Non-stretch bending of sheet material to form cyclically variable cross-section members

Abstract

Families of products produced by, machines for producing, processes for producing, and a process for designing tooling to bend longitudinally cyclically variable cross-section members from sheet material are provided. The products are for specific applications, and are produced in machines by processes in which a plurality of sets of rollers with mating non-axisymmetric surfaces are specifically designed and mounted in an accurately spaced serial array for bending sheet material passing therethrough a predetermined amount, concurrently in the longitudinal and transverse directions, depending on the shape of the product to be formed and the ductility, strength and stiffness of the sheet material. Each set of non-axisymmetric rollers is driven at a predetermined speed with the roller sets being rotationally synchronized with each other and the spacing of each set of rollers from its neighboring sets of rollers is further predetermined so that the cyclical characteristics of the product being incrementally formed flows smoothly from each set of rollers to the next. The rotational speed of each set of rollers is determined by the linear speed of the product being formed as it enters each set of rollers and the number of product geometry cycles to be performed by each set of rollers on the product.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.