AU719324B2 - Collar improvements - Google Patents

Description

46680 HKS:PFB P/00/011 Regulation 3.2

AUSTRALIA

Patents Act 1990 COMPLETE SPECIFICATION FOR A STANDARD PATENT

ORIGINAL

Name of Applicant: go *.o LANCE MALCOLM VATER Names of inventors: LANCE MALCOLM VATER DAVID EDWARD FARROW RUSS ISAAC WHITWORTH Address for Service: COLLISON CO.,117 King William Street, Adelaide, S.A. 5000 Invention Title: COLLAR IMPROVEMENTS Details of Associated Provisional Applications: P01470 Dated 6th August 1996 and P01691 Dated 15th August 1996 The following statement is a full description of this invention, including the best method of performing it known to me: 2 This invention relates to brackets of a type used to connect together pipes and in particular, to a collar and a method of manufacture of a collar which can be fitted around a pipe and to which other brackets can then be attached.

It is currently known to use a collar which is located around a first pipe, and then to have intermediary brackets engaging with the collar and having the further pipe or pipes secured to the intermediary bracket.

There are two general systems by which the intermediary bracket is secured to the collar and as an example of one of these ways, reference can be made to Australian Patent Application AU-A-17714/95 in the name of R M D Press Company Pty Ltd.

This Patent Application AU-A-17714/95 describes a method of using an intermediary bracket which is formed of at least two parts which are secured to a collar by being clamped together which has claws which grip directionally flanges on the collar. This can be referred to as the clamping technique and can be contrasted with a non clamping technique which the applicant has been using for some years.

a. a The clamping technique can be considered as advantageous from the point of view that a collar can be made in a shape which when made from two separable parts is relatively easily manufactured by conventional techniques 20 of metal stamping.

One of the disadvantages of this clamping technique is that an intermediary bracket will have to be firstly disassembled and located with engaging clamping fingers around respective flanges of the collar. A bolt and nut will then be used to bring the opposite claws together in a clamping action to hold the intermediary bracket on the collar (while at the same time providing a clamping force for any pipe that is going to be attached to the intermediary bracket).

In practice, such steps are relatively awkward to accomplish because the further pipe and the intermediary bracket are not being supported other than 3 0 by the installer during this procedure..

The other method by which an intermediary bracket can be attached to a collar is that which has been used by the current applicant in which a collar is still used but the intermediary member engages the collar by simply interlocking with opposed gutter or groove shapes. (This will be referred to as the non clamping technique). Such a method does not use any clamping so that such an intermediary bracket is simply located in position without the necessity to either unclamp or reclamp the intermediary bracket during this process. Such a method has the advantage of ease of installation but it has the disadvantage that the characteristics of the collar needed for this technique make it generally 1 0 uneconomic to manufacture for commercial applications.

The first difficulty to which this invention is specifically directed relates to characteristics of the collar in order for this to be able to be competitively manufactured while at the same time be able to be robust enough to perform S, the task in the very demanding environment of commercial brackets for pipes.

Hitherto, the applicant has manufactured a collar which has been cast and is a single integral ring which engages over and around a pipe which can be secured at a relative height on the pipe by an appropriate screw passing through the collar and against an edge of the pipe.

It would be preferable if such a collar could be formed by stamping from sheet 2 0 metal.

In order to provide an appropriate shape for the non clamping style of fixing for an intermediary bracket, there needs to be a bracket comprised of two parts which together engage substantially around a pipe and providing oppositely facing channels or gutters which extend around the periphery of the collar.

2 5 The problem however is how to provide a method of manufacture which is economic or at least provides the public with a very useful alternative, which can achieve this objective.

One problem is that a most useful shape is one in which the metal is expected to be formed into shapes which in respect of any die would normally be 3 0 expected to interlock with the die. Unless there were extremely expensive dies which could be disassembled into many separate parts, then it has thus far not been considered to be at least economically feasible to make such an article using such a technique.

A discovery related to this invention is that indeed it has been possible to achieve a metal stamping procedure for forming a member that can be useful which does provide for the complex shape to be pressed but in a way by which none of the dies pressing the shape will be caused to be locked into the shape and therefore require sophisticated techniques for removal.

Accordingly this invention can be said to reside in a method of manufacture of an element forming a part of semi-cylindrical shape which may, together with a similar member, form a collar with two directionally opposed grooves the method comprising the steps of stamping a sheet of metal to have a first shape in which there is a middle part with two raised sides extending along a length of the middle part, then with a second die, pressing the thus formed element so that each of the sides has a lower part which is caused to collapse inwardly against the sides of the further die so as to provide an outer wall with two 15 thickness's of respectively directionally opposed grooves.

In preference the method includes the steps of first stamping a sheet of metal so that there is a middle part which is pressed to an outermost position with two sides and out turned edges, and then a second die is used by the respective two sides are pushed so that they will collapse inwardly against the sides of the further die the shape of which is such as to press the respective part into a completed shape in which there are opposing gutter shapes and in which the die has sides such that the die can be easily removed.

In preference, the first die has sides which are parallel one with respect to the other and have a conforming shape between male and female parts of the die so as to define precisely the resulting pressed article.

In preference, the second die has a male part which has parallel sides against which the relevant parts of the gutter or groove shape on each side will engage but which does not conform to the shape of the female part of the die so that the metal itself is caused to compress and distort within a shape 3 0 defined between the male and female parts of the die and to effect the required shape thereby without however effecting an interlocking of the male die with respect to either the product or the female die.

An advantage of this arrangement is also that it can be used to create a shape which provides a collar comprised of two semi-cylindrical parts each of which provide opposed groove shapes which in use will have two wall thicknesses on an outer side for each groove and an inner side of the groove will be defined by an inner side of the wall of the collar.

The advantage of this arrangement is that because the collar provides an interlocking facility for an intermediary bracket which engages on the collar by interlocking and not by clamping, the effectiveness of the interlocking is better if the width of the gutter at any place around its periphery, that is, from the front 1 0 to back within its gutter shape, is of a distant which can be relatively accurately reproduced from collar to collar.

It will be understood that this then differs from the clamping technique where any claws are brought together and capture between them parts of the collar S- with a clamping pressure.

1 5 Accordingly, the clamping technique can accommodate a wide variation in sizes and shapes and therefore is very tolerant of different dimensions.

This invention will be much better understood when described with reference to a preferred embodiment which shall be described with the assistance of drawings in which: S2 0 FIG 1 is a plan view of a metal sheet which is being cut into shape and then subjected to three stages of pressing to have an elongate member of top hat shape in cross section, FIG 2 is a cross sectional view of the first stage at its final position, FIG 3 is a cross sectional view of a second forming die at a beginning of its stroke, FIG 4 is a side view of a second forming die at a second stage of its stroke, FIG 5 is a side view of a second forming die at a third stage of its stroke, FIG 6 is a side view of a second forming die at a final stage of its stroke, FIG 7 is a side view of a third die showing a first stage, FIGS 8 is a side view of a third view showing a second stage of stamping, FIGS 9 and 10 are end and side views of a fourth die for stamping the shape into a curved shape, FIG 11 is a side view of the product from the fourth die, and FIG 12 is a side view of a fifth die with FIG 13 showing a side view of the completed product.

Now referring in detail to the drawings, the purpose of the first series of dies as shown in FIG 1 is to cut and form a shape from a strip of sheet metal where 10 there is a lowermost central part 1, parallel sides 2 and 3 and upper outwardly extending edges 4 and 5 which results in a member having a part of U-shape which is to say that it has a top and two sides.

In the next stage die 6 now too uses the shape achieved from the first dies and accordingly there is now seen with the gradual compression of the male die 8, side dies 9 and 10 are forced by inclined planes 11 and 12 to press inwardly against a top of the sides now shown as 13 and 14.

o This also then has a gripping effect which in turn then helps the next stage during which the die 6 is lowered causing the sides at 15 and 16 to bulge and **eventually to collapse also with the assistance of the respective dies 9 and This effect is assisted by the lowermost shape of the U-shape having edges that are curved shown at 17 and 18. The extent of the collapse" is such as to effect a closing together of two wall thickness's one against the other to provide the outer wall of directionally opposed grooves in the eventual product. The dies 9 and 10 clean up the shape after it is substantially formed.

The next stage is achieved by the third set of dies 19 and 20 at FIGS 7 and 8 where the sides now 21 and 22 are collapsed further and so that the shape defining the several directionally opposed grooves is finalised. There is incidentally a locating detent at 23.

The two outer walls of double thickness shown at 24 and 25 now have an 7 inner wall for each at 26 and 27 defining thereby directionally opposed grooves at 28 and 29.

The next stage is that shown in FIGS 9 and 10 in which dies 30 stamp the formally straight member into a curved shape as shown at 31 in FIG 11. Finally there is some final pressing of tags 32 in a die 33 to result in a product 34 as shown in FIG 13.

The result of this forming method is to enable the formation of a semi cylindrical part that can be joined together with others of identical shape which can interlock and form together a collar which can be held tightly by being clamped around a pipe and which can now be used with the system which is in contrast to the referred to alternate system.

oo By being able to make such a collar by metal stamping, the cost is significantly reduced from other techniques of manufacture e.g. casting, and further, with the use of an attachment system which does not use the additional nuts and 1 5 bolts of the original clamping system, there is further advantage gained with both convenience of assembly and costs associated with further components.

Furthermore, the method of manufacture ends up in providing two directionally opposed grooves each of which are defined by both outer and inner walls and where there is an outer wall having two thickness's of sheet metal.

This arrangement has been found to provide additional strength against the type of distortion or pressures that are found to occur with the referred type o attachment system.

Claims (4)

1. A method of manufacture of an element for construction of a collar which method includes the steps of first stamping a sheet of metal with a first die so that there is a middle part which is pressed outermost with two sides with out turned edges, and then a second die is used so that these out turned edges are pushed so that the sides will collapse against the sides of the second die the shape of which is such as to press the sides into a completed shape in which there are opposing groove shapes and in which the die has sides such that the die can be easily removed. 1 0

2. A method of manufacture as in Claim 1 further characterised in that S"the first die has sides which are parallel one with respect to the other and have a conforming shape between male and female parts of the die so as to define *precisely the resulting pressed article.

3. A method of manufacture as in either Claim 1 or 2 further S• 1 5 characterised in that the second die has a male part which has parallel sides against which the relevant parts of the groove shape on each side will engage but which does not conform to the shape of the female part of the die so that the metal itself is caused to compress and distort within a shape defined between the male and female parts of the die and to effect the required shape 20 thereby without however effecting an interlocking of the male die with respect to either the product or the female die. t,

4. A method of manufacture substantially as described in the specification with reference to and as illustrated by the accompanying drawings. Dated this 2nd day of March 2000 LANCE MALCOLM VATER By his Patent Attorneys, COLLISON CO.