A method of making a tubular member

Abstract: In a method of making a metallic shell (100) for a glow plug, a columnar blank (W) is extruded to have an enlarged recess (106) on the upper end surface of the blank (W) so as to make an upper tubular portions (104), while extruded to have an enlarged recess (107) on the lower end surface to make a first tubular end (105) circular in section, an outer diameter of which is smaller than that of the upper tubular portion (104). The blank (W) is transferred without inverting it, and the blank (W) is reduced at its upper tubular portion (104) to make a second tubular end (113) hexagonal in section, an outer diameter of which is smaller than that of a middle portion (112) of the blank (W), but greater than that of the first tubular end (109). Then, the blank (W) is transferred without inverting it, and punched to communicate the first tubular end with the second tubular end by means of an axial bore (116). In other method, a mandrel (65a) is forced into the upper tubular portion (108) to form a second tubular end (113) hexagonal in section, an outer diameter of which is smaller than that of a middle portion of the blank (W), but greater than that of the first tubular end. In the forcing process, a cooling liquid oil (Cm) is supplied between the upper tubular portion (108) of the blank (W) and the mandrel (65a) to alleviate friction heat, the cooling liquid oil (Cm) flowing down between the upper tubular portion (108) of the blank (W) and the mandrel (65a) is led to the axial bore (116) as an escape path of the liquid oil (Cm).

Description: This invention relates to a method of making a tubular member, and particularly a metallic shell for an ignition plug, glow plug, a oxygen concentration sensor, water temperature sensor, or knocking sensor, for instance. In a gasoline engine, an ignition plug is placed within a recess provided in the cylinder head of an engine. The ignition plug has a metallic shell which has a hexagonal portion, an outer diameter of which is smaller than that of a middle portion of the metallic shell. One example of this metallic shell is disclosed in EP-A-0036050 in which a blank is extruded to form a first tubular end circular in section, an outer diameter of which is smaller than that of a middle portion of the blank. Then, the blank is reduced at its upper tubular portion to make a second tubular end hexagonal in section, an outer diameter of which is smaller than that of the middle portion of the blank, but greater than that of the first tubular end. The blank is then transferred to a station at which the blank is reduced. During this transfer process, the blank is inverted, and describes an arc, the blank being held by fingers. During the inverting process, the blank risks colliding with a die, thus damaging the blank or the die which is part of a cold extrusion machine. Further, in the case in which the fingers move the blank at a high speed, the blank risks flying out of the fingers due to centrifugal force. In order to avoid this inconvenience, it is necessary to move the blank at such a speed that the fingers can continue to hold the blank, thus leading to a reduced production speed. GB-A-976087 discloses a process for cold-working a blank to make a spark plug shell in which the blank is not inverted between the various work stations. The process consists of six stages in which recesses are first formed in each end of the blank then enlarged while the outside of the blank is shaped by dies with the two recesses finally being connected by punching a hole through the blank. The reducing process is thus followed by the punching process. However a further problem can arise in conventional processes. As shown in Figs. 22 and 23, conventionally, a punch 210 is forced into a recess 201 of a blank 200 to extrude an upper tubular portion 202 hexagonal in section within an annular space 221 between a mandrel 220 and a vertical hole 231 of a die 230. During this process, a great amount of friction heat is generated between an inner wall of the recess 201 and an outer surface of the mandrel 220. In order to reduce the friction heat, cooling oil is supplied between the mandrel 220 and tubular portion 202. The fluid oil flowing between the recess 201 and the mandrel 220, however, is unable to find an escape path because the extrusion process is carried out before the blank has been penetrated completely by the punching process. The fluid oil pressure exerted between the mandrel 220 and tubular portion 202 can deform the inner wall of the tubular portion 202 leaving an escaping passage or sink mark as designated, for example, by numeral 204 in Fig. 24 which is a sectional view taken along line A-A of Fig. 23. This deformation of the tubular portion 202 causes signs of shrinkage to appear on the surface of the metallic shell thus deteriorating the appearance of the shell, which will then be regarded as an unacceptable product when therear end of the shell is secured to the insulator of an ignition plug by means of caulking in the assembly process. Therefore, it is an object of preferred features of the invention to provide a method of making a tubular member which is capable of preventing the tubular member from being deformed due to fluid pressure between a mandrel and an upper tubular portion of the tubular member. According to the present invention, there is provided a method of making a tubular member comprising steps of: pressing recesses at both upper and lower surfaces of a blank; further pressing the blank to enlarge the recess on the upper end surface of the blank so as to make an upper tubular portion, and to enlarge the recess on the lower end surface to make a first tubular end; punching the blank without inverting it so as to form an axial bore which communicates the first tubular end with the upper tubular portion; transferring the blank from the punching process without inverting it, and reducing the upper tubular portion by forcing a mandrel into the upper tubular portion so as to form a second tubular end; and supplying a cooling fluid medium between the upper tubular portion of the blank and the mandrel to reduce the amount of heat produced by friction caused during the reducing process, the cooling fluid medium flowing down between the upper tubular portion of the blank and the mandrel being led to the axial bore as an escape path of the fluid medium. With the invention the punching process is followed by the reducing process, so that during the reducing process in which the mandrel is forced into the upper tubular portion, the cooling fluid medium finds a path to escape to the axial bore which is produced in the blank in the punching process. This prevents excessive pressure from being applied between the upper tubular portion of the blank and the mandrel, thus avoiding deformation of the inner wall of the tubular portion. The elimination of the deformation prevents signs of shrinkage from appearing on a surface of the metallic shell when a rear end of the shell is secured to an insulator by means of caulking at the time of assembling an igniter plug. These and other aspects and advantages of the present invention will be further understood from the following description when taken with the accompanying drawings, which are given by way of example only. To assist understanding of the invention to be described later with reference to Figures 16 to 21a, a process not forming part of the invention will be described with reference to Figures 1 to 15. In the drawings : Figs. 1 through 6 are cross sectional views in which a blank is processed by predetermined steps Fig. 7 is an upper plan view of Fig. 4; Figs. 8 through 13 are cross sectional views showing an cold extrusion machine; Fig. 14 is an elevational view of a metallic shell of a spark plug, but half of the metallic shell is sectioned; Fig. 15 is an elevational view of a spark plug, but partly sectioned; Figs. 16 through 18 are cross sectional views in which a blank is processed in various steps according to an embodiment of the invention; Figs. 19 through 21 are cross sectional views in which a blank is processed in predetermined steps according to the embodiment of the invention; Fig. 21a is a view similar to Fig. 21 according to a second embodiment of the invention; Fig. 23 is a cross sectional view in which an extrusion machine is used by a prior art method of making a tubular member; and Fig. 24 is a cross sectional view taken along line A-A of Fig. 23. The process described with reference to Figures 1 to 15 is for working a blank to provide a tubular member incorporated into a spark plug as a metallic shell. A cold extrusion machine has forming stations 1 through 6, each of which includes a transferring means 7 as shown in Figs. 8 through 13. The first forming station 1 has a cylindrical mould die 11, a punch 12 and a kickout pin 13 in order to form a blank W1 by means of swaging as shown in Fig. 1. The second forming station 2 has a mould die 21, a punch 22, a pin 23 and a kickout sleeve 24 in order to form a blank W2 by means of a forward extrusion as shown in Fig. 2. At the first and second stations 1, 2, a centering of the blank is carried out for a subsequent forming station 3. The third forming station 3 has a mould die 31, a punch 32, a punch holder 33, a pin 34 and a kickout sleeve 35 to form a blank W3 by means of forward and backward extrusion as shown in Fig. 3. A fourth forming station 4 has a mould die 41, a punch 42, a kickout sleeve 43, an outer sleeve 44, a pin 45, a kickout sleeve 46 and a outer sleeve 47 to form a blank W4 as shown in Figs. 4 and 5. As shown in Fig. 12, a fifth forming station 5 has a mould die 51, a punch 52, a stripper sleeve 53, a pin 54 and a kickout sleeve 55 in order to form a blank W5 as depicted by Fig. 5. A sixth forming station 6 has a mould die 61, a piercing punch 62, a stripper sleeve 63, a kickout sleeve 64 and a chip chute 65 in order to form a blank W6 by piercing all through its length as shown in Fig. 6. In this instance, the mould dies 11, 21, 31, 41, 51, 61 and the outer sleeve 44 are incorporated into a stationary member (a) of the cold extrusion machine, while the punches 12, 22, 32, 42, 52, 62 and the die 41 are incorporated into a movable member of the cold extrusion machine. A transferring means has fingers 71 through 76, spring means 711, 721, 731, 751 and 761, and moving means (not shown) which is adapted to move the fingers 71 through 76 without inverting these fingers. The first finger 71 is adapted to move a columnar solid blank to a die recess 11a of the moule die 11 at the first forming station 1. The blank is adapted to be vertically held all through the forming processes. The second finger 72 is adapted to transfer the blank W1 to a die recess 21a of the mould die 21 at the second forming station 2. The third finger 73 is adapted to move the blank W2 to a die recess 31a of the mould die 31 at the third forming station 3. The fourth finger 74 is adapted to move the blank W3 to a die recess 44a of the outer sleeve 44 at the third forming station 4. The fifth finger 75 is adapted to move the blank W4 to a die recess 51a of the mould die 51 at the fifth forming station 5. The sixth finger 76 is adapted to move the blank W5 to a die recess 61a of the mould die 61 at the sixth forming station 6. In operation, the columnar blank which is severed from a steel billet is generally horizontally transferred to the die recess 11a of the mould die 11 at the first forming station 1 by means of the first finger 71 without inverting the blank, and held at an entrance of the die recess 11a. In association with the downward movement of the movable member in the cold extrusion machine, the punch 12 forces the blank into the die recess 11a of the mould die 11. In the first forming station 1, the die 11 imparts a rounded corner 101 to the blank, while the punch 12 and the kickout pin 13 provides upper and lower end surface of the blank with centering recesses 102, 103 respectively to form the blank W1 as shown in Fig. 1. Then, the movable member moves upward to be away from the stationary member (a). With the upward movement of the movable member, the punch 12 moves away from the blank W1, and the blank W1 is ejected from the die recess 11a by means of the kickout pin 13. The blank W1 is generally horizontally transferred to the die recess 21a of the mould die 21 at the second forming station 2 by means of the second finger 72 without inverting the blank W1, and held at an entrance of the die recess 21a. In association with the downward movement of the movable member in the cold forming machine, the punch 22 forces the blank W1 into the die recess 21a of the mould die 21. The die 21 imparts a diameter-increased portion 104 and a diameter-reduced portion 105 to an upper and lower portion of the blank W1, while the punch 22 and the pin 23 provides enlarged recesses 106, 107 at the upper and lower end surface of the blank W1 respectively to form it into the blank W2. Then, the movable member moves upward to be away from the stationary member (a). With the upward movement of the movable member, the punch 22 moves away from the blank W2, and the blank W2 is ejected from the die recess 21a by means of the kickout sleeve 24. The blank W2 is generally horizontally transferred to the die recess 31a of the mould die 31 at the third forming station 3 by means of the third finger 73 without inverting the blank W2, and held at an entrance of the die recess 31a. In association with the downward movement of the movable member in the cold extrusion machine, the punch 32 forces the blank W2 into the die recess 31a of the mould die 31 in an extrusion process. The die 31 imparts a first tubular end 109 to a lower portion of the blank W2. The first tubular end 109 is circular in section, an outer diameter of which is smaller than that of a upper tubular portion 108. The punch 32 and the pin 34 provides cylindrical cavities 110, 111 at the upper and lower end surface of the blank W2 respectively to form it into the blank W3 depicted in Fig. 3. The cavities 110, 111 are formed to be greater than the enlarged recesses 106, 107 in both diameter and depth. Then, the movable member moves upward to be away from the stationary member (a). With the upward movement of the movable member, the punch 32 moves away from the blank W3, and the blank W3 is ejected from the die recess 31a by means of the kickout sleeve 35. The blank W3 is generally horizontally transferred to the die recess 44a of the mould die 44 at the fourth forming station 4 by means of the fourth finger 74 without inverting the blank W3, and held at an entrance of the die recess 31a with the first tubular end 109 fit into the sleeve 47 and the upper tubular portion 108 fit into a die 41. In association with the downward movement of the movable member in the cold extrusion machine, the punch 42 is forced into the cylindrical cavity 110 of the blank W3 by an urging force of a spring (not shown), while the die 41 engages with an upper end of the outer sleeve 44 to depress the sleeve 44. The outer sleeve 44 moves downward by a force of a spring (not shown) to reduce the upper tubular portion 108 of the blank W3 between the die 41 an the punch 42 to form an upper cavity 114 within the upper tubular portion 108, and at the same time, reducing the lower portion of the blank W3 between the pin 45 and the outer sleeve 47. In the above reducing process, the die 41 and the punch 42 provides a cylindrical middle portion 112 with the blank W3, and providing a second tubular end 113 hexagonal in section, an outer diameter of which is smaller than that of the middle portion 112 in order to form the blank W4. Then, the movable member moves upward to be away from the stationary member (a). With the upward movement of the movable member, the punch 42 and the die 41 moves away from the the second tubular end 113 of the blank W4 by an action of the kickout sleeve 43, and the blank W4 is ejected outside from the recess 44a of the kickout sleeve 44 by means of the sleeve 46. Then, the blank W4 is generally horizontally transferred to the die recess 51a of the mould die 51 at the fifth forming station 5 by means of the fourth finger 75 without inverting the blank W4, and held at an entrance of the die recess 51a. A downward movement of the movable member forces the punch 52 into the upper cavity 114 of the blank W4 to provide a stepped portion 115 with an inner wall of the second tubular end 113 of the blank W4 by an extrusion process in order to form the blank W5 as depicted by Fig. 5. Then, the movable member moves upward to be away from the stationary member (a). With the upward movement of the movable member, the punch 52 moves away from the blank W5 by an action of the kickout sleeve 55 to eject the blank W5 outside from the recess 51a of the mould die 51 by means of the sleeve 55. And as a consequence, the blank W4 is generally horizontally transferred to the die recess 61a of the mould die 61 at the sixth forming station 6 by means of the sixth finger 76 without inverting the blank W5, and held at an entrance of the die recess 61a. A downward movement of the movable member forces the punch 62 into the upper cavity 114 of the blank W5 to vertically communicate the cavity 114 with the cylindrical cavity 111 in order to provide an axial bore 116 which axially pierces all through the length of the blank W5 in the punching process. In this instance, an inner space of the kickout sleeve 64 serves as the chip chute 65, a chip appeared during the punching process is expelled outside by passing through the chip chute 65 to form the blank W6 as depicted in Fig. 6. Then, the movable member moves upward to be away from the stationary member (a). With the upward movement of the movable member, the punch 62 moves away from the blank W6 to eject the blank W6 outside from the recess 61a of the mould die 61 by means of the kickout sleeve 64. With the making method thus far described, the blank is transferred from the preceding station to the subsequent station without inverting the blank, and therefore, the blank is prevented from colliding on the outer sleeve 44 or the dies 11, 21, 31, 41, 51, 61 to protect them against damages. With the elimination of inverting the blank W3, the blank W3 is avoided from being flown out of the fingers due to a centrifugal force when the blank W3 is transferred from the third forming station 3 to the fourth forming station 4 at a high speed, thus enabling an improved production. As shown in Fig. 14, the blank W6, the made, is provided a male thread 120 at an outer surface of the first tubular end 109. The second tubular end 113 is cut to have a circular portion 122 and a caulking groove 123 respectively to form a metallic shell 100, to a rear end of which an outer electrode 124 is secured by means of welding. A center electrode 81 and an insulator 82 are incorporated into the metallic shell 100 to form a spark plug 8 which is mounted on a cylinder head of a gasoline engine. It is a matter of course that instead of the spark plug the metallic shell 100 may be employed to a glow plug, an oxygen concentration sensor, a water temperature sensor, a knocking sensor, a fuse type temperature sensor and a thermistor type temperature sensor. It is also noted that it is only needed a cold extrusion machine which has the third forming station 3 and the fourth forming station 4. Referring to Figs. 16 through 21, an embodiment of the invention is described hereinafter. In the embodiment of the invention, a blank is identical to that of Fig. 1 through 3, and forming stations are identical to those of Figs. 8 through 10. Like reference numerals identical to those of Fig. 1 through 3, and Figs. 8 through 10 are those of Figs. 16 through 21. The blank is processed at the first and second forming stations 1, 2 in the same manner as described above. Without inverting the blank W3, the blank W3 processed by the third station 3 is horizontally transferred to an entrance of a recess 41c in which the die recess 41a of the mould die 41 is in communication with a die 41b at the fourth forming station 4, and held at the entrance of the recess 41c. A downward movement of the movable member forces a punch 42a into the upper tubular portion 108 so as to reduce the upper tubular portion 108 between the punch 42a and the die recess 41a, and at the same time, reducing the first tubular end 109 between the die 41b and the pin 43a by an extrusion. The extrusion provides the blank W3 with a stepped portion 112a at an inner wall of the upper tubular portion 108 to form it into a blank W7 as depicted in Fig. 16. Then, the movable member moves upward to be away from the stationary member (a). With the upward movement of the movable member, the punch 42a moves away from the blank W7 to eject the blank W7 outside from the recess 41c by means of a kickout sleeve 44a. As shown in Fig. 20, a blank W8 is generally horizontally transferred to a die recess 51b of a mould die 51A at the fifth forming station 5 without inverting the blank W8, and held at an entrance of the die recess 51b. A downward movement of the movable member forces the punch 62 into the upper tubular portion 108 to reduce it at the recess 51b, and at the same time, communicating the tubular portion 108 with the first tubular end 109 in order to provide an axial bore 116 which axially pierces all through the length of the blank W8 in the punching process. In this instance, an inner space of a kickout sleeve 53a serves as the chip chute 54a, a chip appeared during the punching process is expelled outside by passing through a chip chute 54a to form the blank W8 as depicted in Fig. 17. Then, the movable member moves upward to be away from the stationary member (a). With the upward movement of the movable member, the punch 52a moves away from the blank W8 to eject the blank W8 outside from the recess 51b by means of the kickout sleeve 53a. As shown in Fig. 21, a blank W9 is generally horizontally transferred to a die recess 61c of a mould die 61 at the sixth forming station 6 without inverting the blank W9, and held at an entrance of the die recess 61c. A downward movement of the movable member forces a punch 62a into the first tubular end 109 to reduce it between the punch 62a and an outer sleeve 64a, and forcing a mandrel 65a into the upper tubular portion 108 to reduce it between the mandrel 65a and a mould die 61A so as to provide the second tubular end 113 hexagonal in section, an outer diameter of which is smaller than that of the middle portion 112. This reducing process forms the blank W8 into the blank W9 as shown in Fig. 18. Then, the movable member moves upward to be away from the stationary member (a). With the upward movement of the movable member, the punch 62a, a kickout sleeve 63a and the outer sleeve 64a moves away from the blank W9, so that a kickout sleeve 66a moves downward to eject the blank W9 outside from the recess 61c of the mould die 61A. In the reducing process at the sixth forming station 6, a cooling liquid medium (Cm) such as liquid oil or cooling air is supplied between the mandrel 65a and the second tubular end 113 so as to lessen an amount of friction heat generated therebetween. The liquid oil (Cm) flowing down through between the mandrel 65a and the second tubular end 113 can find an escape path to the axial bore 116 because the axial bore 116 is made during the punching process which precedes the reducing process. This enables to prevent an unnecessarily excessive pressure from being applied between the second tubular end 113 and the mandrel 65a, and avoiding an inner wall of the second tubular end 113 from being deformed. The elimination of the deformation prevents a shrinkage from appearing on the caulking groove 123 of the metallic shell 100 when the cylindrical middle portion 112 of the shell 100 is secured to the insulator 82 by means of caulking at the time of assembling a spark plug 8. It is noted that at the sixth forming station 6, the punch 62a within the kickout sleeve 63a may be omitted for the convenience of treating the cooling liquid medium (Cm). The blank W9 is applied to the metallic shell 100 in the same manner as described above as shown in Fig. 14. Into the metallic shell 100, the center electrode 81 and the insulator 82 are incorporated to form the spark plug 8 as shown in Fig. 15. It is noted the second tubular end 113 is made at the sixth forming station 6, however the second tubular end 113 may be formed at any time after the axial bore 116 was formed, that is, any cold extrusion machine is employed which has fifth and sixth forming stations 5, 6. It is also appreciated that the extrusion direction by the fifth forming station 5 may be opposite relationship with that by the sixth forming station 6. Referring to Fig. 21a in which a sixth forming station is modified according to a second embodiment of the invention, like reference numerals identical to those in Fig. 21a are those in Fig. 21. The sixth forming station 9 of the cold extrusion machine has a first die 91, a mandrel 92, a kickout sleeve 93, a second die 94, a pin 95, a kickout sleeve 96 and an outer sleeve 97. In this instance, there is provided a space 98 between a lower end of the first die 91 and an upper end of the outer sleeve 97. During an extrusion process, an upper end of the outer sleeve 97 comes across the space 98 to enter into an inner side of the first die 91 so as to overlap with the die 91. This prevent the blank W10 from partly flowing into the space 98 to avoid flashes from appearing on an outer surface of a blank W10 during reducing the second tubular end 113. It is further noted that the pin 95 may be omitted in an aim to effectively work the axial bore 116 as is the case with the punch 62a shown in Fig. 21. Various other modifications and changes may be made without departing the scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims.

Claims: A method of making a tubular member comprising steps of: pressing recesses (102,103) at both upper and lower surfaces of a blank (W1); further pressing the blank (W1) to enlarge the recess on the upper end surface of the blank (W1) so as to make an upper tubular portion (108), and to enlarge the recess on the lower end surface to make a first tubular end (109); punching the blank (W7) without inverting it so as to form an axial bore (116) which communicates the first tubular end (109) with the upper tubular portion (108); transferring the blank (W8) from the punching process without inverting it, and reducing the upper tubular portion (108) by forcing a mandrel (65a) into the upper tubular portion (108) so as to form a second tubular end (113); and supplying a cooling fluid medium between the upper tubular portion (108) of the blank (W8) and the mandrel (65a) to reduce the amount of heat produced by friction caused during the reducing process, the cooling fluid medium flowing down between the upper tubular portion (108) of the blank (W8) and the mandrel (65a) being led to the axial bore (116) as an escape path of the fluid medium. A method of making a tubular member according to claim 1, wherein the tubular member is a metallic shell defining an outer profile for a spark plug. A method of making a tubular member according to claim 1 or 2 wherein the cooling fluid medium is oil forced to flow into the upper tubular portion (108) of the blank (W8). A method of making a tubular member according to claim 1 or 2 wherein the cooling fluid medium is air forced to flow into the upper tubular portion (108) of the blank (W8). A method of making a tubular member according to any one of claims 1 to 4 including the step of further extruding the upper tubular portion (108) of the blank (W3) to make a stepped portion (112a) at an inner wall of the upper tubular portion (108) prior to punching the blank (W3). A method of making a tubular member according to any preceding claim wherein the first tubular end (109) is substantially circular in cross-section, and has a diameter less than that of the upper tubular portion (108). A method of making a tubular member according to any preceding claim wherein the second tubular end (113) is substantially hexagonal in cross-section with an outer diameter smaller than that of a middle portion (112) of the blank (W9), but greater than that of the first tubular end (109).

Inventors: INOUE KIYOSHI, INOUE, KIYOSHI
Applicants: NGK SPARK PLUG CO, NGK SPARK PLUG CO., LTD
Application year: 1990
Main classification: B21K21
IPC codes: B21K21, H01T21