US3865012A

US3865012A - Skiving apparatus with laterally floating support platform for producing multi-gauge metal strip of uniform width

Info

Publication number: US3865012A
Application number: US333046A
Authority: US
Inventors: Roger E Laigle; Luis J Lozano
Original assignee: Anaconda Co
Current assignee: Aurubis Buffalo Inc
Priority date: 1973-02-16
Filing date: 1973-02-16
Publication date: 1975-02-11
Anticipated expiration: 1992-02-11
Also published as: LU69393A1; BE811078A; CA1011143A; FR2218171A1; BR7401143D0; IT1007322B; FR2218171B3; NL7401464A; SE7401994L; JPS5024880A; DE2406763A1

Abstract

Skiving apparatus for skiving the delicate thinner edge of a multi-gauge metal strip to produce uniform width of the thin gauge strip with a skiving tool and including a guide which embraces the outer and inner edge surfaces of the thick portion of the multi-gauge strip to maintain a fixed distance between a thick portion of the strip and the skiving tool and having a laterally floating support platform upon which the skiving tool and thick portion guide are mounted. The support platform is provided with antifriction travelling bearings which engage guideways extending laterally with respect to the path of movement of the multi-gauge strip. The support platform is therefore permitted to move freely laterally on the guideways as controlled by the outer and inner edge surfaces of a thick portion of the strip to accommodate any lateral undulations or snakiness due to edgewise curvature (also called ''''camber'''') and reversals of camber of the multi-gauge strip thus avoiding variations in the width to which the delicate thin edge of the strip is being skived.

Description

United States Patent [191 Laigle et al.

[4 1 Feb. 11, 1975 1 SKIVING APPARATUS WITII LATERALLY FLOATING SUPPORT PLATFORM FOR PRODUCING MULTI-GAUGE METAL STRIP OF UNIFORM WIDTH [75] Inventors: Roger E. Laigle, Torrington; Luis J. Lozano, Southington, both of Conn.

[73] Assignee: The Anaconda Company,

Anaconda, Mont.

22 Filed: Feb. 16, 1973 21 Appl. No; 333,046

[52] US. Cl. 90/24 F, 83/441, 83/428 [51] Int. Cl. B23d l/26 [58] Field of Search 91/24 F; 83/368, 433, 468,

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 793.111 6/1905 Von Culin 83/468 3,728,925 4/1973 Peters 83/428 X Primary ExaminerTravis S. McGehee Assistant E.\'aminerZ. R. Bilinsky Attorney, Agent, or FirmBryan, Parmelee, Johnson & Bollinger [57] ABSTRACT Skiving apparatus for skiving the delicate thinner edge of a multi-gauge metal strip to produce uniform width of the thin gauge strip with a skiving tool and including a guide which embraces the outer and inner edge surfaces of the thick portion of the multi-gauge strip to maintain a fixed distance between a thick portion of the strip and the skiving tool and having a laterally floating support platform upon which the skiving tool and thick portion guide are mounted. The support platform is provided with antifriction travelling bearings which engage guideways extending laterally with respect to the path of movement of the multi-gauge strip. The support platform is therefore permitted to move freely laterally on the guideways as controlled by the outer and inner edge surfaces of a thick portion of the strip to accommodate any lateral undulations or snakiness due to edgewise curvature (also called camber) and reversals of camber of the multi-gauge strip thus avoiding variations in the width to which the delicate thin edge of the strip is being skived.

10 Claims, 6 Drawing Figures PATEMEB FEB] 1 I975 SHEET 10E 3 Wil 1! v V N & ww

PATENIH] FEB] H975 sum; 30F 3 SKIVING APPARATUS WITH LATERALLY FLOATING SUPPORT PLATFORM FOR PRODUCING MULTI-GAUGE METAL STRIP OF UNIFORM WIDTH BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to a skiving apparatus for skiving the thin delicate edge portion of a multi-gauge metal strip to uniform width. Such uniform multi-gauge strip may be used to advantage for various commercial applications. Examples of commerical end uses for such strip include the making of electrical terminals, lead frames for integrated circuits, fuse links, and commutators for electric motors. In each of these end uses it is critical to have a very uniform multi-gauge strip to provide proper functioning of the electrical equipment. As an example of the critical requirements it is noted that the conducting surface of the commutator of an AC and DC type electric motor,.which is engaged by the motors brushes, may be fabricated from a multigauge strip such as is produced by the present invention. In such an application, the multi-gauge strip is wrapped around a supporting cylinder on the armature of the motor when it is properly slotted and electrically connected to form the completed commutator. This technique of utilizing a multi-gauge strip enables such AC-DC type motors to be mass-produced at a relatively low cost while achieving a high quality. If the multigauge strip from which the commutator is made is not of uniform width, the armature of the electric motor may be imbalanced. In a precision built electric motor, such imbalance can create problems in operation and short life expectancy.

It is among the advantages provided by the present invention that muIti-gauge metal strip can be produced rapidly and yet with a high degree of precision and uniformity. In particular, the delicate thin edge portion of the multi-gauge strip is precisely skived to an accurate uniform width in spite of the fact the the strip may undulate back and forth in the edgewise direction as it moves through the skiving station.

Whenever there is a need to produce a multi-gauge metal strip with a precise relationship between the thin edge and a thicker portion of the strip located remotely from the thin edge, this invention can be employed with resultant substantial advantages, such as, increased precision and increased speed of production.

In prior art devices that skiving tool is guided in whole or in part by the edge itself which is being skived. In accordance with the present invention the laterally floating skiving tool for skiving the delicate thin edge of the multi-gauge strip is guided solely and entirely by a thick portion of the strip which extends along the strip remote from the thin edge which is being skived.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION I In the preferred embodiment of the present invention to be described hereinbelow in detail, the skiving apparatus for accurately and uniformly skiving the delicate thin edge of a multi-gauge strip of copper base metal or alloy includes a skiving tool and a guide which embraces and engages opposite shoulder surfaces of a thick portion of the multi-gauge strip so that the skiving tool is always maintained at a fixed distance from a thick portion to produce precision skiving of the delicate thin edge. The tool and the guide are mounted on a floating support platform which is provided with laterally travelling antifriction bearing bushings. These laterally movable bearings permit the floating support platform to move freely in a lateral direction as controlled by the opposite shoulder surfaces of a thick portion of the strip to track any lateral undulations of the strip, thus avoiding variations in the width to which the delicate thin edge is being skived.

The multi-gauge strip may not be longitudinally straight, that is it may undulate in a lateral direction due to edgewise curvature and reversals in such curvature. Since the support platform is permitted to float (move freely) back and forth on the lateral guideways, the apparatus accommodates this lateral undulation without changing the distance between the skiving tool and the points at which a thick portion of the strip is being engaged on its opposite shoulder surfaces by the guide. This thick portion guiding and the floating support action interact to provide accurate and uniform skiving of the delicate thin strip edge. In this manner, the problem of gouging off excess material at the convex curved regions of the thin edge resulting from lateral strip undulations is overcome, and accurate, uniform width multi-gauge strip is produced at a high production rate.

Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide unique and novel method and apparatus for skiving the thin edge of multi-gauge strip metal at a rapid production rate so that the strip produced has accuatem'ifararwiath throughout its'le'n'g'th.

Other objects, aspects, and advantages of the present invention will be pointed out in, or will become understood from the following detailed description, when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings which are briefly described below and which show the presently preferred mode of putting this invention into practice.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a front elevational view of skiving apparatus with a laterally floating, i.e., freely movable, support platform for producing multi-gauge strip of uniform width and having a thin skived edge.

FIG. 2 is a top plan view of this skiving apparatus.

FIG. 3 is a partial cross sectional view of the thick portion embracing guide and the skiving tool taken through plane 3-3 in FIG. 2 looking toward the top, and being shown on somewhat larger scale than FIG. 1.

FIG. 4 is a partial end elevational view of this skiving apparatus showing the pair of fixed lateral guideways and the antifriction traveling bearing bushings which ride on these guideways.

FIGS. 5 A and 5B show enlarged cross sections of two different configurations of multi-gauge metal strip with which the present invention can be used to advantage.

Corresponding reference numerals indicate corresponding structural elements and characteristics in each of the respective drawings.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMOBODIMENTS Referring to FIGS. 1, 2, and 4, the skiving apparatus 10, constructed in accordance with the preferred embodiment of the present invention, is shown in normal operating position with respect to the multi-gauge strip 11. The apparatus 10 includesa skiving assembly 12 mounted on two fixed transverse circular shafts or guideways l4 and 15. The skiving assembly 12 commounted in each of the leg blocks 18. The axes of the alternatively may be produced by welding the edge of a" thin portion of the strip against an edge of a thicker portion. In order to employ the skiving apparatus of the present invention with the guide means for embracing a thick portion, the thick portion of the multi-gauge strip 11 should be significantly thicker than the thin portion to define distinct engageable shoulder surfaces on opposite sides of the thick portion.

As shown in detail in FIG. 3, a thick portion embracing guide means 22 and a skiving tool 24, are mounted on the top of the support platform 16. The skiving tool 24 is secured in an accepting recess 26 held in a laterally adjustable tool block 28 by a clamp plate 30 (FIG. 2) and a clamp screw 32. This-tool block 28 is provided with an internal elongated adjusting slot 34 which accepts a locking bolt 36 tapped into the support platform 16. When this locking bolt 36 is tightened, a washer 38 on the bolt 36 bears down against the tool block 28 to secure it in its adjusted position.

The guide means 22 includes a similar holding block 40 (FIG. 2) which also is provided with an internal elongated adjusting slot 42 to accept a locking bolt 44 tapped into the support base platform 16. When the bolt 44 is tightened, an identical washer 46 bears down against the top of the guide holding block 40 to secure it in its adjusted position. This block 40 is further provided with a depressed flat strip guide bed 48 (FIG. 3) on which part of the multi-gauge strip 11 is supported. The balance of the width of the multi-gauge strip 11 rides on a support plate 49 which is anchored to and spans across between the

parallel wall members

64 and 65.

In order to guide the strip 11 there is a C-shaped strip retainer guide 50 opposed to the guide bed 48, both of which are surfaced with a low friction substance. Two

screws 52 hold and position the strip retainer guide 50 against the guide bed 48. This guide 50 has a longitudinal, rectangular channel recess 54 (FIG. 3) extending along its length defining first and second spaced vertical

parallel sidewalls

56, 58 dimensioned to slidably engage both shoulder surfaces 57 and 59 (FIG. A), respectively, of a thick portion 60 of the multi-gauge strip 11 to be skived. The first sidewall 56 of the C-shaped guide 50 engages one shoulder surface 57 of the thick strip portion 60. In view of the fact that this thick portion 60 is significantly thicker than the thin strip portion 90, there is an abrupt upstanding step surface or shoulder 59 of the thick portion 60 which is engageable by the second sidewall 58 of the overhanging lip 62 of the C-shaped guide 50. The base 63 of the guide 50 is thicker, i.e., higher, than the height of the depending lip 62, thus providing sufficient running clearance between the bed surface 48 and the overhanging lip 62 of the guide 50 to accomodate the thin portion 90 of the strip. The running clearance used with the guide 50 is of the order of 00005 of an inch.

' The strip retainer guide 50 may be interchanged with others of various recess dimensions to accomodate multi-gauge strips having thick portions 60 with different dimensions and configurations. For example, FIG.

5B shows the cross section of another multi-gauge metal strip 11A of different configuration in which the thick portion 60 defines a pair of upstanding shoulder surfaces 57 and 59 on its opposite sides.

The guide block 40 and the skiving tool holding block 28 are adjustably positioned opposing one another in a deep channel defined by two spaced

parallel wall members

64 and 65 welded or otherwise rigidly secured to the top of the support platform base 16. A- pair of micrometer-type adjusting screws 66 and 67' are mounted in end barriers 68 which span the distance between the

wall members

64 and 65 at either side of the support platform 16. The end barriers 68 are firmly attached to the wall members by screws 70. An adjusting shaft 72 isassociated with each ofYhemicromete r-type adjusting screws, one of which works against the outside of the guide block 40, the other of which works against the outside of the tool holding block 28.

The skiving assembly 12 is also provided with a strip to hold down device 74 which includes a pair of mounting bolts 76, a T-shaped (FIG. 2) arm support 78, and a variably positionable pressure pad 80. The mounting bolts 76, tapped into the top of the wall member 65,are spaced apart so as to avoid interference with the multigauge strip 11 being skived. Each mounting bolt 76 is provided with a lower brace nut 82 (FIGS. 1 and 3) and an upper lock nut 84 between which the T-bar support arm 78 is secured. The pressure pad is mounted at the base of a height positioning screw 86 which is located in a correspondingly threaded bore 88 at the end of the T-arm support 78. In this manner, the pressure pad is positioned opposite the flat guide bed 48 of the strip guide 22 and exerts a pressure against the top of the thin portion 90 of the multi-gauge strip 11 as predetermined by the height positioning screw 86. A lock nut 91 is provided on the height positioning screw 86 to hold this pressure setting.

Input and output roller 92 and 93 (FIG. 2) mounted in

end brackets

94 and 95 are located on either end of the support platform 16 to support the multi-gauge strip 1 1 as it enters and leaves the skiving apparatus 10.

The skiving apparatus, described above, is operated in the following manner. A strip retainer guide 50 is selected of dimensions suitable to mate with a thick portion 60 of the multi-gauge strip 11 to be skived in snug slidable embracing relation with the guide base 63 ini tially held loosely against the flat guide bed 48 by the screws 52. The skiving tool 24 is secured in the tool block 28 by the clamp plate 30 and clamp screw 32. The width to which the multi-gauge strip is to be skived is then set by turning the micrometer-type adjusting screws 66 and 67 until the adjusting rods 72 position the guide block 40 and tool block 28 in their desired locations. Once this setting has been made, further movement of the housing blocks is prevented by tightening the

lock bolts

36 and 44 which clamp the blocks to the support platform 16.

Next, the multi-gauge strip 11 is started over the roller 92 and between the guide bed 48 and the overhanging C-shaped guide 50 and is brought out over the roller 93. The guide 50 is tightened down by the screws 52 so that the opposite shoulder surfaces of a thick portion 60 of the multi-gauge strip are snuggly slidably embraced by the spaced vertical

parallel sidewalls

56 and 58 of the channel 54 in the guide 50. The curl inhibitor T-arm 78 is now secured on its mounting bolts 76, tightly fitted between the corresponding brace nuts 82 and lock nuts 84. The pressure pad 80 is positioned opposite the guide bed 48 on top of the thin portion 90 of the multi-gauge strip. The bearing pressure of pad 80 is set by the positioning screw 86 which is locked at that setting by the lock nut 91. The multi-gauge strip is then fed through the skiving apparatus by a conventional strip feed mechanism (not shown). The strip passes over the input roller 92, between the guide bed 48 and retainer guide 50 and pressure pad 80, past the skiving tool 24 which then skives the thin portion 90 and out over the output roller 93. This skiving of the thin portion 90 may serve to fair or round the edge 91 (FIG. 5A or 5B) or otherwise precisely shape this edge as may be desired for the intended commercial end use of the strip 11 or 11A.

The unique advantage of the present invention is that the strip width as set between the retainer guide sidewalls 56, S8 and the skiving tool 24 does not vary with lateral undulations of the strip. Rather lateral strip undulations cause the entire skiving assembly 12 to laterally float on the guideways l4 and 15 as carried by the bearing bushings 20. Since the step surface of shoulder in the strip 11 which is engaged by the guide wall surface 58 is produced by a rolling operation as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,488,989, the dimensions of this shoulder and the opposite shoulder engaged by guide surface 56 remain the same without significant variation along the length of the strip 11. Thus a precise steering action is provided by embracing this thick portion of the strip with a guide. Since the delicate thin edge 90 of the multi-gauge strip 11 is not used as a guide for skiving tool 24, gouges of the material do not occur. Consequently, an accurate uniform strip width is obtained while operating at any convenient feed rate within a wide possible range up to as much as 1,000 feet per minute or more and down to 16 feet per minute, as may be desired to coordinate with other operations along the processing line for the strip 11. Quality skiving has been accomplished using the present invention at speeds as low as 16 feet per minute on annealed copper, but in general higher speeds result in a better cut. Annealed copper is mentioned as an example because it is soft and more difficult to skive than many harder alloys.

The skiving methods and apparatus of the present invention can be used to advantage for skiving the thin edge of all ferrous and non-ferrous alloys and metals which are usually skived.

The tempers of the metal and alloys which can be skived by apparatus as disclosed embodying this invention range from soft annealed copper to extra spring temper stainless steels.

The tolerances of the strip 11 going into the apparatus are the usual commercial slitting or rolling tolerances according to ASTM standards.

The tolerances of the width of the thin edge skived portion 90 coming out of the apparatus 10 are regularly accurate to within plus or minus 0.0005 of an inch.

. Although a specific embodiment of the invention has been disclosed in detail herein, it is to be understood that this is for purposes of illustration. This disclosure of skiving apparatus for producing multi-gauge strip of accurate uniform width should not be construed as limiting the scope of the invention, since modifications may be made in the described structure by those skilled in the art in order to adapt the apparatus to particular multi-gauge strip skiving applications.

We claim:

1. Skiving apparatus for skiving to uniform width the thin edge portion of a multi-gauge metal strip having a thick portion significantly thicker than the thin edge portion such that the thick portion defines a pair of shoulder surfaces on the strip facing in opposite directions, said skiving apparatus comprising:

a base;

a skiving tool mounted on the base for skiving the thin edge portion of the multi-gauge strip,

guide means mounted on the base including a lower guide positioned beneath the thick portion of the strip, said guide means being located on said base with a predetermined spacing from said skiving tool,

said guide means including a retainer positioned above said thick portion of the strip and located over said lower guide, said retainer having a channel recess dimensioned to slidably engage upon the pair of opposite shoulder surfaces of said thick portion of the strip with a running clearance of the order of 0.0005 of an inch, said skiving tool being mounted laterally to one side of both said shoulder surfaces and laterally floating support means for said base including fixed transverse guideway means enabling said base to move laterally relative to the direction of feed of said multi-gauge strip to track any lateral undulations of the strip without affecting the predetermined width of the skived thin portion of the metal strip as determined by the predetermined spacing between said guide means and said skiving tool,

whereby the tolerance of the width of the skived thin edge portion of the strip is regularly accurate to within plus or minus 0.0005 of an inch.

2. Skiving apparatus for skiving to uniform width the thin edge portion of a multi-gauge metal strip having a portion significantly thicker to define opposite shoulder surfaces on the thicker portion, said skiving apparatus comprising:

a base,

a skiving tool mounted on the base for skiving the thin edge of the multi-gauge strip,

first and second guide means mounted on said base for guiding the skiving tool in relation to the multigauge strip, said first guide means being adapted to engage one shoulder surface of a thicker portion of the strip, said second guide means being adapted to engage the other shoulder surface of the same thicker portion of the strip for guiding this thicker portion through the apparatus, said first and second guide means being operatively secured on said base with predetermined lateral spacing therebetween for maintaining said thicker portion at a predetermined distance from said skiving tool, said skivin g tool being mounted on said base to one side of and exteriorly of said lateral spacing and laterally floating support means for said base including fixed transverse guideways enabling said base to move laterally relative to the direction of feed of said multi-gauge strip to track any lateral undula tions of the strip without affecting the predetermined width of the thin edge portion of the skived metal strip as determined by the predetermined spacing between said guide means and said skiving tool.

3. Skiving apparatus for skiving the thin edge portion of a multi-gauge metal strip to uniform width comprising:

a base,

guide means mounted on said base for guiding the skiving tool in relationship to the multi-gauge strip, said guide means defining first and second spaced parallel guide sidewalls, said first guide sidewall being adapted to engage a shoulder surface of a thick portion of the strip, said second guide sidewall being adapted to engage another shoulder surface of that thick portion of the strip for guiding that thick portion of said multi-gauge strip through said apparatus,

said first and second guide sidewalls and said skiving tool being operatively secured on said base with predetermined lateral spacing therebetween for maintaining said thick portion at a predetermined distance from said skiving tool, said skiving tool being mounted on said base to one side of and exteriorly of said lateral spacing and laterally floating support means for said base including fixed transverse guideway means enabling said base to move laterally relative to the direction of feed of said multi-gauge strip to track any lateral undulations of the strip without affecting the predetermined width of the thin edge portion of the skived strip as determined by the predetermined spacing between said guide means and skiving tool.

4. The multi-gauge strip skiving apparatus as claimed in claim .3, wherein said guide means comprises:

a flat guide bed for supporting said multi-gauge strip in sliding relation,

a C-shaped retainer guide having a channel recess therein for accepting a thick portion of said multigauge strip to prevent lateral motion of said strip in relation to said skiving tool, and

mounting means for slidably positioning said multigauge strip between said guide bed and said retainer guide with said thick portion of said multigauge strip slidably accepted within said channel recess. i

5. The multi-gauge strip skiving apparatus as claimed in claim 4 in which a pressure pad engages the thin portion of the strip between the said skiving tool and said guide means and adjustable pressure means'pushes said pad against said thin portion.

6. The multi-gauge strip skiving apparatus as claimed in claim 3, wherein said laterally floating support means includes a plurality of fixed guideways extending transversely of the direction of feed of said strip and wherein said base is supported on said guideways by travelling antifriction bearings to permit free lateral movement of said base.

7. The multi-gauge strip skiving apparatus as claimed in claim 6, wherein said fixed guideways are circular shafts and said antifriction bearings are antifriction bearing bushings disposed in encompassing relation about said circular shafts.

8. The skiving apparatus as claimed in claim 2, wherein said skiving tool is mounted on a housing block and said first and second guide means are mounted on a sliding housing block, and wherein said floating support platform has parallel positioning walls, said blocks being aligned in opposing relation of said floating supporting platform between said parallel positioning walls.

9. The skiving apparatus as claimed in claim 8, wherein micrometer-type adjusting screws are provided, each mounted between said positioning walls of a fixed member and each connected to one of said slidable housing blocks for selectively varying the lateral position of said sliding housing blocks.

10. The skiving apparatus as claimed in claim 2, wherein curling inhibiting means are provided comprismg:

a flat guide bed for supporting said multi-gauge metal strip as it is fed through said skiving apparatus,

a bearing pad,

a positioning arm for holding said bearing pad in opposing relation to said flat guide bed to slidably clamp the thin portion of said multi-gauge metal strip between said bearing member and said flat guide bed to inhibit curling of said thin portion.

Claims

1. Skiving apparatus for skiving to uniform width the thin edge portion of a multi-gauge metal strip having a thick portion significantly thicker than the thin edge portion such that the thick portion defines a pair of shoulder surfaces on the strip facing in opposite directions, said skiving apparatus comprising: a base; a skiving tool mounted on the base for skiving the thin edge portion of the multi-gauge strip, guide means mounted on the base including a lower guide positioned beneath the thick portion of the strip, said guide means being located on said base with a predetermined spacing from said skiving tool, said guide means including a retainer positioned Above said thick portion of the strip and located over said lower guide, said retainer having a channel recess dimensioned to slidably engage upon the pair of opposite shoulder surfaces of said thick portion of the strip with a running clearance of the order of 0.0005 of an inch, said skiving tool being mounted laterally to one side of both said shoulder surfaces and laterally floating support means for said base including fixed transverse guideway means enabling said base to move laterally relative to the direction of feed of said multi-gauge strip to track any lateral undulations of the strip without affecting the predetermined width of the skived thin portion of the metal strip as determined by the predetermined spacing between said guide means and said skiving tool, whereby the tolerance of the width of the skived thin edge portion of the strip is regularly accurate to within plus or minus 0.0005 of an inch.

2. Skiving apparatus for skiving to uniform width the thin edge portion of a multi-gauge metal strip having a portion significantly thicker to define opposite shoulder surfaces on the thicker portion, said skiving apparatus comprising: a base, a skiving tool mounted on the base for skiving the thin edge of the multi-gauge strip, first and second guide means mounted on said base for guiding the skiving tool in relation to the multi-gauge strip, said first guide means being adapted to engage one shoulder surface of a thicker portion of the strip, said second guide means being adapted to engage the other shoulder surface of the same thicker portion of the strip for guiding this thicker portion through the apparatus, said first and second guide means being operatively secured on said base with predetermined lateral spacing therebetween for maintaining said thicker portion at a predetermined distance from said skiving tool, said skiving tool being mounted on said base to one side of and exteriorly of said lateral spacing and laterally floating support means for said base including fixed transverse guideways enabling said base to move laterally relative to the direction of feed of said multi-gauge strip to track any lateral undulations of the strip without affecting the predetermined width of the thin edge portion of the skived metal strip as determined by the predetermined spacing between said guide means and said skiving tool.

3. Skiving apparatus for skiving the thin edge portion of a multi-gauge metal strip to uniform width comprising: a base, a skiving tool mounted on the base for skiving the thin edge of the multi-gauge strip, guide means mounted on said base for guiding the skiving tool in relationship to the multi-gauge strip, said guide means defining first and second spaced parallel guide sidewalls, said first guide sidewall being adapted to engage a shoulder surface of a thick portion of the strip, said second guide sidewall being adapted to engage another shoulder surface of that thick portion of the strip for guiding that thick portion of said multi-gauge strip through said apparatus, said first and second guide sidewalls and said skiving tool being operatively secured on said base with predetermined lateral spacing therebetween for maintaining said thick portion at a predetermined distance from said skiving tool, said skiving tool being mounted on said base to one side of and exteriorly of said lateral spacing and laterally floating support means for said base including fixed transverse guideway means enabling said base to move laterally relative to the direction of feed of said multi-gauge strip to track any lateral undulations of the strip without affecting the predetermined width of the thin edge portion of the skived strip as determined by the predetermined spacing between said guide means and skiving tool.

4. The multi-gauge strip skiving apparatus as claimed in claim 3, wherein said guide means comprises: a flat guide bed for supporting said multi-gauge strip in sliding relAtion, a C-shaped retainer guide having a channel recess therein for accepting a thick portion of said multi-gauge strip to prevent lateral motion of said strip in relation to said skiving tool, and mounting means for slidably positioning said multi-gauge strip between said guide bed and said retainer guide with said thick portion of said multi-gauge strip slidably accepted within said channel recess.

5. The multi-gauge strip skiving apparatus as claimed in claim 4 in which a pressure pad engages the thin portion of the strip between the said skiving tool and said guide means and adjustable pressure means pushes said pad against said thin portion.

10. The skiving apparatus as claimed in claim 2, wherein curling inhibiting means are provided comprising: a flat guide bed for supporting said multi-gauge metal strip as it is fed through said skiving apparatus, a bearing pad, a positioning arm for holding said bearing pad in opposing relation to said flat guide bed to slidably clamp the thin portion of said multi-gauge metal strip between said bearing member and said flat guide bed to inhibit curling of said thin portion.