GB497632A - Improvements in or relating to method of and apparatus for joining metal strips end to end by welding - Google Patents

Abstract

497,632. Electric welding; planing- tools. STEVENS, A. H. (United Engineering & Foundry Co.) May 17, 1938, No. 14678. [Classes 83 (iii) and 83 (iv)] Metal strips are joined end to end by first butt-welding, then moving the strips into and clamping them in a flash - trimming position, and then bringing a flash trimmer into contact with one strip and moving it over the strips so as to sever the flash therefrom. The strips from the rolling mill may be fed by rolls 18 over conveyers 16, 17. The leading end and trailing end of the respective strips are severed at the same angle either separately or simultaneously by shearing apparatus 10. The strip ends are then held between the air-operated clamps 20, 22 of an electric flash welding apparatus and welding effected by moving one or both of the clamps by air motors. The welded strips are then fed to the flash trimmer and are held by air-operated clamps 50. The trimmer consists of a pair of straight, curved, or V-shaped cutters 40 brought into position' by air motors 42 and moved over the joint by air motors 46. Each cutter has a pair of opposed knife edges so that the flash may be removed in either direction of movement of the cutter or so that the cutters may be turned end for end to present a fresh cutting edge when trimming only in the direction towards the welding apparatus. In a modification, Fig. 2, in which the strips are unwound from a reel 66 and wound on a reel 68, the parts are similarly cut and welded by mechanisms 60, 62 and are then clamped by the welding jaws 72, 74 and the trimming effected by moving the trimmer 94 in a direction away from these jaws. In both cases the trimmer may thus move from the thicker trailing end to the thinner leading end, the ends in the second form having been reversed due to winding on the reel 66. When operating on softer metals or where the difference in thickness between the ends is small, the trimming may be effected from the thinner to the thicker end.