Apparatus for making brake shoes

An apparatus adapted to form a plurality of arcuately-shaped beam sections, such as brake shoes from sheet material, the apparatus comprising:

• a rollformer including rollers constructed and arranged to rollform the sheet material into an elongated T-shaped beam that includes a center web and a support flange along an edge of the center web;
• a cut-off device constructed to cut the beam into segments having a predetermined length;
• and
• a sweep device constructed to form one of the segments and the beam into an arcuate longitudinal shape where the support flange is accurately re-formed into a cylindrically-shaped rim having a diameter larger than the center web, wherein the sweep device includes a sweep roller and a nose retainer associated with the sweep roller, the nose retainer being adapted to grip a leading end of the segments and hold the leading end tight against the sweep roller as the sweep roller is rotated, the nose retainer including a laterally extendable shiftable pin adapted to securely but releasably engage a hole in a leading end of the segments.

An apparatus adapted to form a plurality of arcuately-shaped beam sections, such as brake shoes from sheet material, the apparatus comprising:

• a rollformer including rollers constructed and arranged to rollform the sheet material into an elongated T-shaped beam that includes a center web and a support flange along an edge of the center web;
• a cut-off device constructed to cut the beam into segments having a predetermined length;
• a sweep device constructed to form one of the segments and the beam into an arcuate longitudinal shape where the support flange is accurately re-formed into a cylindrically-shaped rim having a diameter larger than the center web;
• a re-forming device in-line with the rollformer that is configured to reshape the segments so that the flange is cylindrically-shaped and defines an arc of about 160° to 170°;
• the re-forming device being configured to form the segments into shapes where the rim has a radius of about 100 mm or less;
• wherein the re-forming device includes at least three stations that are arranged in a parallel relationship to each other to sequentially take the segments as the segments come off the sweep station;
• the at least three stations including reciprocating dies that individually cannot operate fast enough to accept the segments coming off the rollformer, but that together combined can take the segments from the rollformer at a rate that corresponds to a line speed of the rollformer.

An apparatus adapted to form a plurality of arcuately-shaped beam sections, such as brake shoes from sheet material, the apparatus comprising:

• a rollformer including rollers constructed and arranged to rollform the sheet material into an elongated T-shaped beam that includes a center web and a support flange along an edge of the center web;
• a cut-off device constructed to cut the beam into segments having a predetermined length;
• and
• a sweep device constructed to form one of the segments and the beam into an arcuate longitudinal shape where the support flange is accurately re-formed into a cylindrically-shaped rim having a diameter larger than the center web;
• wherein the rollers are configured to make a stiffening flange on the rim that stiffens an outward edge of the rim;
• wherein the rollers are configured and arranged to form the center flange from a double wall thickness of a center portion of the sheet, and further are configured and arranged to form the rim from opposing edge portions of the sheet;
• the opposing edge portions each being formed into a pair of arcuately-shaped flange sections each having an outer surface that lies on a common cylindrical geometric shape with a constant diameter.