Bearing structure and press molding apparatus having the structure

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a cross section view of an internal structure of press molding apparatus according to an embodiment of the invention, schematically showing a state before pressing a sheet material as a workpiece;

FIG. 2 is a cross section view schematically showing an internal structure of the press molding apparatus immediately after pressing the sheet material;

FIG. 3 is a cross section view schematically showing an internal structure of the press molding apparatus after pressing the sheet material;

FIG. 4 is a perspective view schematically showing a bearing provided in a lower mold of the press molding apparatus;

FIG. 5 is a cross section view schematically showing the bearing;

FIG. 6A is a front view schematically showing the periphery of a bearing hole as a relevant part of the bearing in an enlarged manner;

FIG. 6B is a front view imaginarily showing a condition that a support shaft is inserted into the bearing hole;

FIG. 7 is cross section view schematically showing a rotational die provided in the lower mold of the press molding apparatus in an enlarged manner; and

FIG. 8 is an explanatory view showing a positional relationship between the support shaft of the rotational die and an end of a bottom.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Next, the invention will be described in detail according to a specific embodiment.

A bearing structure according to the embodiment of the invention and press molding apparatus having the structure are described using FIGS. 1 to 8. FIGS. 1 to 3 schematically show an internal structure of press molding apparatus 1 in a cross section view. FIG. 1 shows a condition before performing pressing using a rotational die 3 to a sheet material 2 as a workpiece; FIG. 2 shows a condition immediately after pressing the sheet material 2 by the rotational die 3; and FIG. 3 shows a condition where the rotational die 3 is separated from the sheet material 2 after pressing. While the rotational die 3 is in an L-shape here, it may be in any other shape such as a cylindrical shape.

In the press molding apparatus 1, at least a lower mold 4 and an upper mold 5 are provided. In the lower mold 4, the rotational die 3 is arranged in a rotatable manner with a support shaft 6 as a center.

FIG. 4 schematically shows a bearing 7 provided in the rotational die 3 in a schematic view, the bearing being for rotatably pivoting the support shaft 6; and FIG. 5 shows a vertical section of the bearing. The bearing 7 is provided in a predetermined position in the lower mold 4. In the bearing 7, a bearing hole 8 for rotatably pivoting the support shaft 6 is formed.

A bearing 8a may be arranged in the bearing hole 8 so that the support shaft 6 can be rotated more easily. Moreover, to facilitate operation of inserting the support shaft 6 for assembling, the bearing 7 is preferably provided in a manner of being separated into a bearing body 7a situated at a lower side of the support shaft 6 for substantially pivoting the support shaft 6 when the support shaft 6 is inserted, and a bearing cover member 7b being situated at an upper side of the support shaft 6 to cover the upper side of the support shaft 6 and thus preventing falling off of the shaft and supplementary pivoting the support shaft 6.

Generally, inner diameter of the bearing hole 8 (or bearing 8a) and diameter of the support shaft 6 are preferably formed with high dimension accuracy within 1/100 mm to keep accuracy in pressing. However, in the case of using the bearing 7 separated into the bearing body 7a and the bearing cover member 7b as described before, while inner diameter of the bearing body 7a and the diameter of the support shaft 6 are preferably made with high dimension accuracy within 1/100 mm, inner diameter of the bearing cover member 7b and the diameter of the support shaft 6 may be in a freely fitting condition in some degree if the member 7b can supplementary pivot the upper side of the support shaft 6, because the bearing cover member 7b does not substantially pivot the support shaft 6 due to gravity.

The bearing body 7a and the bearing cover member 7b are assembled by fastening them using bolts 9 or the like after the support shaft 6 has been inserted. In consideration of insertion of the support shaft 6, the bearing body 7a and the bearing cover member 7b are preferably separated at a horizontal line 8c passing through a center of the inner diameter of the bearing hole 8 formed at a side of the bearing body 7a, as shown in FIG. 6A showing the periphery of the bearing hole 8 in an enlarged manner. The reason for this is because when they are separated at an upper side or a lower side with respect to such a horizontal line Bc of the inner diameter of the bearing hole 8, size of a bore formed by such separation becomes small compared with length of the horizontal line 8c as the diameter of the inner diameter of the bearing hole 8 to be the maximum length, consequently it becomes small compared with the diameter of the support shaft 6, and therefore the support shaft 6 can not be smoothly inserted. The horizontal line 8c passing through the center of the inner diameter of the bearing hole 8 formed at the side of the bearing body 7a means an imaginary line passing through a substantially central portion 8d of the bearing hole 8 (position corresponding to a central portion of the support shaft 6 when the support shaft 6 is inserted), and being in a perpendicular direction (horizontal direction) to a gravity direction (vertical direction) applied to the support shaft 6 to be inserted.

The inner diameter of the bearing body 7a separated by the horizontal line 8c passing through the center of the inner diameter of the bearing hole 8 formed at the side of the bearing body 7a, that is, inner diameter of a lower-side bearing hole 8e in a lower side of the bearing 7 is formed in a semicircular shape to have a diameter with high dimension accuracy within 0 mm to + 1/100 mm compared with the diameter of the support shaft 6. On the other hand, the inner diameter of the bearing cover member 7b, that is, inner diameter of an upper-side bearing hole 8f in an upper side of the bearing 7 is formed in a semicircular shape having a diameter slightly large compared with the diameter of the support shaft 6, and preferably having a diameter approximately 0.2 mm larger than the diameter of the support shaft 6 irrespective of size of the support shaft 6.

In a word, the upper-side bearing hole 8f formed in the bearing cover member 7b can supplementary pivot the support shaft 6 by covering the upper side of the support shaft 6 in a slight freely-fitting-condition in a degree that the support shaft 6 does not fall off, and work accuracy is not inhibited during pressing. When the upper-side bearing hole 8f has an extremely large diameter compared with the diameter of the support shaft 6, work accuracy of the hole is inhibited during pressing. However, when the hole is formed to have a diameter approximately 0.2 mm large compared with the diameter of the support shaft 6, work accuracy of the hole is not inhibited during pressing. An inner shape of the hole is not limited to the semicircular shape, and for example, may be an elliptic shape.

The inner diameter in the upper side of the bearing hole 8 with respect to the horizontal line, that is, the inner diameter of the upper-side bearing hole 8f is formed slightly large compared with the diameter of the support shaft 6 in this way, thereby a space can be provided between the inner diameter in the upper side of the bearing hole 8 and the support shaft 6. Therefore operation of setting the rotational die 3 in the predetermined position in the lower mold 4, that is, operation of inserting the support shaft 6 into the bearing hole 8 of the bearing 7 for assembling can be easily performed.

The bearing 7 may be singly provided in part of the lower mold 4, or may be formed in a cavity 10 of the lower mold 4. The bearing hole 8 need not be necessarily separated into the upper side and the lower side with respect to the horizontal line 8c of the inner diameter, and the upper side and the lower side may be integrally formed if a shape of the inner diameter is made in a manner that the upper side is formed to have a diameter slightly large compared with the diameter of the support shaft 6, and the lower side is formed to have approximately the same diameter as the diameter of the support shaft 6 with the horizontal line 8C as a border.

A lift pin 11 is arranged in the cavity 10 at a lower side (bottom side) of the rotational die 3 in the lower mold 4, as shown in FIGS. 1 to 3, which can project or submerge by vertically sliding. When the lift pin 11 projects from the cavity 10 by vertically sliding, it can rotate the rotational die 3 by pressing the bottom of the rotational die 3.

A pressing cum 12, which is slidable in a left and right direction in the figure, is arranged at a backside of the rotational die 3 in the lower mold 4. The pressing cum 12 is slidable in a space between an upper side 10a of the cavity 10 at the backside of the rotational die 3 and a sheet material receiver 13 on which the sheet material 2 is set during pressing. For example, in the case of setting a partially processed sheet material 2, the sheet material receiver 13 is formed in accordance with a processed shape of the sheet material 2 such that it follows the shape.

On the other hand, the upper mold 5 facing the lower mold 4 is provided above the lower mold 4, and the whole body of the mold 5 is moved in a vertical direction. That is, when the sheet material 2 as a workpiece is set on the sheet material receiver 13 of the lower mold 4 (refer to FIG. 1), the upper mold 5 is kept above, and after the sheet material 2 has been set on the sheet material receiver 13, the upper mold 5 is lowered for pressing (refer to FIG. 2).

An upper pad 14 for pressing an upper part of the sheet material 2 set on the sheet material receiver 13 is arranged in the upper mold 5, the pad being formed in accordance with the shape of the sheet material 2. The upper part of the sheet material 2 set on the sheet material receiver 13 is pressed by the upper pad 14, thereby the sheet material 2 can be fixed such that the sheet material 2 is not displaced during pressing the sheet material 2. A cushion spring 14a is provided between the upper pad 14 and the upper mold 5, and the upper part of the sheet material 2 can be fixed by being pressed at appropriate pressing force by the cushion spring 14a.

A doweling 15 is further arranged in the upper mold 5 in a downward projecting manner such that when the upper mold 5 is lowered, the doweling is lowered in a backside of the pressing cum 12 arranged in the lower mold 4, that is, in a left side of the pressing cum 12 in the figure. When the upper mold 5 is kept above, the doweling 15 is not contacted to the backside of the pressing cum 12, however, when the upper mold 5 is lowered, it is contacted to the backside of the pressing cum 12, and presses the backside of the pressing cum 12, thereby slides the pressing cum 12 to a position near the rotational die 3 and keeps the cum at the position.

That is, while pressing is not done, or while the upper mold 5 is kept above, as shown in FIG. 1, the pressing cum 12 is pushed to the backside of the rotational die 3 by the die 3 rotated by the lift pin 11 projecting upward, thereby slides in a left direction in the figure, and when the upper mold 5 is lowered, as shown in FIG. 2, the pressing cum 12 is pressed by the doweling 15 and thus slides in a right direction in the figure, and kept at a certain position in a condition that the rotational die 3 is pushed and thereby rotated at a predetermined angle.

A slide cum 16 for molding is arranged in the right of the upper pad 14 of the upper mold 5, which is for pressing a working portion of the sheet material 2 fixed on the sheet material receiver 13 by the upper pad 14, and pressing the sheet material 2 into an intended shape between the slide cum 16 and the rotational die 3.

The slide cum 16 is arranged in a slidable manner on a sliding area 16a provided in the upper mold 5. The sliding area 16a is provided in an oblique manner, and when the upper mold 5 is lowering and thus a lower part of the slide cum 16 is contacted to a sliding surface 3a of the rotational die 3, then the upper mold 5 is further lowering, the slide cum slides obliquely upward (in an upper left direction in the figure) along the sliding area 16a. That is, since height of the sliding surface 3a of the rotational die 3 is fixed, the slide cum 16 slides in a substantially left direction in the figure to press the working portion of the sheet material 2, so that pressing can be carried out.

Next, steps that the press molding apparatus 1 is operated to perform pressing of the sheet material 2 are sequentially described. First, while the upper mold 5 is kept above, the sheet material 2 is set on the sheet material receiver 13 in the lower mold 4 (refer to FIG. 1). Such operation of setting the sheet material 2 on the sheet material receiver 13 may be performed by using a predetermined device such as conveyer, or may be manually performed.

When the upper mold 5 is raised, the slide cum 16 arranged in the upper mold 5 slides obliquely downward (in a lower right direction in the figure) to a predetermined position along the sliding area 16a due to its own weight.

The lift pin 11 provided in the lower mold 4 slides upward and projects from the cavity 10, and presses a bottom near a front of the rotational die 3, thereby the rotational die 3 is rotated counterclockwise in the figure. The rotational die 3 is rotated, thereby a molding part 3b of the rotational die 3 is separated from the sheet material 2 set on the sheet material receiver 13, or rotated in the left direction in the figure, that is, rotated to a side in a release direction as a backside direction of the rotational die 3. Thus, the sheet material 2 can be easily set.

When the rotational die 3 is rotated by pressing force by the upward projected lift pin 11, the pressing cum 12 is pushed by the back of the rotational die 3 and thus slides in the left direction in the figure.

When the upper mold 5 is started to be lowered, the lift pin 11 slides downward along with lowering of the upper mold 5 to be submerged into the cavity 10. When the lift pin 11 is submerged into the cavity 10, the rotational die 3 is rotated clockwise in the figure along with submergence of the lift pin 11, that is, rotated to a fixing direction side with the support shaft 6 as a center due to its own weight, then the bottom of the rotational die 3 is contacted to the cavity 10, thereby rotation of the rotational die 3 is stopped, and such a condition is kept.

When the bottom of the rotational die 3 is contacted to the cavity 10, in the case that an axis of the support shaft 6 is situated slightly high compared with an axis of the bearing hole 8, if the support shaft 6 and the bearing hole 8 are formed in an approximately the same size as in the related art, before the whole bottom of the rotational die 3 is contacted to the cavity 10, part of the bottom of the rotational die 3, that is, a bottom contact end 3c is contacted to the cavity 10, thereby rotation of the rotational die 3 is inhibited, causing occurrence of troubles such as insufficient rotation of the rotational die 3 and breakage of the support shaft 6. According to a structure of the bearing 7 according to the invention, the inner diameter in the upper side of the bearing hole 8 with respect to the horizontal line 8c passing through the center of the inner diameter, the upper side being formed in the bearing body 7a side, is formed slightly large compared with the diameter of the support shaft 6, and thus a space is provided between the inner diameter in the upper side of the bearing hole 8 and the support shaft 6, therefore even if the bottom contact end 3c of the rotational die 3 is contacted to the cavity 10 before the whole bottom of the rotational die 3 is contacted to the cavity 10, the support shaft 6 is in a slightly floating condition in the bearing hole 8 as shown in FIG. 6B, and therefore rotation of the rotational die 3 is not inhibited, consequently occurrence of the troubles such as insufficient rotation of the rotational die 3 and breakage of the support shaft 6 can be reduced.

In this way, the inner diameter in the upper side of the bearing hole 8 with respect to the horizontal line 8c passing through the center of the inner diameter, the upper side being formed in the bearing body 7a side, is formed slightly large compared with the diameter of the support shaft 6, and thus a space is provided between the inner diameter in the upper side of the bearing hole 8 and the support shaft 6, thereby the axis of the support shaft 6 is movable to a slightly high position compared with a central position of the bearing hole 8, and thereby the rotational die 3 and the predetermined position in the lower mold 4 where the rotational die 3 is to be provided can be securely set in a zero contact manner, and occurrence of the troubles such as insufficient rotation of the rotational die 3 and breakage of the support shaft 6 can be reduced.

Incidentally, a space between the inner diameter of the bearing hole 8 in a condition that the support shaft 6 is slightly floating in the bearing hole 8 and the support shaft 6 at the lower side of the bearing hole 8, that is, a space between the lower-side bearing hole 8e and the support shaft 6 may be about 0 mm to 0.05 mm, and the space at the upper side of the bearing hole 8 in the condition, that is, a space between the upper-side bearing hole 8f and the support shaft 6 can be about 0.15 mm to 0.2 mm.

Furthermore, in a view of a positional relationship between the support shaft 6 and the bottom end 3c in the rotational die 3, as shown in FIG. 8, the bottom end 3c is formed to be situated at a slightly release direction side with respect to a position at which the bottom of the rotational die 3 intersects orthogonally with a perpendicular from the center of the support shaft 6 to the bottom, that is, situated at a counterclockwise side in the figure. The bottom end 3c is formed in this way, thereby when the rotational die 3 is rotated in the release direction, compared with a case of forming the end 3c at the position at which the bottom of the rotational die 3 intersects orthogonally with the perpendicular to the bottom, a space is produced between the bottom contact end 3c of the rotational die 3 and the lower mold 4 and thus contact resistance between them is reduced, consequently occurrence of the troubles such as insufficient rotation of the rotational die 3 and breakage of the support shaft 6 is further reduced. This is because the bottom contact end 3c is situated at a position of a line (imaginary line a′) as a result of counterclockwise rotation of a line (imaginary line a) from the center of the support shaft 6 to an extension of the bottom of the rotational die 3 by a predetermined angle α, consequently rotation radius with the support shaft 6 as a center can be decreased by c as shown in FIG. 8.

Furthermore, since the doweling 15 provided in the upper mold 5 is lowered along with lowering of the upper mold 5, the doweling 15 is contacted to the backside of the pressing cum 12 and presses the cum, thereby as shown in FIG. 2, the pressing cum 12 is slid to a position near the rotational die 3, or in the right direction in the figure, and fixed and kept at the position. That is, since a position of the pressing cum 12 is kept while the pressing cum 12 is contacted to the backside of the rotational die 3, the rotational die 3 is fixed to the position without moving or rotating in a backside direction.

Furthermore, the upper pad 14 provided in the upper mold 5 presses an upper part of the sheet material 2 set on the sheet material receiver 13, and fixes it not to be displaced. When the upper mold 5 is further lowered from this condition, the slide cum 16 arranged in the sliding area 16a slides in the left direction in the figure and thus presses the working portion of the sheet material 2, so that pressing is carried out. In this way, since the rotational die 3 whose posture is fixed by the pressing cum 12 is used, and pressing is carried out to the sheet material 2 securely fixed by the sheet material receiver 13 and the upper pad 14, accuracy of products manufactured by the pressing is improved.

When the pressing of the sheet material 2 has been finished, as shown in FIG. 3, the upper mold 5 is raised, and the lift pin 11 slides upward and projects from the cavity 10, thereby presses the bottom near the front of the rotational die 3. Thus, the rotational die 3 is rotated in the release direction, that is, rotated counterclockwise in the figure, consequently the sheet material 2 set on the sheet material receiver 13 can be easily removed, even if it is subjected to negative-angle molding.

Patches 17 are provided to a contact surface between the rotational die 3 and the cavity 10, contact surface between the rotational die 3 and the pressing cum 12, contact surface between the rotational die 3 and the slide cum 16, contact surface between the pressing cum 12 and the sheet material receiver 13, and contact surface between the pressing cum 12 and the doweling 15, respectively, so that contact resistance between them is reduced.

In consideration of keeping accuracy of products manufactured by pressing, only the inner diameter in the upper side of the bearing hole 8 with respect to the horizontal line is formed slightly large compared with the diameter of the support shaft 6 in the embodiment, however, when accuracy of products manufactured by pressing is not required to be kept, the whole inner diameter of the bearing hole 8 may be formed slightly large compared with the diameter of the support shaft 6. When the whole inner diameter of the bearing hole 8 is formed slightly large compared with the diameter of the support shaft 6, even if a position where the support shaft 6 is provided is in a position in a slightly low direction compared with a position where the center of the bearing hole 8 is provided, the rotational die 3 and the predetermined position in the lower mold 4 in which the rotational die 3 is provided are set in the zero contact manner.

INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY

The structure of the bearing according to the invention and the press molding apparatus having the structure facilitate operation of inserting the support shaft into the bearing hole formed in the bearing and setting the rotational die in the predetermined position in the lower mold, and allow reduction in occurrence of troubles such as insufficient rotation of the rotational die and breakage of the support shaft, consequently contribute to improvement in manufacturing efficiency and quality of pressing products.

Bearing structure and press molding apparatus having the structure

Information

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CPC

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Abstract

Description

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Priority Claims (1)