GB2096516A - Pipe cutter combined with a holder for a screw threaded coupling - Google Patents

Abstract

A pipe coupling holding chuck or holder 5 adapted to hold a screw threaded coupling such as socket, elbow or the like is provided on the pipecutter 4a of a screw thread cutting machine comprising a thread cutting mechanism and a pipe cutter 4a for cutting off lengths of the pipe. The machine screws a coupling on to the pipe after pipe cutting-off and screw thread cutting operations. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Pipe cutter for use in a screw thread cutting machine This invention relates to a pipe cutter for use in a screw thread cutting machine for cutting screw threads on or in a pipe.

According to this invention, such a pipe cutter comprises a frame member having a guide rail extending along an inside edge thereof, a screw threaded shaft extending through one end of the frame member in the longitudinal direction of the frame member in screw threaded engagement with the frame member and having an operating handle at one end, a movable member which is mounted at the other end of the shaft and is slidable along the guide rail by rotation of the shaft by means of the handle, a cutter mechanism provided between one end of the movable member and the other end portion of the frame member opposing the one end of the movable member, the cutter mechanism having a rotary cutter blade for cutting off a pipe and a chuck or holder for holding a pipe coupling, the chuck or holder including a chuck pawl, the position of a gripping tip of the chuck pawl being adjustable relative to the position of the cutting edge of the rotary cutter blade.

Preferably the chuck pawl of the chuck or holder is pivoted in a recess at the one end of the movable member so that the orientation of a gripping tip of the chuck pawl is variable to provide the adjustability.

Some examples of machines in accordance with the invention are illustrated in the accompanying drawings in which: Figure 1 is a side elevational view of a first example with a portion thereof cut away; Figure 2 is a front elevational view of the first example with a portion thereof cut away; Figure 3 is a front elevational view of part of a second example; Figure 4 is a fragmentary front elevational view of a die head with a chuck mechanism in a third example; Figure 5 is a view similar to Figure 3, but showing a fourth example; Figure 6 is a fragmentary front elevational view to a larger scale of a portion of the fourth example; Figure 7 is a view similar to Figure 1, but showing a fifth example; and, Figure 8 is a front elevational view of the fifth example with a portion thereof cut away.

The present invention will be now described referring to the accompanying drawings and more particularly, to Figures 1 and 2 of the drawings in which the first embodiment of thread cutting machine for pipes of the invention is shown. In Figures 1 and 2, reference numeral 1 denotes the base of the thread cutting machine for pipes and a drive mechanism 3 with pipe holding chucks 2, 2 is mounted on a rearward portion of the machine base 1 whereas a cutter mechanism 4for cutting threads on a pipe and chuck mechanism 5 for holding a threaded coupling such as a socket or the like, for example, which is adapted to be screwed into or onto the threads formed on the pipe are mounted on a forward portion of the machine base 1.Reference numeral 6 denotes a reciprocal slide which is guided along a pair of longitudinally extending parallel guide rods 7,7' for slidable movement toward and away from the drive mechanism 3 and a feed handle 8 is mounted on the reciprocal slide 6. Secured to one or the inner end of the shaft of the feed handle 8 is a pinion 9 which meshes with a rack 10 formed on one of the guide rods 7.Three hinges 1 la, 1 1 b, 1 Ic are provided on the reciprocal slide 6 in a selected longitudinally spaced relationship along one side edge of the slide 6 and the corresponding number of receiving members 12a, 12b, 12c are also provided along the other side edge of the reciprocal slide 6 in the above-mentioned selected longitudinally spaced relationship to make pairs in cooperation with the corresponding opposed hinges Ila, Ilb, Ilc, respectively. The rearmost hinges 11a swivelably supports the one end portion 13a of the substantially C-shaped frame member 13 of the chuck mechanism 5.Namely, the portion 13a oftheframe member 13 is secured to a connector 23a which is in turn pivoted to the rearmost hinge 11 The connector 23a also the position of the frame member 13 to be adjusted in the direction of the frame axis. The frame member 13 has at the inside of the portion 13a a pawl 14a exchangeably attached thereto. The frame member 13 also includes an inside guide rail 15 extending in the longitudinal direction thereof and a pawl holder or movable member 18 is slidably mounted on the guide rail. The movable member 18 has at the inside thereof a pawl 17a exchangeably attached thereto and is attached to the one end of a threaded shaft 16a of a handle 16 so that as the handle 16 is turned in one or the other direction, the pawl 17a moves toward or away from the pawl 14a.Thus, the entire chuck mechanism 5 is swingable between a substantially upright position (Figure 2) and a substantially horizontal position and is also adjustable so that the position of the pawl 14a is adjusted to compensate for variation in the diameter of a pipe to be processed.

As in the attachment of the frame member 13 to hinge 11 a, the intermediate hinge 11 b supports the one end poriton of a substantially C-shaped frame member 13' of a pipe cutter 4a, which forms a part of the cutter mechanism 4, through a connector 23b.

The frame member 13' is substantially similar to the frame member 13 of the chuck mechanism 5. The frame member 13' has at the inside of the one end portion thereof a pair of rollers 19,19 rotatably journalled thereat. A movable member 18' is slidably mounted on a frame rail 15' and is attached to the inner end of a threaded shaft 16a' which is suitably journalled at the other portion of the frame member 13'. A conventional rotary cutter blade 20 is supported by the movable member 18' at the inner end thereof.A handle 16' is attached at the outer end of the shaft 16a' so that as the handle 16' is turned in one or the other direction, the rotary cutter blade 20 supported by the movable member 18' moves toward or away from the rollers 19, 19. Thus, as in the case of the chuck mechanism 5, the entire pipe cutter 4a is swingable between a substantially upright position and a substantially horizontal position (Figure 2) and is also adjustable so that the position of the rollers 19,19 is adjusted to compensate for variation in the diameter of a pipe to be processed.

The leading hinge 11 c swivelably supports the one end portion of a conventional die head 4b so that it is movable between a substantially vertical position and a substantially horizontal position (Figure 2).

The construction of the die head 4b is conventional, so it will be unnecessary to explain it.

The above-mentioned receiving members 12a, 12b and 12e support free end of the frame member 13 of the chuck mechanism 5, free end of the frame member 13' of the pipe cutter 4a and free end of the die head respectively when they are in their horizontal positions and thereby ensure alignment of each center of the chuck mechanism 5, pipe cutter 4a and die head 4b with a pipe to processed.

The operation of the first embodiment of thread cutting machine as described hereinabove and illustrated in Figures 1 and 2 will now be described referring to Figures 1 and 2. First of all, the chuck mechanism 5 and the die head 4b of the cutter mechanism 4 are set in their substantially upright position and only the pipe cutter 4a of the cutter mechanism 4 is rotated about the hinge 11 b to a predetermined substantially horizontal position.

Thereafter, the pipe holding chucks 2, 2 are caused to hold a pipe of an indefinite length to be processed in position and the drive mechanism 3 is then driven and at the same time, the handle 16' is turned to advance the rotary cutter blade 20 of the pipe cutter 4a to cut a pipe section of a predetermined length.

Thereafter, the pipe cutter 4a is pivoted to a substan tially upright position and a reamer (not shown) chamfers one end of the pipe section as the case may be. After the chamferring operation, the die head 4b is moved from the upright position to a predetermined substantially horizontal position ab out the hinge 11 c and then axially moved to cause the cutter blades 22 to perform a predetermined or desired thread cutting operation on the pipe section.

The above-mentioned operation steps to be per formed by the thread cutting machine of the inven tion are substantially identical with those to be performed by any conventional thread cutting machine. However, according to the present inven tion, after threads have been formed at the ends and/or in another predetermined portion of the pipe section, instead of the die head 4b being pulled away from the pipe section and being rotated to the upright position, a threaded coupling such as a socket or elbow adapted to be screwed into or onto the threads on the pipe section is held between the pawls 14a and 17a on the chuck mechanism 5 and the die head is rotated to a predetermined substan tially horizontal position about the hinge 11 c.There after, when the drive mechanism 3 is driven to cause the threads on the pipe section to threadably engage with the threads on the coupling while the pipe section is being held by the chucks 2,2 the coupling is connected to the pipe section. Therefore, the coupling can be threaded on the pipe section during a series of operation steps following the thread cutting operation on the pipe section. Thus, the connection of the coupling with the pipe section can be simply and positively performed without requiring any separate manual work as was conventionally necessary in the field and thus, the efficiency of the series of operation steps can be substantially improved.

Referring now to Figure 3 of the accompanying drawings in which the second embodiment of thread cutting machine for pipes of the invention is fragmentarily shown, the second embodiment is basically identical with the first embodiment with respect to the construction and arrangement of the components except for the point that the chuck mechanism 5 is provided on the pipe cutter 4a which forms a portion of the cutter mechanism 4 mounted on the reciprocal slide 6. More particularly, in the second embodiment of thread cutting mechanism, frame member used exclusively for the chuck mechanism 5 is not provided and instead the frame member 13' is commonly employed for both the pipe cutter 4a and chuck mechanism 5. The movable member 18' slidably mounted on the guide rail 15' of the frame member 13' has a support 24 mounted thereon.The support 24 is provided at the leading end thereof with a pawl 17b and slidably along the movable member 18' in the direction of the guide rail 15'. The support 24 has a pin 25 which is adapted to be manually and selectively inserted into one or the other of two holes 26,27 in the movable member 18'. By inserting the pin 25 into either the hole 26 or 27, the pawl 17b can be held in a desired projecting or retracted position. One or the left-hand end portion of frame member 13' has a support 28 which is provided at one end or the inner end with a pawl 14b and is slidable along the one end portion ofthe frame member 13' in the direction of the guide rail 15'.The support 28 further has a pin 29 which is adapted to be manually and selectively inserted into either one of two holes 30,31 in the abovementioned one end portion of the frame member 13' so that the pawl 14b can be adjusted in its projected or retracted position. These pawls 14b, 17b form the chuck mechanism 5. When the chuck mechanism 5 with the above construction is operated, the pawls 14b, 17b are positioned somewhat forwardly of the rollers 19, 19 and cutter blade 20 and on the other hand, when the pipe cutter 4a is operated, the powls 14b, 17b are moved to a position rearwardly of the rollers 19, 19 and cutter blade 20.

Figure 4 of the accompanying drawings shows the fourth embodiment of thread cutting mechanism of the invention and the embodiment is basically identical with the first embodiment with respect to the construction and arrangement of the components except for the point that the chuck mechanism 5 is provided on the die head 4b which forms a part of the cutter mechanism 4 mounted on the reciprocal slide 6. More particularly, in the third embodiment, frame member used exclusively for the chuck mechanism 5 is not provided and instead the main body 21 of the die head 4b has two pawls 14c, 17c mounted thereon for advancement and retraction movement in addition to four cutter blades 22.When the die head 4b is operated, the four cutter blades 22 are positiond somewhat forwardly of the pawls 14c, 17c and on the other hand, when the chuck mechanism 5 is operated, the cutter blades 22 are positioned somewhat rearwardly of the pawls 14c, 17c.

The advancement and retraction movements of the pawls 14c, 17c are effected by turning the knobs 32, 33 secured to the outer ends of male-threaded rods 34 (only one of the threaded rods is shown in Figure 4) in threaded engagement with the femalethreaded interiors of the main bodies of the pawls and keyed to the pawl main bodies.

Incidentally, the position of the chuck mechanism 5 is not limited to that shown in the embodiments of the above in any way, but the chuck mechanism 5 may be mounted on a reamer. It is generally followed that the drive mechanism 3 with the chucks 2,2 is secured to a rearward portion of the machine base and the cutter mechanism 4 is mounted on the reciprocal slide 6.Even in such a case, if the chuck mechanism used exclusivelyforthe reciprocal slide 6 is not provided, but when the chuck mechanism is provided on the pipe cutter 4a forming a part of the cutter mechanism 4 or the die head 4b as shwon in the embodiment of Figure 3 or 4, since it is only necessary to replace only the pipe cutter or die head in any conventional thread cutting machine for pipes by the counterparts as shown in Figures 3 or 4 without requiring any separate frame member for the cutter machanism, a light weight thread cutting machine can be made with less expense.

Now referring to Figures 5 and 6 which show the fourth embodiment of thread cutting machine for pipes of the present invention, in this embodiment, the movable member 18' is formed on the inner or front end with a recess 35 and a chuck pawl 40 is received in and pivoted to the recess 35 by means of a pin 37. The chuck pawl 40 comprises a main body 37 having two angular pawl portions 36 at the leading end and a substantially circular bifurcated mounting portion 39 having a notch 38 at the base end. The chuck pawl 40 is adjustable so as to vary the orientation of the pawl portions 36. The one or left end portion of the frame member 13' opposing the chuck pawl 40 is provided with rollers 19, 19 which cooperate with the chuck pawl 40 to form the chuck mechanism 5.Furthermore, the cutter blade 20 is interposed between the mounting bifurcations 39, 39 of the chuck pawl and is pivoted to the recessed end of the movable member 18'. When the chuck pawl 40 is so positioned that the tips of the pawl portions 36 protrude forwardly of the recessed end of the movable member 18' (the solid line position), the tips of the pawl portions 36 are positioned forwardly of the blade edge of the cutter blade 20. However, when the pawl portions 36 are pivoted to the upright position as shown by the phantom line in Figure 6, the blade edge of the cutter blade 20 is positioned forwardly of the tips of the pawl portions 36.When the pawl portions 36 are in the latter position, the rotary cutter blade 20 at the end of the movable member 18' and the rollers 19, 19 at the opposed end oftheframe member 13' form a part of the pipe cutter mechanism 5. In Figures 5 and 6, reference numeral 23b denotes a connector for securing the frame member 13' to the hinges 11 b, reference numeral 41 denotes stop ball receiving holes provided in the chuck pawl 40 to secure the chuck pawl 40 to the mounting plates 42,42 on the movable member 18', and reference numeral 43 denotes a stop ball provided in the mounting plates 42 and selectively urged into one or the other of the holes 41 under the force of a spring (not shown).

With the above-mentioned construction and arrangement of the components of the fourth embodiment of the thread cutting machine, when the cutter mechanism is operated, the tips of the pawl portions 36 on the chuck pawl are positioned rearwardly of the blade edge of the rotary cutter blade 20 and the rotary cutter blade 20 and the rollers 19, 19 at the left end portion of the frame member 13' are employed. On the other hand, when the chuck mechanism is operated, the tips of the pawl portions 36 on the chuck pawl 40 are positioned forwardly of the blade edge of the cutter blade 20 and the operation handle 16' is turned so as to cause the chuck mechanism comprising the chuck pawl 40 and rollers 19, to hold a threaded coupling such as a socket or elbow adapted to be screwed onto or into the threads on a pipe.

Figures 7 and 8 show the fifth embodiment of thread cutting machine for pipes of the present invention. And in this embodiment, instead of the chuck mechanism 5 mounted on the reciprocal slide 6 being hinged to the reciprocal slide 6, the chuck mechanism is opened and closed on the slide 6. To put it more precisely, the chuck mechanism 5 includes a threaded rod 44 rotatably mounted on the reciprocal slide 6 and the rod 44 is provided with the opposite-hand threads 45, 46 for threaded engagement with chuck bodies 47, 47. Guide rods 48, 48 extend through the chuck bodies 47,47 and when the handle 49 secured to one end of the threaded rod 44 is turned in one or the other direction, the chuck bodies 47,47 are caused to move toward or away from each other to thereby adjust the distance between the chuck pawls 50, 50 mounted on the chuck bodies 47, 47, With the above-mentioned construction and arrangement of the components of the fifth embodiment oas described above and illustrated in Figures 7 and 8, while the pipe having the threaded end or ends is being held by the chucks 2, 2 in the rearward portion of the machine base 1 and the threaded piping coupling such as a socket andelbow is being held by the threaded coupling holding chuck mechanism 5 in the forward portion of the machine base 1, when the drive mechanism 3 is driven, since the pipe is rotated by the rotating chucks 2, 2, but the threaded coupling is held against rotation by the chuuck mechanism 5, the threaded coupling is instantly screwed onto or into the adjacent threaded end ofthethreaded pipe. After the connection of the coupling with the threaded pipe, it is only necessary to terminate the operation of the drive mechanism 3 and release the threaded coupling from the chuck mechanism and release the threaded pipe from the chucks 2, 2.

As clear from the goregoing description in connection with several preferred embodiments of the invention, according to the present invention, there has been provided the thread cutting machines for pipes wherein the threaded-connection between a pipe and a coupling can be easily and positively performed following the inherent cutting operations such as the pipe cutting-off and thread cutting operations and thus, the present invention contributes greatly to the art.

While several embodiments of the invention have been shown and described in detail, it will be understood that the same are for illustration purpose only and not to be taken as a definition of the invention, reference being had for the purpose to the appended claims.

Claims (5)

1. A pipe cutter for use in a screw thread cutting machine for cutting screw threads on or in a pipe, the pipe cutter comprising a frame member having a guide rail extending along an inside edge thereof, a screw threaded shaft extending through one end of the frame member in the longitudinal direction of the frame member in screw threaded engagement with the frame member and having an operating handle at one end, a movable member which is mounted at the other end of the shaft and is slidable along the guide rail by rotation of the shaft by means of the handle, a cutter mechanism provided between one end of the movable member and the other end portion of the frame member opposing the one end of the movable member, the cutter mechanism having a rotary cutter blade for cutting off a pipe and a chuck or holder for holding a pipe coupling, the chuck or holder including a chuck pawl, the position of a gripping tip of the chuck pawl being adjustable relative to the position of the cutting edge of the rotary cutter blade.

2. A pipe cutter according to claim 1, in which the chuck pawl of the chuck or holder is pivoted in a recess at the one end of the movable member so that the orientation of a gripping tip of the chuck pawl is variable to provide the adjustability.

3. A pipe cutter according to claim 2, in which the chuck or holder comprises the chuck pawl at the one end of the movable member and rollers at said other end portion of the frame member opposing the chuck pawl.

4. A pipe cutter according to claim 1 or claim 2, in which the cutter mechanism comprises the rotary cutter blade at the one end of the movable member and the rollers at the other end portion of the frame member opposing the rotary cutter blade.

5. A pipe cutter according to claim 1, in which the chuck or holder comprises a first chuck pawl at the one end of the movable member, for adjustment in the back and forth direction and a second chuck pawl at said the other end portion of the frame member opposing the first chuck pawl for adjustment in the back and forth direction.