US917715A

US917715A - Machine for expanding sheet metal.

Info

Publication number: US917715A
Application number: US32506806A
Authority: US
Inventors: Lewis E Curtis
Original assignee: BRECKENRIDGE JONES
Current assignee: BRECKENRIDGE JONES
Priority date: 1906-07-07
Filing date: 1906-07-07
Publication date: 1909-04-06
Anticipated expiration: 1926-04-06

Description

'L. E. ,cumrls. MACHINE POB' Bxmnmm 81mm METAL.

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917,7 1 5 Patented Apr. 6, 1909.

Y L. E. CURTIS. MACHINE FOR EXPANDING SHEET METAL.

APPLICATION FILED JULY 7, 190B.

Patented Apr. 6, 1909.

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MACHINE FOR EXPANDING SHEE'i METAL.

PLIOATION FILED JULY 7, 19GB.

Patented Apr. 6, 1909.

59M 45M rwl L. E. CURTIS.

MACHINE FOR EXPANDING SHEET METAL.

APPLICATION FILED JULY 1, 190g.

917,715. Patented Apr. 6, 1909.

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L. E. GURTIS. MAoHmn r011 EXPANDING SHEET METAL.

LPPLIOATIOH FILED JULY 7, 190B.

Patented Apr 6, 1909.

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. is an improvement thereon.

UNITED STATES PATENI oEEIoE.

LEWIS E. CURTIS, CF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ASS IGNOR TO BRECKENRIDGE JONES, TRUSTEE,

' OF ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI.

MACHINE FQB EXPANDING SHEET METAL.

No. 91-min.

gpeciflcation of Letters Patent.

Patented April e, 1909.

Application filed July 7, 1900. Serial No. 325,068.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, LEWIS E. CURTIS, a citizen of the United States, residing in Chiin the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented a new and useful Impi'ovement in Machines for Expanding Sheet tion.

This. invention relates to a machine'for expanding sheet metal which has been pre-' viously .cut or slitted. It embodies the in vention set forth in the patent to me, dated August 1., .1905, and numbered 796 402, and Its ject has been to obtain aconstructiozrwhmh will insure more perfect work than previous.

.machines. In said patented machine, the

- the edge over w 'ch the sheet is sheet is drawn continuously overthe edge of a su cprt and deflected hway from the plane 0 t e sup ort as it moves off the same, drawn being in 'the construction illustrated, arranged at an angle to the direction of the feed, and in the preferred construction of the machine, also disclosed in the atent, the sheet is moved longitudinally over two diverging su ports which are adapted to deflect the si es of the sheet in opposite directions from the plane of the sheet, one, half" of the sheet upward and the other half downward, the sup orts mentioned being stationary. While t iese constructions were great imrovements on the prior art, and are calcuated to expand sheets more ,or less perfectly, and with a rapidity previously deemed impossible, I have conceived that an expanding machine constructed like the preferred construction of the patented one except that the supports over which, the sheet is moved and from which it is deflected are provided with moving instead of stationary surfaces,

would perform the work with the same rapidity but in a better manner than the patented machine, and avoid the dil'liculties met with in operating it.

To that end I have devised the machine of the present application, and it consists in the novel construction of parts and devices and in the novel combinations of parts and devices hereinafter set forth.

In the drawing,Figure 1 is-a plan of the 2 is a side elevation. Fig. 3 is a longitudinal vertical section. Fig. 4 is an enlarged side elevation of the cooperating feed chains acting on one side of.

etal, of which the following is a specifica" the sheet. Fig. 5 is a plan view of-the lower half of the right hand expander arm and Fig.

.6 is a bottom lan of the upper half of the same arm part y broken away. Fig. 7 is a crosssection on the line 77 of Fig. 4. Figs. 8, 9 and 10 are sectional views of a sheet undergoing expansion. Fig. 11 is a partial Ian of a slitted sheet upon which the mac me is adapted to operate. Fig.- 12 shows the expanded sheet.

Referring to said drawings, 15 represents the frame of the machine. 5 The drive shaft is shownat 10 reeeivingpower from the pulley 17 and communicating it to the machine b a pinion 18 meshing with a gear 19 on shat 20. Shaft 20 carries a gear 21 meshing with a car 22 upon a shaft 23 0x tendin across the machine and carrying at one si'e of the machine a gear 24 meshing with a gear 25 upon the shaft of a sprocket whee 26. This sprocket wheel is connected by achain 27 to another sprocket wheel 28 on the shaft 29. Shaft 29 carries a gear 30 and also a sprocket wheel 31 ads ted to actuate one of the feed chains. ear 30 upon shaft 29 meshes withanother ar 32 on the shaft 33 carr in a sprocket w eel 34 driving another of t e eed chains. On the shaft23- is a sprocket wheel 35 connected b2 a chain 36 to a sprocket wheel 37 on a she t 38; shaft 38 also carries a gear 300 similar to gear 30, and meshing with a gear 39 driving a shaft 390

Shafts

38 and 390 each carry a sprocket wheel not shown, adapted to actuate the feed chains of the downwardly in clined arm.

Upon the shaft 23 is mounted a feed roll 40 and said shaft also carries a pinion 41 mesh: ing with a pinion 42 on-the 3ournal of a second feed roll 43. These feed rolls coact in forcing the slitted sheets into the expander; The upper of these feed rolls is supported in a pivote frame 44, the pivot beingfhown .at '45 in such manner that it can e thrown over from its operatin position, shown in full lines at Fig. 3, to iilaat shown in dotted lines in the same figure. Said roll 43 is shcwn in Figs. 1 and 2 as thrown back to its non-acting position, thus destroying the mesh between its actuatingipinions 41 and 42. This enables access to be ad to the assin sheet. When in its acting position, t is ro 43. is held to its work by splrin s 46. The feed rolls 40 and 43 deliver t e s itted sheets between the stationary guides 47 and 48 as well as those of the and the ot i arms are substantialli alike-in construction,

- other.

parallel with ism.

be arms, one ripe'rating n one sidpftheeet or upon 'the ngher side. These difle only in the act that one is the revex-so the other and acts to force its side of the sheet upward while the other acts to force its side of the sheet downward, and consequently a description of one will answer in large measure for a descri tion of the The main feature of t e arms are tile feeding chains of which there are two in each'arm. Those in the right hand'or, upwardly inclined arm are shown at 50 and 51,

the former being the upper chain and locatd' above the sheet and the latter being the lower chain and located below the work. The chain 50 is made oflinks longitudinally grooved on their faces to in crease their holding power, "and runs over the driving sprocket 31 already mentioned, and, over a second sprocket 52 on a short shaft 53. The chain 51 is composed .of flat faced links, referably somewhat wider than the links of chain 50, and runs over the driving sprocket 34 above. mentioned, and also over another sprocket 54 011" a shaft 55. The chain 50 is arran ed the directionof the feed, w .le the chain 51 is arranged at an outward angle and both are in bearing contact with unexpanded parts of the sheet so long as any parts remain unexpanded, and the necessary pressure u on the work is caused by providing one of the chains with pressure devices back of that course of the chain which is in contact with the work. I prefer to combine these pressure devices with the grooved link chain 50, and they consist of rollers 56 'on studs 57 which are eccentrieally supported the zig zag ortion 62 of the frame of the arm, and t eir tension tends to rock the pivots in the direction which will cause pressure b the rollers.

Bac of that portion of chain 5] which bears against the work and consequently sustains the pressure caused by the. rollers 56, I place a series of anti-friction rollers 64 ada ted to ease the movement of the chain witllbut detracting from r the work. The bearin of the

shafts

29 and 53 are formed in the fii ngitudinal frame 65 pressure roller pivots, and the chain 50 is moved throughan inclosed path formed in the side of the frame and closed at its vertical side by the plate 66. The frame has a lateral flange 67 at its bottom which serves as a means of uniting frame 65 to the lateral flange 68 of the frame the s rocket wheel shafts o orthe rollers 64, an cersed lgssaid chain are shaped to conform to the The expanding devices which are now-to described 4 13i} practicallytwo d ver ng uplon rocking pivots 58 having, arms 59 t0 sliver e and as the.chains are ada the pressure upon 69 of the lower chain 51. Frame 69 is similar'to frame 65 and it furnishes bearings for crating chain 51 the ways travam, and a plate 70 closes said ways at the vertical side.

The two

frames

65 and 69 and the chainsunitedly term one of the diverging ex ander arms adapted to oper ate on one si e of the sheet and such arm is pivotally secured to the main frame at one end by the arm 71. The other ex ander arm is downwardly inclined but it is like the upwardly inclined arm in many res acts. It is provided with a longitudinal ame 69, having a lateral flange 68, is rovided with a grooved link chain 500 sim' ar to chain 50,

and with a fiat link chain 501 similarito chain 51 and with similar s rocket wheels for driving said chains. It ifiers from the upwardly inclined arm however in these a'dditional respects; the chains500 and 501 are reversed in location the former, being below the work and the latter aboveit', and the latter is arranged at an ad is to the line of movement of the sheet which. isv reversed from the angle of chain 50., ,Pressure rollers supported by eccentrics and controlled, by springs similar to rollers 56 are rovided actin upwardlly on chain 500,' an anti-friction r0 ers sim' ar to rollers 64 are provided above the lower course of chain 500. Chain 500 is arranged parallel to chain 50.

With this construction the operation is substantially as follows: The sheet which is advanced by the

rollers

40 and 43, after passing the guides 47 and 48, enters between the chains of the expander arms,

chains

50 and 51 taking hold of.it at one side of its central, longitudinal line and

chains

500,, and 501 taking hold of it at the other side of said line. As the paths of the two pairs of chains ted to gri thes eet firmly and to feed it a ong, it w' 1 be seen that as the sheet is moved one side or half of the sheet will and the otherside or half will be orced downward. This divergence in the paths of the chains causes such a strain upon theip i tionsof the sheet lying between the chag s as to force those portions to oped, and'as the

chains

50 and 501 are arranged at angles diverging oppositely from the center of the sheet, the chains wi' until finall sanded.

ortion of the sheet between those ens as the,. ppera'tio'n proceeds all portions of it:become exn the operation, the sheet is rawn or flows over the proximate sides or edges of chains 51 and 5.01, which serve the same purpose in o suing the slits as do the proximate edges 0 the'tables-or su ports of my said patent. At the point w are the sheet is first taken hold of by the chains, the chains 51and 501 come close together but their paths diverge from that point to their shift outward toward t e margins of the sheet and finally pass beyond the same, retainin however, in conjunction with chains and 500 such control of the sheet as is needed to cause the opening of all the slits in it. sponding to that of the rolls 40 and llland t e operation as an entiret is very similar to that of the patentedmac ine, the openin commencing at the center of the forward en of the sheet, and proceeding in gradually lengthenin diagonal lines exterldmgfrom the contra line to the margins. The unexpanded portions of the sheet are maintained in a flat condition until they reach theinner edge of and are drawn oil the chains 51' and 501. Each pair of chains thus constitutes a rip ing means comprising two continuous exi le grippers. ,Relativeto one of thesev two airs of chains, the, other pair may be considered as a holding'mean's which holds the sheet at one edge against transverse The upwardlytlicliried armis supported .atits outer or reagynd by an upstanding ar'm .400, in'conjunc n with a depending'projection 401, whi 1 is adjust-ably bolted to the arm by the bolt $02, and the downwardly inclined arm is sqpported at the rearend b' providing it with a depending leg 403, whic may be bolted td a stationary riser 404; To

adjust this armipi belt. 405 is arranged under leg 403.

' claim:

1. lna machine forexpan'ding a slitted sheet of metal, the combination, with means for holding the sheet at one edge against transverse edgewise movement, of a gripping means at the other edge of the sheet .compris? mg two continuous flexible rippers one at each side of the sheet, the gripping means A diverging from the holding means, and'me'chanism for causing a rogressive movement of the said holding an 'the said gripping means to cause the expgpsion of the sheet.

.50: "sheet of metal, the. combination of two gripeIfor expanding a slitted means, one at each edge of the sheet, sai two gripping means diverging from each other an each comprising two continuous flexible grippers, one at each side of the sheet; and mechanism for causing the 'pr0 gressive movement of the grippers to expand the sheet.

i diver eiit from each ot er in a direction at an angle to the normal plane of the" sheet;

All the chains-move at a speed corre-.

and mechanism for causing the progressive movement of the grippers to expand the sheet.

4. In a machine for expandin a slitted sheet of metal, the combination 0 two gripping devices, one at each edge of the sheet, the twogripping devices diverging from each other, and each gripping device having two gr'ippin surfaces extending continuously along t e sheet one at each side thereof, be-

4 tween which surfaces the sheet is held, and

mechanism for causing the progressive movement of said surfaces to expand the sheet.

5.- In a machine for expanding aslitted sheet of metal, the combination of two gripping means, one at each edge pf the sheet, said two gripping means diverging from each other, and each comprising two endless chains one at each side of the sheet, between which chains the sheet is held, andmechanism for causing a progressive movement of the'chains to expand the sheet.

6. In a machine for expanding a slitted sheet of metal, the combination, with means for holding the sheet at one edge against transverse edgewise movement, of a gripping means at the other edge of the sheet comprising two chains, one at each side of the sheet, between which chains the sheet is held, the said gripping means divergin from the holding means, and mechanism or causing a progressive movement of the said holding means and the said gripping means to cause the expansion of .the sheet.

7.- In a machine for expanding a slitted sheet of metal, the combination, with means for holding the sheet at one edge against.

transverse edgewise movement, of a gripping means at theother edge of the sheet comprising two continuous flexible grippers, one at each side of the sheet, the gripping means diverging from the holding means in a direction at an angle to the normal plane of the sheet, and mechanism forcausmg. the pro:

gressive movement of the said holding means and of the said gripping means to cause the sheet to be drawn over the edge of one of the grippers and cause'the progressive expansion of the sheet.

8. The machine. for expanding slitted sheets of metal, having diverging expander arms provided with moving pressure-exert 'ing chains respectively above and below the sheets. t,

9. The machine for expanding slitted sheets of metal, having diverging expander arms provided with feeding and expanding means consisting of opposing pressure-exerting chains arranged above and below the sheet andgrippin the unexpanded portionsthereof between t em.

10. The machine for expanding slit-ted sheets of metal having diverging expander arms, the feeding means whereo consistfgi opposing chains, one above and one belo the sheet and moving with it, and grippin its unexpanded marginal portions, sai chains being ada ted to release the widening expanded zone 0 the sheet as the operation proceeds.

11. The machine for expanding slitted sheets of metal having, divergin expander arms, the. feeding means whereo consist of opposing'chains in each arm, one above and one below the sheet and moving with it, and gripping its unex anded margins, one of eac pair of chains eing arranged parallel to the line of the feed and the other one of each pair being arranged at an angle to such line.

12. he met-al'expanding machine, the combination with diverging expander arms, of a pair of'feedi chains for each arm, one above andone be o'w the sheet and acting to grip the unexpandedmar ins of the sheet, one of each pair of chains firming an edge over which the sheet is drawn.

13; In a metal ex anding machine, the combination of two iverging pairs of gripping feeding chains adapted to grip the unexpanded margins ofthe sheet, one chain of each pair being above the sheet and onev chain of each pair below it.

14; In a metal ex anding machine, the combination of two lverging pairs of grip ping feeding chains, each (pair adapted to grip one of the unexpande margins of the sheet at the outer line of the expanding zone.

15. In a metal ex anding machine, the combinationof two iverging pairs of gripping feed chains arranged to grip the unexanded margins the sheet at the outer ines of the expanding zone and to shift their hold outwardly as that zone Widens.

16. In 'a metal ex anding machine, the combination of two iverging pairs of gripping feed chains, adapted to grip the unexanded margins of the sheet a ong the outer ines of the expandin z'one, their gripping action changing location with the widening of the expanded zone and during the operation;

17 In a machine for expanding previously slitted sheets, the combmatioh of pairs of continuously movin op osing chains gripping the surfaces of t e s eats and diverging supports traversed by said chains, each pair of said chains serving to draw the sheet off the ed e of the other pair.

18. he machine for expanding previously slitted sheet metal wherein are combined feeding means traveling with the sheet and adapted to hold alongitudinalmarginal portion of the unexpanded sheet in a fixed lane, with means for deflecting the adjacent ongi- V tudinal portion of the sheet from said plane and simultaneously expandin it.

19. Themachine for expan ing previously slitted sheet metal wherein are combined feeding means traveling with the sheet and adapted to hold a gradually narrowing longitudlnal marginal portion of the unex nded sheet in afixed plane,- with means or deflecting the adjacent longitudinal ortion of the sheet from said plane and simu taneously expanding it. a

20. The machine for expanding slitted sheets of metal, having diverging expanders provided with moving, continuous and flex1- le pressure exerting-devices respectively above and below the sheets.

LEWIS 'E. CURTISL