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US 5,139,054 AGranted
Spring interior forming and assembling apparatus
AssigneeLeggett & Platt, Incorporated
InventorsThomas P. Long, Michael L. Shelton, Thomas J. Wells
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An apparatus for forming and assembling spring interiors is provided in which, in the preferred embodiment, adjustable reforming dies adjacent a cutting station lengthen the supporting structure of a bridging portion of the coil band that interconnects coils near the end of the band to compensate for the change of length caused by the cutting of the endmost bridging portion separating spring assemblies. Adjustable dies are also provided to vary the length of the bridging portions when they are initially formed. The coils are interlaced at a lacing station from continuous lacing coil bands.
Claims19
A spring interior forming and assembling apparatus comprising:
- a frame;
- means for supplying a plurality of continuous spring bands, each having formed therealong a plurality of spring coils of alternate rotation and being joined to the adjacent coils by bridging segments integral with the coil springs;
- a segment forming station mounted adjacent the band supplying means, the forming station including a plurality of means for forming segments of the bands into bends, the forming means including adjustable means for adjustably determining the shape of the formed bends so as to control the spacing between adjacent coils;
- means for feeding the plurality of bands formed at the segment forming station along a plurality of parallel paths extending longitudinally across the frame;
- a segment reforming station mounted on the frame, extending transverse the paths, the reforming station having a plurality of means, one adjacent each of the paths, for reshaping selected ones of the formed bends of each of the bands to alter the spacing between adjacent coils a selected pair;
- and
- a segment cutting station mounted on the frame, spaced from the segment reforming station and extending transverse the paths and spaced from the forming station, the cutting station having a plurality of means, one adjacent each of the paths, for cutting selected segments of the bands.
4 more elements
The apparatus of claim 13 wherein:
- the reforming means includes adjustable means for adjustably determining the shape of the formed bends so as to control the spacing between coils adjacent to the bridging section containing the bend reformed thereby.
A spring interior forming and assembling apparatus comprising:
- a frame;
- means for supplying a plurality of continuous spring bands, each having formed therealong a plurality of spring coils of alternate rotation and being joined to the adjacent coil springs by bridging segments integral with the coils springs;
- means for feeding the plurality of bands along a plurality of parallel paths extending longitudinally across the frame;
- a segment forming station mounted on the frame and extending transverse the paths, the forming station having a plurality of means, one adjacent each of the paths, for forming the segments of each of the bands into bends;
- a segment cutting station mounted on the frame, extending transverse the paths and spaced from the forming station, the cutting station having a plurality of means, one adjacent each of the paths, for cutting each of the bands across a transverse row of selected segments of the bands into lengths of equal numbers of coils and bridging segments;
- and
- the forming means including means for adjusting the cut lengths of the bands including adjustable forming dies for adjustable determining the shape of the formed bends so as to control the spacing between adjacent coils of a band.
4 more elements
A spring interior forming and assembling apparatus comprising:
- means for supplying a plurality of continuous spring bands, each having formed therealong a plurality of spring coils of alternate rotation and being joined to the adjacent coils by bridging segments integral with the coil springs, the bridging segments of the bands having bends formed therein, the shapes of which control the spacing between adjacent coils of the bands;
- means for feeding the plurality of bands having the segments thereof formed at the segment forming stations longitudinally along a plurality of parallel paths;
- a segment reforming station extending transverse the paths and having a plurality of means, one adjacent each of the paths, for reshaping selected ones of the formed bends of each of the bands to alter the spacing between adjacent coils of a selected pair of coils to thereby alter the lengths of the bridging segments reformed thereby, the reforming station having means selectively operating the reshaping means to change the shape of the formed bends of some, but not all, of the bridging segments;
- and
- a segment cutting station extending transverse the paths and having a plurality of means, one adjacent each of the paths, for cutting selected segments of the bands.
2 more elements
A method of forming and assembling a spring interior forming comprising the steps of:
- supplying a plurality of continuous spring bands, each having formed therealong a plurality of spring coils of alternate rotation and being joined to the adjacent coils by bridging segments integral with the coil springs, each of the bridging segments being formed into bends, the shape of which determines the spacing between adjacent coils of the bands;
- feeding the plurality of bands along a plurality of parallel paths extending longitudinally across a frame;
- selecting one of the bridging sections of each of the bands lying in a row across the paths transverse to the frame, and changing the shapes of the bends previously formed in each of the selected bridging sections to alter the spacing between coils adjacent thereto;
- and
- cutting each of the bands at one of the bridging sections spaced rom the selected sections of the bands.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.