Apparatus for the continuous swaging of continuous workpieces

Claim 1

Apparatus for the continuous swaging of continuous workpieces, which apparatus comprises two swaging units each of which defines a path of travel for a workpiece and comprises two pivoted guides disposed on opposite sides of and directed to said path, two dies slidably mounted in respective ones of said guides, and two eccentric shafts, each of which is operatively connected to one of said dies, said two eccentric shafts being rotatable to impart to the respective dies an oscillating motion, whereby said dies are simultaneously extended and retracted toward and from said path and perform a pivotal movement which has a component in a workpiece-feeding direction along said path when said dies are extended, said shafts and guides in each unit being related to provide a leverage for the transmission of motion from said eccentric shafts to said dies, said units being arranged so that said paths of travel defined thereby are longitudinally aligned, said apparatus also comprising drive means operatively connected to said eccentric shafts and operable to rotate the eccentric shafts of the succeeding one of said units in said workpiecefeeding direction at a higher speed than those of the preceding one of said units so that the dies of said succeeding unit have a higher frequency of oscillation than those of said preceding unit, the arrangement being such that only one of said pairs of dies are fully extended at any given time, at least one of the factors consisting of the eccentricity of said eccentric shafts and said leverage being different in said two units so that the velocity of said component of movement in said workpiece-feeding direction is substantially the same for both said pairs of dies.