阅读说明：本技术 一种小型金属零件的对冲锻造机构 (Opposite-punching forging mechanism for small metal parts ) 是由 张祥妹 于 2021-05-27 设计创作，主要内容包括：本发明公开了一种小型金属零件的对冲锻造机构,其结构包括底座、支座、旋转对冲锻打机构、导轨夹具机构、升温处理室和降温处理室,支座固定连接在底座的上表面中间,旋转对冲锻打机构固定连接在支座的上表弧面,导轨夹具机构固定连接在旋转对冲锻打机构的内侧,升温处理室固定连接在底座的上表面前端,降温处理室固定连接在底座的上表面后端,本发明涉及金属加工设备技术领域。该小型金属零件的对冲锻造机构采用不同的锻造锤和不同的砧具对夹具夹持的金属坯块进行对冲锻打,使得一台占地小、自重较轻的自动化锻造设备能够锻造出完成度高、性能良好的金属零件,为个人或使用频率较低的小型团体的金属加工活动提供便利。(The invention discloses an opposite-punching forging mechanism for small metal parts, which structurally comprises a base, a support, a rotary opposite-punching forging mechanism, a guide rail clamp mechanism, a heating treatment chamber and a cooling treatment chamber, wherein the support is fixedly connected in the middle of the upper surface of the base, the rotary opposite-punching forging mechanism is fixedly connected to the upper arc surface of the support, the guide rail clamp mechanism is fixedly connected to the inner side of the rotary opposite-punching forging mechanism, the heating treatment chamber is fixedly connected to the front end of the upper surface of the base, and the cooling treatment chamber is fixedly connected to the rear end of the upper surface of the base. This small-size metal part's offset forging mechanism adopts different forging hammers and different hammering block utensil to carry out the offset forging to the metal billet of anchor clamps centre gripping for a take up an area of for a little, the automatic forging equipment that the dead weight is lighter can forge out the metal part that the degree of completion is high, the performance is good, provides convenience for the metalworking activity of individual or the lower small-size group of frequency of use.)

1. The utility model provides a small-size metal parts's offset forging mechanism, its structure includes base (1), support (2), rotatory offset forging mechanism (3), guide rail fixture mechanism (4), intensification treatment chamber (5) and cooling treatment chamber (6), its characterized in that: the rotary opposite-punching forging mechanism (3) is fixedly connected to the upper arc surface of the support (2), the guide rail clamp mechanism (4) is fixedly connected to the inner side of the rotary opposite-punching forging mechanism (3), the heating treatment chamber (5) is fixedly connected to the front end of the upper surface of the base (1), and the cooling treatment chamber (6) is fixedly connected to the rear end of the upper surface of the base (1);

the support (2) comprises a support base body (201), a driving ring servo motor (202) is fixedly connected to the rear surface of the support base body (201), and a driving ring gear (203) is fixedly connected to a motor shaft of the driving ring servo motor (202).

2. The opposed forging mechanism for small metal parts as claimed in claim 1, wherein: the rotary opposite-punching forging mechanism (3) comprises a stationary ring (301), the inner surface arc surface of the stationary ring (301) is rotatably connected with a rotary ring (302), the front surface of the rotary ring (302) is fixedly connected with a pump block (303), the front surface of the pump block (303) is fixedly connected with an electromagnetic impact pump (304), the outside of the electromagnetic impact pump (304) is provided with a pump shell (c1), the inside of the pump shell (c1) is fixedly connected with a coil (c2), the inside of the coil (c2) is fixedly connected with a magnet sliding groove (c3), the side middle section of the pump shell (c1) is provided with an air hole (c4), the inner surface of the magnet sliding groove (c3) is slidably connected with a strong permanent magnet (c5), and the lower surface of the strong permanent magnet (c5) is fixedly connected with a stainless steel pump rod (c 6).

3. The opposed forging mechanism for small metal parts as claimed in claim 2, wherein: the lower surface of a stainless steel pump rod (c6) of the electromagnetic impact pump (304) is fixedly connected with a trapezoidal sliding groove block (305), the right surface of the trapezoidal sliding groove block (305) is provided with a trapezoidal sliding groove (306), the front surface of the trapezoidal sliding groove block (305) is fixedly connected with a module selection servo motor (307), a motor shaft of the module selection servo motor (307) is fixedly connected with a module selection gear (308), the lower tooth surface of the module selection gear (308) is engaged and connected with a module selection rack (309), the lower surface of the module selection rack (309) is fixedly connected with a trapezoidal sliding block module selection seat (310), a trapezoidal sliding block of the trapezoidal sliding block module selection seat (310) is positioned in the trapezoidal sliding groove (306) and is in sliding connection with the sliding groove surface of the trapezoidal sliding groove (306), and the lower surface of the trapezoidal sliding block module selection seat (310) is fixedly connected with a hammer seat (311), the lower surface fixedly connected with hammer (312) of hammer seat (311), the upper segment surface of hammer (312) has welded respectively and has washed blade (c7) and wash blade (c9) down, the upper segment surface of hammer (312) is provided with the louvre of making an uproar (c8) of falling.

4. The opposed forging mechanism for small metal parts as claimed in claim 3, wherein: the pump-connected block (303) -trapezoidal slider module selection seat (310) is provided with two sets of all parts, the two sets of parts are arranged in a mirror image mode on a horizontal plane where the axis of the rotary ring (302) is located, the upper surface of the trapezoidal slider module selection seat (310) in the lower set of the two sets of parts is fixedly connected with an anvil seat (313), an anvil (314) is arranged on the upper portion of the anvil seat (313), a blowing agent box (315) is fixedly connected to the front surface of the rotary ring (302), a spray pipe (316) is slidably connected to the inner surface of a sliding groove structure in the blowing agent box (315), a rotary ring rack (317) is fixedly connected to the rear surface of the rotary ring (302), and the rotary ring rack (317) is meshed with the driving ring gear (203).

5. The opposed forging mechanism for small metal parts as claimed in claim 1, wherein: the guide rail clamp mechanism (4) comprises a guide rail (401), and an outer rail surface of the guide rail (401) is connected with a self-moving clamp mechanism (402) in a sliding mode.

6. The opposed forging mechanism for small metal parts as claimed in claim 4, wherein: the inner arc surface of the static ring (301) is provided with a circumferential shallow groove structure, and the outer cylindrical surface and partial front and rear surfaces of the rotating ring (302) are in sliding connection with the circumferential shallow groove structure.

7. The opposed forging mechanism for small metal parts as claimed in claim 4, wherein: the module selection servo motor (307) is fixedly connected with the front surface of the trapezoidal sliding groove block (305) through a block structure.

Technical Field

The invention relates to the technical field of metal processing equipment, in particular to a counter-punching forging mechanism for small metal parts.

Background

The metal processing is called metalworking for short, and is a process technology for processing metal materials into articles, parts and components, the metal processing technology can be divided into casting, plastic forming processing, solid forming processing and the like, for the metal processing activities of individuals or small groups with lower use frequency, the integrated processing of some common metals has very convenient and rapid integrated processing equipment products at present, such as turning, milling, planing, drilling, sawing and grinding integrated processing equipment in the aspect of metal cutting processing, and a three-dimensional printer in the aspect of metal additive manufacturing and the like.

However, when a metal part is manufactured by using the existing small-sized personalized metal processing equipment, high economical efficiency, good mechanical properties and acceptable processing requirements cannot be considered at the same time, and if entrusted processing is performed, real-time controllability of processing progress, confidentiality of design data and high cost performance cannot be guaranteed.

Disclosure of Invention

Technical problem to be solved

Aiming at the defects of the prior art, the invention provides a counter-punching forging mechanism for small metal parts, which aims to solve the problems that the existing small personalized metal processing equipment cannot give consideration to higher economy, good mechanical property and acceptable processing requirement, and cannot ensure real-time controllability of processing progress, confidentiality of design data and higher cost performance if entrusted processing is carried out when the metal parts are manufactured.

(II) technical scheme

In order to achieve the purpose, the invention is realized by the following technical scheme: the opposite-punching forging mechanism for the small metal parts structurally comprises a base, a support, a rotary opposite-punching forging mechanism, a guide rail clamp mechanism, a heating treatment chamber and a cooling treatment chamber, wherein the support is fixedly connected in the middle of the upper surface of the base;

the support comprises a support base body, a driving ring servo motor is fixedly connected to the rear surface of the support base body, and a driving ring gear is fixedly connected to a motor shaft of the driving ring servo motor.

Preferably, the rotary opposed-impact forging mechanism comprises a stationary ring, a rotating ring is rotatably connected to the inner arc surface of the stationary ring, a circumferential shallow groove structure of the inner arc surface of the stationary ring is adopted, the outer cylindrical surface and part of the front and rear surfaces of the rotating ring are in sliding connection with the circumferential shallow groove structure, the stationary ring is subjected to heating treatment, and the rotating ring is subjected to liquid nitrogen cooling treatment, so that the gap between the stationary ring and the rotating ring can be ensured to be extremely small, which is very beneficial to the stability and noise control of the device, a pump connecting block is fixedly connected to the front surface of the rotating ring, an electromagnetic impact pump is fixedly connected to the front surface of the pump connecting block, the electromagnetic impact pump is provided with a pump shell, a coil is fixedly connected to the inside of the pump shell, a magnet middle section chute is fixedly connected to the inside of the coil, an air hole is formed in the side surface of the pump shell, and the air hole enables the electromagnetic impact pump to have the minimum resistance in the middle position of the stroke, meanwhile, the electromagnetic impact pump can generate air deceleration buffer at the end of the stroke, so that the vibration and noise of the whole mechanism during operation are reduced, the service life of each component is prolonged, the inner surface of the magnet chute is connected with a strong permanent magnet in a sliding manner, and the lower surface of the strong permanent magnet is fixedly connected with a stainless steel pump rod.

Preferably, a trapezoidal sliding groove block is fixedly connected to the lower surface of a stainless steel pump rod of the electromagnetic impact pump, a trapezoidal sliding groove is formed in the right surface of the trapezoidal sliding groove block, a module selection servo motor is fixedly connected to the front surface of the trapezoidal sliding groove block, a module selection gear is fixedly connected to a motor shaft of the module selection servo motor, a module selection rack is connected to the lower surface of the module selection gear in a meshed manner, a trapezoidal slider module selection seat is fixedly connected to the lower surface of the module selection rack, a trapezoidal slider of the trapezoidal slider module selection seat is positioned in the trapezoidal sliding groove and is in sliding connection with a sliding groove surface of the trapezoidal sliding groove, a hammer seat is fixedly connected to the lower surface of the trapezoidal slider module selection seat, a hammer is fixedly connected to the lower surface of the hammer seat, upper washing blades and lower washing blades are welded to the outer surface of the upper section of the hammer respectively, and heat dissipation holes are formed in, the heat dissipation hole of making an uproar can consume partial vibration energy, reduces the noise, and it mainly falls and in the heat dissipation hole of making an uproar to wash the blade on with wash down the blade respectively in the hammer decline with rise the partly of the high strength air vortex that produces can rush into for the heat-sinking capability of hammer makes the hammer keep high level mechanical strength always, improves the forging quality.

Preferably, the total number of all the parts of the selection seat connected with the pump block and the trapezoidal sliding block module is two, the two parts are arranged in a mirror image mode about the horizontal plane where the axis of the rotating ring is located, the upper surface of the selection seat of the trapezoidal sliding block module in the lower part of the two parts is fixedly connected with the anvil seat, the upper part of the anvil seat is provided with an anvil, the front surface of the rotary ring is fixedly connected with a blowing agent box, the inner surface of the sliding groove structure in the blowing agent box is connected with a spraying pipe in a sliding way, the rear surface of the rotary ring is fixedly connected with a rotary ring rack, the rotary ring rack is meshed with the driving ring gear, different forging hammers and different anvils perform opposite impact forging on the metal billet clamped by the clamp, the automatic forging equipment with small occupied area and light self weight can forge metal parts with high finish degree and good performance, and provides convenience for metal processing activities of individuals or small groups with low use frequency.

Preferably, the guide rail clamp mechanism comprises a guide rail, and the outer rail surface of the guide rail is connected with a self-propelled clamp mechanism in a sliding manner.

Preferably, the inner arc surface of the stationary ring is provided with a circumferential shallow groove structure, and the outer cylindrical surface and part of the front and rear surfaces of the rotating ring are in sliding connection with the circumferential shallow groove structure.

Preferably, the module selection servo motor is fixedly connected with the front face of the trapezoidal sliding groove block through a block structure.

(III) advantageous effects

The invention provides a counter-punching forging mechanism for small metal parts. The method has the following beneficial effects:

(1) according to the invention, different forging hammers and different anvils are designed to carry out opposite-punching forging on the metal billet clamped by the clamp, so that an automatic forging device with small floor area and light self weight can forge metal parts with high finish degree and good performance, and convenience is provided for metal processing activities of individuals or small groups with low use frequency.

(2) According to the invention, the circumferential shallow groove structure of the inner arc surface of the static ring is arranged, the outer cylindrical surface and part of the front and rear surfaces of the rotating ring are in sliding connection with the circumferential shallow groove structure, and the static ring is subjected to heating treatment and the rotating ring is subjected to liquid nitrogen cooling treatment, so that the gap between the static ring and the rotating ring can be ensured to be extremely small, and the device is very beneficial to the stability and noise control.

(3) The air hole is arranged, so that the resistance of the electromagnetic impact pump is minimum in the middle of the stroke, and the air deceleration buffer can be generated in the end of the stroke of the electromagnetic impact pump, so that the vibration and noise of the whole mechanism during operation are reduced, and the service life of each component is prolonged.

(4) According to the invention, partial vibration energy can be consumed by arranging the noise reduction heat dissipation holes, noise is reduced, and parts of high-strength air vortexes generated by the upper washing blade and the lower washing blade respectively and mainly when the hammer descends and ascends can rush into the noise reduction heat dissipation holes, so that the heat dissipation capability of the hammer is accelerated, the hammer can always maintain high-level mechanical strength, and the forging quality is improved.

Drawings

FIG. 1 is an isometric view of the general structure of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a multiple cross-sectional view of the rail clamp mechanism of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a schematic front view of the rotary opposed-punch forging mechanism of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a schematic view of the back side of the rotary opposed-punch forging mechanism of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a schematic view of the structure of the hammer seat and anvil seat of the present invention;

FIG. 6 is a schematic view of the internal structure of the electromagnetic impact pump of the present invention;

FIG. 7 is a partially enlarged view of the surface treatment structure of the upper section of the hammer according to the present invention.

In the figure: 1 base, 2 supports, 201 support seats, 202 drive ring servo motors, 203 drive ring gears, 3 rotary opposite-punching forging mechanisms, 301 static rings, 302 rotary rings, 303 pump connecting blocks, 304 electromagnetic impact pumps, c1 pump cases, c2 coils, c3 magnet sliding grooves, c4 air holes, c5 strong permanent magnets, c6 stainless steel pump rods, 305 trapezoidal sliding groove blocks, 306 trapezoidal sliding grooves, 307 module selection servo motors, 308 module selection gears, 309 module selection racks, 310 trapezoidal sliding block module selection seats, 311 seats, 312 hammers, c7 upper washing blades, c8 noise reduction heat dissipation holes, c9 lower washing blades, 313 anvil seats, 314 anvil tools, 315 blowing agent boxes, 316 spraying agent pipes, 317 rotary ring racks, 4 guide rail clamp mechanisms, 401 guide rails, 402 self clamp mechanisms, 5 heating treatment chambers and 6 cooling treatment chambers.

Detailed Description

The technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention will be clearly and completely described below with reference to the drawings in the embodiments of the present invention, and it is obvious that the described embodiments are only a part of the embodiments of the present invention, and not all of the embodiments. All other embodiments, which can be derived by a person skilled in the art from the embodiments given herein without making any creative effort, shall fall within the protection scope of the present invention.

As shown in fig. 1 to 7, the present invention provides a technical solution: the opposite-punching forging mechanism for the small metal parts structurally comprises a base 1, a support 2, a rotary opposite-punching forging mechanism 3, a guide rail clamp mechanism 4, a heating treatment chamber 5 and a cooling treatment chamber 6, wherein the support 2 is fixedly connected in the middle of the upper surface of the base 1, the rotary opposite-punching forging mechanism 3 is fixedly connected to the upper arc surface of the support 2, the guide rail clamp mechanism 4 is fixedly connected to the inner side of the rotary opposite-punching forging mechanism 3, the heating treatment chamber 5 is fixedly connected to the front end of the upper surface of the base 1, and the cooling treatment chamber 6 is fixedly connected to the rear end of the upper surface of the base 1;

the support 2 comprises a support base body 201, a driving ring servo motor 202 is fixedly connected to the rear surface of the support base body 201, and a driving ring gear 203 is fixedly connected to a motor shaft of the driving ring servo motor 202.

The rotary opposite-punching forging mechanism 3 comprises a static ring 301, the inner arc surface of the static ring 301 is rotatably connected with a rotating ring 302, the inner arc surface of the static ring 301 is provided with a circumference shallow groove structure, the outer cylindrical surface and part of the front and back surfaces of the rotating ring 302 are in sliding connection with the circumference shallow groove structure, the static ring is heated and the rotating ring is assembled and matched with the liquid nitrogen cooling treatment, so that the gap between the static ring 301 and the rotating ring 302 can be ensured to be extremely small, which is very beneficial to the stability and noise control of the device, the inner arc surface of the static ring 301 is provided with the circumference shallow groove structure, the outer cylindrical surface and part of the front and back surfaces of the rotating ring 302 are in sliding connection with the circumference shallow groove structure, the front surface of the rotating ring 302 is fixedly connected with a pump connecting block 303, the front surface of the pump connecting block 303 is fixedly connected with an air buffer electromagnetic impact pump shell 304, the air buffer electromagnetic impact pump 304 is provided with a pump shell c1, and the inner part of the c1 is fixedly connected with a coil c2, the magnet sliding groove c3 is fixedly connected to the interior of the coil c2, an air hole c4 is formed in the middle section of the side face of the pump shell c1, the air hole c4 enables the air buffer electromagnetic impact pump 304 to have minimum resistance in the middle of the stroke, meanwhile, air speed reduction and buffering can be generated in the end of the stroke of the air buffer electromagnetic impact pump 304, vibration and noise in the operation process of the whole mechanism are reduced, the service lives of all parts are prolonged, the strong permanent magnet c5 is connected to the inner surface of the magnet sliding groove c3 in a sliding mode, and the austenitic stainless steel pump rod c6 is fixedly connected to the lower surface of the strong permanent magnet c 5.

The lower surface of an austenitic stainless steel pump rod c6 of the air buffer electromagnetic impact pump 304 is fixedly connected with a trapezoidal sliding groove block 305, the right surface of the trapezoidal sliding groove block 305 is provided with a trapezoidal sliding groove 306, the front surface of the trapezoidal sliding groove block 305 is fixedly connected with a module selection servo motor 307, the module selection servo motor 307 is fixedly connected with the trapezoidal sliding groove block 305 through a blocky structure, a motor shaft of the module selection servo motor 307 is fixedly connected with a module selection gear 308, the lower tooth surface of the module selection gear 308 is engaged and connected with a module selection rack 309, the lower surface of the module selection rack 309 is fixedly connected with a trapezoidal sliding block module selection seat 310, a trapezoidal sliding block of the trapezoidal sliding block module selection seat 310 is positioned in the trapezoidal sliding groove 306 and is in sliding connection with the sliding groove surface of the trapezoidal sliding groove 306, the lower surface of the trapezoidal sliding block module selection seat 310 is fixedly connected with a hammer seat 311, and the lower surface of the hammer seat 311 is fixedly connected with a hammer 312, the outer surface of the upper section of the hammer 312 is respectively welded with an upper washing blade c7 and a lower washing blade c9, the outer surface of the upper section of the hammer 312 is provided with a noise reduction heat dissipation hole c8, the noise reduction heat dissipation hole c8 can consume partial vibration energy and reduce noise, and the upper washing blade c7 and the lower washing blade c9 respectively and mainly wash into the noise reduction heat dissipation hole c8 when the hammer 312 descends and ascends, so that the heat dissipation capacity of the hammer 312 is accelerated, the high-level mechanical strength of the hammer is always kept, and the forging quality is improved.

The two sets of parts are arranged from all parts of the pump connecting block 303-trapezoidal slider module selecting seat 310 in total, the two sets of parts are arranged in a mirror image mode about the horizontal plane where the axis of the rotary ring 302 is located, the upper surface of the trapezoidal slider module selecting seat 310 in the lower set of the two sets of parts is fixedly connected with an anvil seat 313, an anvil 314 is arranged on the upper portion of the anvil seat 313, the front surface of the rotary ring 302 is fixedly connected with a blowing agent box 315, a spraying agent pipe 316 is connected to the inner surface of a sliding groove structure in the blowing agent box 315 in a sliding mode, a rotary ring rack 317 is fixedly connected to the rear surface of the rotary ring 302, and the rotary ring rack 317 is meshed with the driving ring gear 203.

The rail clamp mechanism 4 includes a rail 401, and a self-clamping mechanism 402 is slidably connected to an outer rail surface of the rail 401.

The working principle is as follows: this small-size metal part's offset forging mechanism combines automatic control ware to adopt different forging hammers and different hammering blocks utensil to carry out the design of offset forging to the metal billet of anchor clamps centre gripping, make it take up an area of for a little, the automation forging equipment that the dead weight is lighter can forge out the degree of completion height, the metal part of good performance, it facilitates for the metalworking activity of the small-size group that individual or frequency of use are lower, the circumference shallow slot structure of the intrados of quiet ring 301, before the outer cylinder of swivel ring and part, rear surface and circumference shallow slot structure sliding connection, through carrying out heat treatment to quiet ring 301, carry out the assembly and the cooperation that the liquid nitrogen cooling was handled to swivel ring 302, can guarantee that the clearance between quiet ring 301 and the swivel ring 302 is minimum, this is good to the stability and the noise control of device.

When in use, the metal billet is placed on the anvil 314 required by the first forging, the self-moving clamp mechanism 402 firstly clamps the metal billet to the heating treatment chamber 5 for corresponding heating treatment, then clamps the metal billet back to the anvil 314 and keeps clamping, at the moment, the two air buffer electromagnetic impact pumps 304 synchronously and reversely impact, the middle section of the side surface of the pump shell c1 of the air buffer electromagnetic impact pump 304 is provided with an air hole c4, the air hole c4 ensures that the resistance of the air buffer electromagnetic impact pump 304 is minimum at the middle position of the stroke, simultaneously, the air buffer electromagnetic impact pump 304 generates air deceleration buffer at the end position of the stroke, the vibration and noise of the whole mechanism during operation are reduced, the inner surface of the magnet chute c3 is connected with a strong permanent magnet c5, the austenitic stainless steel pump rod c6 at the lower surface of the strong permanent magnet c5 simultaneously plays a role of magnetic resistance, the hammer 312 forges the surface of the metal billet, when the metal billet needs to be heated or cooled, the self-moving clamping mechanism 402 clamps the metal billet to the heating chamber 5 or the cooling chamber 6 for corresponding processing, and the blowing box 315 can help the part intermediate to generate alloy and blow the surface treatment agent to the part during the forging process.

The module selects the drive of the servo motor 307, so that the real-time controlled combination of various hammers 312 and anvils 314 can forge parts with high complexity, high completion degree and high mechanical strength, the problem that the integration degree of automatic forging equipment with small occupied area and light self weight is too low is solved, the falling of blowing agents is controlled to the minimum degree by the rotary ring 302 controlled to rotate in real time, and the waste is reduced.

When the hammer 312 works, the noise reduction heat dissipation holes c8 can consume part of vibration energy and reduce noise, the upper washing blade c7 and the lower washing blade c9 respectively mainly generate high-strength air vortexes when the hammer 312 descends and ascends, and part of the air vortexes can rush into the noise reduction heat dissipation holes c8, so that the heat dissipation capacity of the hammer 312 is improved, the high-level mechanical strength of the hammer 312 is kept all the time, and the forging quality is improved.

It is noted that, herein, relational terms such as first and second, and the like may be used solely to distinguish one entity or action from another entity or action without necessarily requiring or implying any actual such relationship or order between such entities or actions. Also, the terms "comprises," "comprising," or any other variation thereof, are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion, such that a process, method, article, or apparatus that comprises a list of elements does not include only those elements but may include other elements not expressly listed or inherent to such process, method, article, or apparatus. The term "comprising", without further limitation, means that the element so defined is not excluded from the group consisting of additional identical elements in the process, method, article, or apparatus that comprises the element.

Although embodiments of the present invention have been shown and described, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that changes, modifications, substitutions and alterations can be made in these embodiments without departing from the principles and spirit of the invention, the scope of which is defined in the appended claims and their equivalents.