Patents Assigned to Elpatronics AG
  • Patent number: 6675627
    Abstract: To form metal sheet blanks into taper tubes, a die is provided which has a conical cavity into which a conical punch plunges. The punch is led into the die along a curve. Taper tube shells can easily be fabricated by this method.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 13, 2002
    Date of Patent: January 13, 2004
    Assignee: Elpatronic AG
    Inventor: Werner Urech
  • Patent number: 6649209
    Abstract: The invention relates first of all to a method for covering areas of damaged protective coating on containers or the like, in which, according to the invention, protective coating material is stamped on to the zone in which the damaged areas occur. The invention also describes an apparatus for carrying out the method in which a carrier unit is provided for stamping protective coating material on to the damaged area. Apparatus is provided for positioning the carrier unit with respect to the container.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 3, 2001
    Date of Patent: November 18, 2003
    Assignee: Elpatronic AG
    Inventors: Peter Taiana, Andreas Lanz
  • Patent number: 6639176
    Abstract: For the manufacture of composite panels (16) it is proposed that they be held essentially upright by means of holding devices (17) and that welding by means of a laser welding plant (11, 13) be performed in this position. This affords a considerable space saving compared with the conventional horizontal arrangement in which the composite panels are processed and handled.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 14, 2001
    Date of Patent: October 28, 2003
    Assignee: Elpatronic AG
    Inventor: Werner Urech
  • Patent number: 6631631
    Abstract: On a two-roll rounding machine, in addition to a compressively elastic guide roll and a compressively rigid rounding roll, one or more compressively elastic rolls are provided which have both a rounding function and a supporting function for the rounding roll. These additional rolls may also be supported by a back-up roll. The result is a rounding machine that has very good rounding characteristics even at small rounding diameters.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 5, 2001
    Date of Patent: October 14, 2003
    Assignee: Elpatronic AG
    Inventors: Eugen Müller, Jakob Müller
  • Patent number: 6588648
    Abstract: During manufacture of certain hollow profiles suitable for use in car body construction the welded profiles are subjected to a further deformation process, namely hydroforming. At present the corresponding welding machines are charged manually. The invention relates to a method and a device for transferring hollow-profile blanks, characterized in that during transfer the positioned fusion faces of the blanks are pressed against each other at least in the area of the weld.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 15, 2000
    Date of Patent: July 8, 2003
    Assignee: Elpatronic AG
    Inventor: Peter Gysi
  • Patent number: 6495792
    Abstract: For tube welding, use is made of a locator element intruding into the tube and running with the tube, to position the edges of the tube-round ahead of the welding point with its laser beam (4). The running locator element has a plurality of stops (8, 9, 10, 11) arranged on a driven revolving chain (7). Forming elements (15, 15′) act on the outside of the tube-round to position the edges. A precise edge-positioning for welding, in particular for tube welding, can thus be achieved.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 14, 2001
    Date of Patent: December 17, 2002
    Assignee: Elpatronic AG
    Inventor: Peter Gysi
  • Patent number: 6452128
    Abstract: In a rolled seam welding machine which can be fed from the front for producing a lap seam, the welding roller which is disposed in front of the Z rail can be swung away in order to facilitate automatic feeding of the welding stock into the Z rail.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 29, 2000
    Date of Patent: September 17, 2002
    Assignee: Elpatronic AG
    Inventor: Eugen Müller
  • Patent number: 6417482
    Abstract: A number of tubes that are about to be welded, or have already been welded, are positioned on a table. The seam of each tube is welded by a laser welding unit. While one tube is being welded, it is possible to load the other positions of the table with tubes for welding and/or to unload tubes that have already been welded. This makes it possible to obtain optimum utilization of the laser welding unit. A sensor is used to detect the positioning of the welding edges and a tube is rotated if necessary to properly position the tube for welding.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 1, 2000
    Date of Patent: July 9, 2002
    Assignee: Elpatronic AG
    Inventor: Peter Gysi
  • Patent number: 6394335
    Abstract: The invention relates to a molded part which is configured by initially forming a tubular body with a welded flange. Subsequently, the body is shaped in a mold placing the body under internal pressure to form a part or preform. Thus, preforms with a welded flange can be obtained and connectedn with other parts.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 1, 1999
    Date of Patent: May 28, 2002
    Assignee: Elpatronic AG
    Inventors: Markus Meier, Werner Urech
  • Patent number: 6371277
    Abstract: The invention relates to a conveyor device for a modularly arranged machine line for manufacturing containers, in particular tubs. A system of clamps which brings the tubs step-by-step to each work station is operated by means of a crank drive.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 9, 2000
    Date of Patent: April 16, 2002
    Assignee: Elpatronic AG
    Inventor: Robert Malinie
  • Patent number: 6357573
    Abstract: In order to separate tin can bodies carried by a first conveyor belt at a high speed, a second conveyor belt is taken close to the first conveyor belt and individual bodies are transferred from the first conveyor belt to the second conveyor belt. It is thus possible to separate a sequence of tin bodies into two sequences, thus facilitating further processing. The process can also be reversed to form a single sequence from two sequences.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 14, 2001
    Date of Patent: March 19, 2002
    Assignee: Elpatronic AG
    Inventors: Mathias Frei, Peter Bässler, Peter Schreiber, Peter Taiana
  • Patent number: 6288355
    Abstract: To weld a workpiece rounded from plane metal sheet on a seam welding machine, the workpiece is introduced into a preform (7) whose internal shape is approximately the same as the workpiece. Stops (11, 12, 14) are used to fix the workpiece in place in the preform, and the workpiece is then moved together with the preform (7) towards the welding rollers and welded. To this end the preform (7) is arranged on a platform (6) which in its turn is arranged on a movable carriage (3) in the welding machine (1). Welding with the preform makes it possible to weld together any desired sheet metal workpieces, including those which are not uniformly rounded because, for example, they are formed from blanks incorporating recesses.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 27, 1999
    Date of Patent: September 11, 2001
    Assignee: Elpatronic AG
    Inventor: Jochen Bonsen
  • Patent number: 6227348
    Abstract: In order to separate can bodies carried by a first conveyor belt at a high speed, a second conveyor belt is taken close to the first conveyor belt and individual bodies are transferred from the first conveyor belt to the second conveyor belt. It is thus possible to separate a sequence of tin bodies into two sequences, thus facilitating further processing. The process can also be reversed to form a single sequence of bodies from two sequences.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 23, 1998
    Date of Patent: May 8, 2001
    Assignee: Elpatronic AG
    Inventors: Mathias Frei, Peter Bässler, Peter Schreiber, Peter Taiana
  • Patent number: 6215084
    Abstract: In a guide and calibrating tool for guiding container bodies for welding, at least one of the guide rollers is driven. The drive is pneumatic, by compressed air blown by a nozzle onto recesses in the roller. The roller is driven only initially upon restart of the welding machine or in the event of a break in the passage of a series of bodies, in order that no braking is caused by the arrival at the guide tool of the first (and possibly second) body. This enables the gaps between the bodies to be kept more constant even at the start of a series of bodies to be welded, and the first bodies to be welded do not suffer increased slip between the bodies and the welding electrodes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 14, 1999
    Date of Patent: April 10, 2001
    Assignee: Elpatronic AG
    Inventors: Marcel Oberholzer, Hermann Schuppisser, Urs Gehrig, Markus Weber
  • Patent number: 6176927
    Abstract: A coating apparatus with a spray head is provided for coating can bodies internally. The spray head is supplied with coating material through a feed line which passes through the seam welding machine for the container bodies. The combined spray and extraction head is also connected to a suction line which extracts excess coating material which has not been deposited on the internal walls of the container bodies, and returns it through the welding machine. In this way, the escape of coating material between the individual can bodies can largely be avoided, thus reducing contamination of equipment.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 9, 1997
    Date of Patent: January 23, 2001
    Assignee: Elpatronic AG
    Inventors: Hans-Jörg Nussbaumer, Guido Huber, Felix Walser
  • Patent number: 6127646
    Abstract: In an apparatus for connecting two workpieces together by welding, the workpieces lie on supporting surfaces and are butted together at their edges to form a butt joint. The workpieces are subjected to pressure on the side opposite to the supporting surfaces. At least one supporting surface is capable of yielding under pressure, and, in so doing, changes its position in relation to the butt joint, so as to reduce any gap between the workpieces.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 9, 1996
    Date of Patent: October 3, 2000
    Assignee: Elpatronic AG
    Inventors: Hans Aebersold, Norbert Gross, Werner Urech
  • Patent number: 6110526
    Abstract: A coating apparatus with a spray head is provided for coating can bodies internally. The spray head is supplied with coating material through a feed line which passes through the seam welding machine for the container bodies. The combined spray and extraction head is also connected to a suction line which extracts excess coating material which has not been deposited on the internal walls of the container bodies, and returns it through the welding machine. In this way, the escape of coating material between the individual can bodies can largely be avoided, thus reducing contamination of equipment.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 9, 1996
    Date of Patent: August 29, 2000
    Assignee: Elpatronic AG
    Inventors: Hans-Jorg Nussbaumer, Guido Huber, Felix Walser
  • Patent number: 6105845
    Abstract: In an apparatus for connecting two workpieces (1) together by a welded seam, the workpieces are held in a welding station between opposed tracks consisting of a plurality of members. The tracks run around guide rollers in a conveying direction. A clearance (a) between the guide rollers which come first in the conveying direction can be changed upon insertion of the workpieces between the tracks.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 2, 1997
    Date of Patent: August 22, 2000
    Assignee: Elpatronic AG
    Inventors: Hans Aebersold, Norbert Gross, Werner Urech
  • Patent number: 6098869
    Abstract: To weld a workpiece rounded from plane metal sheet on a seam welding machine, the workpiece is introduced into a preform (7) whose internal shape is approximately the same as the workpiece. Stops (11, 12, 14) are used to fix the workpiece in place in the preform, and the workpiece is then moved together with the preform (7) towards the welding rollers and welded. To this end the preform (7) is arranged on a platform (6) which in its turn is arranged on a movable carriage (3) in the welding machine (1). Welding with the preform makes it possible to weld together any desired sheet metal workpieces, including those which are not uniformly rounded because, for example, they are formed from blanks incorporating recesses.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 9, 1997
    Date of Patent: August 8, 2000
    Assignee: Elpatronic AG
    Inventor: Jochen Bonsen
  • Patent number: 6070786
    Abstract: To form a body, a preform is produced by welding together two essentially flat sheet-metal blanks at their margins. This preform is then deformed in a mold by internal high-pressure forming to produce the desired body. In this way, complex metal bodies can easily be formed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 15, 1999
    Date of Patent: June 6, 2000
    Assignee: Elpatronic AG
    Inventors: Markus Meier, Beat Stump, Werner Urech