EQUIPMENT FOR SLITTING CONTINUOUS TAPES INTO STRIPS WITH SHAPED SIDE PROFILE, IN PARTICULAR FOR METAL SHEET

Abstract: The present invention relates to an equipment for cutting continuous tapes of material, to produce strips with shaped, essentially sinusoidal and/or mixed, profile, provided in particular for machines or plants intended to produce the strips from sheet tapes.

Description: The present invention relates to an equipment for the continuous cutting of longitudinal tapes, in particular provided for machines and plants effecting the cutting of metal-plate tapes into strips with shaped, essentially sinusoidal and/or mixed, profile, and destined to pressing or to shearing. Slitters are known, used, e.g., to carry out the slitting of a continuous tape of metal plate into a plurality of continuous strips placed side by side, snaky-shaped, such as those described in U.S. Patents Nos. 1,433,138 and 3,517,532. Said devices are provided with simple rotary slitting rings superimposed and provided with snaky slitting surfaces opposite and conjugate and cooperating with each other. Within said devices the metal-plate tape is made run, and each one of these rings cooperates with its respective conjugate ring. Each of these rings has a slitting edge peripherally extending on a plane essentialy transversal relatively to the plane on which the metal plate lays. The known slitting devices slit the tapes of metal plate, or of other material, into strips with snaky edges conjugated with each other. The snakelike strips so obtained in continuous production show however a plurality of defects, mainly due to the difficulty of keeping the slitting elements or rings cooperating with each other in a constantly correct mutual position. In other terms, no axial clearances must exist between the shafts or cylinders rotatably supporting said slitting elements. Such clearances result indeed particularly noxious for the integrity of the same cutting edges, above all if they are present in a plurality of couples, to carry out the slitting of a plurality of strips side by side. Moreover, just in case of contemporaneous production of a plurality of strips with conjugated snaky-shaped edges, on the same edges deformations occur, mainly due to the cutting stresses, as deep-drawings, drawings and other defects, which thus do not allow coils to be obtained of shaped strip ready for use and of good quality, on industrial scale. Purpose of the present invention is to solve the said problems by providing an equipment for the slitting of strips with shaped side profile, allowing a finished product of good quality to be obtained. Further purpose is to obtain the longest useful life of cutting rings, and to prevent their deteriorating. These and further purposes according to the present invention are achieved by providing an equipment for the continuous slitting of tapes of material, in particular of tapes of metal plate and the like, into longitudinal strips with shaped side profile, essentially of sinusoidal and/or mixed outline, of the type comprising a base onto which a stand is positioned, supporting a pair of slitting cylinders, means for driving the rotation of said cylinders and related motor means being provided, said slitting cylinders essentially bearing a set of blades with shaped perimetral cutting profile, said blades being positioned on said cylinders in a superimposed and staggered fashion, such as to provide a conjugated coupling of the shears type, characterized in that said slitting cylinders support rigidly said plurality of blades positioned on shafts alternatively with cutting edges facing and not facing to each other, said blades being formed as cups provided with central and axial bores, and such as to receive, between an inner surface of them, and the surface of supporting shaft a spacer ring, between two blades facing to each other at least a couple of radially elastic means, and between two blades not facing to each other at least a spacer element being provided. The structural and functional characteristics and the advantages of an equipment according to the present invention shall be better understood from the disclosure of a preferred, but not limitative, form of embodiment thereof, referred to the related schematic drawings, wherein: Fig. 1 is a plan view of an equipment according to the present invention, Fig. 2 is a front view of a detail of equipment of fig. 1, Fig. 3 is an enlarged view of a couple of slitting cylinders of equipment of fig. 1, Fig. 4 is an enlarged partly sectional view of a portion of cylinders of fig. 3, and - Fig. 5 shows a portion of two cylinders in operative step of strip slitting from the tape. Referring to fig. 1, a slitting equipment according to the present invention is generally indicated with 11. It esentially comprises a base 12 on which a stand 13 is placed, linked, by means of driving means, such as a device for the recovery and zeroing of clearances, and securing rotation homocineticity, to a related motor means (not shown), and essentially constituted by a couple of shoulders 14 supporting a couple of upper (15) and lower (15a) slitting cylinders. Said device comprises a pinion box 16 wherein the clearance recovery and zeroing is e.g. provided, which can be constituted by a first gear wheel 19 of helical type, operatively linked to a second helical gear wheel constituted by portions 20 and 21 which can be approached to each other, return elastic means 22 being interposed. Inbetween the pinion box 16 and the cutting cylinders 15, 15a of the box 13, a couple of extensions 17 is provided, such extensions being so made as to secure a perfect homocineticity and in-phase rotation of shafts 18 supporting the couple of cutting cylinders 15, 15a, independently from the distance between their centres. Each one of said slitting cylinders 15, 15a is positioned on its shaft 18 by means of rectified keys (not shown), with very restricted values of dimension and shape tolerance, to the purpose of not introducing angular errors. As shown in fig. 4, an upper slitting cylinder 15 supports a plurality of blades 23, e.g., with sinusoidal perimetral outline, and with added cutting element 24. On the lower slitting cylinder 15a a plurality of blades 23a with cutting elements 24a is reported in the same way. Said blades 23 and 23a are positioned on the two slitting cylinders 15, 15a staggered relatively to each other, so as to obtain a coniugated coupling of the shears type. Each blade 23, 23a, made in form of cup or bell, centrally and axially bored in 25 so as to make it possible it to be positioned on the shaft 18, houses between its cylindrical inner surface and the shaft 18 a spacer ring 26, 26a. To the purpose of identifying and slitting a plurality of strips 27 obtained from a metal-plate tape being fed 28, e.g. coming from an unrolling swift (not shown), each sequential blade 23, 23a positioned on the shafts 18 results faced relatively to the foregoing and not faced relatively to the following blade. More precisely, two blades 23, or two blades 23a, provided with cutting edges 24, 24a faced to each other, result separated by a pair of spacers 29 supporting elastic means 30, 30a, e.g., of rubber, between said spacers 29 and between said elastic means 30, 30a, compensator elements 31, 31a, disc-shaped, of indeformable plastic material being interposed. On the contrary, two blades 23 and two blades 23a, positioned back-to-back, have interposed between them a spacer element 32, 32a, e.g., a metal ring, which envisages on opposite sides two compensator elements 33 or 33a facing to the base of the said blades. As it can be observed in fig. 3, to upper blades 23 positioned back-to-back, with the interposition of the spacer element 32 and of the related compensator elements elements 33, a couple of elastic elements 30a with interposed a related compensator element 31a correspond on the lower cylinder. The cutting edges 24 of the upper blades 23 interact with the cutting edges 24a of the lower blades 23a faced to each other. It can be automatically observed that to upper blades 23 with cutting edges 24 faced to each other and containing elastic means 30 and related compensator element 31, cutting elements 24a of lower blades 23a positioned back-to-back, containing a related spacer element 32a and compensator elements 33a are opposed. In fig. 5, the operative interaction is shown between the elements on an upper cutting cylinder 15 and the complementary elements of a lower cutting cylinder 15a. It is interesting to note how at least an elastic element 30 of the upper cutting cylinder 15 accompanies upwards the strip 27 slitted by the cutting edge 24a of the blade 23a, and contemporaneously the elastic element 30a of the lower cutting cylinder 15a accompanies downwards the parallel strip 27 slitted by the cutting edge 24 of the blade 23. The clearance between the cutter edges 24 and 24a of respective blades 23 and 23a is secured and adjusted by the compensator elements 31, 31a and 33, 33a, so as to maintain a perfect and continuous slitting efficiency. It should be moreover noted that the elastic elements 30 and 30a, once mounted, result to have a diameter longer than of blades and related cutting edges. In this way, during the slitting stage, said further compressed elements discharge and zero the noxious components of the cutting forces, thus avoiding the deformations of burring, deep-drawing, and so forth. The separation by slitting of strips 27 from the metal plate 28 being fed to the slitting cylinders results hence sharp, as the blades and related cutting edges compenetrate each other, without causing disturbances exactly thanks to the presence of the above said elastic elements. It can be noted that advantageously, it being anyway necessary periodically sharpen the cutting edges 24, 24a of the blades 23, 23a, inside the same blades a spacer ring 26, 26a has been provided. Such a spacer ring 26, 26a acts as compensator element, in that during the sharpening a side peripheral material withdrawal from the cutting edge occurs. Such a decrease in blade tickness is followed by an equal decrease of the spacer ring 26, 26a and the perfect total primitive arrangement on the whole slitting cylinder is restored, by adding suitable additional spacer rings (not shown), positioned on opposite sides in the nearby of the spacer ring 32, 32a. It is interesting to note on the other hand that such a sharpening, by being executed laterally on the cutting edge does not produce any pitch variation, the circumference after the resharpening remaining unchanged.

Claims: 1. Equipment for the continuous slitting of tapes of material, in particular tapes of metal plate and the like, into longitudinal strips with shaped side profile, essentially of sinusoidal and/or mixed outline, of the type comprising a base onto which a stand is positioned, supporting a pair of slitting cylinders, means for driving the rotation of said cylinders and related motor means being provided, said slitting cylinders essentially bearing a set of blades with shaped perimetral cutting profile blades, said blades being positioned on said cylinders in a superimposed and staggered fashion, such as to provide a conjugated coupling of the shears type, characterized in that said slitting cylinders support rigidly said set of blades positioned on shafts alternatively with cutting edges facing and not facing to each other, said blades being formed as cups provided with central and axial bores, and such as to receive between an inner surface of them and the surface of the supporting shaft a spacer ring, between two blades facing to each other at least a couple of radially elastic means and between two blades not facing to each other at least a spacer element being provided. 2. Slitting equipment according to claim 1, characterized in that said means driving the rotation of said cylinders comprise a device for the recovery and the zeroing of the clearances, and securing the homocyneticity of rotation of said slitting cylinders. 3. Slitting equipment according to claim 1, characterized in that said radially elastic means are made of rubber or similar material, with profile complementary both to the facing and mutually opposite blades, and to the adjacent blades. 4. Slitting equipment according to claim 1, characterized in that between said couple of radially elastic elements at least a compensator element is provided. 5. Slitting equipment according to claim 1, characterized in that on opposite sides of said at least one spacer element compensator elements are provided. 6. Slitting equipment according to claim 1, characterized in that said cutting edges are accomplished by means of the addition of hard metal perimetrally applied on said cup-shaped blades.

Inventors: CASTIGLIONI, GIOVANNI PIETRO
Applicants: FICI FINANZ IND COMM IMMO
Application year: 1986
Main classification: B23D19
IPC codes: B26D1, B26D3, B23D35, B23D19, B23D25