The present invention relates generally to a molding tool constituting of three pieces, and more particularly to a molding tool, a molding apparatus, and a method of molding objects.
A conventional molding tool includes a male mold and a female mold. Upon using, the male mold and the female mold are disposed on a molding apparatus in a way of being spaced along a top-bottom direction. A raw material is disposed on the female mold during processing, then the molding apparatus drives the male mold and the female mold to move towards one another, making the male mold and the female mold clamp to process the raw material into a product.
The conventional molding tool could process the raw material via the male mold and the female mold. However, as the raw material is required to be manually disposed in a position between the male mold and the female mold during processing, in which the position is within a boundary of the male mold and the female mold moving towards one another to clamp, the industrial safety risk that workers might be clamped and injured by the conventional molding tool during disposing the raw material manually is concerned. Besides, as a space of disposing the raw material is limited, a problem that the produced product is defective would be easily caused as a position of positioning the raw material is inaccurate Moreover, as the raw material placement is required each time before the male mold and the female mold are clamped, the process cannot continue due to waiting for placing the raw material, thereby the productivity cannot be increased.
In view of the above, the primary objective of the present invention is to divide a molding tool into three pieces including a top die, a bottom die, and at least two middle dies, thereby a molding hole of each of the middle dies could match with a partial cavity of the top die or the bottom die to constitute a cavity, so that a user could dispose a raw material on each of the middle dies in advance, and process the raw material by sequentially moving the middle dies to a position between the top die and the bottom die.
The present invention provides a molding tool including a top die, a bottom die, and at least two middle dies, wherein each of the middle dies has a molding hole that is penetrating therethrough. Either the top die or the bottom die has a core adapted to mold objects, and the other of the top die and the bottom die has a partial cavity. The partial cavity and the molding hole of each of the middle dies jointly form a cavity matching with the core. The top die is opposite to the bottom die. One or both of the top die and the bottom die is/are driven to move towards or away from each other. The middle dies are respectively moved to a position between the top die and the bottom die, allowing one of the middle dies to be clamped with the top die and the bottom die.
The present invention further provides a molding apparatus including a first driving device, a second driving device, and the aforementioned molding tool, wherein the top die and the bottom die are disposed on the first driving device to face each other. The first driving device drives one or both of the top die and the bottom die to move towards or away from each other along a straight-line direction. The middle dies are arranged in a row on the second driving device, and are respectively moved to or retracted from the position between the top die and the bottom die along a direction perpendicular to the straight-line direction.
The present invention further provides a method of molding objects including steps of: preparing the aforementioned molding tool; disposing a raw material adapted to be molded on each of the middle dies, and moving one of the middle dies to the position between the top die and the bottom die; driving one or both of the top die and the bottom die to move towards each other until the top die, the bottom die, and the middle die are clamped to mold the raw material; driving one or both of the top die and the bottom die to move away from each other until the top die and the bottom die are separated by a predetermined distance after the raw material in the molding tool is molded into a required object; withdrawing one of the middle dies located between the top die and the bottom die; and moving another one of the middle dies having the raw material to the position between the top die and the bottom die, and driving one or both of the top die and the bottom die to move towards each other until the top die, the bottom die, and the another middle die are clamped to mold the raw material of the another middle die.
The molding tool, the molding apparatus, and the method of molding objects of the present invention could be applied to processing and manufacturing including hot-press molding, cold-press molding, or die cutting. With the aforementioned design, as the molding tool is constituted of three pieces including the top die, the at least two middle dies, and the bottom die, the raw material could be disposed on each of the middle dies before the molding tool is clamped, avoiding the conventional problem of inaccurate placement of the raw material due to insufficient operating space and limited time interval between the upper mold and the lower mold clamping, thereby increasing the yield rate of processing the raw material into an object and reducing the industrial safety risk of the workers during process, and increasing the productivity of processing and manufacturing by reducing the time of disposing the raw material each time before clamping of the molding tool.
The present invention will be best understood by referring to the following detailed description of some illustrative embodiments in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which
In the description below, the terms “up”, “down”, “top”, “bottom”, “front”, “rear”, “left”. “right”, and their derivatives, should be interpreted from the exploded view of the present invention in
More specifically, in the current embodiment, two cores 12 are respectively provided in a left position and a right position of a bottom of the top die 10, and two partial cavities 22 are respectively provided in a left position and a right position of a top of the bottom die 20, and two molding holes 32 that are penetrating therethrough are respectively provided on a left side and a right side of each of the middle dies 30, wherein each of the molding holes 32 matches with one of the partial cavities 22 to jointly form one cavity A matching with one of the cores 12, so that two structures of the two cores 12 matching with the two cavities A are constituted. In other embodiments, a position in which the cores 12 and the partial cavities 22 are provided could be swapped (e.g. the two core 12 are provided in the bottom die 20 and the two partial cavities 22 are provided in the top die 10), and the number of the structure that the core 12 matches with the cavity A (including the partial cavity 22 and the molding hole 32) is not limited to two, but could be one, three, or more.
The middle dies 30 have a frame structure 34 on a periphery of each of the molding holes 32. When the top die 10 and bottom die 20 clamp one of the middle dies 30, each of the frame structures 34 is clamped between the core 12 of the top die 10 and a part of the bottom die 20 located on a periphery of the partial cavity 22. A top surface of each of the frame structures 34 has a positioning pin 341. When the raw material B is disposed on each of the frame structures 34 of the middle dies 30, each of the positioning pins 341 could position the raw material B by penetrating through the raw material B. In other embodiments, the number of the positioning pin 341 provided on the top surface of each of the frame structures 34 could be two or more to fix the raw material B on the middle dies 30 by penetrating through the raw material B. The left side and the right side of each of the middle dies 30 respectively have a lug 36 protruding out of a boundary in which each of the middle dies 30 is clamped with the top die 10 and the bottom die 20.
As shown in
The second driving device 50 has a conveyor 52, wherein the middle dies 30 are arranged at intervals on the conveyor 52, so that the middle dies 30 arranged in a row on the second driving device 50 could be respectively moved to or retracted from the position between the top die 10 and the bottom die 20 along a direction (i.e., a front-rear direction in the current embodiment) perpendicular to the straight-line direction in which the top die 10 and the bottom die 20 move towards or away from each other. More specifically, referring to
As shown in
In other embodiments, the top seat 42 and the top die 10 could be fixed on the crossbeam 471, and both the driving cylinder 48 and the two guiding rods 473 could be disposed on the bottom base 46 and adapted to connect to and drive the bottom seat 44 and the bottom die 20; alternatively, the top seat 42 and the top die 10 are remained to be driven by the driving cylinder 48 to lift or decline, and another driving cylinder 48 and another two guiding rods 473 are additionally disposed on the bottom base 46 and adapted to connect to and drive the bottom seat 44 and the bottom die 20 to lift or decline. With the aforementioned structure, one or both of the top die 10 and the bottom die 20 of the molding tool 100 could be driven to move towards or away from each other. Moreover, the driving cylinder 48 could be changed to other linear driving devices, such as an electric linear actuator, to drive one or both of the top die 10 and the bottom die 20 to move towards or away from each other.
The conveyor 52 of the second driving device 50 further includes two belts 521 arranged by an interval in a left-right direction, wherein the two belts 521 respectively pass through a left side and a right side of a position in which the top die 10 and the bottom die 20 clamp the middle dies 30. The middle dies 30 are engaged between the two belts 521. For example, in the current embodiment, the left side and the right side of each of the middle dies 30 respectively have one lug 36, and each of the middle dies 30 is detachably engaged with the two belts 521 via the two lugs 36. In this way, the conveyor 52 of the second driving device 50 could move the middle dies 30 having the raw material B to the position between the top die 10 and the bottom die 20, and the top die 10 and the bottom die 20 could be driven to clamp with one of the middle dies 30 to process the raw material B into a product, then the conveyor 52 could move another one of the middle dies 30 having a raw material B to repeat the process of processing the raw material B into a product after the top die 10 and the bottom die 20 move away from one another to the predetermined distance H.
Apart from the second driving device 50 having the conveyor 52 in the current embodiment, the second driving device 50 could be at least one robotic arm that could freely move the middle dies 30. The at least one robotic arm moves each of the middle dies 30 having the raw material B to the position between the top die 10 and the bottom die 20, then the top die 10 and the bottom die 20 clamp one of the middle dies 30 to process the raw material B. and the middle die 30 is withdrawn after the top die 10 and the bottom die 20 are retracted, and at the same time, another one of the middle dies 30 having the raw material B is moved to the position between the top die 10 and the bottom die 20 to repeat the process.
A method of molding objects is illustrated in a flowchart as shown in
S01, prepare a molding tool 100: as shown in
S02, dispose the raw material B: as shown in
S03, process the raw material B with the molding tool 100; as shown in
S04, retract the top die 10 and the bottom die 20: as shown in
S05. Withdraw the middle die 30: as shown in
S06, move another one of the middle dies 30 to process the raw material B; as shown in
Referring to
The molding apparatus 200 of the current embodiment is taken as an example to illustrate how each of the middle dies 30 is moved as mentioned in each step of the method of molding objects, wherein the middle dies 30 are arranged in a row on the second driving device 50 having the conveyor 52, and the conveyor 52 moves one of the middle dies 30 having the raw material B to the position between the top die 10 and the bottom die 20 and withdraws the corresponding middle die 30 from the position between the top die 10 and the bottom die 20 after processing. Besides, the second driving device 50 of the present invention is not limited to the conveyor 52, but could be at least one robotic arm to move each of the middle dies 30 to the position between the top die 10 and the bottom die 20 or withdraw the corresponding middle die 30 located between the top die 10 and the bottom die 20.
It must be pointed out that the embodiments described above are only some preferred embodiments of the present invention. All equivalent structures and methods which employ the concepts disclosed in this specification and the appended claims should fall within the scope of the present invention.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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111129596 | Aug 2022 | TW | national |