Method of, and an apparatus for, making a formed wire
AssigneeToyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorIwao Nihashi
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method for making a formed wire in a predetermined shape by merely bending a clamped wire from its opposite ends toward its center portion, unclamping the bent wire to allow release of any bending-induced tortional stresses, and rotating the bent, unclamped wire around the unbent wire axis without twisting; and an apparatus for carrying out the method, which comprises a wire support, wire a selectively operable clamp, a rotating pin wire bender for bending the clamped wire from the opposite ends to the center portion, and a chuck for locating, holding, and rotating the bent, unclamped wire around the unbent wire axis.
Claims28
Improved apparatus for making a formed wire from a linear wire, the apparatus having
- means for supporting the linear wire in a plane;
- means for clamping the supported wire;
- means for bending a portion of the clamped wire;
- means for moving the bending means along the longitudinal axis of the unbent portion of the wire;
- and
- means for rotating the wire to move the bent wire portion out of the plane, the improvement comprising:
- the clamping means including means for releasing the unbent wire portion from the clamping means following activation of the bending means and before activation of the rotating means, and for reclamping the unbent wire portion of the supported wire after rotation, and
- the rotating means including
- (i) means for locating and holding the bent wire portion,
- (ii) means for rotating the locating and holding means a predetermined angle about the longitudinal axis of the unbent wire portion, the bent wire portion being released from the locating and holding means after the unbent portion has been reclamped and before subsequent additional bending of the unbent wire portion.
An improved method of making a formed wire from a linear wire, the method including the steps of supporting the linear wire in a plane, clamping the linear wire in clamping means, bending at least one end portion of the linear wire toward the middle portion in the plane, rotating the wire to move the bent portion out of the plane, and bending another portion of the linear wire, the improvement comprising:
- the additional step of releasing the linear wire from the clamping means while maintaining planar support for the wire, said releasing step being accomplished after the bending step and before the rotating step, the improvement further comprising the rotating step having the substeps of
- (i) locating the bent wire portion,
- (ii) holding the bent wire portion in a rotatable fixture,
- (iii) rotating the holding fixture by a predetermined angle about the longitudinal axis of the unbent wire portion,
- (iv) re-clamping the unbent wire portion in the clamping means, and
- (v) releasing the bent wire portion from the holding fixture.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.