Textured sheet metal, and process and apparatus for producing textured sheet metal
AssigneeGripmetal Limited
InventorRay Arbesman
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A material includes a sheet of metal having a first face and an opposed second face, and a metal grain direction. The first face is textured with a first set of texturing features. Each texturing feature of the first set includes, respectively, a groove cut into the first face and extending along a groove axis, and a barb extending from the groove and away from the first face. The texturing features of the first set are arranged in a plurality of rows, and the groove axes of the texturing features in a given row extend generally parallel to the given row. The rows are generally non-perpendicular to the grain direction.
Claims8
A process for producing a textured sheet of metal, the process comprising:
- a. feeding a sheet of metal into a texturing apparatus, the sheet of metal extending along a longitudinal axis and being fed into the texturing apparatus in a direction parallel to the longitudinal axis;
- and
- b. actuating a plurality of knives of the texturing apparatus to impact the sheet, the impact gouging at least one groove into the sheet and creating a barb with the material removed in creating the groove, wherein the plurality of knives extend along a horizontal knives axis, wherein a first set of the plurality of knives is actuated perpendicularly down towards the sheet and across the sheet in a forward direction that is non-perpendicular to the longitudinal axis, wherein a second set of the plurality of knives is actuated perpendicularly down towards the sheet and across the sheet in a rearward direction that is parallel to the longitudinal axis.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.