# US 5,706,691 A · Stand supporting method and equipment thereof and a position measuring method of a supporting platform and equipment thereof for roll former > Agents: this data is available as JSON from the patentgrep API and MCP server — see https://patentgrep.com/llms.txt - Number: US 5,706,691 A - Document ID: US5706691A - Status: Granted - Kind: A - Application number: 08/564,274 - Filed: 1996-03-29 - Granted: 1998-01-13 - Earliest claimed: 1993-07-08 - Assignees: Nakata Manufacturing Co., Ltd. - Inventors: Atumu Okamoto; James Mok - Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US5706691A ## CPC - B21C 37/08: Making tubes with welded or soldered seams {(with helically arranged seams B21C37/122)} - B21D 5/12: making use of forming-rollers - B21C: MANUFACTURE OF METAL SHEETS, WIRE, RODS, TUBES, PROFILES OR LIKE SEMI-MANUFACTURED PRODUCTS OTHERWISE THAN BY ROLLING; AUXILIARY OPERATIONS USED IN CONNECTION WITH METAL-WORKING WITHOUT ESSENTIALLY REMOVING MATERIAL - B21D: WORKING OR PROCESSING OF SHEET METAL OR METAL TUBES, RODS OR PROFILES WITHOUT ESSENTIALLY REMOVING MATERIAL; PUNCHING METAL (working or processing of wire B21F) ## Abstract It is an object of the present invention to provide a supporting method, equipment, and controlling method for the roll-former stand by which the height and inclined angle of the cluster roll comprising subsequentially deposited plurality of side rolls likely as a roll former as a pipe mill can be arbitrarily set, and the interdistance between said rolls can be reduced. The basic structure consists of the following procedures; namely, (1) a supporting a pair of cluster platforms, on which a common bed is mounted, by a link being formed by jacks; a plurality of side rolls is supported by a roll bracket and deposited on said common bed, (2) fixing both end portions of the link on the platform or a bed plane surface to form an arbitrary triangle, and (3) measuring the length of the link by a linear encoder which is provided along said links. The measured data is converted to the Cartesian coordinates by the computer. Being based on the thus converted measured data, the information of the current positions and the target positions are comparison-computed to change the lengths of each link. By adjusting the lengths of the expanding and/or contracting movement of the links, the links can be freely adjusted either upper or lower (vertical) direction, left or right (horizontal) direction as well as the contact (rotational) direction with the workpiece with respect to the workpiece flow direction. ## Claims ### Claim 1 A method for supporting a roll former stand comprising the steps of: positioning a pair of platforms on a bed at symmetrical positions with respect to a workpiece flow direction; mounting a plurality of forming roll stands on each said platform facing corresponding roll stands on the other platform; and arranging a plurality of expandable links between said pair of platforms and the bed such that the relative position of the platforms and the bed can be controlled by controlling the length of said expandable links. ### Claim 2 (depends on 1) A method for supporting a roll former stand as in claim 1 further comprising the step of disposing between said pair of platforms a plurality of expandable links for controlling the relative position of the platforms with one another. ### Claim 3 (depends on 2) A method for supporting a roll former stand as in claim 2, wherein the total number of links connecting the bed to each of the platforms and disposed between the platforms is twelve (12). ### Claim 4 An apparatus for supporting a roll former stand comprising: a pair of platforms on which a plurality of forming roll stands are disposed, wherein each of the platforms is positioned symmetrically with respect to a workpiece flow direction; a plurality of expandable links connected between said platforms and a bed; driving sources for adjusting the length of each of the expandable links; and a means for controlling each of the driving sources. ### Claim 5 (depends on 4) An apparatus for supporting a roll former stand as in claim 4, wherein a plurality of expandable links is disposed between each of the platforms for controlling the relative position of each of the platforms. ### Claim 6 (depends on 5) An apparatus for supporting a roll former stand as in claim 5, wherein the total number of expandable links connecting the platforms and the bed and expandable links disposed between each of the platforms is twelve (12). ### Claim 7 (depends on 4) An apparatus for supporting a roll former stand as in claim 4 in which a cylinder is disposed between the pair of platforms along a predicted loading direction for a roll forming process to add pre-pressure along said loading direction. ### Claim 8 A method for determining the relative position of a pair of platforms in an apparatus for supporting a roll former stand, wherein the apparatus has a pair of platforms on which a plurality of forming roll stands are disposed, and wherein each of the platforms is positioned symmetrically with respect to a workpiece flow direction, and a plurality of expandable links are connected between said platforms and a bed, wherein the positioning measuring method comprises: employing a certain coordinate to display positions of said pair of platforms; employing a certain coordinate to display a measured length of links being connected to each said platform; preparing an interchangeable map regarding the relative positional relationship between said two coordinates in advance; measuring the length of each expandable link; and obtaining desired coordinates on position and orientation of said platform through the interchangeable map by knowing the measured length of each link. ### Claim 9 (depends on 6) A method for determining the relative position of a pair of platforms in an apparatus for supporting a roll former stand as in claim 6, wherein a linear encoder is employed on each link to measure the length of each link. ### Claim 10 A device for determining the relative position of a pair of platforms in an apparatus for supporting a roll former stand, wherein the apparatus has a pair of platforms on which a plurality of forming roll stands are disposed, and wherein each of the platforms is positioned symmetrically with respect to a workpiece flow direction, and a plurality of expandable links are connected between said platforms and a bed, wherein the positioning measuring device comprises: means for determining a certain coordinate to display positions of said pair of platforms; means for displaying a measured length of links being connected to each said platform using the coordinate; means for preparing an interchangeable map regarding the relative positional relationship between said two coordinates in advance; means for measuring the length of each expandable link; and means for obtaining desired coordinates on position and orientation of said platform through the interchangeable map by knowing the measured length of each link. ### Claim 11 (depends on 8) A device for determining the relative position of a pair of platforms in an apparatus for supporting a roll former stand as in claim 8, wherein the means for measuring the length of each expandable link comprises a linear encoder disposed on each link to measure the length of each link.