The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Dec. 28, 1999
Filed:
Apr. 27, 1998
Emmanuil Shrayer, Lexington, MA (US);
Richard J Morganti, Billerica, MA (US);
Other;
Abstract
Disclosed is a method of forming a dome from a substantially round blank having a surface area smaller than the surface area of the dome. The basic embodiment of the method includes the steps of shear forming the blank to form a deformed blank, spin stretching the deformed blank in selected areas along its circumference to form a stretched blank, inside spinning the stretched blank into a rough dome, and finish spinning the rough dome into the finished dome. In the preferred embodiment, the shear forming step involves coaxially securing an inside surface of the blank to a rotatable flat-nosed conical mandrel, rotating the blank on the flat-nosed conical mandrel, heating a predetermined portion of the blank, and applying a force to an outer surface of the blank such that the blank is deformed in a shape of the flat-nosed conical mandrel to shear form the deformed blank. In this embodiment, the additional spin-stretching step involves spin-stretching the deformed blank in predetermined locations to form a stretched blank having a surface area that is substantially greater than the surface area of the dome. The preferred inside spinning step involves securing the stretched blank within a rotatable concave dome mandrel, rotating the blank on the concave dome mandrel, heating a predetermined portion of the stretched blank, and applying a force to the inner surface of the stretched blank to form a dome shaped blank. Finally, it is preferred that the finish spinning step involve coaxially securing the inside surface of the dome shaped blank to a rotatable convex dome mandrel, rotating the dome shaped blank on the convex dome mandrel, heating a predetermined portion of the dome shaped blank, applying a force to the outside surface of the dome shaped blank such that the dome shaped blank is deformed in a shape of the convex dome mandrel to form the dome.