GB830504A - Improvements in machines for producing tubing from continuous strip material - Google Patents

Abstract

830,504. Coiling helically jointed tubes; seaming. SPIRO INTERNATIONAL A.S. Feb. 7, 1956 [Dec. 20, 1955], No. 3817/56. Classes 83 (2) and 83 (4). A machine for forming helically seamed tubing from strip metal in which strip, formed at its edges, is guided by a forming head into tube form with the strip edges in interlocking engagement. Metal strip is formed with a flange 8a and a channel 8b at its opposite edges by pairs of idler rollers 9, 10, 11. Each roller is divided into two end parts and an intermediate part, the outer parts being carried on spindles journalled in side housings 24, 25 adjustable to and from one another to change the width of the flange 8a and the depth of the channel 8b. Driven rollers 17, 18 urged together by spring means, Fig. 8 (not shown), or counterweight means, Fig. 13 (not shown), feed the strip over a guide plate 16 and under a guide plate 31, lubricant being supplied to the plates from a header 36. Final preforming of the flange 8b and channel 8a is effected bv adjustable idle rollers 38 inclined at 45 degrees to the plane of the plate 31 so that their peripheries press against the flange and against the channel to pinch it in. The formed strip then passes to a cylindrical coiling head 1 having a helical lead in edge 6 to guide the flange 8a and a helical slot 14 to guide the channel 8b, one edge of which slot 14 is parallel to the edge 6 and the other edge of the slot 14 is an extension of the edge 6, the slot 14 terminating at 15. Rollers 42, 43 on the head 1 help in guiding the flange 8a to the channel 8b and rollers 45, 46 also on the head 1 guide the flange to the rollers 42, 43. A mandrel, comprising two parallel semi-circular section bars 26, 27, extends inside the head 1 and supports strip being formed into tube form. The lower bar 27 is fixed to a bracket 28 while the upper bar 26 is adjustable towards the bar 27 by a screw 29 so that the mandrel may be used for different diameters of the head 1. A roller 48, in a plug 50 rotatable on the base 3 of the machine, cooperates with. a roller 49 supported in a recess in the lower bar 27 to give partial locking, Fig. 10, to the flange and channel, the final locking being effected by a roller 53 in the other bar 26 co-operating with a roller 54 on the forming head 1. A roller 57 in the bar 27 adjacent the leading end of the edge 6 presses the flange 8a against the edge 6. A union 69 feeds lubricant to the work through the forming head 1. The bar 26 may carry a plurality of radially adjustable rollers 53, 76, Fig. 12, to engage the seam inside the tube head, corresponding rolls being carried by the head to engage the outside of the seam. Shearing. The formed tube is cut off by a rotary cutter 60 on a splined driven shaft 66 carried in pivoted side arms 67 so that the cutter bears against the tube, being carried along with the tube. The cutter may be swung by a solenoid 90 actuated by a switch engaged by a leading end of the tube. Specification 830,505 is referred to.