Bending Pins and Arms for Electro-Welded Meshes
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current automatic bending machines for electro-welded meshes are limited in producing components with complex shapes and require manual adjustments for wires with uneven pitches, leading to inefficiencies and increased downtime.
Innovation Solution
The machine employs independently controlled bending pins and arms that can move in multiple directions, allowing for precise bending of wires of varying lengths and pitches, enabling the production of complex shapes and continuous-mode bent elements with asymmetric configurations without manual intervention.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If manually adjustable pins are used for bending wires, then the machine can handle regular shapes, but it requires continuous downtime for adjusting pin distances to match varying wire pitches
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements movable bending pins that can dynamically adjust their positions along the bending axis to match varying wire pitches. The pins are mounted on adjustable supports that allow them to move longitudinally, enabling the machine to adapt to different pitch configurations without stopping for manual reconfiguration. This dynamic positioning system resolves the contradiction by making the pin arrangement flexible rather than fixed.
Solution Approach 2:
The bending machine incorporates automatic detection and positioning mechanisms that enable the system to self-adjust pin positions based on the detected wire configuration. The machine automatically identifies wire locations and adjusts pin distances accordingly, eliminating the need for manual intervention and continuous downtime for adjustments.
2Productivity
If a single bending arm is used to bend multiple wires simultaneously, then productivity increases for regular shapes, but the machine cannot produce complex shapes such as chamfers, recesses and internal openings
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides the bending operation into multiple independent bending arms, each capable of operating autonomously. Instead of a single bending arm handling all wires, the system employs several bending arms that can be independently controlled and positioned. This segmentation allows each arm to specialize in specific bending tasks, enabling the production of complex shapes while maintaining high productivity through parallel operations.
Solution Approach 2:
Each bending arm is designed as a multi-functional unit that can perform various bending operations on different wires. The bending arms can be positioned and oriented to create different geometries, allowing a single arm to handle multiple types of bends (chamfers, recesses, internal openings) on different wires, thus providing versatility without sacrificing simultaneous operation capability.
3Device complexity
If pins are arranged at right angles to the wire axis on a fixed carrying guide, then the bending mechanism is simple, but the machine is limited to regular shapes and cannot accommodate wires with uneven pitches
Solution Approach 1:
The carrying guide is transformed from a fixed structure to a dynamic system with movable pin supports. The pins remain arranged at right angles to the wire axis for simplicity, but their supporting structures can move along the bending axis to accommodate varying pitches. This maintains the geometric simplicity of the pin-wire relationship while adding positional flexibility through the movable supports.
Data Source
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Figure 3A
AI summary
Automatic machine for bending electro-welded meshes formed with longitudinal and transversal wires (1) having different lengths and/or different pitches, the machine being provided with a plurality of bending pins (2, 2-1, 2-2), operated in a vertical direction, said bending pins being reciprocally spaced by a length equal to the pitch of the mesh to be bent, and with a plurality of bending arms (3, 4, 4-1), driven with a composite motion to bend the wires around the bending pins, said bending unit (U) being mounted on a structure (10) of the machine and being mobile in a direction transversal to the direction of movement of the mesh (R), said bending unit (U) being also rotating in the two directions around its own vertical axis (W). The bending pins (2, 2-1, 2-2) are driven by respective actuators (8) contained in the bending unit (U), which are powered selectively and independently of one another according to a prearranged program by a machine control unit, and the bending arms (3, 4, 4-1 ) are connected to the bending unit (U) through an articulated kinematic mechanism (11 -13, 16-19) and are driven selectively and independently of one another by the program of the control unit, in a coordinated manner with the corresponding bending pins.