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.
Claims15
A system comprising:
- a plurality of rollers positioned relative to one another to bend a continuous material moving through the plurality of rollers into a curved form of the continuous material 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;
- a first pusher actuatable to move relative to the continuous material to impart a first normal force on an inner surface of the continuous material along the spiral joint;
- and
- a second pusher actuatable to move relative to the continuous material to impart a second normal force on an outer surface of the continuous material along the spiral joint.
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 to within a predetermined tolerance.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.