Press with guard for irregular die shapes
AssigneeGovernment of the United States as Represented by the Secretary of the Air Force
InventorLoc Lam
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A stamping press having upper and lower dies to deform a sheet of material. The press has an irregularly shaped opening with greater and lesser height across the width of the press. The press has a guard to prevent inadvertent insertion of extremities between the dies when feeding a sheet for stamping. The guard is also irregular in that it may be skewed to preferentially cover greater parts of the opening and/or may have an irregularly shaped lower edge which can be registered with a like or similar edge of the lower die.
Claims20
A press for deforming sheet materials and comprising:
- first and second complementary heads for receiving corresponding first and second dies therein, the first and second heads defining a width direction and a feed direction perpendicular thereto;
- at least one of the heads being movable relative to the other in an opening and closing direction, each of the first die and second die having a respective first and second front edge facing towards an operator, and defining an irregular space therebetween when the heads are in an open position,
- the irregular space being greater at a first position along the width and lesser at a second position along the width;
- and
- a generally rectangular static guard disposed on one the first heads and having alternatingly longer and shorter sides defining a major axis parallel to the longer sides, the major axis being skewed relative to the width direction, whereby the guard is sized to inhibit passing of a hand therepast when the first and second heads are in the open position and allows the sheet material to be worked when the first and second heads are in the closed position.
A method of plastically deforming a sheet comprising the steps of:
- providing a press having a fixed lower head a lower die and movable upper head having an upper die complementary to the lower die, each of the lower die and the upper die having a respective and horizontal upper die width and lower die width, the lower die and the upper die having a die space therebetween when the lower head and the upper head are separated, the die space having a substantially horizontal major axis and a differential height throughout the die space;
- providing a static guard on the upper head of the press and being movable relative thereto independent of movement of the upper die, the guard having a lower edge which is rectilinear and skewed relative to the horizontal;
- and
- positioning the guard on the upper head to define a first feed space which allows a sheet material therepast while substantially inhibiting an operator's hand from passing below the guard so that the guard.
A method of plastically deforming a sheet comprising the steps of:
- providing a press having a fixed lower head a lower die and movable upper head having an upper die complementary to the lower die, each of the lower die and the upper die having a respective and horizontal upper die width and lower die width, the lower die and the upper die having a first irregular die space therebetween when the lower head and the upper head are separated, the die space having a substantially horizontal major axis and a differential height throughout the first die space;
- providing a static guard on the upper head of the press and being movable relative thereto independent of movement of the upper die, the guard having an irregular lower edge;
- and
- positioning the guard on the upper head to register the irregular lower edge with the irregular die spaced define a first feed space between the lower die and the upper die and which allows a sheet material therepast while substantially inhibiting an operator's hand from passing below the guard so that the guard.
A method according to 19 wherein the lower die is a first lower die and the upper die is a first upper die, and further comprising the steps of:
- replacing at least one of the first lower die with a second lower die or replacing the first upper die with a second upper die;
- to define a second irregular die space different than the first irregular die space when the lower head and the upper head are separated, the second die space having a substantially horizontal major axis and a differential height throughout the first die space;
- and
- registering the guard with the second irregular die space without removing the guard from the head.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.