Mechanism for centering metal hollow bodies during a drawing operation

A mechanism for centering drawn metal hollow bodies in front of a die of an ironing tool where each metal hollow body has a flared section along the edge zone of its open face, said mechanism comprising:

• a. at least two centering-cheeks adapted to the circumference of the metal hollow body,
• b. said centering-cheeks being movably supported for sliding movement within a place extending transversely to the tool axis and in a direction toward and away from the tool axis,
• c. a crossbar disposed across the bottom of a housing for the die,
• d. a main ejector slidingly supported in the die housing,
• e. said main ejector including a freely slidable section disposed above the crossbar and a rod lying under resilient prestress,
• f. said rod being guided concentrically with the crossbar and including an area portion which, upon ejection motion of the rod, lies against said slidable section to cause said section to slide away in front of the rod,
• g. said crossbar having a central bore with a cross section which is greater than that of the top part of the rod but smaller than said area portion facing the crossbar of said slidable section, and
• h. mechanical control means for effecting periodic opening motion of said centering-cheeks in a direction away from the tool axis in dependence upon the motion of a draw punch,
• i. said control means being effective to cause the centering-cheeks to embrace the hollow body centeringly at at least a fraction of its overall height and after it has been thrust into the die by the draw punch,
• j. said control means including means for withdrawing said centering-cheeks away from the circumference of the hollow body at a time just before said flared section passes thereby and by an amount equal to at least the radial dimension of the flared section.