Pre-rounding element on a rounding apparatus
AssigneeSoudronic AG
InventorsGuy Boissin, Oliver Schulthess
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A pre-rounding element (14) is used in a rounding apparatus (4) for rounding can body blanks from sheet metal blanks. The lower element part (22) of the pre-rounding element (14) is displaceable by an actuation element (23). This allows the adjustment of the pre-rounding element even during operation of the rounding apparatus. Preferably a measurement of sheet metal blank properties takes place. The measurement may include a thickness measurement and/or a strength measurement of blanks. The pre-rounding element is controlled in dependency of the measurement result. This allows a constant rounding result even with varying sheet metal properties.
Claims4
A method of rounding sheet metal blanks in a rounding apparatus in which each blank to be rounded is pressurized by a pre-rounding element, said pre-rounding element comprising a fixed element upper part with fixation elements for fixation to the rounding apparatus, or said upper element part being provided by a fixed part of said rounding apparatus, a lower element part being provided for acting on the sheet metal blanks, a joint or hinge, respectively, joining said element upper part with said element lower part, at least one actuator by which said element lower part is displaceable controlled by a signal and wherein said signal is based on a measurement of a sheet metal property of the sheet metal blanks to be rounded,
- wherein said sheet metal property is a rounding property of said sheet metal blank which is measured during operation of said rounding apparatus on consecutive blanks without destruction of said blanks, and
- wherein said rounding property is measured electrically by detecting said passing blank at a first position, pre-rounding said blank, detecting said blank at a second position dependent from the rounding and measuring the time of travel of said blank between said first and said second position.
A method for rounding a plurality of sheet metal blanks in a rounding apparatus, the method comprising:
- pressurizing a first sheet metal blank by a pre-rounding element, wherein the pre-rounding element comprises:
- a fixed element upper part for fixing the pre-rounding element to the rounding apparatus;
- a lower element part for acting on the first sheet metal blank;
- at least one of a joint or a hinge joining the fixed element upper part and the lower element part;
- and
- at least one actuator for displacing the lower element part, wherein the at least one actuator is controlled by a signal, and
- measuring a rounding property of the first sheet metal blank,
- wherein the signal is derived based on the rounding property of the first sheet metal blank,
- wherein the rounding apparatus comprises a flexing station,
- wherein the rounding property is measured when the first sheet metal blank is in the flexing station,
- wherein the rounding property is measured during operation of the rounding apparatus on consecutive sheet metal blanks, and
- wherein the step of measuring the rounding property of the first sheet metal blank comprises:
- electrically detecting the first sheet metal blank at a first position in the rounding apparatus;
- pre-rounding the first sheet metal blank;
- electrically detecting the first sheet metal blank at a second position;
- and
- measuring a time of travel of the first sheet metal blank between the first position and the second position.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.