Process and apparatus for producing profiles from metal

Abstract

The present disclosure relates to a process for producing profiles from metal, a metallic strip material being fed to a shaping-hardening device, in which the strip material is shaped into a profile and is hardened at least in certain regions, portions of the profile that are emerging continuously from the shaping-hardening device being coated with a protective layer. The disclosure also relates to an apparatus for producing profiles from metal, with a shaping-hardening device for shaping a metallic strip material that can be fed to the shaping-hardening device into a profile and for hardening the profile at least in certain regions, and with a coating device, by which portions of the profile that are emerging continuously from the shaping-hardening device can be coated with a protective layer.

Claims

1. A process for producing profiles from metal, the process comprising: shaping a metallic strip material with a shaping-hardening device, in which the strip material is shaped into a profile by a profiling roller; hardening the profile during the shaping at least in certain regions; emerging portions of the profile continuously from the shaping-hardening device providing a shape hardened profile; cleaning the shape hardened profile; heating a temperature of the shape hardened profile to a range between 25 C. and 300 C.; and subsequent to the temperature adjusting, coating only a first portion of the shape hardened profile with a protective layer so that the shape hardened profile has both coated portions and uncoated portions, wherein the coated first portion of the shape hardened profile is at a lower risk of corrosion as compared to the uncoated portions.

2. The process according to claim 1 wherein the coating is performed in a coating device while a second portion of the profile is in the shaping-hardening device.

3. The process according to claim 2 wherein the metallic strip of material has cut edges; and wherein coating only the first portion of the shape hardened profile comprises coating exclusively the cut edges of the shaped hardened profile.

4. The process according to claim 2, further comprising: varying a thickness of the protective layer in the first portion.

5. The process according to claim 4 wherein the coating is performed by one of depositing or spraying on the protective layer.

6. The process according to claim 1 wherein the hardening comprises heating the profile one of inductively, conductively, with a naked flame or by contact heat.

7. The process according to claim 1, further comprising: cutting the profile to length into individual profiled components after the coating.

8. The process of claim 1 wherein producing profiles comprises producing one of structural profiles and safety profiles.

9. The process of claim 8 wherein the profiles comprise motor vehicle profiles.

10. A process for producing profiles from metal, the process comprising: shaping a metallic strip into a profile by a profiling roller in a shaping-hardening device; hardening the profile during the shaping at least in certain regions; emerging portions of the profile continuously from the profiling roller providing a shape hardened profile; cleaning the shape hardened profile; heating a temperature of the shape hardened profile to a range between 25 C. and 300 C.; and subsequent to the temperature adjusting, coating only a first portion of the shape hardened profile with a protective layer so that the shape hardened profile has both coated portions and uncoated portions, wherein the protective layer further defines varying thickness including a thicker protective layer at portions of the protective layer particularly at risk of corrosion as compared to other portions of the protective layer less at risk of corrosion.

11. The process according to claim 10 wherein the coating is performed by one of depositing or spraying on the protective layer.

12. The process of claim 10 wherein producing profiles comprises producing one of structural profiles and safety profiles.

13. The process of claim 12 wherein the profiles comprise motor vehicle profiles.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

(1) FIG. 1 shows a first exemplary embodiment of an apparatus according to the disclosure for producing profiles from metal;

(2) FIG. 2 shows a secondary exemplary embodiment of an apparatus according to the disclosure for producing profiles from metal; and

(3) FIG. 3 shows a third exemplary embodiment of an apparatus according to the disclosure for producing profiles from metal.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

(4) In the various figures, the same parts are always provided with the same reference, and are therefore in each case also generally only referred to or mentioned once.

(5) In FIG. 1 there is shown an apparatus for producing profiles 11 from metal, by means of which structural and/or safety parts for automobile construction are produced. The apparatus 1 has a shaping-hardening device 2, to which a starting material in the form of strip material 10, in particular as hot strip or cold strip, preferably a manganese-boron steel, is fed. The starting material is an uncoated steel material. In the shaping-hardening device 2, the strip material 10 is shaped into a profile 11 by profile rollers 2.1 and hardened at least in certain regions by a hardening device 2.2. The hardening device 2.2 is arranged between two profile rollers 2.1 of the shaping-hardening device 2, so that the hardening of the profile 11 is performed during the shaping process. For the hardening, the profile 11 is first heated into the austenitic range of the material and then quenched. It is preferred that the heating of the profile 11 is performed inductively. Alternatively, the profile 11 may be heated conductively by way of the profile rollers, by way of a naked flame or by contact heat. For hardening, it is necessary to heat the profile 11 to temperatures greater than 850 C. over a period of up to 60 seconds.

(6) In order to protect from corrosion the profile 11 hardened at least in certain regions, those portions of the profile 11 that have emerged from the shaping-hardening device 2 are coated with a protective layer. The coating with the protective layer is performed in a coating device 5 following the shaping-hardening device 2. The shaping-hardening device 2 and the coating device 5 are arranged one behind the other in such a way that the profile 11 is conveyed through the shaping-hardening device 2 and the coating device 5 in the manner of an assembly-line process and thereby shaped, hardened and coated in a continuous run-through process. Consequently, in the production process for profiles 11, a first portion of the profile is coated in the coating device 5 while a second portion of the profile 11 is in the shaping-hardening device 2 and is shaped and hardened there.

(7) The coating of the profile 11 in the coating device 5 may optionally be performed coherently or incoherently. It is thus possible, depending on the intended use of the profile 11 to be produced, to provide protection from corrosion throughout or protection from corrosion in certain portions. For example, it is possible to provide exclusively the cut edges of the profile 11 with a protective layer or to provide exclusively regions of the profile 11 that are particularly at risk of corrosion, known as wet regions, with a protective layer.

(8) It is preferred that the thickness of the protective layer applied to the profile 11 in the coating device 5 is varied from portion to portion, in order to provide portions that are particularly at risk of corrosion with a thicker protective layer than those portions that are less at risk of corrosion.

(9) The coating device 5 may be designed as a depositing and/or spraying-on device. For example, the coating may be performed by depositing from a plasma by means of physical or chemical gas phase deposition, it being possible to create a protective layer with a thickness of below 2 micrometers. Alternatively, the protective layer may be electrolytically deposited in an electroplating operation, it being possible for protective layers of zinc, aluminium or a zinc-nickel alloy to be applied. Furthermore, it is possible to apply the protective layer by flame spraying or to spray zinc flakes on in a spraying process, for example a Cr(VI)-free zinc-flake coating.

(10) It is also possible to apply a protective layer formed as a zinc alloy, for example ZnMn, ZnCu, ZnFeNi or ZnCuNi. Such alloys have a melting point above 700 C., and therefore cannot be applied to the profile 11 in a hot-dip coating process without this leading to a reduction in the hardness and/or the tensile strength of the profile 11.

(11) During the coating with the protective layer it is preferred that nitriding and/or oxidizing of the surface takes place, so that it is not necessary to clean the profile 11 before the coating. In addition, the surface hardness of the profile 11 can be increased in this way.

(12) FIG. 2 shows a second exemplary embodiment of an apparatus 1 for producing profiles 11. As a difference from the first exemplary embodiment, the apparatus 1 additionally has a cutting-to-length unit 6, by means of which the coated profile 11 is cut to length into individual profiled components 12. Portions emerging from the coating device 5 are fed to the cutting-to-length unit 6. In the cutting-to-length unit 6 there is performed the separation of the almost continuous profile 11 into individual profiled components 12, which are obtained from portions of the profile 11. Consequently, individual profiled components 12 can be produced by the apparatus, the coating for corrosion protection being applied in a low-cost run-through process before the profiled components 12 are cut to length from the profile 11.

(13) As a difference from the first two exemplary embodiments, the third exemplary embodiment of a production apparatus 1, shown in FIG. 3, for profiles of metal additionally has a cleaning device 3, arranged between the shaping-hardening device 2 and the coating device 5, and a temperature-adjusting device 4, likewise arranged between the shaping-hardening device 2 and the coating device 5.

(14) In the cleaning device 3, portions of the profile 11 that are emerging from the shaping-hardening device 2 are mechanically and/or chemically cleaned, so that the protective layer applied in the following coating device 5 adheres better to the profile 11. The cleaning device may have brushes and/or a blasting device, by way of which a jet of water, a jet of compressed air or a jet of material is applied to the profile 11. Alternatively or in addition, chemical cleaning may be performed with an alkaline cleaner which comprises alkali hydroxides, alkali carbonates, phosphates, borax, silicates and/or cyanides. For the chemical cleaning, surface-active substances, such as for example surfactants or emulsifiers, and/or inhibitors may be additionally used.

(15) In the temperature-adjusting device 4, arranged between the cleaning device 3 and the coating device 5, the profile 11 is heated up to a temperature in the range between 25 C. and 300 C. By heating up the profile 11 before the coating, the adherence of the protective layer on the profile 11 is improved.

(16) According to a modification of the third exemplary embodiment, the cleaning device 3 is interchanged with the temperature-adjusting device 4, so that the profile 11 emerging from the shaping-hardening device 2 is first fed to the temperature-adjusting device 4 and only then to the cleaning device 3.

(17) With the apparatuses 1 described above, it is possible to realize a process for producing profiles 11 from metal in which a metallic strip material 10 is fed to a shaping-hardening device 2, in which the strip material 10 is shaped into a profile 11 and is hardened at least in certain portions, portions of the profile 11 that are emerging continuously from the shaping-hardening device 2 being coated with a protective layer in order to protect the profile 11 from corrosion.

LIST OF DESIGNATIONS

(18) 1 Apparatus for producing profiles 2 Shaping-hardening device 2.1 Profiling roller 2.2 Hardening device 3 Cleaning device 4 Temperature-adjusting device 5 Coating device 6 Cutting-to-length device 10 Strip material 11 Profile 12 Profiled component