US-20260124656-A1 - BOTTOMED TUBULAR BODY PROCESSING DEVICE

US20260124656A1US 20260124656 A1US20260124656 A1US 20260124656A1US-20260124656-A1

Abstract

Provided is a bottomed tubular body processing device that performs necking on an opening end of a bottomed tubular body multiple times while conveying the bottomed tubular body along a conveyance path. The bottomed tubular body processing device includes: a multi-stage necking section in which a plurality of necking units are sequentially disposed along a conveyance path; and a circulating conveyor that refeeds the bottomed tubular body discharged from a downstream necking unit to an upstream necking unit. The circulating conveyor conveys the bottomed tubular body by retaining an opening end of the bottomed tubular body against a conveyance surface. A bottom turret of a processing turret constituting the necking unit supports a bottom portion of the bottomed tubular body and is movable in an axial direction by a position adjustment mechanism based on a height in a tube axial direction of the bottomed tubular body.

Inventors

Hideki Yuge
Tadashi Endo

Assignees

TOYO SEIKAN CO., LTD.

Dates

Publication Date: 20260507
Application Date: 20260107
Priority Date: 20230809

Claims (8)

1 . A bottomed tubular body processing device that performs necking on an opening end of a bottomed tubular body a plurality of times while conveying the bottomed tubular body along a conveyance path, the bottomed tubular body processing device comprising: a multi-stage necking section in which a plurality of necking units are sequentially disposed along the conveyance path; and a circulating conveyor configured to refeed, to an upstream necking unit provided upstream in the multi-stage necking section, the bottomed tubular body discharged from a downstream necking unit provided downstream in the multi-stage necking section, the circulating conveyor having a conveying surface which is disposed to face the opening end of the bottomed tubular body, and being configured to convey the bottomed tubular body by retaining the opening end of the bottomed tubular body against the conveying surface, the necking units each including a processing turret that performs the necking on the bottomed tubular body, the processing turret including: a bottom turret provided with a plurality of pockets disposed in a circumferential direction and configured to hold the bottomed tubular body in the pockets and support a bottom portion of the bottomed tubular body; and a tool turret disposed on one side in an axial direction of the processing turret and including a processing tool that performs the necking on the bottomed tubular body, the bottom turret being configured to be movable in an axial direction by a position adjustment mechanism, based on a height in a tube axial direction of the bottomed tubular body to be subjected to the necking.
2 . The bottomed tubular body processing device according to claim 1 , wherein the circulating conveyor is configured to convey the bottomed tubular body while retaining, by means of suction, the opening end of the bottomed tubular body against the conveying surface, and a negative pressure for the retaining is in a range from −0.5 to −11 kPa.
3 . The bottomed tubular body processing device according to claim 1 , further comprising a transfer turret configured to move, to a transfer position opposed to the circulating conveyor, the bottomed tubular body discharged from the downstream necking unit provided downstream in the multi-stage necking section, wherein the transfer turret is provided with a plurality of pockets disposed in a circumferential direction, and when the pocket holding the bottomed tubular body in the transfer turret is at the transfer position to the circulating conveyor, a clearance between the bottomed tubular body and the conveying surface of the circulating conveyor is equal to or less than 15 mm.
4 . The bottomed tubular body processing device according to claim 1 , wherein a conveying speed at the circulating conveyor is lower than the conveying speed at the processing turret of the necking unit.
5 . The bottomed tubular body processing device according to claim 1 , further comprising a deceleration turret configured to decelerate a conveying speed of the bottomed tubular body, wherein any of turrets that are provided between the downstream necking unit and the circulating conveyor to convey the bottomed tubular body discharged from the downstream necking unit to the circulating conveyor is set as the deceleration turret.
6 . The bottomed tubular body processing device according to claim 3 , wherein the transfer turret is a deceleration turret that decelerates a conveying speed of the bottomed tubular body, and the conveying speed at the transfer turret is lower than the conveying speed at the processing turret of the necking unit and equal to or higher than the conveying speed at the circulating conveyor.
7 . The bottomed tubular body processing device according to claim 1 , wherein the opening end of the bottomed tubular body conveyed while being retained against the conveying surface of the circulating conveyor is in a diameter-reduced state.
8 . The bottomed tubular body processing device according to claim 1 , wherein the respective necking units of the multi-stage necking section are disposed in series along horizontal one direction, the circulating conveyor extends along the one direction above the multi-stage necking section, a chute is further provided, the chute feeding the bottomed tubular body by moving the bottomed tubular body downward from a rear end of the conveyance path of the circulating conveyor to the upstream necking unit, and the chute includes an air mechanism that supports movement of the bottomed tubular body.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD The disclosure relates to a bottomed tubular body processing device that performs necking on an opening end of a bottomed tubular body a plurality of times while conveying the bottomed tubular body along a conveyance path. BACKGROUND In the related art, a can used as a beverage can or the like is manufactured by performing drawing, ironing, and the like on a metal plate material punched out into a circular shape to form a can barrel having a bottomed tubular shape, and further performing, on an opening end of the can barrel, predetermined necking, trimming, and, if necessary, a mouth portion forming such as thread portion forming and curled portion forming. The drawing, which is called necking, is usually divided into a plurality of steps to be performed in a stepwise manner so that the metal material constituting the can barrel is not subjected to an excessive stress. Examples of devices that perform necking a plurality of times in a stepwise manner include a device in which a plurality of processing turrets are connected in series, and one necking step is performed at each processing turret while a can barrel is sequentially conveyed, thereby performing the necking including a plurality of steps in one cycle. However, since such a device needs to be provided with the same number of processing turrets as the number of desired necking steps, there is a problem that the lengths and sizes of the device and equipment are significantly increased and more installation space is required in a case where a can barrel needing necking a large number of times is manufactured. In order to solve such a problem, for example, EP 2001617 B discloses a device in which a plurality of processing turrets are disposed in series, a feed position where a can barrel is fed is provided on one end side, and a discharge position where the can barrel is discharged is provided on the other end side. The can barrel is conveyed from the feed position, sequentially subjected to a plurality of processing steps of a first cycle at each processing turret, and discharged from the discharge position. Then, the discharged can barrel, which is in a semi-finished state, is returned to the feed position by a circulating conveyor, conveyed to the plurality of processing turrets to be subjected again to the plurality of steps of a second cycle. In a device using such a circulating conveyor, the number of processing turrets arranged side by side in a horizontal direction can be reduced, and the number of processing steps that can be performed per an installation space can be increased. SUMMARY In contrast, in the device using the circulating conveyor described above, since the circulating conveyor has a structure in which a bottom portion of the can barrel is retained and conveyed because of the easiness in supporting and conveying, there is a problem that it is difficult to make a transfer from the processing turret to the circulating conveyor in a case where the device is diverted to the manufacture of beverage cans having a different height, that is, in a case of so-called type change. Specifically, since each processing turret is designed to process the opening end of a can barrel, the can barrel is sequentially conveyed in a state in which the opening end is aligned to a reference trim surface so as to be reliably processed. In a case where the device is dedicated to a can barrel of a certain height, the circulating conveyor may be disposed at a position at which the conveying surface of the circulating conveyor is close and opposed to the bottom portion of the can barrel as an initial design. However, when the same device is diverted as-is for necking of a can barrel having a different height, for example, a can barrel having a low height, the can barrel which has been subjected to processing of a first cycle is far away from the circulating conveyor at a transfer position to the circulating conveyor, and thus, there is a problem that it is difficult to make a transfer to the circulating conveyor. In such a case, the circulating conveyor itself is moved to shift the position of the conveying surface, but this is not practical because large-scale setting is needed in view of the size of the circulating conveyor, and the setting action itself becomes complicated. The disclosure has been made to solve the above problems, and an object thereof is to provide a bottomed tubular body processing device which is capable of performing necking on a bottomed tubular body a plurality of times without significant increase in an installation space and is commonly used for bottomed tubular bodies having different heights with a simple configuration and without a complicated setting action. A bottomed tubular body processing device according to the disclosure is a bottomed tubular body processing device that performs necking on an opening end of a bottomed tubular body a plurality of times while conveying the bottomed tubular body along a convey