. 1, is stripped by spring- loaded pins 9 and falls through the die 37 into an opening in a shuttle 50 actuated by a pneumatic ram 51. During the return stroke of the punch 18 the shuttle moves the blank to a position overlying a forming die 39 and returns to underlie the die 37. The die 39 is movable vertically in a guide 41 and is urged upwardly by pins 42 acted on by a sleeve 43 of resilient material such as rubber. The shuttle has guides 56 at the die 37. The punch 19 and die 39 bend up the longitudinal edges of the blank to form a channel section. A stripper causes the formed blank to move to a position in which it can be blown from the machine as the die 39 rises. Alternatively the formed blank can be pushed by the leading edge 55 of the shuttle at the next feed stroke to a second forming punch and die 20, 40 which bend the tail 13 to lie between, and follow the shape of, ears 11 of the blank. The ejector blows the finished blank to a shoot via a sensing device which stops the machine if a jam occurs. Indicia may be stamped on the strip at a marking punch (27) Fig. 7 (not shown) and die 36, Fig. 8, before the blanks are punched out. The strip is located for the blanking and forming operations by a pair of punches (28) and pilot pins (29), Fig. 6 not shown and fixed edge guides 35. The punches 18, 27 and (28) and the pilot pins (29) operate in apertures in a stripper plate 30. The punches and dies are mounted in bolsters 16 and 17 respectively which are aligned by guide posts 31, 33 enclosing linear ball bearings 32. A spigot 26 on the bolster 16 is for attachment to a press ram. The shuttle may alternatively be actuated by cam means operated by the press.