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US 4,396,685 AGranted
Fabricated expanded metal
AssigneeAmpliform Pty Limited
InventorHarold R. Jury
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An expanded metal workpiece is formed from an extrusion so as to have grooves between the beads where adjacent beads are joined by web portions, the head portions of metal inserts are then inserted into the grooves at a metal to metal joining zone, and each head is retained to the metal workpiece by metal deformation.
Claims13
Fabricated expanded metal comprising:
- an expanded metal workpiece having a plurality of beads which are non-linear and are interconnected by rows of web portions with which they define grooves, the web portions of any one row being staggered with respect to the web portions of the next adjacent row, and
- a plurality of metal inserts each having a workpiece retaining head contained in at least one of said grooves at a metal-to-metal joining zone where it is retained to said expanded metal workpiece by metal deformation such that adjacent surfaces of said workpiece head and said at least one groove are brought into more intimate contact and said workpiece head is retained within said at least one groove by a mouth of said groove narrower than its base.
A method of producing fabricated expanded metal comprising:
- (a) forming a workpiece of ductile metal to have a plurality of parallel beads spaced by webs to have grooves between the beads, cutting a plurality of rows of elongate slots in respective webs between the beads in a pattern wherein the slots of any one row
- (i) are longer than the remaining web portions between adjacent ends of the slots, and
- (ii) are staggered with respect to the slots of the next adjacent row,
- (b) moving the outermost beads away from one another to increase the width of the workpiece and bend the beads near the slot ends to thus form an expanded metal workpiece,
- (c) forming a plurality of metal inserts each to have a workpiece retaining head and inserting said workpiece retaining heads in some at least of the grooves defined by said remaining web portions and their adjacent said beads, thereby establishing a plurality of metal-to-metal joining zones, and
- (d) so deforming metal at some at least of said joining zones, that the inserts are firmly secured to the expanded metal workpiece.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.