Press-in Element Setting Device with Alignment Tool
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing methods for setting press-in elements into fiber-reinforced or plastic workpieces, such as those used in vehicle construction, face challenges with precise positioning and material damage due to lateral misalignment or angular inaccuracies, leading to reduced extraction force and potential material damage.
Innovation Solution
A device and method that combines drilling and pressing functions, ensuring accurate positioning through a fixed workpiece and coordinated movement of drilling and press-in units, minimizing misalignment and utilizing a tool holder for precise alignment and feeding of press-in elements.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Strength
If a press-in element is pressed into a hole with high force to ensure strong connection, then extraction force is improved, but lateral misalignment and angular inaccuracies cause material damage and reduce process reliability
Solution Approach 1:
A alignment tool is introduced as an intermediary component between the press-in element and the hole. This alignment tool features a guide portion that fits into the hole and a pressing surface that receives the press-in element, ensuring precise axial alignment during the pressing operation. The alignment tool acts as a mediator that transfers the pressing force while maintaining positional accuracy, preventing lateral misalignment and angular deviations that would otherwise cause material damage and reduce process reliability
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces manual or simple mechanical pressing methods with a more sophisticated alignment and pressing system. The system includes a alignment tool with precise geometric features, a pressing device with controlled force application, and potentially automated positioning mechanisms. This substitution of the mechanical system ensures that high pressing forces are applied exactly along the axial centerline, eliminating the lateral misalignment problems associated with simpler mechanical methods while maintaining high extraction force
2Device complexity
If drilling and pressing operations are performed separately, then device complexity is reduced, but positioning accuracy deteriorates due to cumulative errors
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines the drilling operation and the pressing operation into a single integrated process step. The alignment tool is positioned and secured in the freshly drilled hole while the workpiece is still in the same fixture setup, and then the press-in element is immediately pressed into the alignment tool without moving or repositioning the workpiece. This merging of operations eliminates the cumulative positioning errors that would occur if drilling and pressing were performed as separate operations with different fixtures and setup procedures
Solution Approach 2:
The alignment tool is prepared and positioned in the hole before the actual pressing of the press-in element takes place. The alignment tool serves as a pre-established reference framework that defines the exact target position and orientation. By having this alignment infrastructure in place beforehand, the subsequent pressing operation can proceed with high precision without requiring complex real-time adjustment mechanisms, thus maintaining relatively simple device complexity while achieving high positioning accuracy
Data Source
AI summary
A device and a method are provided for setting a press-in element into a workpiece at a predetermined location. The device includes main body; a fixing unit, which is attached to the main body and which is designed to fix the workpiece; and a processing unit, which is attached to the main body and includes: a boring unit, which is designed to create a bore in the workpiece fixed by the fixing unit; and a pressing unit, which is designed to press a press-in element into the bore. The method fixes the workpiece; creates a bore in the workpiece; positions a press-in element over the bore; and presses the press-in element into the bore, wherein a single device is used to carry out the method.