WO2003078921A2

WO2003078921A2 - Device for controlling the geometry of a shaped profile section

Info

Publication number: WO2003078921A2
Application number: PCT/FR2003/000814
Authority: WO
Inventors: Philippe Jaubert
Original assignee: Jaubjaub Consulting
Priority date: 2002-03-15
Filing date: 2003-03-13
Publication date: 2003-09-25
Also published as: FR2837277A1; FR2837277B1; WO2003078921A3

Abstract

The invention relates to a gauge for controlling the form of shaped sections which are long, curved and/or shaped, such as wires or tubes having straight parts and curved parts. Said gauge comprises a base (4) and brackets (12) such that the base is comprised of a plate (4) known as a support plate wherein notches (8,9) are made, extending according to lines parallel to the orthogonal projections of each straight part of the profiled section between two folds thereof, and each bracket (12) consists of a plate which is folded according to conventional means in such a way that it has at least two wings (17,18) which are substantially perpendicular and which are adapted in such a way that each of them can rest upon the base (4): a first planar wing (17) known as the base of the bracket is extended by at least one peg (22,23) which is adapted in order to be adjustable and be inserted in a notch (8,9) of the support plate (4), and a second planar wing (18) which is known as a bracket reinforcement. Each bracket reinforcement (18) is extended by at least one positioning pin (24) whose shape is adapted in such a way that it can be accommodated in a notch (10) in the support plate (4), and each bracket (12) is fitted with at least one tube guiding device (31) in the upper part thereof.

Description

DEVICE FOR MONITORING THE GEOMETRY OF A SHAPED PROFILE

The invention relates to a device for controlling the geometry of formed sections, and in particular of curved pipes.

In many industries, especially in the automotive and aeronautical industry, many profiles or pipes are bent or bent and equipped with accessories to generally transport fluids or serve as various supports.

In the automobile industry in particular, manufacturers are required to continue, for after-sales service in particular, the production of pipes or profiles for the ten years following the end of mass production of the machines using these pipes or profiles.

However, the number of pipes on a motor vehicle is very large, of the order of fifty different pipes for a modern vehicle. In addition, any variant on a vehicle generally causes modifications to the geometric shape of the pipes and therefore increases the number of shapes of these pipes.

These pipes and profiles: are cut to length, - are optionally fitted with various components such as nuts, fixing lugs, skirts etc., possibly receive deformations at the ends, and are bent or folded in space according to dimensional characteristics accurate. At the end of the production of these profiles or pipes, a geometric control of the latter is carried out.

A first method, to determine if a bent profile or bent piping complies with the required geometric tolerances, consists in using a poly-articulated measuring arm specialized in the measurement of bent profiles. This method, which gives quantified measurement results, has the disadvantage of being a very long control method which also requires the acquisition of an expensive measuring device and the training of highly qualified operators.

A second method, to determine if a bent profile or bent piping conforms to the required geometric tolerances, is to use a checking template. This template is made up of a mechanical assembly representing an enlarged and partial imprint of the formed profile or of the curved piping equipped with its components and accessories. This impression is made by means of a series of marks or grooves made in this assembly. These grooves have dimensions corresponding to the section of the profile or to the diameter of the tube plus the positioning tolerance of said profile or tube. This template is also designed to allow the introduction of the tube or profile into the grooves of the template.

Such a template allows the rapid comparison of the piping to be checked with the shape and the path defined by the geometry of this template: if the insertion of the tube to be checked into the grooves of the checking template occurs naturally and without deformation of said tube , then the latter is considered to comply with the geometric requirements.

Conventionally, the current templates consist of a series of aluminum or wooden blocks fixed firmly on a thick and rigid plate, generally made of the same material as the blocks. In these blocks are also produced, often by machining, grooves or marks, sometimes added with positioning pins over all or part of the length of the path corresponding to the image of the path of the theoretical tube to be checked. These grooves generally have dimensions in width and in height equal to the diameter of the tube plus the value of the positioning tolerance of said tube at this groove.

Another embodiment of these templates consists of welding metal supports together and on a base plate. On these supports are machined or fixed, possibly by welding, parts forming parts of grooves into which the tube to be checked is introduced. Furthermore, to control the positioning of the ends of the tubes, the templates include movable "pins" mounted on blocks which are themselves fixed on the base plate. These rods are movable in translation in the direction of the first and / or the last straight part of the tube, and make it possible to verify the positioning of the ends, for example, by introducing the rod into the tube, or by screwing the nut belonging to the tube on a threaded part of the rod.

The control methods consisting in using such templates are all perfectly known and mastered by those skilled in the art, and have the advantage of allowing very rapid control of the pipes or profiles formed. On the other hand, it is necessary to store the templates for 10 years, and this because of the obligation to be able to manufacture the same pipes, and to be able to control them after the end of mass production. Consequently, because of the large number of machine models, such as aircraft and automobiles, and the large number of pipe shapes for each model of these same machines, the manufacturers of these pipes are required to have very large storage areas. bulky to store these templates, which makes this storage very expensive. Indeed, the current templates are not removable, and can not be stacked on top of each other.

In addition, the methods of manufacturing these templates are generally expensive because they are not very industrialized and generally require machining of the blocks in the mass.

In order to overcome this last drawback, US patent 6,029,333

^• describes a particular production method consisting in using a sheet in one piece positioned by tenons and mortises on a plate, and defines a method for producing the template using in particular a CAD and a plate cutting machine . If this production method actually leads to reduced production costs compared to conventional methods of manufacturing the templates, it nevertheless has a major drawback because it turns out not to guarantee the mounting accuracy of the template. Indeed, this method assumes perfect and precise bending of the sheet which is very difficult to achieve. These folds are all different for each angle, and are therefore very difficult, even impossible, to perform automatically. However, these small bending errors, inherent in the bending process, do not prevent the mounting of the sheet on the base plate but generate a deformation of said sheet, especially in its upper part which is used to control the tube, which modifies significantly defining the path of the tube to be checked. In addition, the elongation of the material in the folds generates variations in the length of the sheet metal development which can prevent correct assembly of this sheet on the base. This is all the more true with pipes that have a lot of bends with small very short straight parts like brake pipes for the rear wheels of vehicles. In this case, the sheet is immovable and the template is unfeasible. In addition, depending on the geometry of the tube, the sheet may have a generally linear shape which makes it wholly or partly deformable and not very stable on the plate, and therefore not very precise, except, possibly, to make a very rigid and final fixing. of this sheet on its base plate. Furthermore, for pipes with very complex shapes commonly encountered in the automotive industry, the sheet bending process is no longer applicable due to the conventional size of the folding tools. Thus, this method does not make it possible to respect the tolerances for all the tube configurations, is not easy to implement and does not provide solutions for easily dismantling and reassembling the template while retaining the tolerance characteristics of this latest. Finally, in the event of disassembly, the storage of this template is not easy and its non-regular geometry prevents storage free of risks of generating deformations of the folds.

Another production method, described in US Pat. No. 5,412,877 consists in producing all the components from parts cut by a laser machine. The components are assembled using a large number of tenons and mortises joined by gluing. The base, for its part, consists of a plate stiffened by reinforcements assembled by tenons and mortises.

The supports on which the tube guides are mounted are stiffened by independent reinforcements which are assembled with the base and these supports by a series of tenons and mortises.

Firstly, and with a view to imparting good rigidity to the templates, this embodiment method has the drawback of requiring the machining of a large number of parts as well as a relatively long assembly time for these parts. Thus, by way of example, for the embodiment of the template shown in FIGS. 23 to 27 of the US patent and intended for checking a tube having five bends, the base is made up of twelve pieces which in total comprise more than forty tenons and forty mortises (it should be noted, on this point, the significant cost of cutting a mortise using a laser machine, of the order of half a euro). The support of this template comprises about four independent parts per straight part of the tube to be checked (support, reinforcement, guide and reinforcement of the base), and requires machining ten tenons and ten mortises for each of these straight parts.

In addition, the concept of this template and the method of fixing by bonding tenons and mortises makes this template non-removable. A possible dismantling would, in fact, require a very long and meticulous assembly operation requiring, to avoid assembly imperfections, a control operation on a three-dimensional measuring machine. Furthermore, improper insertion of a tenon into one of the mortises and its subsequent bonding is always possible and makes the template unsuitable for the use for which it is intended. According to the concept described, there is no provision to guarantee that the different components constituting the template are pressed together, and are therefore well positioned.

This method also assumes the use of perfectly flat plates, and the absence of a plating system prohibits the use of thin plates such as aluminum less than 6 mm thick. Consequently, according to the principle described in this patent, it is impossible to produce a light and nevertheless rigid template and inexpensive in material, which only aluminum allows.

Furthermore, the template described in this US patent is equipped with a tube guide allowing visual control of the positioning accuracy of the tube on the template. This check consists in estimating the position of the tube in relation to markings made on this same guide. Thus the control of the tube consists in examining one after the other all the straight parts and in checking that the tube does not exceed any of the markings made on the tube guide. However, this control is not easy because it must be done on two levels. In addition, this control is subject to interpretation and does not guarantee the quality of the tube. It should also be noted that this marking principle prohibits the use of aluminum. Indeed, the laser marking on aluminum is very weak and even almost invisible, and therefore totally unusable according to the concept of the control process described.

In practice, and due to the aforementioned drawbacks, it turns out that the methods described in patents US 6,02933 and US 5,412,877, with reference to FIGS. 23 to 30, are hardly used in industry, particularly in the automotive and aeronautical sectors. In fact, it turns out that one of the conventional methods currently used in the automotive and aeronautical sector derives from the method illustrated in FIGS. 1 to 22 of US patent 5,412,877. Nevertheless the marking of the trajectories by a laser machine is then used only on wooden templates because, as indicated in this patent, this product carbonizes and the marking thus leaves a black mark visible in depth.

The origin of the present invention has been to note that the current templates are both heavy and difficult to handle, expensive and difficult to produce, difficult to store, and difficult to dismantle and reassemble without degrading the dimensional characteristics of the template, characteristics which define the path to be checked of the tube and whose deterioration is therefore unacceptable for a control gauge; the objective of the invention is therefore to alleviate all of these drawbacks. Another object of the invention is to provide a control template making it possible to carry out a very rapid control, not subject to any visual interpretation.

To this end, the invention relates to a template for controlling the shape of long bent and / or formed sections such as wires or tubes having straight parts and bent parts, and is characterized in that said template is composed of a base and gallows such as:

- The base consists of a plate called a support plate in which are formed notches extending in parallel to the orthogonal projections of each straight part of the profile between two folds of the latter, each bracket consists of a folded plate according to conventional means so as to present at least two substantially perpendicular wings adapted to rest each on the base: a first plane wing known as the base of the stem extended by at least one stud adapted to adjust and fit into a notch in the support plate, and a second flat wing called a stem reinforcement, each stem reinforcement is extended by at least one positioning lug of shape adapted to be housed in a notch formed in the support plate, each stem is equipped at the top at least one tube guide device.

According to the invention, each bracket therefore consists of a single piece obtained by cutting and then folding, operations which can be carried out simply and quickly, for the first by means of systems such as cutting by laser or water jet, and for second using conventional folding tools. In addition, the folding makes it possible to stiffen the bracket, including in the case where it is made from a thin sheet and / or a material of relatively low resistance. In addition, this folding has the additional effect of straightening the flatness defects of the plate from which the bracket was cut. This folding also makes it possible to give good support to the bracket on the support plate so as to respect good perpendicularity, while positioning by means of the base of the bracket results in precise positioning of this base of bracket on the plate -support of the template. It should be noted, moreover, that the perpendicularity of the base of the bracket is independent of the folding angle and only dependent on the straightness of the cutting of the bearing face and on the perpendicularity of the folding to this same face support. This principle of stem produced, according to the invention, by folding and coming to be positioned on the support plate by tenons and notches, thus makes it possible to obtain, with parts which are easy and quick to produce template structures with a minimum of parts.

According to an advantageous embodiment of the invention: - each post of the brackets has a length greater than the thickness of the support plate, adapted to protrude below said support plate, after mounting, and comprises at least one form of notch formed in its projecting part on the underside of said support plate, removable fixing means, such as in particular pin or elastic key, are adapted to be housed in the notches of the pins so as to ensure a rigid and backlashless fixing of the stem on the support plate.

According to this advantageous embodiment, the notches made in the tenons, which can have variable interior or exterior shapes, make it possible to insert fixing elements such as a pin or key, which ensure that the stem is held in position on the plate -support. These fixing elements make it possible to avoid assembly solutions by gluing or welding, and thus make the template removable. Such fastening elements can also be designed to be able to be assembled and disassembled without specific tools, which allows assembly and disassembly of the template very quickly. By authorizing rapid disassembly and reassembly with good positioning, these fixing means therefore make it possible to store the disassembled template, which represents a very significant saving in space.

Advantageously, according to the invention, the stem reinforcements have a constant width and a free edge parallel to the folding axis of said stem. Thus, the folding of all the brackets can be carried out without adjusting the folder by pressing on the edge of the wing, which leads to lowering the cost price and avoiding errors.

According to another advantageous embodiment of the invention, the guide devices fitted to the brackets have a lower groove capable of coming to cover the base of said brackets without play.

This embodiment makes it possible to precisely position the guide relative to the stem. This guide can be made from a long bar of material, machined over its entire length, then cut to length to be mounted on each base of the stem. This allows an advantageous production cost to be obtained. Another embodiment can consist in making these guide elements by cutting from a plate, which can be that used for cutting the brackets and / or the support plate, by the same cutting tool.

In addition, advantageously, each guide device has an upper groove of section adapted to accommodate the profile.

^" Such guide devices thus include a control groove into which the straight part of the tube must enter to be considered as good. Generally the groove has the dimension of the diameter of the tube to which the control tolerance has been added. the control carried out by means of the template leaves no interpretation between a good tube and a bad tube.

Each guide device can also advantageously be produced by folding and cutting the stem base and / or the stem reinforcement. The brackets can thus be produced with the integrated guide, in one piece, in particular for short straight parts. According to another advantageous embodiment, the stem consists of a plate folded so as to have a stem base and two stem reinforcements obtained by folding. This solution makes it possible to produce, in one piece, very rigid brackets with excellent geometry, in particular for straight parts of long tubes. In this case there, further and advantageously, the guide devices consist of a groove obtained by cutting in the two reinforcements. This solution makes it possible to obtain simply and economically, in a single piece, the stem and the guide

According to another advantageous characteristic of the invention, the support plate comprises at least two flanges obtained individually by one or two folds. The support plate can thus be produced from a thin plate which is stiffened, and straightened by folding. To optimize folding and allow the use of a single folding tool regardless of the length of the support plate, this plate can also be bevelled at each angle so as to leave a clearance for the passage of the folding tool.

Furthermore, advantageously, the template according to the invention comprises at least one member for controlling the axial and radial positioning of the profile to be checked, adapted to be positioned on a bracket and comprising a sliding element in the axis of the tube. The control of the tubes being sometimes very precise at the ends of the tubes, these ends are controlled axially and radially, for example by means of a "rod", possibly sliding in the axis of the profile, positioned on the last or the first bracket or on additional brackets.

In addition, advantageously, the control member comprises means for indexing the longitudinal position and the orientation of the sliding element which make it possible to verify that the length of the end of the piping is good, and to check the orientation of this end, in the case where the end of the piping has an oriented shape.

According to another advantageous embodiment of the invention, the brackets and / or the support plate, and / or the guide devices are produced by cutting an aluminum plate 3 to 10 mm thick. Such a base material allows laser cutting, while giving rigidity to the assembly, and obtaining a template of low weight.

According to another advantageous characteristic of the invention, the stem is provided with a cutout adapted to allow partial folding of the stem base, giving said stem base a bearing face on the support plate of length greater than its current width.

This embodiment makes it possible, in particular for tall and narrow brackets, to obtain a good support base and thus to have good perpendicularity with respect to the support plate.

Furthermore, advantageously, the removable fixing means consist of a wedge-shaped key which makes it possible, when it is put in place, to put the bracket in place, and to guarantee good mounting by the mere presence of said key on each post. In addition, advantageously, the wedge-shaped key has two longitudinal branches separated by a space and able to have a spring effect tending to distance said branches from one another. This spring effect makes it possible to keep the key in place in the different phases of use of the template, and to guarantee correct mounting and thus mounting accuracy. The template according to the invention as described above therefore makes it possible: to easily and economically produce a very precise control template, to dismantle and reassemble the brackets very quickly without tools, to guarantee a precise and repeatable reassembly of these same brackets on the support plate, to guarantee a rapid and repeatable assembly of the groove guides on the brackets, avoiding a check of the template after each assembly, - storage in a minimal space, a mode economic and rapid production both in material cost and in labor cost. to obtain a light and easy to handle template.

Other features and advantages of the invention will emerge from the detailed description which follows, with reference to the appended drawings which represent, by way of non-limiting examples, two preferred embodiments of jigs as well as several alternative embodiments of brackets. according to the invention. In these drawings:

FIG. 1 is a partial perspective view in exploded view of a template according to the invention, showing an element of this template (bracket and guide member) and a portion of the support plate of this template,

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a template according to the invention and of the piping able to be checked by means of said template,

FIG. 3 is a perspective view, seen from above, of this jig in its disassembled storage position,

FIG. 4 represents a plate on which a support plate and the brackets of a jig according to the invention are materialized for their cutting out,

- Figure 5 is a perspective view, from below, of this mounted template, on which are not shown the means for fixing the brackets, - Figure 6 is a perspective view of a second example of template according to invention for checking a tube fitted with nuts at each of its ends,

- Figure 7 is a perspective view, on an enlarged scale, showing a system for attaching a bracket to the support plate, - Figure 8 is a perspective view of a template bracket according to the invention particularly intended for a straight part of a short tube,

FIGS. 9a and 9b show another example of a jib crane according to the invention, shown respectively after folding and before folding, and also particularly intended for straight portions of short tubes, FIG. 10 is a perspective view of a third example of a jib crane according to the invention,

- Figure 11 is a perspective view of a fourth example of a template bracket according to the invention, - Figure 12 shows, in perspective, a template bracket according to the invention provided with a positioning member of the end of a tube to be checked,

FIG. 13 is a perspective view in exploded view of the bracket and of the positioning member of FIG. 12,

FIGS. 14 and 15 represent, seen in perspective, two exemplary embodiments of members according to the invention for fixing the brackets to the support plate,

- And Figures 16 and 17 are perspective views of two other jib cranes according to the invention.

The removable template according to the invention, two models of which are shown respectively in FIGS. 1 to 5, and in FIG. 6, is intended for checking the geometry of formed profiles and in particular of curved pipes, and has the particularity, besides its character removable, to be made up of a reduced number of basic elements with low production costs.

This control template conventionally consists of a superstructure defining an imprint of the profile to be checked, secured to a support base.

According to the invention, this control template comprises a superstructure composed of a plurality of unit elements or brackets, and a support base obtained by cutting from an aluminum plate 1 shown in FIG. 4, of a thickness of the order from 3 to 10mm, on which are drawn the deployed shapes of the support base and the brackets.

The cutting plane shown in Figure 4 is intended for the realization of a template shown in Figures 1, 2, 3, 5, for the control of a tube T shown in Figure 2 comprising six straight sections connected by parts curved, and similar, for comparison, to the tube to be checked represented in FIG. 23 of the patent

US-5,412,877.

(For simplification purposes, the template is described below in its normal position of use for checking the geometry of a profile, the support plate extending horizontally, and the brackets extending perpendicularly by relative to this support plate, that is to say vertically. Consequently, the terms vertical, horizontal,, upper, lower ... are used in reference to such positioning).

Firstly, this template comprises a support plate 2 having, in its deployed state shown in FIG. 4, the shape of a rectangle whose four vertices are truncated and form flats such as 2a. In addition, two transverse slots 3 are cut in this support plate 2, each near one of the longitudinal ends of said support plate.

The rectangular “truncated” shape of this support plate 2 is designed, as shown in FIGS. 2, 3, 5, so as to produce by double folding of each of the longitudinal and transverse edges of the latter, a support plate 2 comprising a flat horizontal surface 4 for supporting the superstructure of the template, delimited by two longitudinal edges such as 5 and two transverse edges such as 6 of L-shaped section, separated, two by two, at each angle of the surface of support 4, by a notch 7 in the form of an inverted N. In addition, the double folding of the transverse edges and the position of the lights 3 are adapted so that these lights 3 are positioned in the vertical wing of the transverse edges 6, so as to form handles for handling the template.

This design makes it possible to produce, from a plate 1 of lesser thickness, a rigid support plate 2 having a perfectly flat working surface 4 thanks to the stiffening and straightening obtained by folding. In addition, the initial “truncated” rectangular shape makes it possible to fold using a single folding tool whatever the length of the support plate 2, because it provides a clearance for the passage of this tool. folding. In this support plate 2, are further cut mortises consisting of through holes of rectangular support section, intended for positioning and fixing the brackets. These mortises are arranged as a function of the configuration of the tube T to be checked, and comprise, for each straight section of said tube and as shown in FIG. 1: - two mortises 8, 9 arranged so as to extend along a horizontal parallel (xi) to the orthogonal projection of said straight section, each respectively at one of the end portions of this straight section,

a mortise 10 extending along an axis (yi) perpendicular to the axis (xi) and intersecting with the latter in the vicinity of one of the first two mortises 9. Secondly, as mentioned above, the template according to the invention comprises a superstructure composed of individual brackets in number equal to the number of rectilinear sections of the profile to be checked, and therefore, in the example shown in Figures 2 to 4 in which the template is for checking the T tube, made up of six brackets 11-16.

Each of these brackets 11-16, traced on the plate 1, is initially cut from this plate 1 and then folded using a traditional folding tool so as to form a square with unequal vertical wings, called the base of the bracket 17, and bracket reinforcement 18, provided with a straight lower edge 19 forming the bearing surface of the bracket on the support plate 2. In addition, on the one hand, the width of all the reinforcements 18 of these brackets 11-16 is identical, and on the other hand, these reinforcements 18 have a free edge parallel to the folding axis, so that the folding of all the brackets 11 - 16 is carried out without requiring adjustment of the folder, by leaning on the free edge of the reinforcement 18. According to the embodiment shown in Figures 1 to 5, each bracket has in its deployed flat shape shown in Figure 4, a reinforcement 18 of rectangular shape, and a stem base 17 of trapezoidal shape rectangle with two sides vertical parallels including a large side 17a, of length greater than the height of the reinforcement 18, extending substantially along the folding axis, and a rectilinear upper side 17b inclined at an angle identical to that formed by the horizontal plane of the support plate 2 with the longitudinal axis of the straight section of the tube T intended to cooperate with the bracket.

In addition, two folding primers 20, 21 are provided in each bracket 11-16, one formed from a vertical slot 21 formed from the lower edge 19 along the folding axis, and the other formed from a horizontal slot 20 formed in the base of the bracket 17 in the extension of the upper edge of the bracket reinforcement 18.

Each bracket 11-16 finally comprises three studs 22, 23, 24 in one piece with said bracket, and formed during the cutting of the latter. These tenons 22-24 extend in the extension of the lower edge 19 of the brackets 11-16 and are distributed so as to be positioned: - for two of them 22, 23, in the lower extension of the base of the bracket 17, each respectively in the vicinity of one of the ends of this stem base 17, so as to be housed in two mortises 8, 9 aligned along an axis x (i), - And for the third 24, substantially mid-length of the reinforcement 18 so as to be housed in a mortise formed along an axis y (i)

In addition, these pins 22-24 have a length greater than the thickness of the support plate 2, so as to have a lower section projecting under the underside of said support plate, as shown in Figures 5 and 7 .

The lower section of the tenons 22-23 is also pierced with a lateral notch 25 for the introduction of a removable fixing element for blocking without clearance of the bracket 11-16 on the support plate 2.

According to a first embodiment shown in FIGS. 7 and 15, this fastening element consists of an elastic wedge-shaped wedge 26 produced for example by cutting from a plate, comprising two longitudinal branches 27, 28 separated by a longitudinal space 29, and capable of having a spring effect tending to distance said branches from one another.

According to an alternative embodiment shown in Figure 14, this fastening element may also consist of an elastic key 30 made of a metal wire bent at an angle greater than 180 ° so as to have an overall wedge shape.

Each bracket 11-16 is also equipped with guide members having a control groove into which the straight section of the tube T dedicated to this bracket must enter.

According to the embodiment shown in Figures 1 to 5, these guide members are made from a long bar of material machined over its entire length so as to have an H-shaped section, then cut into sections 31 of lengths adapted to be mounted on the stem bases 17. The section of this machined bar and therefore of each section 31 is, moreover, adapted so that the latter have:

a longitudinal lower groove 32 of dimensions adapted to come to cap without play the upper edge 17b of the stem bases 17,

- And a longitudinal upper groove 33 of dimensions adapted to accommodate the tube T with a control tolerance.

In addition, in order to ensure correct positioning of each guide member 31 and to avoid any longitudinal displacement of the latter, each stem base 17 has two stop pins such as 34 projecting from the edge upper 17b of the stem base 17, each at one of the longitudinal ends of this upper edge 17b.

The control template described above therefore constitutes a removable template by simple removal of the keys 26 or 30, and composed of a support plate 2 and of brackets 11-16 obtained by cutting from the same plate 1 then by folding which allow in particular to stiffen these elements and straighten any flatness defects of the plate 1.

Allied to the positioning and fixing system of the jib cranes 11-

16 on the support plate 2, which consists of assemblies of the tenon type 22-24 (formed during the cutting of the brackets l l-16) / mortises 8-10, this design makes it possible to obtain a light gauge, of low cost price, can be dismantled and reassembled easily in a repeatable manner.

In addition, in its disassembled position shown in Figure 3, this template has a minimum footprint because the various disassembled components (brackets 11-16, guide members 31 and keys 26 (or 30)) can be stored in the inside of the support plate 2 turned over so as to form a storage box.

The second template model according to the invention shown by way of example in FIG. 6 is adapted to allow the control of a Tl tube similar to the T tube, but each end of which is fitted with a nut such as 35. This gauge is therefore similar in its entirety (support plate 2, brackets 11; 16, tenons 22-24 / mortises 8-10) to that described above, but includes, in addition, two indexers 40 each positioned on the base of bracket 17 of a bracket 11-16 at the end of the jig's superstructure, and intended for checking the ends of the tube Tl.

As shown in detail in FIGS. 12 and 13, each of these indexers 40 consists of a rectangular parallelepiped block 41 pierced longitudinally with a bore 42 into which opens a tapped radial orifice 43 formed from the upper face of said block.

This block 41 has, moreover, a longitudinal groove 44 formed in the underside of said block, and of dimensions suitable for covering without play the upper edge 17b of the base of the bracket 17.

The indexer 40 further comprises an axis 45 of dimensions adapted to slide in the bore 42 of the block 41, on which are respectively provided a longitudinal groove 46 and an annular groove 47, capable of housing, after assembly, a pin 48 introduced into the radial orifice 43, and intended to allow limit the longitudinal displacements of the axis 45 and index this axis 45 in rotation when checking the end of the tube.

The template shown in Figures 6, 12 and 13, further comprises guide members of the tube Tl which differ from the guide members 31 described above.

In fact, according to this embodiment, the guide members consist for each bracket 11-16, of trestles such as 36 (in the example two in number per bracket 11-16) produced by cutting from the plate 1, so as to have the shape of an H capable of covering without play the upper edge 17b of the base of the bracket 17 and to present an upper notch 37 of dimensions adapted to accommodate, with a control tolerance, the tube Tl.

Figures 8, 9a, 9b, 10, 11, 16 and 17 show various variants of brackets produced according to the concept of the invention, that is to say obtained by cutting from a plate 1 and then folding so as to present a stem base 17 and reinforcement 18.

Thus, Figure 8 shows a bracket 50 particularly dedicated to straight sections of tube T (or Tl) of short length, provided with a specific guide member 51 obtained by cutting from a plate. This guide member 51 consists of a piece of perpendicular shape provided with an upper notch 52 for controlling the tube and a lower notch 53 for mounting on the base of the bracket 17, arranged symmetrically on either side of the transverse axis of symmetry of said guide member. Such a guide member 50 therefore has an axis for guiding the tube to be checked offset relative to the base of the stem 17.

FIGS. 9a and 9b represent a bracket 55, shown after folding (FIG. 9a) and before folding in its deployed state (FIG. 9b), having first of all an oblique cut made in the upper part of the bracket base 17, and delimiting an oblique wing 56 whose free longitudinal edge parallel to the cut is extended by two fins perpendicular to said edge so as to form with the latter a housing 57 in the shape of a U. This bracket 55 is therefore designed, after folding of the wing 56, in order to present a guide member 57 inclined with respect to the support plate 2 at an angle as a function of the inclination with respect to a horizontal plane of the straight section of the tube T coming to be housed in this guide member 57.

This bracket 55 has, in addition, a folding primer 58 of specific shape formed in the lower part of said bracket. This folding leader consists of a Z-shaped cutout 58 with perpendicular wings provided with a first vertical branch formed from the lower edge 19 of the stem reinforcement 18 and connected by a horizontal branch to a second vertical wing extending along the axis of folding.

As shown in FIG. 9a, this specific cutout 58 makes it possible to produce a stem 55 whose stem base 17 has a relatively small width, for rectilinear sections of tube of short length, but whose bearing face on the plate -support 2 has a length ensuring good stability of this stem 55.

FIG. 10 represents a bracket 60 provided with two guide members 62, 63 each arranged at one of the longitudinal ends of an oblique wing 61 extending in the upper part of the bracket 60, and obtained by double folding by compared to the base of the gallows 17.

It should also be noted that the pins 22-24 of the brackets 55, 60 shown in Figures 9a, 9b and 10 have, in place of the notches 25, orifices 59 of rectangular shape formed in said pins.

Figure 11 shows a bracket 65 having two bracket reinforcements 18a, 18b of the same width each obtained by folding, and in the upper part of each of which is cut a notch 66, 67 forming a guide member.

FIG. 16 represents a bracket 70 whose guide member, such as those of the bracket 65 described above, consists of a notch 71 cut out from the bracket reinforcement 18.

FIG. 17 shows, finally, a bracket 72 of the same design as the bracket 70 shown in FIG. 16, that is to say the guide member of which consists of a notch 74 cut out from the bracket reinforcement 18. However , according to this embodiment, the upper part of the stem reinforcement 18 is folded about a horizontal axis so that the guide member 74 is inclined at an angle corresponding to the inclination of the straight section of tube to be checked .

Claims

CLAIMS 1 / - Template for controlling the shape of long curved and / or formed sections (T; Tl) such as wires or tubes having straight parts and curved parts, characterized in that said template is composed of a base (2 ) and gallows (16-21; 50; 55; 60; 65; 70; 72) such as:

- The base consists of a plate (2) said support plate in which are formed notches (8, 9) extending along parallels to the orthogonal projections of each straight part of the profile (T; Tl) between two folds of the last,

- each bracket (16-21; 50; 55; 60; 65; 70; 72) consists of a plate folded according to conventional means so as to present at least two wings (17, 18) substantially perpendicular adapted to rest each on the base (2): a first flat wing (17) known as a stem base extended by at least one stud (22, 23) adapted to adjust and fit into a notch (8, 9) of the support plate (2), and a second flat wing (18) called the stem reinforcement, - each stem reinforcement (18) is extended by at least one positioning lug (24) of a shape adapted to be housed in a notch (10) formed in the support plate (2),

- each bracket (16-21; 50; 55; 60; 65; 70; 72) is equipped at the top with at least one device (31; 36; 51; 57; 62, 63; 66, 67; 71; 74) tube guide.

2 / - Template according to claim 1 characterized in that:

- Each tenon (22-24) of the brackets has a length greater than the thickness of the support plate (2) adapted to protrude on the underside of said support plate, after assembly, and has at least one notch shape (25; 59) formed in its projecting part on the underside of said support plate,

- Removable fixing means (26; 36), such as in particular an elastic pin or key, are adapted to be housed in the notches (25; 59) of the studs (22-24) so as to ensure a rigid fixing without bracket play on the support plate (2). 3 / - Template according to one of claims 1 or 2, characterized in that the stem reinforcements (18) have a constant width and a free edge parallel to the folding axis of said stem.

4 / - Template according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the guide devices (31; 36; 51) fitted to the brackets (16-21; 50) comprise a lower groove (32; 53) capable of coming to cap without play the base (17) of said brackets.

5 / - Template according to one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that each guide device (31; 36; 51; 57; 62; 63; 66; 67; 71; 74) has an upper groove (33; 37; 52; 57; 62; 63; 66; 67; 71; 74) of section adapted to accommodate the profile.

61 - Template according to one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that the guide device (56; 62, 63; 74) is obtained by folding and cutting the stem base (17) and / or the reinforcement of gallows (18). 11 - Template according to one of claims 1 to 6, characterized in that the bracket (65) consists of a plate folded so as to have a bracket base (17) and two bracket reinforcements (18a, 18b) obtained by folding.

8 / - Template according to claim 7, characterized in that the guide devices consist of a groove (66, 67) obtained by cutting performed in each bracket reinforcement (18a, 18b).

9 / - Template according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the support plate (2) has at least two flanges (5, 6) each obtained individually by one or two folds.

10 / - Template according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that it comprises a member (40) for controlling the axial and radial positioning of the profile (Tl) to be checked, adapted to be positioned on a bracket (11-16 ) and comprising an element (45) sliding in the axis of the tube (Tl).

11 / - Template according to claim 10, characterized in that each control member (40) comprises indexing means (45, 47, 48) of the longitudinal position and the orientation of the sliding element (45) .

12 / - Template according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the brackets and / or the support plate, and / or the guide devices are produced by cutting an aluminum plate (1) from 3 to 10 mm thick.

13 / -Template according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the bracket (55) is provided with a cutout (58) adapted to allow partial folding of the bracket base (17), giving said base bracket a bearing face on the support plate (2) of width greater than its current width.

14 / - Template according to claim 2, characterized in that the removable fixing means consist of a wedge (26; 36) in the form of a wedge. 15 / - Template according to claim 14, characterized in that the key (26) has two longitudinal branches (27, 28) separated by a space (29) and able to have a spring effect tending to move one away from the other said branches.