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AssigneeBrown LLC
InventorsJames Martin, Doug Harvey, James Robbins, Kevin John Daley
Estimating the term…
A thermoforming trim press has one or more connecting arms for driving a movable platen, each arm having a pivotal connection between two adjacent sections of each connecting arm which is normally locked during normal press operation whereby the movable platen is able to move further back from a normal retracted position to increase the available clearance when changing or maintaining tools mounted on the movable platen. The pivoting ability of the connecting arm sections also simplifies adjusting the stroke of the press. A counterweight may be driven by the crank pins to match the press stroke adjustments and to thereby correspond the movement of the counterweight to the movement of the movable platen.
A press having a movable platen adapted to mount a tool for carrying out an operation by said press, said movable platen connected to one end of an elongated connecting arm, an opposite end of said connecting arm driven by a press drive to reciprocate said platen and said tool mounted thereon between fully retracted and fully advanced positions, said connecting arm divided into two sections which are held aligned with each other in a lengthwise direction during said reciprocating movement of said platen by a selectively activated locking arrangement, each connecting arm section having an end adjacent to an end of the other of said two sections of said connecting arm, said adjacent ends of said connecting arm joined together by an interposed pivot connection, with said locking arrangement normally acting on said pivot connection to prevent relative pivoting motion of said connecting arm sections during reciprocating movement of said platen by said press drive and to hold said connecting arm sections in lengthwise alignment, said locking arrangement selectively able to be released to allow said pivoting of said connecting arm sections relative each other when said press is not operated by said press drive and to thereby be able to retract said platen further past said fully retracted position, so as to create a greater clearance between said tool and said press to facilitate removal of said tool and replacement with another tool or to perform maintenance on said tool while still remaining installed on said movable platen in said press.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.