GB826682A - Improvements in or relating to automatic machines for making metal articles from wire or strip - Google Patents

Abstract

826,682. Shearing; stamping; bending. HEENAN & FROUDE Ltd. Aug. 30, 1957 [Sept. 5, 1956], No. 27188/56. Class 83 (4). [Also in Group XXIX] In an automatic machine for making metal articles from wire or strip, in which the machine is self-feeding from a coil of the wire or strip which is processed at a plurality of operating stations by suitable tools which cut off and form the articles, a pressure fluid operated ram or plunger for operating the forming member or tool is provided at each of selected operating stations, actuation of the several rams or plungers of the selected stations being effected by cam-operable means remotely controlling, from a centralized control position, the operation of valves associated with the respective ram cylinders for controlling the supply of pressure fluid thereto. An automatic machine, which includes a strip straightener, a feed unit, a stationary gripper, a horizontal press which may pierce, trim, stamp or emboss the work, a cut-off unit, four bending slides and a vertical forming slide, has an hydraulically operated power unit, Fig. 2, at each work-station, the units being interchangeable. Each unit comprises a tool-operating ram 5, to the cylinder 4 of which fluid is introduced through a valve cylinder 11. A spring-biased piston valve 12 connected to the rams is actuated, through a linkage mechanism and a cable 26 in a flexible sheath 27, by a cam 29 acting on a lever 28, Fig. 5. Cams 29 for the various units are mounted on a common removable cam shaft 31 driven by an electric motor or by a pressure fluid motor. The stroke of the ram 5 is controlled by the amount of initial displacement of the piston valve 12 from its neutral position, movement of the ram 5 returning the piston valve, through links 22 and 30 thus terminating the stroke. The travel of the plunger is adjustable to vary the pressure on the work by varying the position of one end of the flexible sheath relative to the cable 26 by means of a spindle 53. A reciprocating gripper feeding strip or wire to the work-stations is also actuated by an hydraulic unit. In a modification the units may be pneumatically operated. In another modification two units may be associated with a single tool.