Patent ID: 7191635

Claim:
In an aerial cam adapted to be mounted in a forming press including: an adapter configured to be mounted to be movable with an upper press platen; a slide mounted on said adapter by interfit structure to elements on said adapter and slide to suspend said slide on said adapter while allowing sliding movement thereon; a driver adapted to be mounted on a lower press platen beneath said adapter and slide and aligned therewith to cause a surface on said driver to be engaged by a surface on said slide after continued downward movement of said upper platen; one of said driver or said adapter having a sloping cam surface drivingly engaging a sloping cam surface on said slide upon continued descending movement of said upper platen and causing sliding movement of said slide on said driver and adapter to carry out a forming operation with tooling on said slide, the improvement comprising: a clearance space between said adapter and said slide on said adapter which is taken up only after engagement of said driver and slide to create a momentary delay before positive engagement therebetween induced by said press to reduce shock and noise caused by positive driving engagement of said slide by the motion of said press upper platen.