Patent ID: 7708044

Claim:
A molding apparatus of a wet friction material for sticking one of a ring-shaped friction material substrate or a plurality of segment pieces cut out of a friction material substrate on one or both surfaces of a core metal of a flat ring shape, comprising: at least three molding dies vertically piled up on each other so as to move up and down to each other, a lowermost one of the molding dies including an upper surface provided with a mounting surface for mounting a half-product of the wet friction material, a middle one of the molding dies including the lower surface provided with the mounting surface and an upper surface provided with a pressing surface for pressing an entire surface of the half-product of the wet friction material mounted on the mounting surface of an underside molding die, an uppermost one of the molding dies including the lower surface provided with the lower surface provided with the pressing surface, the half-product having the ring-shaped friction material substrate or the plurality of segment pieces stuck on one or both surfaces coated with a thermosetting adhesive of the core metal; heating mechanisms provided on the molding dies, respectively, for heating the mounting surface and/or the pressing surface; and a pantograph-type open-close link mechanism provided on side surfaces of the molding dies so as to move up and down the molding dies near to each other and apart from each other all at once in a synchronous manner, the pantograph-type open-close link mechanism being composed of a plural pairs of crossed link bars corresponding to a number of stages of the molding dies, each pair of the crossed link bars being rotatably joined with each other at a center of the cross linked bars, the pairs of the crossed link bars having ends rotatably coupled with each other to form the pantograph-type open-close link mechanism, and each pair of the crossed link bars having a pair of protrusions formed at opposite ends of the cross linked bars; each of the molding dies comprising a pair of horizontally oblong openings on opposite side surfaces of the molding die at locations corresponding to the protrusions of each pair of the crossed link bars of the pantograph-type open-close link mechanism, the pair of the protrusions of each pair of the crossed link bars being fitted in the pair of the openings, respectively, to slide along a length of the openings, thereby permitting extension and contraction of the pantograph-type open-close link mechanism for moving up and down the molding dies all at once in the synchronous manner; at least one of the uppermost molding die and the lowermost molding die being provided with a pair of dents constituting the openings, each of the dents having substantially an oval outline with a horizontally oblong shape and a closed lower side; and the protrusions of the crossed link bars corresponding to the dents of the molding die are fitted in the dents of the molding die, respectively, in a manner preventing the protrusions from moving out of the dents of the molding die.