Relating to the repetitive cutting of workpiece blanks

A method of repetitive cutting of large numbers of identical workpiece shapes from wide sheet or roll material by means of a travelling head press, the method comprising the steps of:

• (i) providing a travelling head press that can swivel on its base in the horizontal plane relatively to the sheet material feeding means,
• (ii) computing the best slant angle for the particular workpiece shapes to be cut by the cutting tool selected.
• (iii) swiveling the press relative to the base to set it at that slant angle relative to the feeding means,
• (iv) selecting and fitting to the press a particular cutting tool at a fixed location relative to the selected slant, and
• (v) cutting a row of workpiece shapes across the entire width of the sheet material along the line of the slant angle.

A travelling head press comprising:

• feeding means for conveying sheet material along a given path,
• a base for said press,
• a press bed and a press top beam having a fixed position relative to one another and rotatable over a large range of angles relative to the edge of said sheet material on said base to a predeterminable position relative to the path of travel of a workpiece,
• a cutting tool that makes successive cuts transverse to said sheet material at a selected bias angle between the direction of feed of the material and the cutting strokes of said head,
• a press head movable along and rotatable over a large range of angles relative to said shape material to a predeterminable position relative to said press top beam for each cutting tool selected, and
• means for securing a cutting tool in said press head.