Roll embossing of discrete features

Abstract

A cold rolling process for impressing a pattern on a surface of a sheet metal article involves passing the sheet article through a pair of rolls and engaging a patterning feature with isolated areas of a surface of the sheet article, at a localized pressure to plastically deform at least the surface of the sheet article. A rolling pressure is maintained on other areas of the sheet article that is less than the bulk elastic yield strength of the metal. A cold rolling apparatus is also described having a pair of rolls, each with partially cylindrical outer surfaces. The rolls have a gap between the cylindrical parts. One of the rolls has a localized surface region that is displaced relative to the surface of the roll. When the localized region is brought near the other roll, a spacing exists that is narrower than the gap. One of the rolls has a localized patterning feature that aligns with the localized surface region to impress a pattern into the sheet article. The gap allows the rolls to engage opposite surfaces of the sheet article while imparting compression less than a bulk elastic yield strength of the metal.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.