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AssigneeBrown LLC
InventorsJames Martin, Doug Harvey, James Robbins, Kevin John Daley
Estimating the term…
A thermoforming trim press has one or more connecting arms for a movable platen which each have a pivotal connection between the adjacent ends of two adjacent sections into which each connecting arm is divided. The pivotal connection is normally locked to keep the sections in end to end alignment during normal press operation, but can be released to allow pivoting between the sections to be able to draw the movable platen further back from the normal retracted position to increase the available clearance when changing or maintaining tools mounted on the movable platen. The pivoting ability of the connecting arm sections also simplifies adjusting the stroke of the press while this is normally done by relocating a crank pin on flywheels driving the connecting arms. The change of position does not affect the movable platen when the arm sections may pivot with respect to each other allowing relocating the crank pins to adjust the stroke without requiring disassembling of the crank pins. A counterweight may be driven by the crank pins to match the press stroke adjustments and to thereby correspond the movement of the counterweight to the movement of the movable platen.
A press having a movable platen adapted to mount a tool for carrying out an operation by said press, said movable platen connected to one end of an elongated connecting arm, an opposite end of said connecting arm driven by a press drive to reciprocate said tool between fully retracted and fully advanced positions, said connecting arm divided into two sections, each section having an end adjacent an end of the other of said two sections, said adjacent ends joined together by an interposed pivot connection, with a locking arrangement normally operative on said pivot joint to prevent pivoting motion and hold said sections in lengthwise alignment, said locking arrangement selectively able to be released to allow said pivoting of said arm sections relative each other and to thereby draw said platen further from said fully retracted position, so as to create a greater clearance with said tool to enable removal of said tool and replacement with another tool or to perform maintenance on said a tool while still remaining installed in said press.
A method of temporarily increasing a clearance of a movable platen in a press said platen driven by at least one connecting arm in turn driven by a press drive to be normally reciprocated between a fully advanced position to a fully retracted position of said movable platen in said press during normal operation, the method comprising establishing a pivot connection between adjacent ends of two sections of said connecting arm;
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.