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AssigneeMesserschmitt-Bolkow-Blohm GmbH
InventorsManfred Lechner, Volker Schirm, Heinrich Dettmann
Estimating the term…
The constructional parts have walls formed of elongated juxtaposed tubes, wound spirally about the axis of symmetry of the constructional parts and connected to each other. The tubes are bent to shape by a bending device having at least one bending flank or edge surface conformable to the predetermined 3-dimensional geometry of the part to be manufactured, with one end of each tube being fixed to the bending device and the other end being engaged in a clamping and adjusting device designed as a combined Cardan swivel joint. During bending, the clamping and adjusting device is utilized to continuously control the adjustment parameters of the tube being bent, about three mutually intersecting and perpendicular axes, in conformity with the predetermined three-dimensional geometry of the part, and the radial distance of the swivel joint from the axis of symmetry of the bending device is continuously controlled. A closed-loop control system is provided, and includes an actual-value transmitter, measuring the radial displacement of the swivel joint clamping device relative to the axis of symmetry of the bending device, a reference-value transmitter, having a set point adjusted as a function of the angular displacement between the bending device and the clamping device, and an actuator operating, as a function of the error signal value, to effect radial displacement of the clamping device. The control loop is advantageously designed as an electro-hydraulic system. The control member of the control system may be a cam, or the reference values, which are a function of the angle of rotation, may be determined by means of a digital computer.
In a apparatus for manufacturing a rotationally symmetrical constructional part, with a three-dimensional geometry, having walls formed of elongated tubes wound spirally about the axis of symmetry of the constructional part and connected to each other, with such manufacturing apparatus comprising a rotatable bending device having a central longitudinal axis of symmetry and at least one bending flank conforming to the predetermined three-dimensional geometry of the constructional part to be manufactured, holding means operable to clamp one end of each tube to the bending device for bending the tube to shape by bending it into contact with the bending flank, and a clamping and adjusting device operatively associated with the bending device and operable to clamp the other end of each tube, said clamping and adjusting device being radially displaceable relative to said axis of symmetry and angularly displaceable relative to said bending flank to continuously control the bending of the tube along the bending flank about three mutually intersecting axes, in conformity with such predetermined three-dimensional geometry of the constructional part to be manufactured;
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.