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US 5,532,451 AGranted
Combined cutting and welding process for manufacturing structural products, and apparatus implementing such a process
AssigneeLara Consultants s.r.l.
InventorAldo V. La Rocca
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A process and apparatus for manufacturing structural steel metal products in which a strip of sheet metal is fed along a plane and cut by a laser into a number of sheets with each sheet secured to a respective supporting surface of a rotary work holder and welded by an additional laser to the previous sheet along a common edge.
Claims18
A process for manufacturing structural sheet metal products (P), characterized by the fact that it comprises at least the following stages, consisting in:
- a) feeding a continuous strip of sheet metal (4) onto a supporting surface (16) of a work holder (6;
- 26, 27) defining at least two supporting surfaces (16) forming, a common edge and successively positioned coincident with the plane (.alpha.) along which said sheet metal strip (4) is fed;
- b) clamping said strip (4) on to said supporting surface (16);
- c) cutting a first sheet (L1) off said strip (4);
- d) resetting said work holder (6;
- 26, 27) so as to position a further supporting surface (16) coincident with said plane (.alpha.);
- e) feeding said strip (4) on to said further supporting surface (16) of said work holder (6;
- 26, 27);
- f) clamping said strip (4) on to said further supporting surface (16);
- g) cutting a further sheet (L2) off said strip (4);
- h) welding said sheets (L1, L2, . . . ) substantially along said common edge of said supporting surfaces (16).
8 more elements
An apparatus (1) for manufacturing structural sheet metal products;
- characterized by the fact that it comprises:
- means (7) for feeding a sheet metal strip (4) along a given plane (.alpha.);
- at least one work holder (6;
- 26, 27) having at least two supporting surfaces (16) forming, a common edge;
- means (17) for so positioning said work holder as to successively position said supporting surfaces (16) coincident with said plane (.alpha.);
- means (20) for clamping said strip (4) on to each said supporting surface (16);
- means (T, T1, T2) for cutting said strip (4) into sheets (L1, . . . , L4) fitted to respective said supporting surfaces (16, 30, 31) of said work holder (6, 26);
- means (S, S1, S2) for welding said sheets (L1, . . . , L4) substantially along a common edge.
5 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.