Patent Application
20190184442
This disclosure relates to a machine for forming registering contour features by displacing material in, and a method for separating workpieces so that they do not adhere to each other in a manufacturing process.
Relatedly, the present disclosure involves a prescribed topography for those registering contour features in a predictable location adjacent a peripheral or other edge to facilitate separation of the workpieces after they are stacked.
In the metal fabricating industry, workpieces sometimes known as “blanks” are often provided in sheet, shaped or coil-form. Often, a type of lubricant, preservative or oil is added to the workpieces or coils (collectively, “workpieces”) so that they do not corrode. Such fluids may cause stacked workpieces to stick together when arranged in a stacked formation like a deck of cards.
One way to separate the workpieces so that they do not adhere to each other or stack unevenly from side-to-side is to provide an air gap between them by introducing a spacer. In the case of ferrous materials, a magnet may be used to separate the workpieces.
Generally, after a metal workpiece has been cut from a coil or a larger blank to make a workpiece, the resulting materials are stacked on top of each other for storage, transportation, or further processing. When the metal workpieces are stacked, there is little or no separation between them. Often the only matter that lies between adjacent sheets is a film of lubricant or preservative. As a result, it may be hard to separate the workpieces because they may tend to stick together, particularly under the weight of workpieces lying in a stacked column there above.
Adhesion between workpieces complicates or prohibits the task of removing a single workpiece (which may or may not be planar) by non-destructively inserting a separating tool to raise an uppermost workpiece from the top of a column of stacked workpieces or an intermediate workpiece.
Among the art considered before filing this application are: U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,034,683; 8,322,955; 8,766,797; 9,346,094; 9,623,470; 2010/0017347; 2011/0227725; 2016/0279687
Accordingly, it would be useful to have a way to stack workpieces so that the uppermost workpieces can be readily removed from a column of such workpieces without adding external, possibly contaminating substances, such as talcum powder or its equivalents. To do this, it would be helpful to have a machine that forms cooperating registering contour features in adjacent workpieces. When stacked with such contour features, most of the surface areas of adjacent workpieces are at least partially separated by an interstitial space that is punctuated only by those limited areas of contact between the cooperating contour features, such as one or more annular rims with rims close to the edges of adjacent workpieces.
An exemplary embodiment of cooperating registering contour features at a predetermined location in a workpiece for inter-workpiece separation has a concave basin-shaped section within an outside annular rim. Inside the outer rim, the basin-shaped section extends downwardly within the outer rim. Thus, the present disclosure relates to a machine and method for forming registering contour features for inter-workpiece separation in workpieces. More specifically, the registering contour features are optionally but not necessarily placed adjacent to a peripheral or other edge of a workpiece. Alternatively, the registering contour features may be placed elsewhere in a workpiece so that the registering contour features in adjacent workpieces cooperate or register to enforce a separation between most of the surface areas between adjacent workpieces.
In practice, the disclosed process and its variants enable an operator to form a registering contour feature predictably and precisely at the same location in each workpiece before the workpieces are stacked and thus create an air gap or space between inter-contour feature regions within each workpiece of adjacent workpieces. Optionally, the disclosed process and its variants provide a way to create such contour features before the workpiece is cut from a coil or larger workpiece. In skilled art of making formed parts from a coil, present practices favor forming to be done before or during cutting. Thus, in most cases, an edge area that includes registering contour features is typically cut from the workpiece after the registering contour features are formed and before a subsequent manufacturing step.
It will be appreciated that the disclosed registering contour features need not have a circular footprint. Optional embodiments also involve displacing material and may be elliptical, oval, race-track in shape or have curved or angular (e.g., hexagonal or polygonal) perimeters.
One characteristic that the various footprints share is that they are formed by upward or downward flow of material (or both), preferably in a forming or coining step.
In a given workpiece, the intermediate region lies between the registering contour features of that sheet. When stacked, a gap is created between such regions of adjacent workpieces. The gap separates them so that the uppermost workpiece can be removed, slid, lifted or otherwise displaced if desired non-destructively and not be caused to adhere by a lubricant or other material between the workpieces.
In some applications, a workpiece may have one section that has a thickness that differs from the thickness of a neighboring section. For such cases, registering contour features may be deployed to promote stacking efficiency.
As required, detailed embodiments of the present invention are disclosed herein; however, it is to be understood that the disclosed embodiments are merely exemplary of the invention that may be embodied in various and alternative forms. The figures are not necessarily to scale; some features may be exaggerated or minimized to show details of particular components. Therefore, specific structural and functional details disclosed herein are not to be interpreted as limiting, but merely as a representative basis for teaching one skilled in the art to variously employ the present invention.
In the cross sections of the embodiment depicted, there are two shoulders 34 that are connected by an annular rim 50 for each registering contour feature 30 and one concave, basin-shaped section 40. Other embodiments may have more rims with rounded valleys therebetween. Like the rims 50, the concave basin-shaped sections 40 are positioned so that concave sections of adjacent workpieces preferably are separated by the space 48 (
The air gaps 36 separate the workpieces 6 so that they can be removed from a stack one at a time and not adhere due to a fluid film therebetween. One set of experiments measured typical dimensions between workpieces 6 (
Consider the upper die 1 and the lower die 8 in an open position before one of the workpieces 6 (
It will be appreciated that a given die set may support multiple tools 4, 12 so that multiple registering contour features may be formed on a given workpiece or workpieces 6 by one closure (or multiple closures) of the dies. Optionally, the process may operate in more than one place of a workpiece or on more than one workpiece at a time, subject to the design of the cutting die. In practice, one closure may operate on multiple workpieces simultaneously within the die, although one workpiece at a time is preferred.
As to the inner basin-shaped section 40, in
Turning now to
Desirably, registering contour features 30 of adjacent metal workpieces 6 are aligned (see,
As mentioned earlier, the apparatus includes one or more sets of tools for forming the registering contour features 30. Such tools may be selected to make registering contour features 30 with a topography that includes undulations, indentations, depressions, impressions, projections and the like in the workpiece. As noted earlier, one or more sets of registering contour feature forming tools can be located on the upper or lower dies (
Thus, there has been disclosed a metal processing apparatus for forming one or more sets of registering contour features 30 in a workpiece 6 that may be made of a ferrous material, or a non-ferrous material such as a carbon-reinforced section or a plastic.
In one embodiment, the registering contour features 30 may be formed by nested basin-shaped portions 40 (concave sections) that have radii of curvature (
It will be appreciated that using suitable process parameters (e.g., strain rates, temperatures, tool dimensions and pressures) the registering contour features can be pressed into the workpiece without weakening the workpieces themselves.
As noted earlier, the registering contour features can be characterized in a workpiece of a given thickness and material by a footprint having a height and diameter. The footprint can preferably be circular, oval, or elliptical. An indentation with a curved perimeter is generally desired over other geometries (e.g., a square, rectangle, a polygon) that have abrupt changes in perimetral edges. Usually, the footprint has a rim 34 (like the edge of a volcano) that lies above a crater or concave section or basin 40 (female portion), which may have another dome that rises there from.
With further references to
In an alternative embodiment (see,
While exemplary embodiments are described above, it is not intended that these embodiments describe all possible forms of the invention. Rather, the words used in the specification are words of description rather than limitation, and it is understood that various changes may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Additionally, the features of various implementing embodiments may be combined to form further embodiments of the invention.
