Apparatus for roll working

A roll working apparatus for use in forming, pressing, punching, shearing, etc., comprising a pair of rolls on each surface of which a plurality of male or female impression portions having dissimilar form or configuration, a work-feeding means for selectively supplying a work to the working position of any one specific pair of the impression portions once per each rotation of the rolls, and a phase (or timing) adjusting means for the selective feeding of the work, in order to enjoy the merit of carrying out a desired process of production, without doing troublesome and time-consuming change of the rolls, only by adjusting the phase adjusting means and, if necessary, work-feeding means.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
In the conventional roll working apparatuses, a changing of impression, or 
changing of the rolls is inevitable each time when carrying out press 
working of various kinds with the employment of different impression. This 
changing of impression is a time-consuming and troublesome operation, and 
is in addition a highly complicated work requiring a precise adjustment 
and confirmation such as (1) adjustment of interaxial distance, (2) 
correction of discrepancy between the male and female impression portions 
in the axial directions, and (3) confirmation of right phase in the 
rotating direction of the rolls. In the roll working accompanied by a 
process such as shearing, punching or cutting, the permissible tolerance 
of adjustment is so small that it is liable to increase the time for 
arrangement and thus, to prevent the reduction of labor time. Various 
attempts have been made for minimizing the time needed in changing the 
impression or the rolls; some are good reducing the time, bringing about 
however an undesirable result of greatly increasing the extra expenditure. 
At present, no proper method, simple and economical, of reducing the 
changing time of the impression is known. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
The present invention is aimed at the elimination of the abovementioned 
shortcomings or defects in the conventional apparatuses. It is, therefore, 
a primary object of this invention to provide an apparatus for roll 
working which enables processing articles of dissimilar configuration, 
without conventionally essential taking-out and refitting of impression, 
or changing the rolls, and thereby makes it possible to convert the usage 
of the apparatus from the conventional mass production system for articles 
of a specific configuration to a repeated production system for different 
configuration articles, irrespective of the production quantity, small or 
large. 
It is another object of this invention to provide an improved apparatus for 
roll working having a pair of rolls, on each of which a plurality of 
dissimilarly formed male of female impression portions are carved, as 
pairs of male and female, for enabling the process of any one of the 
differently shaped articles on the same pair of rolls only by properly 
adjusting the work-feeding timing in order to adapt it to the rotation 
phase of the rolls. 
It is still another object of this invention to provide an improved 
apparatus for roll working wherein the plurality pairs of impression may 
be two, three, or more in number thereof and the arranged position of 
these impression may not always be regularly spaced from one another, in 
accordance with the proper corresponding modifications in the construction 
of the work-feeding means and timing adjustment means for that, etc.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
Referring to the drawings a preferred embodiment of the present invention 
will be described hereinunder. Structure: As can be seen in FIGS. 1 to 5 
there are plurality of female impression portions or concavedly shaped 
dies 2 and 3, different in shape from each other, carved or inlaid on the 
surface of a first roll 1; on a second roll 1' confronting thereto are 
carved or inlaid a plurality of male impression portions or convexedly 
shaped dies 2' and 3', different in shape from each other, in such a way 
as to correspondingly engage with the female dies respectively. And dies 2 
and 3 are disposed at the diametrically opposite position; one is lagged 
from the other 180.degree. in the rotation angle, that is in phase, of the 
roll shaft. Work-positioning means or work-stoppers 4 and 5 are 
projections fixedly fitted on the first roll for the purpose of 
positioning a work 12, for example a piece of steel plate, when it is 
feeded or inserted for being worked. A work-feeding means 7 is provided 
with an arm 7', being freely reciprocable, for pushing the work 12 in 
timed relationship with the rotation or phase of the rolls 1 and 1'. A 
pair of sprockets 8 and 8' driven by an endless chain 8a for power 
transmission are coupled to the work-feeding means 7 through link members 
6 and 6' as can be seen in FIGS. 3 and 4. As being illustrated in FIGS. 4 
and 5 a male and a female joint members 9 and 10 can be easily engaged or 
disengaged for changing mutual positional relation, that is for switching 
the phase relation between both; the joint members 9, 10 are allowed to 
relatively slide in the axial direction for that purpose, because of their 
engageable two parallel sides 9a, 10a. The joint member 9 is slidably but 
nonrotatably connected to the link member 6 by means of a key 13 secured 
to a shaft 14; the joint member 10 is integrally formed with the sprocket 
8 and both members 8, 10 are loosely fitted to the shaft 14. A coil spring 
11, being in abutment at one end thereof with a washer fixed onto one tip 
of the shaft 14 and at the other end thereof with the joint member 9, 
constantly urges the joint member 9 against the joint member 10. Function: 
When processing articles by means of the dies 2, 2', as illustrated in 
FIG. 3, the length of the arm 7' of the work-feeding means 7 is first 
adjusted in such a way as to make the work 12 being fed between the rolls 
immediately after having hit the stopper 5 to locate the work 12 at the 
right position or phase to the die 2 of the roll 1; as the rotation of the 
rolls are synchronized with the work-feeding means 7 by virtue of the 
gearing between the chained sprockets 8, 8' and the link member 6, 6', so 
the supplying of the work 12 is naturally synchronized with the engaging 
of the impression portions or dies 2, 2' carved in pairs of the rolls 1, 
1'. As with the case in the conventional roll working apparatus, each 
rotation of the rolls will also produce in this embodiment a piece of 
article; it means that as many pieces of articles can be produced, by 
repeating this operation, as the number of rotation of the rolls. 
A distinctive peculiarity of this embodiment, which can not be observed in 
the conventional apparatuses, resides in that the pair of rolls 1, 1' are 
provided with another pair of impression portions or dies 3, 3', in 
addition, different in form or configuration from the above described dies 
2, 2'. The other pair of dies 3, 3', disposed for proper engagement, will 
similarly produce another kind of articles so long as they are supplied 
with the works in a well timed relation by the work-feeding means 7, with 
an arm 7' of a length suitable for the works. 
A case of producing another article by means of another impression will be 
described more in detail. The dies 3, 3' are carved or disposed in the 
lag of 180.degree. rotation angle to the dies 2, 2' respectively, so the 
feeding of the work 12 to be processed shall be lagged as much as 
180.degree. in the timing thereof; that is in the phase with the pair of 
rolls, such that the work 12 may be inserted in response to the hitting 
against the stopper 4. The way of switching this timing or phase is a 
quite simple operation; the joint member 9 is pulled back in the direction 
A hinted by the arrow mark in FIG. 4 for disengagement from the joint 
member 10 resisting the compressive force of the spring 11 and it is 
re-engaged with the joint member 10 after having been inverted upside down 
by means of rotation of the link member 6 by 180.degree.. The completion 
of the timing adjustment makes a repetitive processing of works with the 
dies 3, 3' possible to produce as many articles as the number of rotation 
of the rolls. Modifications: The above description is not for limited the 
scope of this invention, but for simpliying the illustration with the 
object of better understanting. Many modifications can be thought, which 
will be apparatus for those versed in the art through further studying of 
the undermentioned description and the appended claims referring to the 
accompanying drawings. 
For example, three pairs of impression or more may be carved on the surface 
of the rolls instead of two pairs already explained. In case of employing 
three pair of dies, the joint members 9 and 10 for the timing adjustment 
shall be essentially provided with a joint portion of triangular or its 
multiple prism form. 
Apart from the number of pairs of the impression, a position arrangement 
thereof may be allowed some modifications. Arrangement of dies on the 
rolls with equal space between them is not always required; dies of larger 
or smaller sizes may be suitably arranged according to the desire of 
processing on the surface of the rolls. In this case, the timing 
adjustment problem on the work-feeding means 7 can be solved in some ways, 
such as by properly selecting a suitable phase angle of the link member 6 
to the sprocket 8 through employing a spline joint, for example, between 
the joint members 9 and 10, preferably indexed to be able to select a 
desired phase angle therebetween, and/or by lengthening or shortening the 
dimension of the arm 7' of the work-feeding means 7. Effects: This 
invention, as can be easily understood from the above, makes it possible 
to process articles of various forms or configuration conveniently without 
changing the impression each time, so long as the initial adjustment of 
the impression on the rolls are accurately done. Changing of the 
impression on the same pair of rolls, from one impression to another, may 
be performed only by adjusting the timing of the work-feeding means quite 
easily in a short period of time, that is a so-called single stroke 
operation. 
The roll working method has its greatest merit in the field of mass 
production with its high productivity. This advantage is often diminished 
in its characteristics by the time-consuming changing operation of the 
impression or by the adjustment operation of low efficiency. It is an 
epochmaking improvement therefore in the roll working that is invention 
has succeeded in the elimination of the changing impression or dies when 
making a transference from the production of one article to another, and 
in the simplification of timing adjustment of the work-feeding means. The 
effect of this invention is more conspicuous in the case wherein the 
transference of production between articles of various forms or shapes are 
frequently needed according to the requirement of inventory control, 
production control or some other reasons. 
The effects of this invention can be summarized as follows: (1) shortening 
of the time for re-arrangement by a great margin in comparison with the 
conventional method; (2) saving of labor needed hitherto for changing 
impression; (3) elimination of the complicated adjustment or confirmation 
operation; and (4) establishment of a production system suitable not only 
large quantities production of various kinds but also for repeated small 
quantities production of various kinds, while preserving the greatest 
merit of the roll working, a high efficient productivity. 
It will be obvious to those skilled in the art that various changes may be 
made without departing from the scope of the invention and the invention 
is not to be considered limited to what is shown in the drawings and 
descrined in the specification.