Method of machining an opening in a plurality of blanks
AssigneeFord Motor Company
InventorsLaurent Bernard Chappuis, S. George Luckey, Jr., Andrey M Ilinich, Keith Zobay
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method and a system are disclosed for making an article of manufacture from a blank defining an internal opening. A stack of blanks are aligned and the internal openings of the blanks in the stack of blanks are machined by a rotary cutting tool to a finished dimension. The blanks are clamped together before machining in a numerically controlled machine tool. The blanks are subsequently formed individually in a sheet metal forming operation in which the inner perimeter of the internal openings is expanded as the blank is formed.
Claims4
A system for manufacturing sheet metal parts from blanks, the system comprising:
- a blanking press including a blanking die that cuts a respective internal opening defined by each of the blanks, wherein the blanks are stacked on a base in a stack of blanks with each internal opening vertically aligned with the respective internal opening defined by each of two vertically adjacent blanks relative to each blank;
- a machine tool including a rotary milling cutter that only mills between one blank thickness to 4 millimeters of material from an inner periphery of each respective internal opening in the stack of blanks to form a milled inner periphery around each respective internal opening of each of the respective blanks;
- and
- a draw die that individually forms and expands the internal opening of each of the milled inner peripheries after each blank is separated from the stack of blanks.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.