Flanging Tool

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. § 119 from German Patent Application No. 10 2024 123 221.8, filed Aug. 14, 2024, the entire disclosure of which is herein expressly incorporated by reference.

BACKGROUND AND SUMMARY

Flanged adhesive connections are used, for example, to connect two components to one another. For this purpose, a flange on the edge of an outer sheet is deformed over the edge region of an inner sheet. This can be done, for example, by means of roller flanging, wherein a flanging roller is guided along the component to be flanged and bends the flange over toward the outer sheet. To achieve a high connection strength, an adhesive is additionally introduced between the components in the region of the flanged connection before flanging.

A method for producing a flanged connection by roller flanging and a flanging device suitable for this purpose are known, for example, from document DE 10 2006 010 469 A1. The flanging device has a flanging bed, for receiving a workpiece, and an industrial robot, which bears a flanging tool with at least one flanging roller on its hand. Flanging takes place in multiple steps. A roller in the form of a cone or truncated cone is used as a pre-flanging roller. As the finish-flanging roller for closing the flange fold, either the same flanging roller or a flanging roller with a cylindrical shape is used. If such a flanging method is used to produce a flanged adhesive connection for vehicle components, the outer sheet is pressed onto the inner sheet as the flange is closed.

In vehicle components of complex shape, the installation space is limited, and the flanged adhesive connection is to be formed at locations that are difficult to access. Against this background, the object of the invention is to provide a solution for forming a flanged adhesive connection in an improved manner when installation space is limited. In a further aspect, the solution should be suitable for large-scale production.

The object is achieved by a flanging tool according to the independent claim(s). Further advantageous embodiments can be found in the dependent claims and the description below.

A flanging tool is specified, having a working face, which is designed to deform a flange of a metal sheet, in that the flanging tool is moved along the flange in an advancing direction while the working face is in touching contact with the flange. A spatial extent of the flanging tool in a direction D perpendicular to the working face is within the range of 1 mm to 6 mm, and preferably 4 mm.

Furthermore, a spatial extent or a length L of the flanging tool can extend in the advancing direction and parallel to the working face and be within a range of 20 mm to 140 mm.

Additionally or alternatively, a spatial extent or width B of the working face of the flanging tool can extend in a direction parallel to the working face and perpendicular to the advancing direction A and be within the range of 5 mm to 30 mm.

Furthermore, a side of the flanging tool opposite the working face can be rounded.

In addition, the working face can be designed as a control screw face or in the form of a helical working face.

The working face can be twisted by an angle within the range of 1 to 179 degrees. The boundary values are included in the indicated range.

Furthermore, two contradirectional working faces can be provided, which are arranged one behind the other in a longitudinal direction of the flanging tool.

Furthermore, a friction-reducing and/or adhesion-reducing coating, in particular consisting of tetrahedral amorphous carbon, can be provided on the working face. This coating has the advantage that the friction between the tool and the workpiece is reduced, and therefore the wear of the working face is reduced. In addition, there is a reduction in adhesion effects and thus a reduction in the friction between the flanging tool and the workpiece to be deformed. Attempts have been made in the prior art to minimize the friction by using flanging rollers or by geometric surface shaping of the working face. In comparison with these solutions, the use of a coating on the working face means that a flanging tool can be realized that takes up little installation space.

The advantages of the invention shall be demonstrated below. The flanging tool is particularly suitable for use in vehicle body construction, since the installation space in already assembled and possibly painted bodies is extremely limited. A traditional flanging tool usually consists of a rotationally symmetrical roller, which takes up more installation space in comparison. In confined installation space situations of the body, such as the door trim panel, access is not possible with a conventional flanging tool. Owing to the minimized geometric dimensions, the above-described flanging tool can be used in confined installation spaces of bodies.

These requirements necessitate a specific configuration of the flanging tool, which is made possible by a combination of a helical tool working face and a friction-minimizing coating. In contrast to the traditional, rotationally symmetrical flanging roller, the tool working face of the flanging tool is not rotationally symmetrical. The sheet flange is formed in one operation from the off-tool component to the closed flanged edge by a helical working face of the flanging tool. This can accelerate the manufacturing process by up to two thirds, as a result of which process time can be saved. The combination of a helical working face of the flanging tool with a friction-reducing or adhesion-avoiding coating, in particular consisting of tetrahedral amorphous carbon (TAC), results in a slim shape of the flanging tool.

Further advantages, features and details of the invention can be found in the description below, in which exemplary embodiments of the invention are described in detail with reference to the drawings. The features mentioned in the claims and in the description can each be essential to the invention by themselves or in any combination.

Other objects, advantages and novel features of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of one or more preferred embodiments when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 schematically shows a diagram of a flanged connection;

FIG. 2 schematically shows a perspective diagram of a flanging tool with a helical tool working face;

FIG. 3 schematically shows a further perspective diagram of a flanging tool with a helical tool working face; and

FIG. 4 schematically shows a diagram of the front of a flanging tool with a helical tool working face.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The basic structure of a flanged connection and the method for producing such a connection shall be explained with reference to FIG. 1. First, an outer sheet 10 is provided, the edge region of which forms a flange 11. Optionally, an adhesive (not shown in detail in the figure) can be applied thereto in the region of the flanged connection to be formed. An inner sheet 13 is then arranged relative to the outer sheet 10 such that an edge region of the inner sheet 13 comes to lie thereon in a region 12 of the outer sheet 10 that does not form the flange 11. The sheets 10 and 13 are positioned relative to one another using a device. The working face of a flanging tool is then brought to the flange 11, and the flanging tool is guided along the flange 11 in the direction of a longitudinal axis (L) of the flanged connection. In FIG. 1, the movement of the flanging tool is directed out of the drawing plane. During the movement of the flanging tool, it presses with its working face against the flange 11 and bends it over toward the inner sheet 13. FIG. 1 shows an end position of the flange 11 in which the flanged connection is finished.

FIG. 2 shows a perspective view of the flanging tool 20, which is arranged on a main body 22. The main body 22 is used as a connection element or as a retainer for connecting the flanging tool 20, for example to a robot with which the production of the flanged connection can proceed in an automated manner. The flanging tool 20 has a working face 21 with which it is brought into touching contact with the flange 11 of the outer sheet 10.

The spatial extent of the flanging tool 20 in a direction D perpendicular to the helical working face 21 is within the range of 1 mm to 6 mm and preferably 4 mm. This results in a particularly slim flanging tool. The length L of the flanging tool 20 extends in an advancing direction A of the flanging tool 20 parallel to the helical working face 21 and is within the range of 20 mm to 140 mm. The width B of the working face 21 of the flanging tool 20 extends in a direction that is perpendicular to the advancing direction A and is oriented parallel to the working face 21 and is within the range of 5 mm to 30 mm. The direction in which the width B of the flanging tool 20 extends and the direction in which the length L of the flanging tool extends are perpendicular to one another and both run substantially parallel to the working face 21. The longitudinal axis of the flanging tool 20 corresponds to the advancing direction A in FIG. 2.

FIG. 3 shows the above-described flanging tool 20 in a further perspective view. The working face 21 is designed as a control screw face or helically, wherein the reference axis of this helical geometry runs in the advancing direction A. The working face 21 is designed as a counterclockwise screw face. In further embodiments (not shown in the drawings), the screw face can also run clockwise. As a result of the profile of the working face 21, the flange 11 is bent over continuously during the deforming process with the flanging tool 20, from a starting position, in which the flange 11 runs at a slight angle to the main region 12 of the outer sheet 10, to an end position as shown in FIG. 1. In the process, the flanging tool 20 is guided along and parallel to a flange edge in the advancing direction A (indicated by the arrow). In the process, the flange is deformed continuously toward the inner sheet 13 correspondingly to the angle α of the working face 21 of the flanging tool 20. In FIG. 3, the angle α is approximately 150°, for example. A flange that is previously angled by 60°, for example, is laid on the inner sheet 13 after deformation using the flanging tool 20. The angle α therefore defines the change in angle that the flange 11 undergoes as a result of the flanging tool 20. The angle α can also cover larger angle ranges, for example a range of 1°-179°.

While the flange is being deformed, it follows the helical working face 21, as a result of which the material is stretched, in particular at the trimming edge. The material stretching that occurs is influenced by the pitch of the working face, said pitch resulting from the working face length, the angle α and the width B of the flange. A pitch that has been selected to be too small would cause excessive material stretching and thus waviness of the flanged connection. For a compact design of the flanging tool, the pitch should not be selected to be too large either. In experiments, for a flange width of 10 mm and an angle of 150 degrees, it has proven expedient to set the length of the working face at 60 mm, for example.

FIG. 4 shows an above-described flanging tool 20 in a front view for better illustration of the angle α by which the working face 21 is twisted.

The foregoing disclosure has been set forth merely to illustrate the invention and is not intended to be limiting. Since modifications of the disclosed embodiments incorporating the spirit and substance of the invention may occur to persons skilled in the art, the invention should be construed to include everything within the scope of the appended claims and equivalents thereof.