US3194043A - Rotary multiple reverse flexing device - Google Patents

Description

July 13, 1965 J. J. BYRNES ROTARY MULTIPLE REVERSE FLEXING DEVICE 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed May 16, 1965 IF: GJ.

v INVENT OR Jo/m Joseph Bymes BY 7M July 13, 1965 J. J. BYRNES ROTARY MULTIPLE REVERSE FLEXING DEVICE 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed May 16, 1965 INVENTOR JOfi/I ./06,0/2 B/f/MS BY I WM. 1 M m United States Patent 3,194,043 ROTARY MULTIPLE REVERSE FLEXENG DEVICE Sohn Joseph Byrnes, Chicago, 113., assignor to Continental Car: Company, Inc., New York, N.Y-, a corporation of New York Filed May 16, 1963, Ser. No. 280,983 13 Claims. ((31. 72-163) This invention relates in general to new and useful improvements in apparatus for use in the manufacture of sheet metal, and more particularly relates to a novel device to accomplish alternate flexing of continuous tin plate strip and like sheet metal in order to produce alternate tensile and compressive plastic strains or forces in the metal along a line transverse to the direction of strip motion to provide an increase in fabrication properties of severely work hardened sheet metal while in creasing the ductility of such strip or sheet metal.

In the manufacture of certain types of sheet metal, particularly thin steel strip and sheet, the necessary reduction in thickness is obtained by heavily cold rolling the starting metal stock. The resultant strip has been severely cold worked, frequently by more than 80% reduction, and although very hard and strong, it does not have adequate ductility for many uses. For example, if the ultimate product is to be tin plated steel for the making of can bodies, the hard rolled steel in conventional practice must be annealed and then temper rolled to a reduction of about only 1%. This very slight reduction imparts flatness and also masks the yield point elongation of such steel which otherwise would be detrimental to can body making or other fabricating processes which might be employed, and yet this minor reduction does not noticeably impair the ductility resulting from the prior anneal.

When such conventional tin plate is desired in thinner gauges, i.e., less than .008 inch thick, a variety of difficulties are encountered. For example, when thin rolled strips are pulled through an electrolytic tinning line, the applied tensile force used to pull the strip sometimes results in extensive fracture of the strip within the electroplating line. In order to avoid this difliculty, the steel industry has introduced a new type of tin plate to provide the desired thinner gauges of metal, which new type of plate is produced in such a manner that it is less costly per unit area to produce than heretofore.

The new type of tin plate is produced by additional substantial cold rolling reductions after the metal strip stock has been annealed. The initial cold rolling is to a somewhat thicker gauge than normal; followed by annealing, tin plating and a subsequent cold reduction of the order of 30% to 60%, resulting in a finished gauge of as low as 0.0044 inch, and even lower, if desired. Unfortunately, while the finished product has a desired thinness and also a desirable high strength and hardness, these qualities have been obtained by an almost complete sacrifice of ductility and by a marked directionality of properties. Tensile testing of such material indicates a transverse elongation of the order of 1% or less in a 2 inch gauge length and a longitudinal elongation of from less than 1% to 3%.

In producing such hard and strong but brittle tinplate, it is possible to electroplate with tin after the second cold reduction to final gauge and do so without fractures from tension While pulling the strip through the electro-tinning line. This may be done because the hard rolled plate is so much stronger than conventional plate and can withstand the tensile forces encountered. An alternative possibility is to electroplate with a thicker coating of tin prior to the second cold reduction so that upon this 30% to 60% cold rolling the tin coating is re- "ice duced in thickness to the same degree as the steel subtrate. In either case, the properties of the steel are essentially identical for equivalent cold reductions so that the problems of utilizing this material are the same.

When cans which have been made from either of these new types of tin plate have the rolling direction parallel to the can axis, severe fracturing of the plate is encountered during manufacture. Fracture occurs primarily during forming of the side seam hook and during flanging of the can body. These can making operations are ones in which large localized plastic tensile strains are introduced into the metal in a direction transverse to the rolling direction. When these problems are avoided by having the can bodies made with the rolling direction of the tin plate in a circumferential direction, fracture of the cans has been encountered when, during rough handling, dents were produced in the body wall below the end seam seal. Therefore, in order to exploit further this newly introduced type of tin plate for can making some of the ductility of the metal must be restored. Thermal treatment, such as annealing after the second cold reduction is not practical since the costs of this operation would make the final product more expensive whereas the major benefit achieved by its use is the desire for cost savings. Furthermore, if the tin coating were put on prior to the second cold reduction, this coating will alloy with the steel at the required steel annealing temperatures and thereupon forming an excessive amount of undesired hard and brittle tin-iron alloy.

The present invention is primarily directed to a machine for operating on this new type of tin plate which has been given a substantial cold reduction before or after tin plating to increase the ductility thereof, or to a presently unavailable but potentially still lower cost plate made without any annealing at all so that it is in the full hard state with or more cold reduction followed by electroplating with tin.

In the past, metal sheets to be formed into can bodies have been subjected to a grain breaking process wherein immediately prior to the shaping of the sheets in a can making process, the sheets are passed through a grain breaker to assure the formation of a perfectly round cylinder by preventing the formation of flutes in the can body cylinder as fabricated at high speeds. This grain breaker consists of several rollers disposed in vertical relation. However, while these rollers have produced the desired grain breaking and curvature of the individual can body blanks, the flexing of the sheets has been relatively light, and there has been no accompanying increase in ductility of the sheets so mechanically treated.

In the steel industry, in order to remove ripples from steel sheets, as well as other steel shapes, it is common practice to pass the steel through leveling rollers. As the steel passes through the leveling rollers, it is ultimately flexed with a resultant flattening of the metal. Such roller levelers used today have only a limited number of pairs of alternatingly spaced rollers of approximately l1 /2 to 3 inches in diameter. However, the steel industry does not flex the steel enough to substantially exceed the yield strength except at initially non-flat portions since the objective is to simply flatten or straighten and not to change any of the physical or mechanical properties of the material.

The present invention proposes broadly to use a machine wherein the metal strip is reversely flexed a large number of times by passing the metal strip between a resilient surface of a large driven drum or roller and a plurality of small diameter rollers circumferentially spaced about the periphery of the large drum or roller, with the number of complete cycles of flexing being in the vicinity of times, thereby requiring on the order of 100 small diameter a minimum.

.' trate the details of the supporting of the rollers.

machine for reverse flexing a hardened metal strip to inmore severe stressing of the metal during eachstressing thereof is obtained, and a larger number of stresses can be produced by a machine of a given size. 7

Still another object of this invention is to provide a novel machine for accomplishing alternate flexing of continuous metal strip wherein there are many cycles of flexing accomplished on a strip by the machine and wherein themachine is provided with a plurality of small diameter rollers, the rollers being arranged in a circular pattern about the periphery of a substantially larger drum or roller having a -resilientrubber pad bonded thereto, and the plurality of rollers being mounted for movement outwardly with respect to the substantially larger drum'or roller to provide the. necessary clearance for the initial feeding of an end of the elongated strip through the machine.

A further object of this invention is to provide a novel apparatus for accomplishing alternate flexing of continu- ,ous metal strip to produce alternate tension and compression strains or forces therein, the machine being of a compact construction and including a central cylindrical support mounting alarge driven drum or roller having a resili entrubber padded peripheral surface, and a plurality of outer segmental supports each carrying a set of rollers for cooperation with the. large drum or roller, the outer segmental supports being movable radially with respect to the large drum or roller for the purpose of spacing'the' plurality of sets of rollers from the large drum'or roller to facilitate the initial feeding of a strip of metal between the large drum or roller and the plurality of sets of rollers;

'A still further object of this invention is to provide'a novel apparatus for accomplishing the alternate flexing of continuous metal strip in order to produce alternate tensile and compressive plastic strains in themetal strip along lines transverse'to the direction of strip motion, thedevice including a plurality of sets of rollers disposed about alarge drum or roller, thelarge drum or roller having a rubber padded peripheral surface in yielding contact withithe plurality of sets of rollers and'defining a sinusoidal path of travel for the metal strip with the path having a generally circular over-all outline, each set of rollers includingsmall diameter rollers for engaging the metal strip and large diameter rollers backing up the small diameter rollers FlGURE 2 is an enlarged fragmentary elevational view of one of the plurality of sets of roller support assemblies and the large rubber padded drum or roller of ,the machine, with portions of the roller support assemblies being broken away to more clearly show the arrangement of the rollers and the specific relationship of a metal strip with respect to the rollers and the substantially larger drum or roller. v l p FIGURE 3 is an enlarged fragmentary generally verti- ..cal sectional View taken along line 33' of FIGURE 2, and shows the specific manner in which the rollers of one of the plurality of sets of rollers is supported;

FIGURE 4 isan enlarged fragmentary horizontal sectional view taken. along line 44 ofFlGURE 2, and shows the relationship of the small diameter rollers, the backing up or" thesmall diameter rollers by the larger diameter rollers, as well as'the specific relationship of the metal strip fwith respect to the small diameter rollers and the rubber initially rolled, was annealed, after which it was assed through anelectroplating bath in the customary manner so that tin coatings are applied to opposite faces thereof. The strip S, after having been coated, was then passed .through a series of cold reduction rollers wherein the f thickness of the strip S was reduced to 60%. At the end of the rolling process, the s trip S is in the form of a new type of hard, cold'rolled tin plate which is now commercially available from a number of steel mills, e.g.,

whereby the small diameter rollers may be journalledfor lines transverse to the direction'of strip motion, and the.

rollers backing up the small diameter rollers being disposed from the US; Steel Corporation under the designation Ferrolite? 1 i The 30 to 60% cold rolled plate or,strip,.as it comes from the cold reduction rollers of the steel mill, is relatively hard and brittle, and therefore is only suitable for limited field of usage by the can industry. However, it has a very great economic advantage, where the brittlei ness is relieved by some operation. For every base box, i.e., 31,360 sq. in.,- which is coated with tin at a gauge, for example of 0.012 inch, one obtains after cold rolling a total of two base boxes of tin coated steel 0.006 7 inch thick. The low cost of rolling is such that doubling the area of product is accomplished at a much lower cost than would otherwise be" possible. The steel industry has recognized the lower cost per unit of this hard rolled tin plate orstrip, as compared to'the conventional tin plate or strip, by pricing it at per base box below that of conventional plate of the same gauge. Since the hard rolled plate is much stronger than conventional plate, one can use a thinner gauge of the hard rolled plate with a further increment of savings of materials cost amounting to 15 per box for every reduction in gauge of 0.00055 inch; A potential savings to the can industry by the use of the hard rolled plate adds I up to many millions of dollars. However, the full utilizain'staggered overlapping relation whereby each of the small diameter roll ers is supported by a plurality of the large I diameter rollers.

With the above and other objects in View that will hereinafter appear, the nature of the'invention will be more clearly undersood by reference to the following detailed description, the appended claims and the severalviews il- FIGURE 1v is anend elevational view of a device 0 y '7 machine which is. the subject of this invention and shows the general layout thereof, portions of the roller supports .tion'of such plate, and obtainment of related savings of metal costs, depends on the improvement in ductility of such hard and brittle plate which may be obtained by the use or" the apparatus of this invention.

There is another equally or perhaps more important held of application of this invention. The hard rolled tin plate or strip referred to thus far has started as hot I reduction of 80% to 95% results in extremely hard and strong steel strip which ordinarily is far too brittle to be used in the unannealed state. However, by partially restoring the ductility of such material with the practice of this invention, it could be employed for many purposes in the hard, unannealed state, either as is or with a subsequently applied tin coating or thin coating of other metal or material.

The high strength of the extremely hard rolled steel makes possible further reductions in gauge of metal for many fields of utilization, e.g., closures for cans. Not only are there substantial savings in amount of material, but the elimination of annealing and conventional temper rolling results in appreciable savings of process cost in the production of this hard rolled metal strip. While an appreciable savings in cost is expected, the exact cost savings is not yet known, because, until the present invention, there has been no way of utilizing such very hard and brittle plate and therefore the product has not been made nor priced commercially.

In accordance with this invention, either of these two types of hard rolled plate or strip or any other type of hard, brittle plate or strip may be further worked upon as part of the continuous forming thereof in the steel mill, or the plate or strip may be coiled subsequent to the cold reduction operation thereof and later worked upon in accordance with the invention either at the steel mill or at the can makers plant. For purposes of convenience, the working of the hard and strong but brittle cold rolled plate or strip S in accordance with the invention has been illustrated with the strip S being supplied in coil form.

Referring once again to FIGURE 1 of the drawings, it will be seen that the machine 5 includes a suitable base 6 which has a pair of standards 7 projecting upwardly from each end thereof. A suitable framework, enerally referred to by the numeral 8, is carried by the standards 7. The framework 8 includes a pair of hubs 9 disposed at opposite ends of the machine 5. Each hub 9 has a plurality of arms 10 radiating therefrom. It is to be noted that the arms 10 are disposed in equally spaced relation about the respective hub 9. Two of the arms 10 at each end of the farmework 8 are secured to the standards 7 at each end of the base 6. The connection between these certain arms 10 and the standards 7 is each referred to by the numeral 11.

The machine 5 includes a large cylindrical drum or roller 12 which extends between the arms 10 at opposite ends of the framework 8 and is rotatably secured thereto in a manner which will hereinafter be more fully described.

The framework 8 includes an outer support 13 for each of the arms 10 at one end of the framework 8. Extending between every two aligned arms 10 at the opposite ends of the framework 8 is one of the outer supports 13. Each of the outer supports 13 carry a roller assembly, generally referred to by the reference numeral 14.

At each end of the framework 8 an uppermost one of the supports 10 is provided with a standard 15. A roller 16 extends between the pair of standards 15 and has its ends suitably journalled relative thereto. The roller 16 is an idler roller and receives the strip S from an uncoiling unit (not shown).

The framework 8 also includes a standard 17 which extends upwardly at each end thereof from the other of the uppermost ones of the arms 10. The two standards at the two ends of the framework 8 are in alignment and carry a pair of cooperating drive rollers 18, 19 which are driven in a conventional manner. The strip S, after passing through the machine 5, passes around the drive roller 18 and is delivered to either a conventional roller leveler or a rewind stand (both of which are not shown). The roller 19 cooperates with the roller 18 to feed the strip S to the machine 5.

The large cylindrical drum or roller 12 has a shaft 20, each end of which is received in an identical bearing 21 mounted in a circular opening 22 in each of the pair of hubs 9 at opposite sides of the machine 5. The shaft 20 of the large cylindrical drum or roller 12 is driven in a suitable manner by a conventional drive mechanism (not shown) in a counterclockwise direction as viewed in FIG- URE l of the drawings in cooperative relationship with the drive rollers 18, 19 to feed the strip S through the machine 5.

The large cylindrical drum or roller 12 is preferably of a hollow construction to reduce the weight thereof. The cylindrical construction of the drum or roller 12 is formed by a pair of identical, spaced, annular plates 23 (only one of which is illustrated) welded or otherwise secured to the shaft 20 adjacent each of the pair of hubs 9 of the machine 5. A cylindrical member 25 is welded or secured in any other conventional manner to the peripheries of the annular plates 23 (FIGURE 4). A resilient yieldable pad 26, which is preferably constructed from rubber, is bonded, stretch-fit or otherwise secured to a peripheral surface 27 of the cylindrical member 25. The large cylindrical drum or roller 12 thus presents a resilient, yieldable pad surface 28 in opposed relationship to the plurality of sets of rollers 14 mounted about the peripheral surface 27 of the drum 12.

Each of the roller assemblies 14 is formed of a plurality of circumferentially spaced identical roller units, each of which is referred to in general by the reference numeral 29. Each roller unit 29 is adjacent and circumferentially spaced about the yieldable pad surface 28 of the large drum or roller 12. As is best shown in FIG- URES 2, 3 and 4 of the drawings, each of the roller units 29 includes a support, generally referred to by the reference numeral 30. Each support 36 includes a base 31 having a plurality of spaced, parallel, arcuate support elements 32 projecting inwardly therefrom, the support elements 32 extending generally circumferentially around the peripheral surface 27 and the yieldable pad surface 28 of the large drum or roller 12.

The support elements 32 receive the ends of short shafts 33, each short shaft 33 being suported by a pair of adjacent support elements 32. Each shaft 33 carries a large diameter roller 34 which is disposed between an adjacent pair of the support elements 32. The large diameter rollers 34 are mounted in rows extending axially of the large drum or roller 12 as is best illustrated in FIGURE 2 of the drawings, and in overlapping staggered relation, as is clearly shown in FIGURE 3. No bearing means has been illustrated with respect to the shafts 33 and the rollers 34, however, if desired the rollers 34 may be suitably rotatably journalled on the shafts 33 or the shafts 33 may be suitably rotatably journalled in the support elements 32.

The endmost ones of the support elements 32 of each of the supports 30 carry an arcuate support 35 (FIG- URES 2 and 3) which is suitably secured to its respective support element 32 by means of bolts 36, as is best shown in FIGURE 2. Each of the arcuate supports 35 has a generally scalloped or sinusoidal inner face 37 defining a plurality of shaft supporting portions 38. Each shaft supporting portion 38 receives a reduced end 39 of a small diameter roller 40. Each small diameter roller 40 is rotatably journalled at its ends only but is supported intermediate these ends by pairs of the large diameter rollers 34.

Each of the supports 13 carries an extensible hydraulic motor 41 which includes a shaft 42. The shaft 42, in turn, is secured to a plate 43 (see FIGURE 2) which is secured to the base 31 of an associated one of the supports 30. In this manner, each of the roller units 29 may be readily radially adjusted with respect to the resilient rubber pad 26 of the large roller or drum 12. One of the primary advantages of the retractability of each of the roller units 29 is the fact that the roller units 29 may be ensgoss sulficienty retracted to permit the feeding of the initial 7 end of a metal strip, such as the metal strip S,'through the machine 5. However, minor adjustments of the roller units 29 may be had for the purpose of compensating for variations in strip thickness.

Particular attention is directed to FIGURE 2, wherein due to the resilient rubber pad 26 f the large drum or mately equal to the increase of going from ten to one roller 12 and the spacing of the rollers 40, equally about motion as the rubber pad 26 yields and conforms to the configuration of the small diameter rollers 43. Furthermore, because of the small diameter of the rollers d9 whichrange from inch to inch and preferably 6.

inch, it will be seen that the strip S will be severely stressed as it is flexed around the rollers 45 7 Particular reference is directed to FIGURE 2, wherein it will be apparent, that as the strip S is flexed around any two adjacent small diameter rollers 4% of the plurality of rollers,portions of the metal strip S between any such two' adjacent rollers 40 are flexed around arcuate portion of the resilient rubber pad 26 between the rollers 4d. These arcuate portions of the resilient rubber pad 26 are, of course, formed by the force exerted by the small diameter rollers 40 against the rubber resilient pad 25 tending to urge or squeeze portions of the rubber pad 26 between each two adjacent rollers of the plurality of leveling of the strip S. As the hard, coldrolled strip'S passes between the rollers 46 and'theresilient'rubber pad 26 of the large drum or roller :12, it mustbe stressed to the extent that at least a surface layer of the strip 5 in tension remote from the particular roller is stressed well beyond the initial yield strength'of the metal of the hard rolled strip'S. cold rolled tin plate or strip having severely coldworl'r steel substrate as the base thereof, the surface layer of the steel strip under compression is'also stressed well beyond the yield strength of'the metal'of the strip S. Tests have indicated that the metal should be, stressed beyond its yield strength to a depth of from to 40% of the thickness of the strip S inwardly from each stressed facing layer thereof. Of course, the deeperthe penetration of work within the range specified, the fewer are the number of cycles of reverse stress required to obtain the desired increase in ductility, but fiexing'rnust obviously be stopped prior to the initiation of any fatigue damage.

For any given number of cycle for reverse flexing, e .g., 10 or 100 or 1,000, there will be a stressbclow the Further, in the working of the hard;

type.

hundred passes." Thus, while in general there was a continuing benefit, the'benefit corresponded .to the loga .rithmic increases in number of passes. 'From a commercial standpoint it is. believed that approximately 100 complete cycles of reverse flexing is the. most economically feasible number considering results in the way of increase in. ductility of the strip and the machinery required for obtainingan increasednumber of cycles of reverse fiexure; This would require the engagement of the strip S width on the order of 100 of each of the rollers 49 as the stripS passes throughthe machine 5. V

The machine 5 isparti cularly adaptable to the required reverse flexing of relatively thin metal strip suchras the strip. S, in that adequate'support is obtained for the very small diameter rollers tl'so that a relatively severe flexing of the strip S can be obtained and at the same time, the machine-5 is extremely compact due to both the provision of small diameterrollers and the arrangement of the rollers in acircular pattern in lieu of alongitudinal pattern; The particular circular pattern of the rollers 46 about the larger roller or drum 12 permits amachine of reasonable size to accomplish the desired flexing of a metal strip with the size of the machine being such that it may easily be placed in a metal strip line of any desired from thelforegoing, it will be seen that novel and advantageous-provision has been made for carrying out thedesired end; However, attention is directed to the fact that variations may be made in the example appara: tusfdisclosed herein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention, as defined in the appended claims.

.Iclaimq I v I '1. A device to accomplish alternate flexing of continuous metal strip in order to produce alternate tension and compression strains in the strip along lines transverse to the direction of strip motion-to provide an increase in fabrication properties of severely work hardened sheet I metal comprising a plurality of, sets of rollers, first means 7 ers and said means conform to the contourof the rollers ultimate tensile strength which will be sufficient to cause fracture. The line of stress to cause microcracks versus the number of cycles to form these at each stress is called a damage curve. It is requisite, in the practice of this invention, that the number of cyclcs of stressing the surface layers beyond their yield strength by fiexure should be less than the number of cycles to cause damage at a the stress caused by that flexure; .Ductility is'increased by this invention when the combination of number of carrying a resilient pad.

and is therebysubjected, to alternating tension and com-.

pression strains,-second means for introducing the strip between a first of said plurality of sets of rollers and said surface, and third means for withdrawing the strip from between a second of said'plurality of sets of rollers and said surface. I

2. The device as defined in claim 1 wherein said first means is a roller including a peripheral surface carrying 'a resilient pad. v Q

. 3..lhe device as defined-in claim 1 wherein said first means is rotatable. I i i a 4. The device as defined in claim 1 wherein said first means is a rotatable roller including a peripheral surface 5. The device as definedinclaim 4 wherein the rotatable roller has a diameter substantially greater than the diameters of'the rollers of the set of rollers.

f 6.. A device to accomplish alternate flexing of continuousmetal strip inorder to produce alternate tension and compression strains in the strip along lines transverse to the direction of strip motion to provide an increase in fabrication properties of severely work} hardened sheet metal comprising a plurality of sets. of rollers, a rotatable drum, said' rotatable drum having a resilient peripheral surface, roller support means mounting said plurality ofsets of rollers in adjacent concentric relationship to said rotatable drum about substantially the entire peripheral surface thereof, and the roller support means having adjustable mounting means whereby said plurality of sets of rollers may be moved toward and away from the peripheral surface of the rotatable drum.

7. A device to accomplish alternate flexing of continuous metal strip in order to produce alternate tension and compression strains in the strip along lines transverse to the direction of strip motion to provide an increase in fabrication properties of severely work hardened sheet metal comprising, a plurality of sets of rollers, a rotatable drum, said rotatable drum having a resilient peripheral surface, roller support means mounting said plurality of sets of rollers in adjacent concentric relationship to said rotatable drum, the plurality of sets of rollers having a plurality of small diameter rollers and large diameter rollers, and the small diameter rollers being arranged between the rotatable drum and the large diameter rollers whereby deflection of the small diameter rollers is precluded.

8. A device to accomplish alternate flexing of continuous metal strip in order to produce alternate tension and compression strains in the strip along lines transverse to the direction of strip motion to provide an increase in fabrication properties of severely work hardened sheet metal comprising, a plurality of sets of rollers, a rotatable drum, said rotatable drum having a resilient peripheral surface, roller support means mounting said plurality of sets of rollers in adjacent concentric relationship to said rotatable drum, the plurality of sets of rollers having a plurality of small diameter rollers and large diameter rollers, and the small diameter rollers being arranged between the rotatable drum and the large diameter rollers, said roller support means including support means carrying the large diameter rollers in backing up relation to the small diameter rollers whereby deflection of the small diameter rollers is precluded.

9. The device as defined in claim 8 wherein the diameter of the small diameter rollers is between /1 inch and inch.

10. A device to accomplish alternate flexing of continuous metal strip in order to produce alternate tension and compression strains in the strip along lines transverse to the direction of strip motion to provide an increase in fabrication properties of severely work hardened sheet metal comprising, a plurality of sets of rollers, a rotatable drum, said rotatable drum having a resilient peripheral surface, roller support means mounting said plurality of sets of rollers in adjacent concentric relationship to said rotatable drum, the plurality of sets of rollers having a plurality of small diameter rollers and large diameter rollers, and the small diameter rollers being arranged between the rotatable drum and the large diameter rollers, said roller support means including support means carrying the large diameter rollers in backing up relation to the small diameter rollers whereby deflection of the small diameter rollers is precluded, the large diameter rollers being axially arranged in transverse rows across the support means with the axes of the large diameter rollers of each row being longitudinally offset from each other, and the small diameter rollers contacting a plurality of the rows of the large diameter rollers.

11. A device to accomplish alternate flexing of contlnuous metal strip in order to produce alternate tension and compression strains in the strip along lines transverse to the direction of strip motion to provide an increase in fabrication properties of severely work hardened sheet metal comprising, a large rotatable drum, said drum including a rubber padded peripheral surface defining a yieldable arcuate surface, a plurality of sets of rollers circumferentially spaced about the arcuate surface in a generally circular arrangement, each set of rollers including radially adjustable roller support means, a plurality of small and large diameter rollers carried by said roller support means, the small diameter rollers having axis parallel to the rotatable drum axis and arranged in opposing relationship to the yieldable surface of the rotatable drum, and the large diameter rollers being arranged in overlapped rows transversely of the roller support means whereby each small diameter roller is backed up by a plurality of rows of the large diameter rollers.

12;. The device as defined in claim 11 wherein the small diameter rollers and the yieldable arcuate surface define a generally circular sinusoidal path for the continuous metal strip through the device.

13. The device as defined in claim 12 wherein the diameter of the small diameter rollers is between A and %1 inch.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS Re. 20,404 6/37 Ungerer 153-106 1,715,219 5/29 Biggert 153-54 1,930,562 10/33 Krueger. 2,004,596 6/35 Biggert 153106 2,578,820 12/51 Mayer 153-93 3,078,908 2/63 MauSt 15386 CHARLES W. LANHAM, Primary Examiner.

Claims (1)

1. A DEVICE TO ACCOMPLISH ALTERNATE FLEXING OF CONTINUOUS METAL STRIP IN ORDER TO PRODUCE ALTERNATE TENSION AND COMPRESSION STRAINS IN THE STRIP ALONG LINES TRANSVERSE TO THE DIRECTION OF STRIP MOTION TO PROVIDE AN INCREASE IN FABRICATION PROPERTIES OF SEVERELY WORK HARDENED SHEET METAL COMPRISING A PLURALITY OF SETS OF ROLLERS, FIRST MEANS PRESENTING A RESILIENT ARCUATE SURFACE OPPOSING THE SETS OF ROLLERS, WHEREBY A METAL STRIP TRAVELLING BETWEEN THE ROLLERS AND SAID MEANS CONFORM TO THE CONTOUR OF THE ROLLERS AND IS THEREBY SUBJECTED TO ALTERNATING TENSION AND COMPRESSION STRAINS, SECOND MEANS FOR INTRODUCING THE STRIP BETWEEN A FIRST OF SAID PLURALITY OF SETS OF ROLLERS AND SAID SURFACE, AND THIRD MEANS FOR WITHDRAWING THE STRIP FROM BETWEEN A SECOND OF SAID PLURALITY OF SETS OF ROLLERS AND SAID SURFACE.

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