Patent ID: 7290422
Filing Date: 2007-11-06
Classification: B21D

Abstract:
1. A device for the 3D free-form bending of profiles with constant outside dimensions over their length, particularly with a circular shape, wherein said device comprises a feed unit that contains a rotary drive for turning the profile about its longitudinal axis and serves for moving the profile with a longitudinal axis in a feed direction that extends parallel to this longitudinal axis, namely through a guide element with a through-opening that adjoins the surface of the profile and a bending sleeve that at least partially encloses the profile to be bent and is arranged downstream of the guide element referred to the feed direction, wherein said bending sleeve is held in a carrier element and can be pivoted about an axis that extends perpendicular to the feed direction of the profile, as well as displaced perpendicular to the longitudinal axis and the pivoting axis, together with said carrier element such that the bending sleeve acts upon the profile in a bending fashion, wherein a) the guide element supports the profile such that it can be turned about the longitudinal axis in or with the guide element, b) the bending sleeve supports the profile such that it can be turned about the longitudinal axis in or with the bending sleeve, c) the bending sleeve is supported such that it can be eccentrically pivoted about a first hinge point of a rocker by means of the carrier element, wherein the rocker, in turn, is supported such that it can be pivoted about a second hinge point that is arranged eccentric to the longitudinal axis of the profile on the same side of the profile as the first hinge point, and d) the carrier element is held in a guide groove on the opposite side of the profile referred to the hinge points, namely such that the inner surface region of the bending sleeve that acts upon the outside of the profile in a bending fashion is, discounting the resilience of the profile, always aligned tangential referred to a circular arc that corresponds to the respectively desired bending radius when changing the position of the part of the carrier element that is supported in the guide groove.