This invention relates to a deep-drawing tool for deep-drawing blanks which are punched out of sheet metal that is painted or coated with film material, in order to obtain flangeless moulded blanks according to the preamble of claim 1, and to a corresponding method.
Deep-drawing tools of this type are used to produce container lids in particular. The blanks are punched from metal sheets and are deep drawn in a deep-drawing tool to obtain an approximately pot-shaped form. The deep-drawing tool comprises a drawing bell and a drawing core, around which the drawing bell forms the pot-shaped moulded blank in a downward movement. As used here and in the following, the term “downward movement”, is not intended to limit the invention to specific directions in space, but merely indicates a movement In the direction of a bottom dead centre of the drawing bell during the deep-drawing movement. In fact, this term coincides with a conventional arrangement in a deep-drawing machine, in which the drawing bell is lowered from above onto the drawing core. This movement of the drawing bell is usually controlled by a corresponding crank gear to ensure a sinusoidal movement of the drawing bell.
To prevent folds from forming at the edge of the moulded blank due to material compression, a so-called blank holder is provided which is pressed against the drawing bell from below in such a way that the edge portion of the blank rests between the drawing bell and the blank holder, and is clamped there. This clamping leads in turn to the problem that so-called paint hair forms on the flangeless moulded blank, i.e. hair-like structures which may contaminate the tool.
Various approaches aimed at reducing the formation of such paint hair exist. EP 2 125 264 B1, for example, shows a deep-drawing tool in which the blank holder is pressed in the direction of the drawing bell by the reaction force of a pneumatic spring. This spring acting on the blank holder, also referred to as a “drawing cushion” in the technical jargon, is formed here by a gas volume inside a chamber which is sealed by a piston that abuts against the blank holder by means of force transmission elements. During the deep-drawing process, the piston at first moves down together with the drawing bell. Once the piston reaches a pre-defined bottom position, the chamber is suddenly vented and thus the reaction force of the pneumatic spring Is set to zero. This cancels the clamping of the edge of the moulded blank. This prevents paint or film material from detaching from the sheet metal of the moulded blank and forming the undesirable paint hair as described above.
The design effort involved in the solution presented in EP 2 125 264 B1 is considerable. At every moulding cycle, the pneumatic cushions inside the chamber have to be refilled with high pressure after each venting operation. The consumption of compressed air is considerable, and hence so is the cost of generating the compressed air. Another drawback is the high level of noise at the time of venting the chamber, with the pressurised air escaping from the chamber with a bang. The sound damping systems required for compliance with occupational health and safety legislation generate further costs. In addition, the solution presented In EP 2 125 264 B1 is limited to the use of pneumatic cushions because this is the only type of cushion in which the spring force can be reset to zero by sudden venting. Nevertheless, mechanical drawing cushions are frequently also used in practice, where there Is a pre-tensioned mechanical compression spring between a fixed base plate and a mobile pressure plate. The mobile pressure plate is in contact with the blank holder via force transmission elements in the same way as the piston of the pneumatic cushion.
Hence it is a task of the present invention to provide a deep-drawing tool of the aforementioned type, offering an alternative means of inhibiting the formation of paint hair at the deep-drawing tool, which is connected with low effort, reduced cost, reduced noise and can also be used for mechanical drawing cushions.
This task Is solved according to the invention by a deep-drawing tool with the features of claim 1, and a corresponding deep-drawing method according to claim 14.
The deep-drawing tool of the invention comprises a drive which, when the drawing bell has reached a predetermined position in its downward movement, drives the force transmission means which transmit the spring force of the drawing cushion to the blank holder to perform a movement preceding the movement of the drawing bell. For the sale of linguistic simplicity, the position in which this preceding movement is triggered shall be referred to below as the “predetermined position”.
This preceding movement removes the blank holder from the drawing bell, and the clamping effect of the blank holder Is cancelled. This releases the edge of the moulded blank, thereby inhibiting the formation of paint hair. The preceding movement preferably starts just before completion of the deep-drawing movement of the drawing bell, or just before the clamped flange (edge area) of the blank enters the drawing radius of the bell and is elongated. The drive used to generate the preceding movement must be capable of producing sufficient force to overcome the spring force of the drawing cushion.
Because, in the deep-drawing tool according to the invention, the cushion spring force does not have to be reset to zero to release the edge of the moulded blank, considerable costs can be avoided for compressed air generation and noise damping, and there is no longer any limitation to pneumatic drawing cushions.
There are various ways of producing this preceding movement, and a number of preferred variants are presented in the sub-claims. This presentation should not be understood as exhaustive.
According to one embodiment of the present invention, the force transmission means comprise a piston or a pressure plate driven by the spring force in the direction of the drawing bell, whilst a pull rod driven by the drive is mounted on the piston or pressure plate.
The piston is preferably lodged in a chamber and seals a gas volume inside the chamber to form a pneumatic spring. In this case, the pneumatic spring forms the drawing cushion.
According to a further embodiment, the pressure plate is driven by a mechanical spring in the direction of the drawing bell. In this case, the drawing cushion is formed by the mechanical spring.
Further preferably, the drive includes a coupling rod positioned parallel to the pull rod or in its axial extension, and, in order to transmit a pulling movement from the coupling rod to the pull rod, engages with the pull rod no later than when the drawing bell reaches its predetermined position. Before the drawing bell reaches its predetermined position, the coupling rod can move freely relative to the pull rod, i.e. there Is no movement coupling, whereas once the drawing bell reaches its predetermined position, the coupling rod engages with the pull rod and pulls the latter downward with it. The coupling between coupling rod and pull rod may be provided by, for example, a coupling sleeve which is fixedly connected to the coupling rod and runs freely on the pull rod up to a stop which determines the engaged position. At the predetermined position the sleeve abuts against a stop and pulls the pull rod downward with it. The coupling between piston rod and pull rod may also be provided by other means.
According to another preferred embodiment, the drive comprises a cam track and a cam roller which rests on the cam track and is coupled for movement with the force transmission means. Thus, the cam roller can follow the course of the cam track. The shape of the cam track is chosen so that a downward movement of the cam roller Is only transmitted to the force transmission means once the drawing bell has reached the predetermined position in which the preceding movement is supposed to start. The cam track may be formed by various suitable mechanical elements such as, for example, a rotatable cam disk on whose circumference the curved track is formed, or by a translationally movable cam rod with the cam track on a lateral surface.
According to another preferred embodiment, the drive comprises a rotating eccentric connected to the force transmission means via a connecting rod assembly. This eccentric may be a crankshaft, for example, to which the end of a connecting rod is mounted. Apart from the connecting rod itself, there may also be other bars, levers or such like in the connecting rod assembly in order to achieve the desired movement coupling.
According to a further preferred embodiment of the present invention, the drive Includes a camshaft with the cam being arranged to push the force transmission means downward as the camshaft rotates.
Further preferably, the drive comprises a cam rod with a lateral curved profile on which a cam roller rests, which is mounted such that it can be pivoted around a pivot axis offset relative to the cam roller axis, and means for converting an oscillating movement of the cam roller around the pivot axis into a translation movement of the force transmission means. In this case, a translational movement of the cam rod and pivot axis relative to each other triggers pivoting of the cam roller, which is in turn translated into linear movement of the force transmission means.
According to another embodiment of the present invention, the drive of the force transmission means is coupled for movement with the drive of the drawing bell. This Is the simplest and most cost-effective means of synchronising the preceding movement relative to the drawing bell. For large moving masses, such motion coupling is energetically less expensive than providing an independent drive. The coupling may be performed rotationally by the press main shaft using suitable chain, belt or gear transmissions, or translationally by means of suitable coupling with the press ram, the upper tool or the drawing bell.
According to another embodiment of the present invention, the drive comprises an electromagnetic drive for moving the force transmission means.
In this case, according to other preferred embodiments, the drive comprises a coil and a plunger which dips into the coil, or a linear motor whose rotor is coupled with the force transmission means.
A method for deep drawing blanks according to the invention is claimed in claim 14.
Preferred embodiments of this invention will be described in more detail below with reference to the attached drawings, in which
Below edges 16 of drawing bell 12 there is a blank holder 18 disposed around drawing core 14 which can be moved up and down. Blank holder 18 rests on blank holder pins 20, which are in turn coupled at their bottom ends with a piston 22, which moves up and down inside a chamber 24. Below piston 22, inside chamber 24, there is a gas volume 26, sealed at its top end by piston 22. If piston 22 is lowered, the gas volume 26 inside chamber 24 is reduced and the gas is compressed. Additionally, the gas pressure p may also be controlled independently of the chamber volume via the gas inlet 28 to the gas chamber. The gas volume 26 therefore forms a pneumatic spring which exerts an upward spring force F (see arrow pointing upward In
The above-described elements of deep-drawing tool 10 and its mode of functioning are essentially disclosed in EP 2 125 264 B1. To that extent, the illustrations in
The terms “piston rod” and “piston” are designated here and in the following according to their use in connection with the pneumatic spring or pneumatic cushion. A mechanical spring may also be used instead of a pneumatic spring. In that case, the force transmission means for transmitting the spring force of the cushion to blank holder 18 comprise, instead of piston 22, a pressure plate which is supported from below by the mechanical springs. Generally speaking, piston rod 30 is merely an embodiment of a pull rod mounted on piston 22 or the pressure plate.
Once a predetermined position of drawing bell 12 is reached during its downward movement, as shown in
The embodiments of the present invention described below essentially relate to arrangements of a drive for the force transmission means to perform a movement preceding the movement of drawing bell 12, i.e. in this case, of the piston drive for moving piston rod 30 and piston 22 attached to it, which is not shown in the previous
The upper portion of
Mounted on the other end of the piston rod there is a cam roller 36 which can be rotated around an axis perpendicular to piston rod 30. Cam roller 36 rests on the surface of a cam track 38 formed by the outside of a cam disk 40 which, in turn, can be rotated around an axis 42 parallel to the axis of rotation of cam roller 36. By means of a spring 43, piston rod 30 with cam roller 36 is pushed downward against cam track 38. Cam track 38 Is contrived so that, in one circumferential section of cam disk 40 (in particular the top left quadrant In
In the embodiment shown In
This is achieved In that cam roller 36 is mounted on the bottom end of a coupling rod 44 which may be positioned parallel to piston rod 30, i.e. vertically, or in the latter's axial prolongation. Coupling rod 44 and piston rod 30 can be coupled together with suitable coupling means 46 such as a coupling sleeve running freely on piston rod 30, which is fixed to the upper end of coupling rod 44 such that coupling rod 44, during a downward movement, does not reach piston rod 30 before reaching a predetermined point (i.e when the sleeve runs up against a lower stop on piston rod 30) and then carries the latter with it In order to transmit a downward pulling movement of coupling rod 44 to piston rod 30. Above this stop point, where coupling takes place between coupling rod 44 and piston rod 30, coupling rod 44 runs freely and independently of any movement by piston rod 30.
This coupling mechanism 46 is used to pull piston rod 30 downward, but not until drawing bell 12 reaches its predetermined position, which corresponds to the desired preceding movement of piston rod 30 relative to drawing bell 12. Such a sequence of movements is illustrated in
During a further rotation of cam disk 40 from the position shown In
In
In
In the embodiment of the deep-drawing device 10 shown in
With steady rotation of eccentric 48, this rotary movement is transformed into a sinusoidal oscillating movement of swing arm 54. By appropriate dimensioning of the lengths of swing arms 58,60 it is possible to have coupling rod 44 make a larger displacement in the vertical direction, thereby “catching up” with piston rod 30 on its way downward so that coupling rod 44 and piston rod 30 engage and coupling rod 44, with its higher speed, pulls piston rod 30 downward.
In the embodiment shown in
In the embodiment shown in
The electric drive 68 of the embodiment in
In the embodiment shown in
The embodiment in
Through this movement, swing arm 90 is swung around pendulum axis 92 so that a pressure roller 94 connected to the end of the other arm 88 also performs a swinging movement and, as a result, is essentially moved up and down. During its downward movement, pressure roller 94 engages with piston rod 30 by means of a stop provided for this purpose, for example, and pushes piston rod 30 downward. This downward pulling movement of piston rod 30 can be controlled by the shape of the cam track of the cam roller 84.
In
Differing from the presentation in
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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102015113267.2 | Aug 2015 | DE | national |
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
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PCT/EP2016/001349 | 8/5/2016 | WO | 00 |