Apparatus for progressively forming articles from wire

摘要

906,668. Making wire articles. BAIRD MACHINE CO. March 17, 1961 [Dec. 19, 1959], No. 43229/59. Class 83 (4). Apparatus for progressively forming articles from wire, each article having different portions differing from one another in shape, includes a wire guide having a bore terminating in a feed orifice, intermittently operable feed means for successively feeding lengths of wire through said bore and orifice, each length of wire being sufficiently long to enable an article to be formed from it, a plurality of tools each movable along a separate path from a retracted to an advanced position to engage a length of wire as it emerges from the orifice, each tool engaging a different portion of this length of wire and deflecting this portion in a different lateral direction relative to the axis of the bore to form a different portion of the article, and means for selectively moving said tools between their retracted and advanced positions in timed relationship with the operation of the feed means. Wire W is fed through a wire guide 82 by rollers 84, 86 driven intermittently, through one-way clutch means 101, by a segmental gear 106 oscillated by a crank 112 rotated by a main drive shaft 44, the wire W being thus fed at an increasing then decreasing speed. If necessary a further feed movement may be given to the rolls 84, 86 by a cam 60, on a cam-shaft 58 coupled to the main shaft 44, moving a link 270 to rotate clutch means on a shaft 88 of the roll 86. As the wire W emerges from the guide 82 it is bent by tools T1, T2, T3, T4 to form the article S1, Fig. 13, or S2, Fig. 14. The tool T1 is carried in a holder 140, Fig. 8, on a lever 168 pivoted at 178 and rocked to and from an operative position by a cam 62 on the camshaft 58. The tools T2, T3 and T4 are similarly mounted to be rocked in planes at right angles to one another, by cams 74, 64, 76 the cams 74, 76 being mounted on a cross-shaft 72 driven from the shaft 58. Each tool bends that part of the wire W protruding from the guide 80 in a different direction and can effect either a sharp or gradual bend and, if a tool is held in its operative position for any time a coil h1 of the article S2 is formed. The tools comprise a metal body portion 142, Fig. 5, and may be tipped at 148 with a sapphire or ceramic insert. The formed article is severed from the wire supply by a pivoted cutter 296 rocked by a cam 66 on the shaft 58.