Patent Application
20060034965
The present invention relates to a device for producing rigid plastic pipes of an approximately cylindrical shape, containing an extruder and a calibrating station following in the direction of production, which has calibrating tools to calibrate the outside diameter of the already partly hardened pipe, the calibrating tools bearing against the outside wall of the pipe.
In equipment that produces plastic pipes there is the problem that pipes of different outside diameters must be produced with at the same time different wall thicknesses. In the prior art, it is necessary in this respect that, in accordance with the outside diameter of the pipe and the desired wall thickness of the pipe, usually standardized in dependence on the outside diameter, corresponding molds must be exchanged. This requires stopping of the machine, a great amount of work is to be performed to exchange the molds and loss of polymer material until the new pipe can again be drawn. Appropriate drawing of the pipe to allow a pipe of smaller wall thickness to be produced with an existing outside diameter is impossible, since the molecular chain of the plastic is stretched and thereby oriented in such a way as to adversely influence the strength of the pipe, but be conducive to shrinking and folding.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,630,982, a vacuum calibrating box through which the extruded pipe is conveyed is used as a calibrating device, a number of rings in the calibrating box, through which the pipe passes, serving as calibrating tools, the ultimate outer diameter of the pipe being determined by the rings. Consequently, a fine adaptation of the outer diameter takes place by these rings. Possible eccentricities or ovalities of the pipe at the outer circumference can be compensated by the vacuum calibrating box being displaced in the transverse direction. In the case of such a device, the order of magnitude of the outer diameter of the pipe to be calibrated is already fixed after the extrusion, before the calibration is performed. The calibrating rings used in the calibrating device are not adjustable in their diameter, and consequently can only bring about a correction to a prescribed set diameter. If in the case of such an extrusion device a changeover is made to a completely different set diameter, that is to say pipes with a much larger or much smaller diameter are to be produced, the production operation must be interrupted in order to replace the calibrating tools by calibrating rings that match the set diameter then intended. It is therefore not possible to perform a changeover to different set diameters during the production phase that is in progress.
Published, non-prosecuted German patent application DE 24 12 818 A1 discloses a generic device for calibrating a pipe of thermoplastic material emerging from an extruder, calibrating lamellae being arranged in sequence, as seen in the direction of production of the pipe, in the case of this known arrangement. Each calibrating lamella has a calibrating passage, which is the same and unchangeable for all the sequential calibrating lamellae. Each calibrating lamella interacts with a lamella segment which can be lifted off upward and can be lifted off during the starting phase of production, so that the placing of the pipe leaving the extruder or the pipe die head into the calibrating passage is facilitated. A variation of the pipe diameter during the production process is not possible here and is not suggested.
It has become known from published, non-prosecuted German patent application DE 35 21 321 for metal bellows which can be changed in their inner diameter by stretching or compressing to be provided in a calibrating station. In this way it is intended to make allowance for the changing outside diameter caused by the shrinkage of the polymer material occurring during cooling down, in order as a result to make it possible for the pipe to be guided well in the calibrating station even during the cooling phase and with the possibly decreasing outside diameter of the pipe.
Finally, it has become known from International patent disclosure WO 95/27601 for shaping tools formed by individual rollers to be provided in the interior of the pipe that is to be formed in a non-generic production process for plastic pipes, it being possible for the pipe diameter to be changed by a greater or lesser widening of the outside diameter of the circumferential circle determined by the shaping tools. However, here it is intended for the pipe to be formed by a sheet which is wrapped around this shaping tool, it being intended that the end edges of the sheets are welded to one another. Special pressure rollers act on the weld seam produced when joining the two sheets, in such a way that this weld seam is no longer to be perceptible from the outside.
U.S Pat. No. 3,980,418 discloses a method for extruding flexible tubes which are inflated. This blow-molding is an entirely different technology than the production of rigid cylindrical pipes by extrusion. In blow-molding, a flexible tube which is comparatively thin in wall thickness is extruded and, on account of this small wall thickness, is so flexible even after the cooling of the polymer that it can be laid flat at the end of the extrusion line and can be wound up in this flat form. In the case of these blow-molding processes, the extrusion line generally runs vertically and the inflated tube is drawn upward. In the case of this blow-molding process, the still soft, hot melt is inflated after leaving the extruder, the desired outside diameter being regulated by the internal pressure of the air in the tube. The tube that has reached the desired diameter, which tube is cooled by use of a cooling ring, then runs through a guiding device, which surrounds the tube over a certain conveying distance. This guiding device also serves the purpose of giving the tube the desired circular shape by bearing against the outer circumference of the tube. This guiding device has a number of segments which can bear against the outside diameter of the tube. Each segment is connected to an adjustable arm which can pivot about an axis, so that, by a pivoting movement of the arm about its outer pivoting axis and additionally a compensating pivoting movement of the segment about a second, inner pivoting axis, an adaptation is possible at the outer circumference of extruded tubes with deviating outside diameters.
Changing the outside diameter of the extruded tube after leaving the extruder is possible in the case of such a blow-molding process by changing the internal pressure of the tube during the inflation. If the internal pressure (inflating pressure) is increased, the bubble of plastic leaving the extruder is inflated in a way corresponding to a larger outside diameter, in a way similar to an air balloon. This is of course only possible because the wall thickness of the extruded tube is low and the inflation of the melt can only take place as long as it is still warm enough to be in a plastic state.
In the production of rigid plastic pipes with a correspondingly thick wall thickness, the so-called calibration takes place in the calibrating station the pipe being cooled simultaneously, where the pipe has already cooled to the extent so that it is beginning to harden and its outside diameter dimension substantially is already fixed. The outside diameter of such a rigid pipe cannot be changed by changing an internal pressure. In the production of rigid pipes from plastic, a change of the set diameter during the production phase was therefore not possible with the known extrusion devices.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,930,781, 3,753,633 and 4,683,094 all describe devices for producing plastic tubes by blow-molding, in the case of which the film-like tube is laid flat after completion of the extrusion operation and is transported further in such a flat form. To the extent that changing of the diameter of the blow-molded tube or calibration of the outside diameter by adjustable calibrating devices is described in these documents, the same statements as were made above in relation to U.S. Pat. No. 3,980,418 apply with regard to the lacking comparability with the technology of the production of rigid pipes.
The invention is based on the object of providing a device for the extrusion of rigid plastic pipes in which it is possible during the production phase of the pipe to permit a possibly fully automatically controlled changeover between different outside diameters (set diameters, dimensions) of the plastic pipes in a continuous production process without interrupting the production operation.
The solution achieving this object is obtained by the device for producing plastic pipes according to the invention. The device contains an extruder and a calibrating station following in the direction of production, which has calibrating tools to calibrate the outside diameter of the already partly hardened pipe. The calibrating tools bear against the outside wall of the pipe, wherein lamellae serving as calibrating tools are respectively connected to spindles, which, for adaptation to different outside diameters of pipes that are to be calibrated, are adjustable in a radial direction perpendicular to the axis of the calibrating device and feed axis of the pipe that is to be extruded.
The subject matter of the present invention relates also to a method for producing the rigid pipes. The present invention provides that, in the case of a method for producing rigid pipes from plastic of an approximately cylindrical shape in the case of which, while cooling the polymer melt, the latter is beginning to be hardened and consequently the order of magnitude of the outside diameter (dimension) of the then largely rigid pipe is fixed, a changeover between different outside diameters (set diameters) of the pipe takes place during the production phase of the pipe without interrupting the production operation. This was not possible in the case of the systems known from the prior art for the extrusion of rigid pipes from plastic, since the calibrating device used was adapted to a specific outside diameter of the pipe. Accordingly, when a change of production was desired in the past, with a changeover to the production of pipes with an entirely different set diameter, the system was stopped and the extrusion process interrupted. The corresponding components in the region of the calibrating device, in particular calibrating sleeves or calibrating tools, were exchanged and replaced by other calibrating tools which corresponded to the new set diameter of the pipe to be extruded. Only after a corresponding conversion of the device, which generally took several hours, could the extrusion process be recommenced. In the case of the method according to the invention, this is different, since a changeover between different outside diameters (set diameters) of the pipe is possible during the production phase without interrupting the production operation. The changing of the diameter generally takes place in the so-called vacuum suction bell, which is arranged between the pipe die head, from which the extruded melt strand emerges, and the calibrating device. In the region of the vacuum suction bell, the melt strand is still soft, so that a changeover of the set diameter can be performed there, either by the melt strand being sucked up by means of a vacuum, which leads to an increase in diameter, or by a positive pressure being generated within the housing of the vacuum suction bell compared with the internal pressure prevailing in the interior space of the extruded tube, which then leads to a reduction of the diameter with respect to the diameter of the melt strand emerging from the pipe die head of the extruder.
An extrusion system according to the present invention can also work without the vacuum suction bell, as it is possible to influence the pipe diameter by other parameters. These are especially the opening of the pipe die head of the extruder, the distance between the pipe die head and the calibrating station, and the velocity of drawing the extruded pipe in the direction of production by a device, which generally is situated at the end of the extrusion line.
According to one preferred embodiment of the invention, when there is a change of the set diameter, the changing of the diameter is performed in the region of the vacuum suction bell, in which the melt strand is still soft. Subsequently, the pipe set to the desired set diameter hardens in the region of the calibrating device, in which there is then a virtually rigid pipe. The method according to the invention then provides that, in order to make such calibration of a pipe of changed diameter possible, the calibrating tools of the calibrating device adjust themselves radially in a way corresponding to the then prescribed, new set diameter of the pipe, so that they set themselves to the new outside diameter of the pipe and bear again against the outer circumference of the pipe with the then changed set diameter. All this takes place while the production process is in progress. The radial adjustment of the calibrating tools can in principle be performed manually. However, this radial adjustment of the calibrating tools preferably takes place automatically, which according to a development of the method can take place by the outside diameter of the melt strand in the vacuum suction bell being measured by a measuring device and, after that, the lamellae of the calibrating device automatically adjusting themselves radially, in dependence on this measured new outside diameter, and setting themselves to the new outside diameter. In the case of the method according to the invention, a conical intermediate piece of the extruded pipe is created by the changeover of the outside diameter during the production phase in the continuous extrusion process, since in the transitional phase the set diameter continuously increases or decreases until the desired new set diameter is reached. This is unproblematical, however, since this conical intermediate piece of the pipe can simply be cut out at the end of the extrusion line, so that the pipe with the first set diameter, upstream of the intermediate piece, and also the pipe with the second set diameter, downstream of the intermediate piece, can be used once the intermediate piece has been cut out.
The calibrating station provided according to the invention is preferably formed by a multiplicity of lamellae, which are arranged such that they are distributed around the outside of the pipe to be calibrated, over the circumference, in each case forming a ring of lamellae. Here, the production rings are arranged within the calibrating station, the individual lamellae of the individual lamella rings being staggered, so that problem-free adjustment of the individual lamellae of the individual ring with respect to the lamellae of the following ring or of the preceding ring is possible.
The adjustment of the lamellae takes place by use of a motor or manually, a single manual control allowing all the lamella rings to be adjusted at the same time.
The rounding of the lamellae with which the latter bear against the outside of the pipe can correspond to the largest pipe diameter to be produced. If smaller pipe diameters are produced, the treated pipe is therefore not ideally round, but instead is made up of small, adjoining roundings, which are then equalized inside the calibrating bath.
Further features and advantages of the present invention become clear from the following description of preferred exemplary embodiments with reference to the accompanying illustrations.
In
The vacuum suction bell 2 is followed by a calibrating station 3. The exact calibration of the outside diameter of the melt strand, and of the already partially hardened pipe, takes place here by a mechanical central adjustment, it being possible for the calibrating station 3 to be used for all plastics that come into consideration. In the calibrating station 3 an adaptation to pipes with different outside diameters is possible.
In a vacuum calibrating bath 4 which follows, as seen in the direction of production, the final cooling and hardening of the plastic pipe then take place by spray water, the drawing showing a water feed 6 and a water outlet 7. Furthermore, the vacuum calibrating bath 4 is followed by a vacuum connection 8, and the pipe 10 located in the vacuum calibrating bath 4 runs over supporting rollers 11, which may also be referred to as calibrating rollers 11, and allows itself to be set to the desired pipe diameter. The surface of the pipe 10 is relatively hard and the pipe 10 leaves the vacuum calibrating bath 4 through a vacuum seal 9, which either sets itself to the pipe diameter of its own accord or is set in dependence on the set pipe dimensions in the calibrating station 3 and/or in the vacuum calibrating bath 4. Shaping rollers, which are actuated hydraulically or by mechanical springs, may be arranged in the vacuum seal 9, it being possible at the same time for water to be introduced here into the passage of the pipe for lubrication and sealing.
As an alternative to the embodiment according to
The housing of the extrusion system contains in the region of the outer wall 44 of the calibrating device 3 and, arranged eccentrically thereto, an inner wall 46, between which gear wheels 49 are respectively arranged, the gear wheels 49 respectively being assigned to an adjusting unit with a threaded spindle 48. For the radial adjustment of the lamellae 40a, 40b, each threaded spindle 48 moves in each case in a radial direction within a spindle housing 47, which extends radially through bores in the outer wall 44 of the housing of the system. The bearing edges 41a of the lamellae 40a, 40b in each case form bearing portions on the outer circumference of the extruded pipe 10. For this purpose, the bearing edges 41a in each case have the form of arcuate portions, so that, given a specific pipe diameter as shown in
If it is then intended for a changing of the outside diameter of the pipe 10 that is to be extruded to take place, the corresponding adaptation is then performed as follows in the calibrating device 3 by the radial adjustment of the spindles 48, and consequently of the lamellae 40a, 40b. A toothed belt 52, which can be driven for example by a motor, engages in a gear ring 51, which is arranged in the region of the outer wall 44 of the housing and can in this way be rotated about a central axis 53 of the calibrating device. The component forming the outer gear ring 51 also has on both sides lateral gear rings 50, 54, which respectively mesh with gear wheels 49, which rotate about an axis 55 and are respectively assigned to the spindles 48 for the radial adjustment of the lamella rings formed from the lamella 40a, 40b. If the gear ring 51 rotates, and consequently also the lateral gear rings 50, 54, about the longitudinal axis of the calibrating device, the gear wheels 49 rotate about the axis 55 perpendicular thereto. Since the gear wheels 49 have internal threads 56 and the spindles 48 are in each case held in a rotationally fixed manner, the rotation of the gear wheels 49 leads to a displacement of the spindles 48 in the direction of the axis 55, and consequently to a radial adjustment of the spindles with respect to the feed axis of the calibrating device and the axis of the extruded pipe 10. The radial displacement of the spindles 48 has the effect that the lamellae 40a, 40b, which are fixedly connected to the latter at the inner end of the spindles, move in the direction of the double-headed arrows 57 in
Cooling pipes 58 are provided, respectively extending parallel to the axis 53 of the calibrating device in the outer regions of the lamellae 40a, 40b. Cooling water can be pumped through these cooling pipes 58, so that the lamellae 40a, 40b, which generally are formed of metal, can be cooled. It may be provided in this respect that water leaves the cooling pipes 58 via bores in the latter in an approximately radial direction with respect to the axis 53 of the calibrating device, so that this water directly reaches the outside wall of the extruded pipe 10, where it provides cooling and also lubrication. As a result, the pipe 10, which has already largely hardened but is still hot in the calibrating device, is cooled when it is fed further through the extrusion system.
Irrespective of the outside diameter of the extruded pipe, the pipe wall thickness can also be changed, which however takes place in the pipe die head, to be precise by an inner cone 63 being advanced from the position shown in
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 198 43 340.9 | Sep 1998 | DE | national |
This application is a continuation-in-part of copending application Ser. No. 09/787,981 filed on Mar. 21, 2001; which is a national stage application of copending international application No. PCT/DE99/02708, filed Aug. 24, 1999, which claimed the benefit of German patent application No. 198 43 340.9 filed Sep. 22, 1998, the prior applications are hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety herein.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parent | 09787981 | Mar 2001 | US |
| Child | 11229794 | Sep 2005 | US |
