Continuous extrusion apparatus

Claim 1

Continuous extrusion apparatus, comprising: a) a rotatable wheel having a plurality of spaced apart circumferential grooves; b) arcuate tooling with a shoe portion bounding radially outer portions of the respective grooves formed with exit apertures extending in a generally radial direction from the respective grooves to a chamber; c) abutments displaced in the direction of rotation of the wheel from the apertures extending into the grooves, the chamber discharging to a die orifice; d) the tooling comprising an entry block positioned in a recess in the shoe portion bounding the grooves, an abutment block, an expansion block, a die block and an exit block; e) the abutment block, expansion block, die block and exit block are serially positioned in a stepped bore in the shoe portion; f) the abutment block engaging upon a shoulder in the bore adjacent the entry block; g) means for securing the exit block axially of the bore; h) the abutment block extending through an aperture in the entry block of generally frusto-conical form; i) flat faces formed on abutting faces of the abutment block and the entry block co-acting angularly to locate the abutment block relative to the entry block; j) the abutment block, the expansion block, the die block and the exit block are disconnectably secured together to form a tooling cartridge; k) a heating chamber and a storage chamber each arranged to accommodate the tooling cartridge are movably positioned to be indexed alternately into register with the bore at an open position of the shoe; l) a support ram is reciprocable through the respective heating or storage chamber when indexed into registration with the bore to effect support of the tooling cartridge; m) the tooling cartridge is removable from and insertable into the bore as a whole supported on the support ram; and n) the heating chamber is adapted to effect heating of the tooling cartridge prior to insertion into the bore.