Leaf spring cambering method and apparatus

Abstract: Disclosed is a method and an apparatus for cambering a leaf spring by pressing a heated leaf spring material between a pair of molds (14,16), characterized in that said pair of molds each comprise a plurality of mold fingers (28) which can be advanced or retracted relative to the opposite mold by operating a plurality of drive means (42) connected to said plurality of mold fingers based on a predetermined command given from a control means to advance or retract said fingers to required heights, respectively, so that the free ends of the mold fingers as a whole may form a required mold surface; and each mold finger is locked with a releasable locking means (67-69). The cambering apparatus may further comprise a tempering section, in which said pair of molds, together with the cambered leaf spring, are designed to be immersed in the tempering liquid carried in a liquid tank (18) to effect tempering of the cambered leaf spring. Under the new command of cambering leaf springs of different camber specifications, each of the mold fingers of said two molds is connected again to the corresponding drive means (42) and said drive means is operated under the control command from said control means to form likewise a continuous mold surface in accordance with said different specifications.

Description: This invention relates to a method of cambering a leaf spring according to the preamble of claim 1 and an apparatus according to the preamble of claim 2. Land transportation vehicles such as railway trains and trucks are provided with suitable suspension devices made by a plurality of leaf springs 10 as shown in Fig. 4. Such leaf spring 10 is made of a rolled material with a necessary thickness which is, after the process of opening an eyeend at one or both ends of a plate material, or tapering the other end thereof, given a necessary "deflection", or camber, in the state where the whole material is heated. There are various types of cambers: the curvature gradually reduces or increases from the center toward both ends; the central part is formed flat, etc., depending on the use or load stress applied. Fig. 5 shows an example of prior art apparatus 12 for cambering leaf springs 10. The apparatus 12 basically consists of an upper mold 14 and a lower mold 16, and the upper mold 14 is of a female or concave shape, while the lower mold 16 of a male or convex shape. A leaf spring 10 immediately after being heated to the hot process temperature is inserted between these upper mold 14 and the lower mold 16, and then the upper mold 14 is forced to approach the lower mold 16 to give the plate 10 the camber in accordance with the shape of the molds 14 and 16. This cambered leaf spring 10 is then tempered by immersing it in a tempering oil carried within an oil tank. By the way, there is a serious problem that, if such cambered leaf spring 10 is immersed in the oil without any constraint for carrying out tempering, it is distorted during the cooling process. A countermeasure for it is proposed in which the cambered leaf spring 10 is constrained as it is, and immersed in the oil in this state to prevent the distortion which may occur by the cooling. For example, the distortion preventive means shown in Fig. 6 has a plurality of movable claw members 22 provided on a conveyor 20 circulatable in an oil tank 18, which are designed to mechanically hold a leaf spring material 10 at strategic positions. Namely, the leaf spring 10 to which the required camber has been given by said cambering apparatus 12 is held by a group of claws 22 locating at the carry-in side of the oil tank 18, and the conveyor 20 is then circulated with the leaf spring 10 as held thereon immersing them in the oil to carry out tempering. The distortion preventive means shown in Fig. 7 rotatably supports therein an octagonal column-shaped main body 24. The main body 24 has a cambering apparatus 12 on each surface and the lower part of the main body 24 is designed to be immersed into the oil tank 18. A heated straight leaf spring material 10 is loaded on the cambering apparatus 12 locating above the oil level and held between the upper mold 14 and the lower mold 16 to carry out cambering. Then, the main body 24 is rotated in the above state to immerse the cambered leaf spring 10 into the oil carried in the oil tank 18 as it is held between the upper mold 14 and the lower mold 16. Further, in the distortion preventive means shown in Fig. 8, 6 the leaf spring material 10 is cambered by pressing it between an upper mold 14 and a lower mold 16 of the cambering apparatus 12, and then the cambering apparatus 12 is immersed into the oil carried in an oil tank 18. The cambering apparatus 12 within the oil tank 18 is circulatably fed by an appropriate carrying means to carry out tempering of the cambered leaf spring 10 loaded in the cambering apparatus 12. By the way, after the cambering apparatus 12 is taken out from the oil tank 18, the upper mold 14 and the lower mold 16 are separated from each other to remove the tempered leaf spring 10. Further, the distortion preventive means shown in Fig. 9 comprises a single cambering apparatus 12 which is designed to hold the plate spring 10 tightly between the upper mold 14 and the lower mold 16 and to immerse the thus held leaf spring 10 in the oil tank 18. The oil tank 18 is rocked by an appropriate rocking means so that the leaf Spring 10 held by the cambering apparatus 12 may properly be tempered. For manufacturing such cambered leaf springs 10, there are two kinds of methods; 1 ○ to effect cambering of leaf springs 10 of the same shape and specification continuously by the group (the industry calls this method "Group making"), and 2 ○ a family of leaf springs 10 from the main leaf 10 to the smaller leaves 10 constituting a suspension device are cambered (the industry calls this method "Family making"). It depends on the users' choice considering the application and other factors which method is used for cambering leaf springs. In the Group making method, a required number of leaf springs of the same shape are cambered by the lot, and only when the shape of camber is changed, the upper mold 14 and the lower mold 16 of the cambering apparatus 12 are replaced. The setup for replacing these molds usually takes much time, which has been a major factor significantly lowering the efficiency in the leaf spring cambering work. Especially today when small lot production has pervaded, makers have to respond to frequent order changes in such production system, and how to reduce the setup time required for the replacement of the molds is of a highly important concern in the industry. Further, in the Family making method, the family of leaves are all allowed to have slightly different cambers, so that the upper mold 14 and the lower mold 16 have to be replaced each time one leaf 10 is cambered. Therefore, the latter method involves an extremely troublesome replacement work and increased loss time. The conventional cambering systems failed to meet the needs of the industry in this respect. Whether the Group making method or the Family making method it may be, many kinds of upper molds 14 and lower molds 16 corresponding to a variety of camber size requirements are necessary, leading to great increase in the production cost. Moreover, these molds have to be stored in groups of the same type, requiring an enormous storage space, giving rise to problems that their storage and maintenance are complicated and so on. From another viewpoint, there have been the following problems in those proposed methods of preventing distortions suffered by the leaf springs 10 when they are subjected to the tempering process subsequent to the cambering process. Namely, in the method mentioned referring to Fig. 6, although the degree of distortion can be reduced compared with the case when the leaf spring 10 is not constrained, distortion still occurs at the unconstrained portions since the leaf spring 10 is constrained not entirely but partly. In the method explained referring to Fig. 7, the cambered leaf spring 10 is immersed into the oil as it is entirely constrained in the cambering apparatus, so that the occurrence of distortion can be prevented. However, such distortion preventive system tends to be complicated in the structure and expensive. In this method, since the main body 24 rotates, the leaf springs 10 are immersed into the oil as they are inclined, which may cause another problem that a different kind of distortion is liable to be caused in the leaf spring from the one caused by the other methods described above. The method mentioned referring to Fig. 9 has a merit of minimizing distortion compared with the methods shown in Figs. 6 through 8, but suffers a disadvantage of extremely low productivity. Further, the methods shown in Figs. 6 through 9 involve such common demerit that they require very troublesome work including adjustment of the claw members 22 for properly constraining the leaf springs 10 and for replacing the molds 14 and 16 according to the order changes of the leaf spring 10, and such setup procedures require much time. Moreover, the methods mentioned referring to Figs. 6 through 9 also suffer problems that, since the cambering apparatus 12 itself is immersed in the oil for carrying out tempering of the leaf springs, a number of molds 14 and 16 corresponding to the respective camber specifications have to be prepared, leading to increased production cost. From DE-C-533 238 a method of cambering a leaf spring and an apparatus for cambering a leaf spring according to the preamble of claims 1 and 2, respectively, are known. In the known process of cambering the leaf spring the drive means are embodied by screws, which have to be adjusted manually. Furthermore, the full set of the two molds together with the drive means are immersed into the tempering liquid. Therefore, the tank for the tempering liquid has to be very large. The adjustment of the screws is very cumbersome. From US-A-4,212,188 it is known to adjust mold fingers to form a required mold shape depending on a predetermined command given from control means. Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a method and an apparatus for cambering a leaf spring wherein the productivity and the effectivity can be improved, in particular, by reducing the time required for the set-up of replacing the molds. This object is solved by a method for cambering a leaf spring comprising the features of claim 1. Furthermore, this object is solved by an apparatus for cambering a leaf spring comprising the features of claim 2. As explained above, according to the leaf spring cambering methods and apparatus of this invention, since a plurality of mold fingers constitute the mold for cambering leaf springs, arbitrary camber shapes can be formed by adjusting the height of each mold finger, thus shortening the time required for the setup of mold in accordance with the order changes to greatly improve the production efficiency. Further, according to this invention, there is no need of manufacturing or keeping many types of molds corresponding to various camber shapes, mold production cost or storage and maintenance costs can advantageously be saved. Further, since the mold fingers can automatically be positioned based on the numerical data inputted beforehand, change of mold shape in accordance with the order changes can be carried out speedily. Moreover, the mold adjustment requires no direct intervention of operators, leading to labor and power saving. Fig. 1 shows schematically the constitution of an embodiment of the cambering/tempering apparatus according to this invention. Fig. 2 shows schematically a partially cutaway view of the hydraulic press shown in Fig. 1. Fig. 3 shows schematically a perspective view of the mold finger adjuster disposed in the setup unit shown in Fig. 1. Fig. 4 illustrates a suspension device comprising leaf springs. Fig. 5 illustrates a prior art cambering apparatus. Fig. 6 shows schematically a perspective view of a prior art tempering apparatus. Fig. 7 shows schematically a perspective view of a prior art cambering/tempering apparatus. Fig. 8 shows schematically a perspective view of another prior art cambering/tempering apparatus. Fig. 9 shows schematically a perspective view of still another prior art cambering/tempering apparatus. Next, the method of cambering a leaf spring and an apparatus therefore according to this invention will be described below in detail by way of preferred embodiments referring to the attached drawings. Fig. 1 shows schematically a constitution of an examplary cambering/tempering apparatus in which the cambering method can suitably be practiced. As shown in the drawing, the cambering/tempering apparatus 50 basically comprises an oil tank 18 installed in a pit 52 dug to a required depth from the installation surface, a hydraulic press 54 provided above said oil tank 18 at one longitudinal end protion, an unloading device 56 provided above said oil tank 18 at the other longitudinal end portion, and a setup unit 58 disposed at an appropriate position. The process of cambering and tempering a leaf spring 10 and changing of the shapes of the upper mold 14 and the lower mold 16 is performed by circulating the independent unit of cambering cassette 60 consisting of the upper mold 14 and the lower mold 16 within the cambering/tempering apparatus 50. (Hydraulic press) Since the hydraulic press 54 and the unloading device 56 are not much different from each other in the structure, only the hydraulic press 54 will be explained here. As for the unloading device 56, the corresponding members to those of the hydraulic press 54 will be indicated with the identical reference numbers. As shown in Fig. 2, a base frame 26 having a rectangular shape is installed on the top of the oil tank 18, and a hydraulic cylinder 32 is inversely provided on the top of this base frame 26 with the piston rod 32a thereof extending into the base frame 26. Within the base frame 26, a head 61 is disposed to be ascendable or descendable, to which said piston rod 32a is connected. Accordingly, when the hydraulic cylinder 32 is driven in the positive or negative direction, the head 61 can be ascended or descended within the base frame 26. By the way, the head 61 of the hydraulic press 54 functions to descend the upper mold 14 in the cambering cassette 60 as described later,while the head 61 of the unloading device 56 functions to ascend said upper mold 14. Further at the bottom of the base frame 26 a passage 62 for permitting said cambering cassette 60 is formed as shown in Fig. 1, and a pair of opposing support members 63 are pivotally disposed on each side of the passage 62. These support members 63 function to set and hold the cambering cassette 60 within the hydraulic press 54 and also to release said cassette 60 from said press 54 permitting it to descend into the oil tank 18. Namely, as shown in Fig. 2, each of the support members 63 is adapted to extend its one end into the passage 62, while the other end thereof is connected to the piston rod 64a of the cylinder 64 installed within the base frame 26. By driving each cylinder 64 in the positive or negative direction the support member 63 can be rotated to hold or release the cambering cassette 60. (Cambering cassette) The cambering cassette 60 consists of an upper mold 14 and a lower mold 16 which can be brought closer or farther relative to each other, and each mold comprises a multiplicity of mold fingers 28 disposed in each holder 36 in the same manner as in the foregoing embodiment. In this cambering/tempering apparatus 50, however, said cambering cassette 60 itself is immersed into the oil, so that the adjustment of the mold fingers is designed to be performed in a setup unit 58 to be described later. A slot 65 is defined in each of the mold fingers 28, as shown in Fig. 3, and pivotal shafts 66 are inserted through the slots of all the mold fingers 28 disposed to the lower mold 16 and the upper mold 14, respectively. These pivotal shafts 66 are each designed to be turned within a predetermined angle range by means of a cam 67 and a cylinder 68 provided at one end thereof. Further, an eccentric cam 69 is fixed on said pivotal shaft 66 at each position corresponding to the slot 65 of each finger 28. When the pivotal shaft 66 is turned, for example, clockwise, this eccentric cam 69 abuts against the inner wall of the slot 65 to prevent shifting off of the mold finger 28, whereas when the pivotal shaft 66 is turned counterclockwise, the finger 28 is designed to be shiftable. Further, a hole 70 is formed at an appropriate position of each mold finger 28, which is used when the mold finger 28 is adjusted in the setup unit 58 to be described later. (Setup unit) The setup unit 58 is for adjusting the protruding length of each mold finger 28 of the upper mold 14 and the lower mold 16 from the holder 36 to change the cambering mold shape to be formed thereby. While this apparatus has adjusters 75, as shown in Fig. 3, provided for each of the respective mold fingers 28 of the upper mold 14 and the lower mold 16, only one adjuster 75 is shown in the drawing. In a U-shaped support frame 71 of the adjuster 75, a threaded shaft 38 is rotatably supported between the upper and lower horizontal members 71, 71a thereof, and a servo motor 42 is attached on the upper end of said threaded shaft 38. On the threaded shaft 38, screwed is a nut 73 having a pin 72 screwed therein which can be inserted into the hole 70 formed in each mold finger 28. This nut 73 is designed to be free from the rotation of the threaded shaft 38 by an appropriate means (not shown), so that the nut 73 can be ascended or descended along the threaded shaft 38 by rotating said servo motor 42 normally or reversely. To the vertical member 71b of said support frame 71 attached is a piston rod 74a of a cylinder 74. By driving said cylinder 74 in the positive or negative direction, the support frame 71 can be advanced or retracted correspondingly. Namely, when said cambering cassette 60 is set in the setup unit 58, said cylinder 74 is driven in the direction so as to extend the piston rod 74a to insert the pin 72 of the nut 73 provided on said threaded shaft 38 into the hole 70 of the mold finger 28. The servo motor 42 is then driven normally or reversely to advance or retract the mold finger 28. It should be noted that a position detector 48 is provided for each servo motor 42 to monitor constantly the accurate position of the mold finger 28 in the same manner as in the foregoing embodiment. The signal from the position detector 48 concerning the current position of the mold finger 28 is designed to be inputted to the control means (not shown). Next, the effect of the cambering method resulted from the operation of the cambering/tempering apparatus having the aforesaid constitution will be explained. First, the upper mold 14 and the lower mold 16 are separated and the cambering cassette 60 is set in place in the setup unit 58 with all the mold fingers 28 thereof being released from the locking by the eccentric cams 69. The cylinder 74 of the adjuster 75 is driven to bring the support frame 71 closer to the mold finger 28 until said pin 72 is inserted into the hole 70 of the finger 28. Subsequently, the operation of said servo motor 42 is controlled based on the data concerning the cambering mold shape preliminarily inputted to the control means to effect adjustment of the mold finger 28. Upon completion of the adjustment of all the mold fingers 28, said cylinder 68 is driven in the desired direction to turn the eccentric cams 69 and lock the mold fingers 28 at predetermined positions, respectively. Thereafter the adjuster 75 is with drawn from the mould fingers 28. After completion of the adjustment of said mold fingers, the cambering cassette 60 is forwarded to the hydraulic press 54 and set therein by the support members 63, as shown in Fig. 2. After a heated leaf spring material 10 is loaded between the upper mold 14 and the lower mold 16, the hydraulic cylinder 32 is driven so as to descend the upper mold 14 through the head 61, whereby the leaf spring material 10 is allowed to have the desired camber by the tight pressing between the upper mold 14 and the lower mold 16. Incidentally, an appropriate means is used to keep both molds 14 and 16 holding the leaf spring 10 therebetween. When the cylinders 64 are driven to turn said support members 63 in the predetermined direction, the cambering cassette 60 descends through the passage 62 and is immersed into the oil in the oil tank 18, whereby the leaf spring 10 is tempered as the cambering cassette 60 is carried through the oil tank 18 by an appropriate means (not shown). In this process, since the leaf spring 10 is entirely held between the upper mold 14 and the lower mold 16, any distortion which may otherwise occur can be prevented. After carried to the position immediately below the unloading device 56, the cambering cassette 60, as shown in Fig. 4, is taken out from the oil tank 18 and set in the unloading apparatus 56 by the support members 63, wherein the head 61 is holding the upper mold 14, while the lower mold 16 is immobilized with an appropriate means. In this state, when said hydraulic cylinder 32 is driven in the direction so as to withdraw its piston rod 32a into the casing, the upper mold 14 ascends to release the leaf spring 10. The leaf spring 10 subjected to cambering and tempering is taken out of the cambering cassette 60 by means of a take-out device (not shown) and forwarded to the subsequent process. When a lot of leaf springs 10 of the same camber shape are formed successively, said cambering cassette 60 is carried directly to said hydraulic press 54, and the same cycle of leaf spring cambering and tempering is repeated in the same manner as described above. Next, when leaf springs 10 of a different camber shape are formed in accordance with the order change, the cambering cassette 60 is forwarded from the unloading device 56 to the setup unit 58 and is set in place there, wherein the upper mold 14 and the lower mold 16 are already separated from each other, so the cylinder 68 is driven in the predetermined direction to release the mold fingers 28 from the locking by the eccentric cams 69. Then, each mold finger 28 of the upper mold 14 and the lower mold 16 is adjusted in the setup unit 58 in the aforesaid manner, and the desired cambering mold shape is formed on the opposing surfaces of the molds 14 and 16. After the adjustment of the mold fingers 28, the cambering cassette 60 is forwarded again into the hydraulic press 54, the aforesaid cycle is repeated to form leaf springs 10 of the different camber shape. According to this embodiment, the adjustment of the mold fingers 28 made by controlling the operation of the servo motors 42 based on the data preliminarily inputted to the control means causes to reduce the operation loss time associated with the order changes. Since the leaf spring 10 is immersed in the oil as it is constrained in the cambering cassette 60, any distortion which may otherwise occur during tempering can be prevented. In the above embodiments, while the constitution where servo motors 42 are used as the drive means for the mold fingers 28 have been explained, this invention is not limited thereto but a fluid pressure cylinder and other systems may be used for this purpose.

Claims: A method of cambering a leaf spring which uses a pair of molds (14, 16) separably from each other installed so as to oppose each other to effect cambering of a heated leaf spring material (10) loaded therebetween after bringing the opposing surfaces of said molds (14, 16) closer to each other to press the leaf spring material tightly therebetween, wherein said pair of molds (14, 16) each comprises a plurality of mold fingers (28) each of which can be advanced or retracted relative to the opposite mold; comprising the steps: a) connecting each one of a plurality of drive means (42) separably to each of the corresponding of said plurality of mold fingers (28); b) immobilizing each of said mold fingers (28) with a locking mechanism (69, 67, 68); c) loading the leaf spring material (10) between said pair of molds (14, 16) and pressing it tightly therebetween to effect required cambering thereof; d) immersing said pair of molds (14, 16), together with the cambered leaf spring (10), in a tempering liquid carried in a liquid tank (18) to effect tempering of the cambered leaf spring (10); e) drawing up said pair of molds (14, 16) from said liquid tank (18) and separating them to take out said leaf spring (10); characterized by a1) after step a) operating said plurality of mold fingers (28) under a predetermined control command given from a control means to advance or retract the mold fingers (28) to required heights so that the free ends of the mold fingers (28) as a whole may form a required continuous mold surface; b1) after step b) separating said drive means (42) from said mold fingers (28); f) after step e) connecting each of the mold fingers (28) of said pair of molds (14, 16) again to the corresponding drive means (42), under a new command for cambering leaf springs (10) with a different camber specification; and g) operating said drive means (42) under the control command from said control means so that the free ends of the mold fingers (28) as a whole may form a continuous mold surface in accordance with said different specification. An apparatus for cambering a leaf spring having a pair of molds (14, 16) retractably from each other and disposed so as to oppose each other, wherein each mold (14, 16) comprises: a plurality of mold fingers (28) constituting each of the molds (14, 16) wherein each of the mold fingers (28) can be advanced or retracted relative to the opposite mold (14, 16); a plurality of releasable locking means (69) which immobilize the respective mold fingers (28) after they are adjusted to required heights; characterized in that said apparatus comprises: an independent cassette unit (60) consisting of said pair of molds (14, 16); a setup unit (58) comprising a plurality of drive means (42) each of which being connectable to a corresponding of said plurality of mold fingers (18) for advancing or retracting them to said required heights; and a control means which gives control commands to the respective drive means (42) to advance or retract said mold fingers (28) so that the free ends of the mold fingers (28) as a whole may form a required continuous mold surface.

Inventors: MORITA MOTOO C O MORITA IRON W, MORITA, MOTOO, C/O MORITA IRON WORKS CO., LTD.
Applicants: MORITA IRON WORKS, MORITA IRON WORKS CO., LTD.
Application year: 1990
Main classification: B21D53
IPC codes: B21D53, B21D5