Spiral forming
AssigneeKeystone Tower Systems, Inc.
InventorsEric D. Smith, Rosalind K. Takata, Daniel Ainge, Loren Daniel Bridgers
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Spiral forming methods can be used to join edges of a rolled material along a spiral joint to form conical and/or cylindrical structures. Alignment of the edges of the rolled material can be controlled in a wrapping direction as the material is being joined along the spiral joint to form the structure. By controlling alignment of the edges of the material as the edges of the material are being joined, small corrections can be made over the course of forming the structure facilitating control over geometric tolerances of the resulting spiral formed structure.
Claims14
A conical segment comprising:
- a continuous material in a curved form having an edge-to-edge abutting relationship of a first edge region and a second edge region of the continuous material along a spiral joint;
- and
- a first set of tick marks along the first edge region;
- and
- a second set of tick marks along the second edge region, each tick mark in the first set of tick marks along the first edge region aligned with a respective tick mark in the second set of tick marks along the second edge region, along the edge-to-edge abutting relationship, to within a predetermined tolerance, wherein the spiral joint along the edge-to-edge abutting relationship of the first edge region and the second edge region extends circumferentially about a longitudinal axis defined by the curved form of the continuous material, and a radial distance from the longitudinal axis to an inner surface of the curved form of the continuous material varies monotonically such that the conical segment is tapered.
A conical segment comprising:
- a continuous material in a curved form having an edge-to-edge abutting relationship of a first edge region and a second edge region of the continuous material along a spiral joint;
- and
- a first set of tick marks along the first edge region;
- and
- a second set of tick marks along the second edge region, each tick mark in the first set of tick marks along the first edge region aligned with a respective tick mark in the second set of tick marks along the second edge region, along the edge-to-edge abutting relationship, to within a predetermined tolerance, wherein the continuous material includes a plurality of cross-joints intersecting the spiral joint along the edge-to-edge abutting relationship.
A conical segment comprising:
- a continuous material in a curved form having an edge-to-edge abutting relationship of a first edge region and a second edge region of the continuous material along a spiral joint;
- and
- a first set of tick marks along the first edge region;
- and
- a second set of tick marks along the second edge region, each tick mark in the first set of tick marks along the first edge region aligned with a respective tick mark in the second set of tick marks along the second edge region, along the edge-to-edge abutting relationship, to within a predetermined tolerance, wherein, between at least two tick marks of the first set of tick marks, the first edge region and the second edge region have different radiuses of curvature along the edge-to-edge abutting relationship.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.