Abstract: A fluid coupling apparatus for communicating fluid between a fluid hose and a heat exchanger wherein the fluid coupling apparatus minimizes or eliminates the spacing required or necessitated from the bending of a fluid hose. The present invention provides a hollow substantially cylindrical first portion defining a first passageway communicatable with a fluid hose, and a hollow substantially rectangular second portion integrally extending from said first portion. The second portion of the present invention has at least one substantially flat surface wherein an aperture extends through the flat surface of the second portion to provide a second passageway in communication with the first passageway and in communication with the heat exchanger. The second portion has an annular raised shoulder or lip which further defines the aperture and which is utilized to connect the fluid coupling apparatus to the heat exchanger.

Abstract: A method for manufacturing a fluid coupling apparatus for communicating fluid between a fluid hose and a heat exchanger. The present invention provides an inexpensive method for producing an integral fluid coupling apparatus that minimizes and eliminates the spacing and clearance required of bending tubular fluid lines and conduits. The method of the present invention utilizes a seamless welded tubing and compresses a portion of the tubing into a hollow rectangular configuration. During the pressing operation, a sphere is inserted into the tubing and aligned with an aperture previously formed in a wall of the tubing. When the tubing is compressed, the sphere is forced through the aperture provided in the tubing, and a raised lip or shoulder is extruded from the portion of the tubing defined in the aperture. A raised lip or shoulder is formed from the extrusion, and the raised lip is inserted through an aperture provided in a wall of the heat exchanger and rolled onto the wall of the heat exchanger.

Abstract: A die apparatus operable to form or to clamp a tube with an upset annular flange includes a pair of opposed die members mounted for horizontal movement toward and away from each other at opposite sides of a fixed path along which the tube is axially fed when the die is opened. The die members are spring biassed to their open position and driven to their closed position by a vertically reciprocable die actuator having inclined surfaces slidably engaged with the outer surfaces of the die members to wedge the die members to their closed position.

Abstract: A T-fitting is formed from two precut lengths of tubing of the same, relatively small, inner and outer diameter. One length of tubing is formed with a reduced diameter neck section at one end whose outer diameter is approximately equal to its normal undeformed inner diameter. The second length of tubing is placed in a clamp which is advanced to successive work stations where a sidewall is punched and then drilled through to form a radial hole in one side of a diameter substantially equal to the inner diameter of the tubing. At a subsequent work station, the neck section of the first length of tubing is driven into a force fit into the drilled hole in second length of tubing. The assembled tubing is then removed from the clamp, brazed into a permanent T-tube assembly. The portion of the neck section which projects into the passage of the second length of tubing is then trimmed off by a drilling or reaming operation.

Abstract: Tube forming apparatus for forming a tubular part having an enlarged diameter end section at one end with an adjacent short radius bend is disclosed. A straight length of tubing is magnetically positioned between die members and fixedly clamped with opposite ends of the tube projecting from opposite ends of the die. One end of the clamped tube is then enlarged to form the enlarged end section. A magnetic transfer device is engage with the other end of the clamped tubing and, with the die opened, the tube is transferred to a second position between the die members which are closed to clamp the enlarged end section only with the remainder of the tubing projecting from the die. A tightly fitting plug member is seated in the interior of the clamped end section and a bending member the bends the projecting end of the tubing against an anvil formed on one of the die members.

Abstract: Apparatus for feeding, locating and ejecting tubular workpieces to and from a horizontal recess in a vertical die face wherein the workpiece projects beyond the opposite sides of the die includes a horizontally reciprocable feed means mounted for reciprocatory movement between a forward and rearward movement relative to the fixed die. The feed means includes a horizontal pusher plate which upon movement from its rearward end to its forward end limit pushes a horizontally disposed workpiece forwardly across the top of the die and over the front edge of the die. Horizontal locator bars stop the falling workpiece in front of the recess and fingers carried on spaced side plates of the feed means guide the workpiece downwardly along the die face. Upon rearward movement of the feed means from its forward end limit, the fingers pivot against biassing means to ride upwardly over the workpiece which at this time is clamped in the recess by a movable die.

Abstract: A stock pusher for a bar feed apparatus includes an improved bar gripping collet in which the bar gripping force applied by the collet may be easily adjusted in the field.

Abstract: Uniform lengths of accurately straight metal tubing are produced from a tubing supply in the form of a multilayer helically wound coil of tubing by passing tubing from the coil through a first straightening device to approximately straighten the tubing, successively severing uniform lengths of the approximately straightened tubing from tubing discharged from the first straightening device, and throwing the severed length of tubing axially through a guide tube of a length greater than that of the severed length of tubing into the inlet of a second straightening device operable to perform a final precise straightening of the severed length of tubing.