US3269240A

US3269240A - Quadrant punch for turret punch presses and the like

Info

Publication number: US3269240A
Application number: US443434A
Authority: US
Inventors: John S Killaly; Arthur B Kettle
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1965-03-29
Filing date: 1965-03-29
Publication date: 1966-08-30
Anticipated expiration: 1983-08-30

Description

Aug. 30, 1966 J. s. KILLALY E 3,269,240

QUADRANT PUNCH FOR TURRET PUNCH PRESSES AND THE LIKE Filed March 29, 1965 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTORS.

BY 6 A? 6 QUADRANT PUNCH FOR TURRET PUNCH PRESSES AND THE LIKE Filed March 29, 1965 United States Patent 3,269,240 QUADRANT PUNCH FGR TURRET PUNCH PRFSSES AND THE LIKE John S. Killaly, Box 86, Spring House, Montgomery County, Pa, and Arthur B. Kettle, 864 Webster St.,

Needham, Norfolk County, Mass.

Filed Mar. 29, 1965, Ser. No. 443,434 8 Claims. (Cl. 83-140) This invention relates to an indexing type nibbling quadrant punch for turret punch presses and the like.

This invention consists of improved components designed for use in turret punch presses or for single station presses used mainly for low production work. In this type of press activity, the blank is placed in a pantograph or a duplicator type press, a gage bar type press or a numerically controlled press whether it be a turret punch press or a single station punch press. Each stroke of the punch or ram produces only one hole, notch or nibble in the blank. The blank is clamped in work holders, controlled numerically or is manipulated manually underneath the punch station until the entire hole pattern is punched.

The above-described type of press activity differs basically from that of presses set up for high production work wherein multiple punches are mounted in the press and a single stroke produces a number of holes and cut-outs or completely finishes the work.

The design and construction of the turret type punch press differs in many import-ant respects from that of the high production machines. Typically, the high production press possesses a capacity to knock out holes of relatively large size or area in heavy material which would far exceed the capacity of the standard low production press. This low capacity reduces the size of holes, particularly circular holes, which can be cut in a particular material by the turret type press. The high production press is equipped to mount a variety of punches having cutting surfaces of different shapes while the turret press is usually limited to a particular size or shape punch. In the turret type press, a stripper which presses the blank off the punch on the withdrawal stroke must be confined within a certain limited diameter punch holder and must operate within a limited vertical movement. Further, the top half of the turret type press must not be connected to the bottom half in any way which restricts movement of the work piece in the press.

It is the primary advantage of the quadrant punch of this invention that it increases the capacity of the ordinary turret type press to knock out holes, particularly circular holes, which normally would require a press of far greater load capacity.

It is also an advantage of the punch and mounting of this invention that the punch does not sheer the blank or material being punched and that the position of the punch around the vertical axis may be adjusted easily and quickly to cut the designed shape.

It is also an advantage of this invention that the quadrant punch is adapatable to receive a compressive type stripping unit which cooperates with the punch and increases the quality and safety of the work by eliminating slug pick-up and preventing distortion in the work piece.

It is the further advantage of the punch and improvements of this invention that structuarlly they are relatively simple in design, inexpensive to manufacture and use, and readily substitutable in the well known turret or single station type of press. larly important as the turret type presses are normally used in low cost and low production type of work.

These and other advantages of this invention will become more apparent from the description set forth hereinbelow and from the drawings, wherein:

These features are piarticuice FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view of the components comprising the preferred form of the indexing type nibbling quadrant punch of this invention;

FIG. 2 is a reversed exploded perspective view of two of the components of the punch shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the punch, die and blank;

FIG. 4 is a view in side elevation, partly in section and partly cut away, of the quadrant punch having the preferred form of stripping unit mounted thereon;

FIG. 5 is a partial view similar to that of FIG. 4 showing action of the punch and stripper during the withdrawal movement;

FIG. 6 is a sectional view taken along the lines and arrows VIVI of FIG. 4;

FIG. 7 is a sectional view taken along the lines and arrows VII-VII of FIG. 5;

FIG. 8 is a diagrammatic view showing of the areas knocked out by a series of strokes of the punch to form a circle.

The following description is directed to the specific form of the invention illustrated in the drawings and is not intended to limit the scope of the invention itself which may be practiced in a variety of forms and arrangements.

In the drawings and written description set forth, only general reference is made to the well known features of the standard turret or single station type press and this disclosure is directed to the novel punch and other improved apparatus which is designed for mounting on and use with said standard turret type presses.

The preferred form of indexing type nibbling punch equipped with a compressive stripper is shown assembled in FIG. 4 and is identified generally by the numeral 10. The punch apparatus 10 is supported at the topby a press member 16 and moves up and down relative to a stationary, horizontal work surface 17 and female die 18.

The components of punch apparatus 10 are shown in detail in FIG. 1 and comprise a punch support 20, a half member 40 which includes an upper shank half member 30 and a lower punch half member 56 and a stripper apparatus 120.

A generally cylindrical punch support 20 is provided with an upwardly-extending, T-shaped flange 21 which fits within a correspondingly shaped groove in press member 16 (FIG. 4). Punch support 20 has an axially directed cylindrical hole 22 formed in its base and a series of threaded radial indexing holes 23 extending inwardly from the surface to center hole 22. A series of radially directed continuous grooves 25 may be formed in the bottom surface of punch support 20 in addition to holes 23 to receive an indexing pin therein as described below (FIG. 6). An axial bore 27 is provided to receive a bolt 26 for the purpose described below.

A generally cylindrical half member 40 (FIG. 2) is detachably mounted against the bottom of punch support 20 by bolt 26. Half member 40 has a diameter slightly less than that of the punch support 20 (FIG. 4) and is composed of an upper shank half member 30 and a lower punch half member 50 which are held together by a pair of bolts 42 with aligning studs 39 (FIG. 2), member 30 having an annular flange 34 which fits within an annular recess 52 in member 50.

Upper shank half member 30 has an upwardly-directed shank 31 of such size as to fit within hole 22 of punch support 20 and said shank is provided with a series of radially located indexing grooves 32 which can be aligned with holes 23 when shank 31 is within hole 22. A threaded stud 24 is provided to thread in a selected hole 23 of support 20 and hence into a selected groove 32 so that half member 40 can be rotated around its vertical axis within support 20 when the stud 24 is withdrawn and then locked by the stud as shown in FIG. 4. The I vertically positioned supporting bolt 26 threads into shank 31 from punch support 20 as shown in FIG. 4 to provide the main support for half member 40.

As an alternative to indexing

holes

23, 32 and stud 24, an indexing pin 35 may be mounted in half member 40 and separably located in a selected groove 25 in the bottom of support 20 so as to allow member 40 to be positioned around its vertical axis as desired (FIG. 6). In the embodiment shown (FIG. 4), both forms of indexing the half member 40 and consequently the punch in relation to its support are shown but one means may be used independent of the other with entirely satisfactory results.

Shank half member 30 is provided with four uniform diameter equally spaced holes 36 extending upwardly from the bottom surface thereof. Four aligning heels 60 (FIG. 1), each having a small diameter neck 62, an axial slot 63, an arcuately shaped surface 64, a round shaped surface 66 and a snap ring 65 are mounted for limited axial or up and down movement in holes 36 in member 36'. Springs 37 fit around the necks 62 of the heels 60 and are mounted within holes 36 so as to continually urge the heels downwardly.

Punch half member 50, the second component of half member 40, has mounted on its downwardly-directed surface 56 a generally cubically shaped quadrant punch 79 having four arcuately curved side surfaces 7 land a relatively fiat downwardly-directed cutting surface 72. Each of the side surfaces 71 is curved along an arc defined by a radius which is equal to the width of the punch 70 measured across its center. Of course, punch 7% could be hexangular or octangular and the arc could be defined by a longer or shorter radius than that of the embodiment described herein. Four holes or bores 53 are formed in punch half member 50 (FIGS. 1 and 2) and these are of same size and relative location as holes 36 in shank half member 30, holes 53 being continued as grooves 74 in the side surfaces 71 of punch 70. The aligning heels 60 are mounted in half member 50 (FIGS. 4 and so that the springs 37 urge the heels outwardly and the snap rings 65 prevent the escape of the heels out of punch 70. Each heel 60 is prevented from rotating in its groove 74 by pins 80 which are mounted, together with springs 82, in horizontal bores 33 in punch 70. Pins 80 are spring biased into the axial slots 63 formed in the heels 60 thus allowing axial movement of the heels but not rotary movement. The heels 60 are mounted in punch 79 so that their curved sides 64 form part of the curved side surfaces 71 of the punch 70 as shown in FIG. 7. The curved heel sides, as well as the remaining side surfaces of the punch, fit tightly within the similarly shaped opening 100 formed in the female die 18 when the punch descends as shown in FIGS. 3 and 4.

A compressive stripper apparatus 120 shown in FIGS. 1, 4 and 5, is adapted for the nibbling quadrant punch and comprises a compression spring 122 having a diameter slightly larger than pun-ch 70, a cylindrical sleeve 124 having an inner diameter only slightly larger than the half member 50 and an inwardly-directed bottom flange 125 (FIGS. 4 and 5), and a fiat stripper disk 128. Sleeve 124 has an axial slot 123 and a pin 126 is provided to thread within a hole 54 in punch. member 50 to allow vertical movement of the sleeve Within the length of the slot. As shown in FIG. 4, sleeve 124 is mounted around half member 5% and spring 122 surrounds punch 70 and is mounted between the fiat downwardly-directed surface 56 of member 50 and the flange 125 of the sleeve. The metallic stripper disk 128, having a center hole 128a similar in size and shape as the punch 70, is held to the bottom of sleeve 124 by a plurality of magnets 129 which are mounted on the sleeve. The size and location of slot 123 in the sleeve are such that the stripper disk is located slightly ahead of or just level with the cutting surfaces of the heels 6% so. that upon downward movement of the punch, the stripper contacts the blank 101 and presses it against the die before or at the same time as the heels contact the blank. The stripper thus holds the blank on the die as the punch cuts a hole (FIG. 4) and as the punch is withdrawn (FIG. 5 thereby preventing the blank from hanging up on the withdrawing punch and being raised from the die. The stripper prevents double slugging of material and damage to the blank and press which often occurs if movement of the blank is permitted.

Operation of the preferred form of the indexing type nibbling quadrant punch press is substantially as follows. The punch and stripper are raised sufficiently high to allow a blank 101 to be inserted therebeneath and positioned on the die 18. The nibbling quadrant punch is particularly designed for punching out a piece or shape from material which is smaller in size than the total area of the punch cutting surface or face (FIG. 3). As shown in FIG. 3, the blank 101 has an earlier punched hole 11% and is positioned on the die 18 so that section 112, shown in dotted lines, will be cut out in the following stroke. As the press descends, the stripper and all of the aligning heels 60 are spring biased downwardly in advance of the bottom cutting surface of the punch. The stripper, preferably, contacts the blank first and presses it against the die as the punch continues to descend and the stripper spring compresses as indicated in FIG. 4. When a heel 64 contacts the blank it is forced upwardly until it bottoms in hole 36 in member 30 and the bottom cutting surface of that heel assumes a position level with the remaining bottom cutting surface of the punch and performs like any other part thereof. The important work is achieved by those heels which do not contact the blank, for instance heel 6th; in FIG. 3, as this heel then precedes the punch cutting surface and passes directly through the hole in the blank and into and against the side of the die 18 as shown in dotted lines. Because heel 60a is within the die before or at the time the remaining surface of the punch contacts the blank, the punch is prevented from moving sideways or sheering the blank. Of course, secondary movement of the blank is also prevented and an accurate, clean cut is produced. As the punch moves upwardly on the return stroke, the cutting surface of the punch and the heels pass out of the blank while the stripper continues to press the blank against the die as is shown in FIG. 5.

The curved side surfaces 71 of the punch make it possible for the punch to knock out a round hole whose circumference is formed by a series of arcs similar to that of one side surface of the punch. Referring to FIG. 8, the dot and dash lines indicate the areas knocked out by each stroke of the punch and it can be seen that the majority of the circle, areas A through D, is knocked out after four strokes of the punch with precise relocation of the blank between strokes. The punch is then rotated or indexed to a position 45 from the initiate position and the area marked E and similarly located areas around the circle are subsequently punched. In this way, with the curved side surfaces of the punch cutting the perimeter of the hole, a circle having a diameter twice that of the punch is cut. By making a series of strokes with the quadrant shaped punch, a limited capacity punch press can knock out a circle which would normally require a much greater capacity, single stroke press.

The quadrant shaped side surfaces and aligning heels ensure clean curved cuts. By means of the indexing holes 23, 32 and pin 24, or grooves 25 and pin 35, the shank and punch half members may be separated from support 20 after loosening bolt 26 and rotated, causing punch 70 to assume a new position relative to the Work blank with a minimum of time and effort.

The stripper disk may be modified to be formed from plastic or rubber and attached to the sleeve by spring arms or threads formed in both members. The disk can have a preformed center hole or can be made in blank and the hole punched on the first stroke of the punch.

Although this invention has been disclosed with reference to specific forms and embodiments thereof, it will be appreciated that a great number of variations may be made without departing from the spirit or scope of this invention. For example, parts may be reversed, equivalent elements may be substituted for those specifically disclosed, and certain features of the invention may be used independently of other features, all without departing from the spirit and scope of this invention as defined in the appended claims.

We claim:

1. In a turret type punch press or the like, a nibbling quadrant punch for knocking out round holes of greater diameter than the width of the punch, said punch comprising a punch mounted for axial movement relative to a female die, said punch having a relatively fiat downwardly-directed cutting surface and a plurality of arcuately shaped side surfaces, each surface having a defining radius which is greater in length than one-half of the width of the punch, and

a plurality of generally cylindrically shaped aligning heels mounted within the punch for axial movement partially independent thereof, at least a few of said heels having an arcuately shaped side surface forming part of the punch side surfaces, said heels being spring biased downwardly in advance of the punch cutting surface so as to extend into the female die when not encountering material thereon, so that after a series of strokes and movement of the blank on the die a hole is knocked out having a diameter greater than the width of the punch and having a circumference defined by the arc of the punch side surfaces.

2. The punch as defined in claim 1 further including means for adjusting the position of the punch around its vertical axis so that by making a series of strokes with the punch in first one position and then in a second position, the punch knocks out a complete hole.

3. The punch as defined in claim 1 wherein each side surface of the punch has an arc defined by a radius which is equal to the Width of the punch measured at its narrowest point, said punch width also defining the radius of the round hole.

4. The punch as defined in claim 3 wherein the punch has four side surfaces and means is provided to locate the punch at a position 45 from its initial position following four strokes in said initial position whereby four strokes in the second position are required to completely knock out a hole which has a radius equal to the width of the punch taken at its narrowest point.

5. In a turret type punch press or the like, a quadrant punch for knocking out round holes of greater diameter in the blank than the width of the punch, said punch comprising a punch and support member mounted for vertical movement relative to a stationary female die, said punch having a plurality of uniform diameter grooves extending therethrough from the cutting surface and extending into the support member as holes, said grooves being located contiguous the vertical sides of the punch so that the side surfaces of the punch truncate the grooves causing their perimeter to be less than 360, said side surfaces being arcuately shaped and each having a defining radius which is greater than one-half of the width of the punch,

a plurality of generally cylindrical aligning heels equal in number to the number of grooves, each of said heels having an axially directed arcuate surface which forms part of one arcuate side surface of the punch when assembled, said heels mounted in the grooves and hole for vertical movement independent of the punch and punch support within certain limits,

means for preventing the heels from rotating,

means for continually urging the heels in the direction of the die so that the heels extend beyond the downwardly-directed cutting surface of the punch when not forced upwardly by the blank upon downward movement of the punch, whereby subsequent to positioning the blank on the die and lowering the punch, each heel which does not contact the blank moves into the die before or at the same time as the punch contacts the blank thereby preventing lateral movement of the punch when only a portion of the punch cutting surface contacts the blank.

6. The punch as defined in claim 5 further including a punch support located above and supporting the punch and support member for vertical movement, said punch support having a plurality of radially directed indexing openings located around its cylindrical surface and an axially directed opening extending upwardly from its downwardly directed bottom surface,

said support member having an upwardly directed shank with a plurality of radially directed indexing openings therein, said openings located on the shank so as to align with the openings in punch support when the support member shank is mounted in the punch support opening, 7

an indexing plug of such size as to fit within the openings in the punch support and support member, and

an axially oriented bolt for attaching the support member to the punch support whereby when the bolt is loosened the support member can be rotated around its vertical axis to a selected position so that the indexing plug fits with aligned openings in the punch support and support member.

7. The punch as defined in claim 5 further including a stripper sleeve mounted for independent axial movement on the supporting member, said sleeve having a downwardly-directed surface located adjacent the punch cutting surface when not contacting the blank and having means for attaching the sleeve to the punch so that the sleeve moves partially with the punch but is free to move independently within defined limits in a vertical direction relative to the punch,

means for continually urging the sleeve in the direction of the die, and

a stripper supported by the sleeve on its downwardlydirected surface and forming a surface contiguous to and in the same plane as the downwardly-directed surface of the punch heels when not contacting the blank whereby following positioning of the blank and lowering of the punch proximate the blank, the stripper contacts and presses the blank against the die during the time the punch passes through the blank and is withdrawn.

8. The nibbling punch as defined in claim 7 wherein the means for continually urging the sleeve in the direc tion of the work surface comprises a compression spring surrounding the punch and located between the downwardly-directed surface of the punch support and an upwardly-directed flange surface of the sleeve.

ANDREW R. J UHASZ, Primary Examiner.

WILLIAM W. DYER, JR., Examiner.

J. M. MEISTER, Assistant Examiner.

Claims

1. IN A TURRET TYPE PUNCH PRESS OR THE LIKE, A NIBBLING QUADRANT PUNCH FOR KNOCKING OUT ROUND HOLE OF GREATER DIAMETER THAN THE WIDTH OF THE PUNCH, SAID PUNCH COMPRISING A PUNCH MOUNTED FOR AXIAL MOVEMENT RELATIVE TO A FEMALE DIE, SAID PUNCH HAVING A RELATIVELY FLAT DOWNWARDLY-DIRECTED CUTTING SURFACE AND A PLURALITY OF ARCUATED SHAPED SIDE SURFACES, EACH SURFACE HAVING A DEFINING RADIUS WHICH IS GREATER IN LENGTH THAN ONE-HALF OF THE WIDTH OF THE PUNCH, AND A PLURALITY OF GENERALLY CYLINDRICALLY SHAPED ALIGNING HEELS MOUNTED WITHIN THE PUNCH FOR AXIAL MOVEMENT PARTIALLY INDEPENDENT THEREOF, AT LEAST A FEW OF SAID HEELS HAVING AN ARCUATELY SHAPED SIDE SURFACE FORMING PART OF THE PUNCH SIDE SURFACES, SAID HEELS BEING SPRING BIASED DOWNWARDLY IN ADVANCE OF THE PUNCH CUTTING SURFACE SO AS TO EXTEND INTO THE FEMALE DIE WHEN NOT ENCOUNTERING MATERIAL THEREON, SO THAT AFTER A SERIES OF STROKES AND MOVEMENT OF THE BLANK ON THE DIE A HOLE IS KNOCKED OUT HAVING A DIAMETER GREATER THAN THE WIDTH OF THE PUNCH AND HAVING A CIRCUMFERENCE DEFINED BY THE ARC OF THE PUNCH SIDE SURFACES.