Abstract:
The apparatus comprises a pair of rotatable devices each holding a plurality of metal shaping rollers, the rollers of one device meshing with rollers of the other device to produce specific designs. This is made possible by merely selecting suitable rollers of both sets and when production of a specific metallic section is terminated, other rollers are selected by rotating the rotatable devices. When suitable rollers have been selected they are locked in operating position and when another design is required, the devices are unlocked, a selection is made, and the devices are again locked to produce the new metallic section.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF INVENTION 
     (a) Field of the Invention 
     The present invention relates to an apparatus for manufacturing shaped metallic sections by feeding metal strips between mated pairs of cooperating shaping rollers. More particularly, the present invention is concerned with a device which enables to substantially instantaneously change over from one set of cooperating rollers to another in order to start producing a different metallic section, without having to interrupt the production line for an important period of time. Specifically, the present invention relates to a roll former with quick automated tool changer. 
     (b) Description of Prior Art 
     In the manufacture of shaped metallic sections, it is well known that whenever a new design is to be produced, the operation of the machine must come to a halt, and the various metal shaping rollers have to be dismantled and replaced by others which will give the new design. This operation will cause the machine to be out of use for a period which sometimes may extend up to three or four days. In addition to being cumbersome and time consuming, since the change over means a substantial loss of production time, this operation is obviously extremely costly due to the lack of production during that period. 
     In the field of metal shaping, the prior art would not seem to suggest an easy way to change over from one set of rolls to another when a new design is required for the manufacture of shaped metallic sections. U.S. Pat. No. 3,306,197 relates to alternative print drums for applying indicia to one surface of a moving sheet or web. These drums are alternatively usable by rotating a common shaft carrying them. U.S. Pat. No. 1,443,164 on the other hand describes a plurality of rotatable marking wheels enabling wheel changes to suit pieces to be marked. Other references of interest include U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,400,657; 3,730,080; 4,286,451; and 4,776,194. 
     It will be noted that the prior art does not teach the rapid change of metal shaping rollers in apparatuses for forming shaped metallic sections. 
     It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a machine including a plurality of metal shaping rollers adapted to produce various preselected designs and which can be rapidly changed over to vary the designs of the metallic shaped sections. 
     SUMMARY OF INVENTION 
     In accordance with the present invention, there is provided an apparatus for manufacturing shaped metallic sections by feeding metal strips between mated pairs of cooperating shaping rollers, and obtaining different sections therewith. The apparatus comprises first rotatable means holding a plurality of first metal shaping rollers and second rotatable means mounted opposite the first rotatable means and holding a plurality of second metal shaping rollers. The first metal shaping rollers are formed with specific metal shaping patterns which differ from roller to roller, and the second metal shaping rollers are shaped so that a given second roller meshes with one only first roller. There are provided means enabling to rotate the first rotatable means and the second rotatable means so as to oppositely dispose a given first roller and a corresponding second roller to provide a strip of metal with a predetermined section, means locking the first and second rotatable means in positions relative to one another corresponding to predetermined shaped metallic sections, and means to unlock the first and second rotatable means from a given locked position producing a predetermined shaped metallic section, and to rotate same to another position producing a different metallic section. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS 
     The invention will now be illustrated by means of an embodiment, it being understood that the invention is not limited to that embodiment. In the drawings, which illustrate the invention, 
     FIG. 1 is a schematic representation of a roller holder arrangement according to the invention; 
     FIG. 2 is a view in elevation partly in cross-section of an apparatus for manufacturing shaped metallic sections according to the invention; 
     FIG. 3 is a schematic illustration of a frame support and rollers to be used when the device operates simultaneously with two sets of rollers in an internal duplex mode, one set of rollers being movable with respect to the other set; and 
     FIG. 4 is a schematic illustration of a frame support and rollers to be used when the device operates simultaneously with two sets of rollers in an external duplex mode, the two sets operating independently. 
    
    
     DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
     With reference to the drawings which illustrate a preferred embodiment to which the present invention is not necessarily restricted, it will be seen that the apparatus which is illustrated generally comprises a housing which includes an inner frame support 1 and an outer frame support 3, each being vertically mounted respectively on base supports 5 and 7. Between the frame supports 1 and 3, there are disposed an upper turret head 9 and a lower turret head 11, both being rotatable around horizontal axes defined by shafts 13 and 15. 
     FIG. 2 shows only two rollers being carried by each upper and lower turret head 9 and 11, namely upper rollers 17 and 19 carried by upper turret head 9 and rollers 21 and 23 carried by lower turret head 11. Of course, since we are dealing with the field of metal shaping, the rollers are intended to be used in pairs to complement one another. For example, roller 17 is intended to be used along with roller 21, while roller 19 is intended to be used along with roller 23. In addition, although FIG. 2 shows only two rollers for each turret head, it is obvious that a turret head will normally carry at least two and most of the time more than two, e.g. three or more rollers as shown schematically in FIG. 1. In addition a machine can consist of a succession of upper and lower turret heads 9, 11 if the pattern needed requires it, it being understood that a pair of upper and lower turret heads will be equivalent in construction to any other pair following it. The present invention will therefore be described with reference to a single pair of oppositely disposed upper and lower turret head, although a machine according to the invention may comprise a plurality of such pairs. 
     Included with the machine is of course a driving unit which includes a reduction unit 25 and two universal couplings 27, 29 which will be used to drive an upper and a lower roller for the purpose of producing a particular design. Of course, other means of driving the shaping rollers can be used as will readily be apparent to one skilled in the art without departing from the scope and spirit of the present invention. 
     The inner frame support 1 is formed with an upper bore 31 and a lower bore 33, while the outer frame support 3 has an upper opening 35 which is in exact alignment with the bore 31 and a lower opening 37 which is in exact alignment with the bore 33. A sleeve 39 is disposed in known manner in bore 31 and it will be noted that the sleeve 39 extends exteriorly of the bore 31 on the side of the frame support 1 facing frame support 3, into a gear housing 41. The turret head 9 will therefore be seen to consist of a rotary roller holder 43 which is mounted over the gear housing 41 and is adapted to rotate relative thereto by means of a system of ball bearings 45 as is well known to those skilled in the art. The turret head also comprises roller holder 47 which is mounted on the shaft 13 and is adjacent to the outer frame support 3, all as shown in FIG. 2 of the drawings. 
     The rotary roller holders 43 and 47 are connected together by means of shaft axle 13 which is fixedly engaged at one end at 49 in the central part of the rotary roller holder 43 while the other end of the shaft axle 13 extends through a bore 53 provided in the rotary roller holder 47 and in the opening 35 provided in the other frame support 3 where it is freely rotatable by being supported with a system of ball bearing 55, into a ratchet clutch 57 which enables, in known manner, to precisely rotate the turret head when a change of metal shaping rollers is indicated. Of course, the turret head 11 may be rotated by other means known to those skilled in the art without departing from the present invention. It will therefore be seen that since the rotary roller holder 43 is freely rotatable over the gear housing 41, and the rotary roller holder 47 is fixedly mounted on the shaft axle 13 while the latter has its outer end freely rotatable in the opening 35, the turret head 9 can easily be rotated around the shaft axle 13 until a suitable metal shaping roller is placed in a position, in cooperation with a lower roller, to provide a specific metallic section in a strip of metal. 
     Although this invention is being described only with reference to turret head 9, it is obvious that turret head 11 is similar in all respect except that it is a mirror of turret 9. The description will therefore be restricted exclusively to turret head 9. 
     Referring again to the drawings, it has been mentioned above that the sleeve 39 extends into a gear housing 41 which is located inside the rotary roller holder 43. The gear housing 41 contains a gear driving mechanism which is intended to transmit motorized power from the motor 25, universal joint 27, to a selected metal shaping roller such as 17 as illustrated in the drawings. 
     For this purpose, there is provided a driving shaft 59 which is rotatably mounted in the sleeve 39 and is coupled in known manner at its inner end 61 to the universal joint 27. At the outer end of the driving shaft 59, inside the gear housing 41 there is a fixedly mounted gear 63. A gear 65 which meshes with the gear 63 at 67 is mounted on a shaft 69 over which it is allowed to freely rotate. The gear 65 is allowed to partly extend outside gear housing 41 at 71. 
     At this time, it is essential that the mounting of the metal shaping roller 17 which respect to the rotary roller holders 43 and 47 be described, it being understood that all the other metal shaping rollers 19, 21, 23 and others will be the same. The metal shaping roller 17 is fixedly mounted, in known manner, over a roller shaft 73 having an end 75 rotatably mounted in the rotary roller holder 47 while the other end is provided with a gear 77 fixedly mounted over the roller shaft 73 and being engageable with the portion 71 of the gear 65. It will therefore be seen that when a metal shaping roller, such as 17, is placed in operating position as shown in the drawings, gear 77 will engage with gear 65 which is engaged with gear 73 the latter being rotated through shaft 59, universal coupling 27 and reduction unit 25. In other words, when one specific metal section is required, the upper and lower rotary roller holders 43 and 47 are rotated until appropriate upper and lower metal shaping rollers are placed opposite one another, such as 17 and 21 as shown in the drawings, with the gear 77 being engaged by the gears 65 which is engaged by the gear 63. The result would be a production of a metal section shaped by the rollers 17 and 21. 
     The rotary roller holder 43 contains a number of locking bores 79 while the rotary holder 47 contains a corresponding number of locking bores 81. A corresponding number of spring loaded locking pins (and/or air cylinders) 83 are transversely mounted in frame support 1 and similar locking pins 85 are transversely mounted in frame support 3. These pins are well known to those skilled in the art. The only requirement is that they should be insertable in appropriate bores 79 or 81 upon proper alignment. When the pins are engaged in the locking bores, the apparatus is locked in a position where two cooperating rollers are adapted to produce a particular metallic section. When a change over of design is needed, the spring loaded locking pins 83, 85 are pulled from the bores 79, 81, the roller holders are rotated until cooperating rollers capable of forming a new design are placed opposite one another and the pins are thereafter inserted into the locking bores. 
     In order to impart flexibility to the device according to the invention, for example to enable it to be used in conjunction with rollers of various lengths, it is preferable that the inner frame support 1 be fixed relative to the base support 5 while the outer frame support 3 is mounted in known manner on base support 7 to be movable in the direction indicated by arrow 87. In this manner, rollers of various lengths can be used with the machine according to the present invention. The arrangement will hereinafter be referred to as the duplex mode of the device according to the invention. 
     Referring to FIG. 3, there is schematically illustrated an internal duplex mode. The system includes two series of rollers 89, 91 on the same base 93. An adjustable device not shown enables to adjust the space between the two sets of rollers to permit the shaping of both edges of a strip which may vary in width. The strip is supported at 94 between the two sets of rollers. 
     Referring now to FIG. 4, there is schematically illustrated an external duplex mode. In other words, there will be provided an intermediate frame support 95 which is mounted on a base 97. The intermediate frame support 95 holds a pair of roller holders 99, 101 on either sides thereof so as to enable the device to hold two groups of rollers, thereby enabling to produce two different metallic sections on the same machine by separately feeding metal strips on both sides of the apparatus. 
     Finally, it is desirable that the pressure that rollers 17 exert on rollers 21 be adjustable when forming a particular metallic section. For this purpose an adjusting system 90 well known to those skilled is provided on both frame supports 1 and 3, which permits to adjust the pressure exerted by rollers 17. 
     Although the invention has been described with reference to the turret head 9, as mentioned above, it will be understood that turret head 11 is the same except that it is a mirror of the latter. 
     In addition, with reference to FIG. 1, it is obvious that the invention can be used with a succession of rollers according to the invention if the design of the metallic shape so requires.