Unova IP Corp.

Donald D Pagels, Jr

Jeffrey S McNamara

Gerald A Brown

William M Faitel

Douglas J Schrandt

Jason A McNamara

Gerrit W Sloat

Wenjia Cai

Zhiguo Shen

An automotive framing apparatus with a support frame having a frame roof supported above a generally horizontal support surface. At least four gate assemblies are carried by a carrousel supported on the frame roof for rotational movement around a common vertical axis and form two gate assembly pairs of diametrically-opposed gate assemblies. The gate assemblies of each gate assembly pair are supported for pivotal movement between generally horizontal stowed and generally vertical working positions. A rotary drive selectively positions one gate assembly pair at a time in a framing position from which the two gate assemblies of the selected gate assembly pair can be pivoted by a drive downward to respective diametrically opposed working positions on opposed sides of a vehicle body to be welded.

Automotive framing apparatus

An indexing drive has an actuator which reciprocates a ratchet arm along an arcuate path to cause an indexed rotation of rollers during one direction of movement of the ratchet arm which bear on a follower to produce an associated indexed rotation of the follower which may be communicated with a drive mechanism of apparatus to provide an indexed movement of the apparatus. Desirably, when the follower is not being rotated by the rollers, it is restrained from rotation in either direction to prevent movement of the drive mechanism to which it is connected and hence, to prevent movement of the apparatus associated with the drive mechanism.

Indexing drive

A clamp having a pneumatic cylinder with an actuating rod connected to one end of a drive arm which has its other end attached to a crankshaft which in turn has crankpins eccentrically mounted thereon to drive inner and outer clamp arms between retracted and advanced positions corresponding to open and closed positions of the clamp. The length of the drive arm, the extent to which the crankpins are offset from the crankshaft, the specific portion of a quadrant through which the crankpins are rotated, and the distance between the application of the force to the clamp arms and the axes about which the clamp arms pivot all provide a significant mechanical advantage and an extremely large clamping force from relatively low pressure compressed air supplied to the pneumatic cylinder.

Pneumatic clamp

A mechanical press has a ram carried by a frame and movable to advanced and retracted positions by a ball screw assembly driven by a reversible motor to actuate a cam and follower assembly connected to the ram by a linkage system. The linkage system has a pair of pivot links pivotally connected at one end to a fixed pivot shaft connected to the press frame and connected at their opposite end to a follower nut for movement thereby as the follower nut travels along the length of the driven screw. A pair of roller followers are also driven by the follower nut to move between first and second positions within cam tracks formed in a pair of first lever arms operably connected to the ram. In use, when the motor drives the screw in one direction the first lever arms are rotated in one direction to move the ram to its advanced position wherein the ram urges a die or tool into engagement with a workpiece. When the motor is reversed, the first lever arm is rotated in the opposite direction to move the ram to its retracted position to disengage the die or tool from the workpiece.

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Grosse Pointe Woods, MI, United States of America

Donald D Pagels, Jr