Patent ID: 7021176

Claim:
A method of manufacturing a toothed link plate for a silent chain, comprising the steps of: intermittently forwarding a band of sheet steel along a path past a plurality of dies arranged in succession along the direction in which said band of sheet steel is forwarded, wherein at least one of said dies is a rough punching die shaped to form a pair of teeth of a silent chain link plate, and at least one other one of said dies is a shaving die shaped to shave a pair of teeth of a silent chain link plate, said rough punching die and said shaving die being positioned symmetrically in relation to, and on opposite sides of, an intermediate position along said direction; punching said band of steel sheet by said rough punching die, thereby punching out a portion of said band to form a toothed edge of a silent chain link plate; and shaving said toothed edge of said silent chain link plate by said shaving die; wherein said band of steel sheet deviates laterally relative to a straight line extending along said direction, and the lateral deviation of said band of sheet steel from said straight line reverses at a fixed location along said path substantially coinciding with said intermediate position; whereby, in said shaving step, said shaving die is closely aligned with said toothed edge of a silent chain link plate formed by said rough punching die.