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US 11,389,857 B2Granted
Apparatus and method to make a wire mesh
AssigneeM.E.P. Macchine Elettroniche Piegatrici SpA
InventorGiorgio Del Fabro
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An apparatus to make a wire mesh with longitudinal wires and transverse wires, on each occasion having a reciprocal pitch defined according to requirements is provided, and includes a first feeder, a second feeder and a welding unit functionally coordinated to make the desired wire mesh.
Claims15
An apparatus to make a wire mesh (11) comprising:
- a welding unit (17),
- a first feeder (15) configured to feed longitudinal wires (13),
- a second feeder (16) configured to feed at least one transverse wire (14) into said welding unit (17),
- a positioning unit (31) configured to receive from said first feeder (15) a plurality of said longitudinal wires (13), disposed parallel to a first direction (D1) and distanced according to a pre-set pattern on a support plane (46) defined by at least one positioning device (45), wherein said at least one positioning device (45) is configured to move said longitudinal wires (13) keeping them parallel and distanced from each other in a direction of movement (D2) orthogonal to said first direction (D1), said positioning device (45) comprising a plurality of housing seatings (34) configured to receive at least one of said longitudinal wires (13), wherein said positioning unit (31) further comprises lifting members (42) able to lift the longitudinal wires (13) above the support plane (46), and remove the longitudinal wires (13) from the housing seatings (34),
- a plurality of gripping members (36) each configured to remove one of said longitudinal wires (13) from said positioning unit (31) and to transfer them in respective directions of feed (A1, A2, A3, A4, A5, A6) and toward said welding unit (17), said directions of feed (A1, A2, A3, A4, A5, A6) being mutually distanced from one another,
- wherein said positioning unit (31) comprises a preparation zone (50) and a delivery zone (51) adjacent to each other in a direction parallel to said direction of movement (D2), said gripping members (36) being located in said delivery zone (51), and said preparation zone (50) having a width (L1), in a direction parallel to the direction of movement (D2), at least equal to or greater than the width (L2) of said delivery zone (51), wherein each of said lifting members (42) comprises a support plane, with a substantially flat shape.
3 more elements
A method to make a wire mesh (11) that provides to:
- feed with a first feeder (15) longitudinal wires (13) of said wire mesh (11),
- feed with a second feeder (16) at least one transverse wire (14) to said welding unit (17),
- receive from said first feeder (15) a plurality of said longitudinal wires (13) which are disposed in a positioning unit (31) parallel to a first direction (D1) and distanced according to a pre-set pattern on a support plane (46),
- move the longitudinal wires (13) with a positioning device (45), keeping them in a plurality of housing seatings (34) parallel and distanced from each other in a direction of movement (D2) orthogonal to the first direction (D1),
- remove each of said longitudinal wires (13) from the positioning unit (31) with a respective gripping member (36), and
- transfer said longitudinal wires (13) with said gripping members (36) in respective directions of feed (A1, A2, A3, A4, A5, A6) and toward said welding unit (17), said directions of feed (A1, A2, A3, A4, A5, A6) being mutually distanced from each other according to a second pre-set pattern coordinated to that which said longitudinal wires (13) will assume when welded to said transverse wires (14),
- wherein said positioning unit (31) comprises a preparation zone (50) and a delivery zone (51) adjacent to each other in a direction parallel to said direction of movement (D2), and while in said preparation zone (50) said first feeder (15) delivers a first group of longitudinal wires (13) distancing them from each other according to the pre-set pattern, in said delivery zone (51) lifting members (42), each comprising a support plane with a substantially flat shape, lift a second group of longitudinal wires (13), previously prepared in said preparation zone (50), above the support plane (46), removing the second group of longitudinal wires (13) from the housing seatings (34) and making the second group of longitudinal wires (13) to be taken by said gripping members (36).
4 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.