Apparatus and method for forming metal building panels

Abstract

Apparatus and method for crimping the side walls of a sheet metal building panel independently of a main crimper which crimps the belly of the panel. The depth and the position along the panel of the side crimp is adjusted independently of the main crimpers in relation to the radius the panel is being curved and the length of panel that has passed through the apparatus. The adjustment is controlled by a microprocessor. The microprocessor controls a hydraulic motor which drives a machine screw which activates a scissors-jack type linkage. Blocks holding the rotatably mounted crimping rollers are mounted on slides and attached to the linkage. As the linkage moves, the depth of the crimping rollers is adjusted. The rotation of the crimping rollers is hydraulically driven through a gear-sprocket rotary motion drive train.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The present invention will now be described in detail, referring to FIGS. 1-4. The panel 1 being crimped has a bottom or "belly" 10 and two sides 20 at 90 degrees to the belly. The panel feeds into the side crimping apparatus 30 in the orientation shown. There are inside crimping rollers 40 (FIG. 2) and opposing outside crimping rollers 50. The rollers consist of a steel hub with blades welded radially around the perimeter of the hub so as to cause a corrugated crimp 21 in the sheet metal panel when it is passed through mating sets of rollers. The top outside crimping roller is rotatably mounted on a steel shaft 60 that is supported on both ends by bearings 62. The bearings are mounted in a steel main plate 80 and an aluminum outside plate 90. On the main plate side, the top shaft 60 continues through bearing 62 and supports a gear and sprocket which are components of rotary motion drive train 100. The bottom outside shaft 70 differs from shaft 60 only in that it is not directly connected to drive train 100 but continues through the bearing housed in the outside plate 90 and supports a miter gear 72 that serves as a link to the main curver drive train (not shown), which powers the forward rotation of the crimping rollers 40 and 50. The bottom shaft 110 is supported by a bearing at each end with one end continuing through the main plate bearing to support a gear and sprocket which are further components in the rotary motion drive train 100.

The rotary motion drive train 100 is configured such that the top and bottom sets of crimping rollers rotate together to feed the panel 1 through the apparatus. The inside crimping rollers 40 are rotatably mounted on cantilevered shafts 42 which are supported only on one end by bearings 44 so as to allow the belly 10 of the panel to pass through the other side 46. The bearings 44 are press fitted into aluminum slide blocks 48. In each slide block 48 there are two bearings (not shown) mounted back to back to aid in supporting the load of the panel being crimped.

The shafts 42 continue through the slide blocks 48 and the main plate 80 to support gears that fit into the rotary drive train. Each edge of the slide blocks 48 holds a male guide bar 15 (FIG. 3) which slides vertically along a female guide bar 16. The guide bars 15 and 16 are "V" grooved in shape. This causes the slide bars to be self-centering and to have a large contact area to aid in high load support. All edges of the male guide bar 15 are rounded to prevent them from catching or knifing into the female guide bar 16 as they are sliding. The female guide bars 16 are permanently attached to the main plate 80. Both sets of guide bars are constructed of high strength, hardened steel that has an Armoloy plating. All of these features lead to a durable, low friction slide made to withstand high loads.

Mounting holes 33 in the female guide bars are slotted so as to allow the female guide bars to adjust closer to the male guide bars and ensure that they seat firmly together so as to take advantage of the self-centering properties of the "V" groove. Steel stiffener plates 17, which are attached to main plate 80, hold set screws 35 which tighten onto the backs of the female guide bars to perform this adjustment and to ensure that the guide bars will not slip back after the adjustment. The stiffener plates 17 also prevent the main plate 80 from flexing due to the loading. The inner ends of the slide blocks 48 have milled slots 34 which accommodate steel linkage arms 18. The linkage arms are mounted at one end to the sliding blocks 48 using Teflon permeated plane bearings 19 which ride on high tensile strength precision ground shoulder bolts 39 so as to allow a pivoting motion of the linkage arms with respect to the sliding blocks.

The other end of the linkage arms 18 are connected to a steel, Armoloy coated center linkage block 51 (FIG. 4) via additional shoulder bolts. Center linkage block 51 has the male portion of a dovetail joint machined into both ends. The female portion of the dovetail joint is machined into two steel, Armoloy coated upright guide blocks 52. The purpose of the Armoloy coating is rust prevention and an extremely hard, smooth surface to act as a bearing surface. The upright blocks 52 are solidly mounted to both the main plate 80 and the stiffener plates 17 for extra rigidity. This configuration allows the center linkage block 51 to travel only in a linear horizontal sliding motion, preventing the panel load from forcing the entire inside roller and slide block assembly along the vertical plane.

The center linkage block 51 houses a bronze acme-threaded bearing nut 23 (FIG. 4). Machine screw 24 travels through a clearance hole in the center linkage block 51, a clearance hole in the main plate 80, and into a set of three angular contact bearings 25 (FIG. 2) that are housed in an aluminum bearing block 26. Angular contact bearings have the ability to support both axial and radial loads. Two of the three bearings are oriented to support an axial load in the direction towards the outside plate 90 and the third bearing is mounted opposite of the other two. The machine screw 24 is constrained from axial travel by a machined shoulder that rests against the third angular contact bearing on the side closest to the main plate 80, and a threaded bearing nut 27 on the opposite side of main plate 80 to remove any axial play, ensuring an accurate system.

A universal joint 28 provides a rotary link between the machine screw 24 and a hydraulic motor 29. As the machine screw 24 is turned by the motor 29, the nut 23 causes the center linkage block 51 to travel axially along the machine screw. As the center linkage block 51 moves closer to the main plate 80, the linkage arms 18 flatten vertically and push against the slide blocks 48, causing them to slide along the guide bars toward the stationary outside crimper rollers 50, thus moving inside crimper rollers 40 closer to rollers 50, resulting in a deeper crimp. When the rotation of the machine screw is reversed, the center linkage block 51 travels away from the main plate 80, pulling the linkage arms 18 with it. This causes the slide blocks 48 to be pulled down along the guide bars, moving inside rollers 40 away from the stationary crimper rollers 50, resulting in a shallower crimp.

A microprocessor (not shown) controls the valves that control the hydraulic motor 29. The microprocessor receives inputs from a rotary encoder 120 (FIG. 1) and a linear encoder 31 (FIG. 4). The rotary encoder measures the length of panel that has traveled through the apparatus. The linear encoder is linked through a stainless steel shaft 32 to the center linkage block 51, enabling the encoder to track the linkage block's position along the machine screw and relay that information to the microprocessor. The microprocessor determines at what depth the side crimpers need to be at predetermined locations along the panel length, independently from the main crimpers. The aforementioned U.S. Pat. No. 5,359,871 discloses other capabilities and functions of the mentioned microprocessor.

The side crimper control function of the microprocessor has the ability to perform the following tasks:

enable/disable the entire side crimper adjust function;

determine the depth of crimp as a function of panel material thickness and radius at which the panel is being curved;

control the direction and start/stop of the hydraulic motor 29 to reach the desired depth of crimp;

control the speed of the hydraulic motor including a standard high and low speed;

set electronic safety stops for the maximum and minimum depth of crimp;

LCD readout of the rotary and linear encoder positions; and

determine the position along the panel to begin adjusting as a function of the type of panel being formed, the speed at which the curver is being run, and the total change of depth.

Of course, the microprocessor may be used to carry out many other functions in addition to those mentioned above.

The invention having been thus described, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the same may be varied in many ways without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Any and all such modifications as would be obvious to those skilled in the art are intended to be within the scope of the following claims.

Claims

1. In an apparatus for automatically producing a building panel from sheet material, the apparatus including a panel former for forming the sheet material into a generally channel-shaped panel having a bottom portion and side portions extending substantially perpendicular to the bottom portion so as to define an interior channel area and exterior areas, a curve former having main crimping rollers for curving the formed panel by crimping said bottom portion, and a side crimper including outside crimping rollers and inside crimping rollers for crimping said side portions, the inside crimping rollers positioned within the interior channel area and the outside crimping rollers positioned in the exterior areas, the improvement in said side crimper comprising:

means for mounting said inside and outside crimping rollers to said side crimper so as to allow a distance between said inside and outside crimping rollers to be adjusted independently of adjustment of said main crimping rollers;

means for adjusting the distance between said inside and outside crimping rollers independently of adjustment of said main crimping rollers;

means for producing signals indicative of the distance between said inside and outside crimping rollers;

means for producing signals indicative of a length of said formed panel having passed through the apparatus; and

means for controlling said adjusting means in response to said distance signals and said length signals based on a predetermined desired panel configuration.

2. Apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said mounting means comprises movable shaft means for mounting said inside crimping rollers to be movable toward and away from said outside crimping rollers.

3. Apparatus according to claim 2, wherein said mounting means further comprises stationary shaft means for mounting said outside crimping rollers to be stationary.

4. Apparatus according to claim 2, wherein said adjusting means comprises a first sliding block mounted to a support plate of said apparatus and supporting said movable shaft means.

5. Apparatus according to claim 4, wherein said adjusting means further comprises:

a second sliding block mounted to said support plate and supporting said movable shaft means;

a center linkage block coupled to said first and second sliding blocks;

a machine screw coupled to said center linkage block for adjusting the position of said center linkage block as a function of rotation of said machine screw; and

motor means for rotating said machine screw.

6. Apparatus according to claim 5, wherein said distance signal producing means comprises a linear encoder for encoding the position of said machine screw relative to said support plate which is a function of the distance between said inside and outside crimping rollers, and said length signal producing means comprises a rotary encoder for encoding the amount of travel of said formed panel through said apparatus which is a function of the length of panel passing through said apparatus.

7. Apparatus according to claim 6, wherein said controlling means comprises a microprocessor which receives said length signals and distance signals, determines the depth of crimping to be applied to said side portions of said panel and the position along said panel at which said depth of crimping is to be changed to a different depth in accordance with information pertaining to a desired panel configuration, and sends a signal to said motor means causing said motor means to rotate said machine screw by a predetermined amount.

8. Apparatus for crimping side portions of a formed, generally channel-shaped sheet metal panel having a bottom portion and side portions extending substantially perpendicular to the bottom portion so as to define an interior channel area and exterior areas, the bottom portion being crimped by main crimping rollers and the formed sheet metal panel being used in the construction of a metal building, said apparatus comprising:

inside crimping rollers and outside crimping rollers for crimping said side portions, said inside crimping rollers positioned within the interior channel area and the outside crimping rollers positioned in the exterior areas;

means for mounting said inside and outside crimping rollers to said apparatus so as to allow a distance between said inside and outside crimping rollers to be adjusted independently of adjustment of said main crimping rollers;

means for adjusting the distance between said inside and outside crimping rollers independently of adjustment of the main crimping rollers;

means for producing signals indicative of the distance between said inside and outside crimping rollers;

means for producing signals indicative of a length of said formed panel having passed through the apparatus; and

means for controlling said adjusting means in response to said distance signals and said length signals based on a predetermined desired panel configuration.

9. Apparatus according to claim 8, wherein said mounting means comprises movable shaft means for mounting said inside crimping rollers to be movable toward and away from said outside crimping rollers.

10. Apparatus according to claim 9, wherein said mounting means further comprises stationary shaft means for mounting said outside crimping rollers to be stationary.

11. Apparatus according to claim 9, wherein said adjusting means comprises a first sliding block mounted to a support plate of said apparatus and supporting said movable shaft means.

12. Apparatus according to claim 11, wherein said adjusting means further comprises:

a second sliding block mounted to said support plate and supporting said movable shaft means;

a center linkage block coupled to said first and second sliding blocks;

a machine screw coupled to said center linkage block for adjusting the position of said center linkage block as a function of rotation of said machine screw; and

motor means for rotating said machine screw.

13. Apparatus according to claim 12, wherein said distance signal producing means comprises a linear encoder for encoding the position of said machine screw relative to said support plate which is a function of the distance between said inside and outside crimping rollers, and said length signal producing means comprises a rotary encoder for encoding the amount of travel of said formed panel through said apparatus which is a function of the length of panel passing through said apparatus.

14. Apparatus according to claim 13, wherein said controlling means comprises a microprocessor which receives said length signals and distance signals, determines the depth of crimping to be applied to said side portions of said panel and the position along said panel at which said depth of crimping is to be changed to a different depth in accordance with information pertaining to a desired panel configuration, and sends a signal to said motor means causing said motor means to rotate said machine screw by a predetermined amount.

15. A method for regulating crimping of side portions of a formed, generally channel-shaped sheet metal panel having a bottom portion and side portions extending substantially perpendicular to the bottom portion so as to define an interior channel area and exterior areas, the bottom portion being crimped by main crimping rollers and said formed sheet metal panel being used in the construction of a metal building, said method comprising the steps of:

mounting side crimping rollers and outside crimping rollers to a side crimper such that the inside crimping rollers are positioned within the interior channel area and the outside crimping rollers are positioned in the exterior areas and so as to allow a distance between said inside and outside crimping rollers to be adjusted independently of adjustment of the main crimping rollers;

producing signals indicative of the distance between said inside and outside crimping rollers;

producing signals indicative of a length of said formed panel having passed through the apparatus; and

adjusting the distance between said inside and outside crimping rollers independently of adjustment of said main crimping rollers in response to said distance signals and said length signals based on a predetermined desired panel configuration.

16. An apparatus for automatically producing a building panel from sheet material, comprising:

a plurality of metal forming rolls for forming the sheet material into a shaped panel having a bottom portion and side portions wherein said side portions extend up from said bottom portion to form an interior channel area and an exterior area;

main crimping rollers that crimp said bottom portion;

a side crimper including outside crimping rollers and inside crimping rollers for crimping said side portions, the inside crimping rollers positioned within the interior channel area and the outside crimping rollers positioned on the exterior area;

said inside and outside crimping rollers adjustably mounted via a motor relative to each other on said apparatus to allow a distance between said inside and outside crimping rollers to be adjusted; and

a controller for adjusting a distance between said inside and outside crimping rollers.

17. Apparatus according to claim 16, wherein said side crimper includes at least one crimping roller mounted on a movable shaft wherein said shaft is movable toward and away from said panel side portion.

18. Apparatus according to claim 17, wherein said side crimper includes at least one crimping roller mounted on a stationary shaft.

19. Apparatus according to claim 17, wherein said side crimper include at least one crimping roller mounted on a stationary shaft.

20. Apparatus according to claim 17, wherein a plate attached to said apparatus supports said movable shaft and a sliding block.

21. Apparatus according to claim 20, further comprising:

a second sliding bock mounted to said support plate and supporting said movable shaft;

a center linkage block coupled to said first and second sliding blocks;

a machine screw coupled to said center linkage block for adjusting the position of said center linkage block as a function of rotation of said machine screw; and

said motor being configured to rotate said machine screw.

22. Apparatus according to claim 21, further comprising: a third sensor for detecting the position of said machine screw relative to said support plate.

23. Apparatus according to claim 22, wherein said controller receives signals from said first, second and third sensors, determines a depth of crimping to be applied to said side portions of said panel and the position along said panel at which said depth of crimping is to be changed to a different depth in accordance with information pertaining to a desired panel configuration, and sends a signal to said motor causing said motor to rotate said machine screw by a predetermined amount.

24. An apparatus for automatically producing a building panel from sheet material, comprising:

a plurality of metal forming rolls for forming the sheet material into a shaped panel having a bottom portion and side portions wherein said side portions extend up from said bottom portion to form an interior channel area and an exterior area;

main crimping rollers that crimp said bottom portion;

a side crimper including outside crimping rollers and inside crimping rollers for crimping said side portions, the inside crimping rollers positioned within the interior channel area and the outside crimping rollers positioned on the exterior area;

said inside and outside crimping rollers adjustably mounted relative to each other on said apparatus to allow a distance between said inside and outside crimping rollers to be adjusted; and

a controller for adjusting a distance between said inside and outside crimping rollers.

25. An apparatus as in claim 24, wherein: said controller adjusts said main crimping rollers.

26. An apparatus as in claim 24, wherein: said controller adjusts said inside and outside rollers independent of said main crimping rollers.

27. An apparatus as in claim 24, further comprising: a first sensor indicative of the distance between said inside and outside crimping rollers.

28. An apparatus as in claim 27, further comprising: a second sensor indicative of a length of said formed panel having passed through the apparatus; and, said controller adjusting said crimping rollers in response to signals from said first and second sensors.

29. Apparatus according to claim 24, wherein said side crimper includes at least one crimping roller mounted on a movable shaft wherein said shaft is movable toward and away from said panel side portion.

30. A method of producing a building panel from sheet material, comprising:

forming sheet material into a shaped panel having a bottom portion and side portions wherein side portions extend up from said bottom portion to form an interior channel area and an exterior area;

crimping said bottom portion to produce a curve in at least a portion of said shaped panel;

crimping said side portions wherein depths of crimps in said side portion are adjustable to correspond to said curve in said shaped panel; and

controlling the depth of said side portion crimps to produce side portions having a plurality of crimp depths.

31. A method, as in claim 30, further comprising: adjusting the position of crimper rollers with respect to each other to control the depth of said side portion crimps.

32. A method, as in claim 31, wherein: said adjustment of said side crimper rollers occurs independent of adjustment of said bottom portion crimping.

33. A method, as in claim 32, further comprising: sensing the length of said formed panel and controlling the depth of said side portion crimps at least in part based on said length of said formed panel.

34. A method, as in claim 31, further comprising: adjusting said side crimper rollers with a machine screw coupled to a center linkage block, wherein said center linkage block is coupled to first and second sliding blocks, wherein said first and second sliding blocks are coupled to a movable shaft, wherein said movable shaft adjusts the position of one roller with respect to a second roller.