CA1090383A - Facing ply separator - Google Patents
Facing ply separatorInfo
- Publication number
- CA1090383A CA1090383A CA326,479A CA326479A CA1090383A CA 1090383 A CA1090383 A CA 1090383A CA 326479 A CA326479 A CA 326479A CA 1090383 A CA1090383 A CA 1090383A
- Authority
- CA
- Canada
- Prior art keywords
- workpiece
- rotatable
- topmost
- stack
- needles
- Prior art date
- Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
- Expired
Links
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- Sheets, Magazines, And Separation Thereof (AREA)
Abstract
A B S T R A C T
The specification describes an apparatus for sequentially separating alternate layers of sheet-like workpieces from a single feed stack, the apparatus com-prising a device for separating each top workpiece layer from the feed stack and a device for transporting the separated top workpieces alternately to a first location and to a second location, the separating device includes at least one differentiating head having a pair of rotatable elements, the rotatable elements are mounted such that the axis of rotation of one element is parallel and opposite to that of the other element, needles mounted in the rotatable elements so as to project exteriorly of the elements and in a direction away from the opposite rotatable element, a device for selectively rotating at least one of the rotatable elements with respect to the other to engage and disengage the projecting needles of the rotated element with the top workpiece of the feed stack, depending on the direction of rotation, and for moving only one of the elements, alternately, with respect to the other to vary the spacing between the rotatable elements while the top workpiece is so engaged such that upon rotation of the one element in a direction which engages its projecting needles in the topmost workpiece, at least one edge of the topmost workpiece is thereby curled upwardly and, upon movement of the rotated element with respect to the other element, the topmost workpiece is pulled away from the corresponding edge of the next underlying workpiece by the force of the engaged rotatable element needles to thereby separate the topmost workpiece from the stack.
The specification describes an apparatus for sequentially separating alternate layers of sheet-like workpieces from a single feed stack, the apparatus com-prising a device for separating each top workpiece layer from the feed stack and a device for transporting the separated top workpieces alternately to a first location and to a second location, the separating device includes at least one differentiating head having a pair of rotatable elements, the rotatable elements are mounted such that the axis of rotation of one element is parallel and opposite to that of the other element, needles mounted in the rotatable elements so as to project exteriorly of the elements and in a direction away from the opposite rotatable element, a device for selectively rotating at least one of the rotatable elements with respect to the other to engage and disengage the projecting needles of the rotated element with the top workpiece of the feed stack, depending on the direction of rotation, and for moving only one of the elements, alternately, with respect to the other to vary the spacing between the rotatable elements while the top workpiece is so engaged such that upon rotation of the one element in a direction which engages its projecting needles in the topmost workpiece, at least one edge of the topmost workpiece is thereby curled upwardly and, upon movement of the rotated element with respect to the other element, the topmost workpiece is pulled away from the corresponding edge of the next underlying workpiece by the force of the engaged rotatable element needles to thereby separate the topmost workpiece from the stack.
Description
`` 1090383 BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to automatic apparatus for separating alternately facing fabric workpieces from a single stack into two separate stacks.
It is often desirable in the garment fabrication industry to separate layers of stacked fabric workpieces from each other and to transport them to other work stations. Such prior art separating devices are described in U.S. Patents Nos. 3,253,824 granted on May 3, 1966 to L. & L. Manufacturing Inc. and 3,042,505 granted on July 3, 1962 to Esso Research and Engineering Company. As pointed out in those patents, separating stacked fabric layers is extremely difficult since the layers of fabric, during cutting, tend to have their end threads interwoven and are thereby bonded together. It requires considerable ingenuity to separate each layer of fabric from this bonding interengagement of the end threads without sim-ultaneously disrupting the placement of the layers in the stack.
It is desirable not to disturb the placement of the layers in the stack in order that the workpieces may be accurately aligned with respect to the separating apparatus and so that after separation they can be transported to another work station with a predetermined orientation. If the fabric layers are misaligned, they will not be properly transported in an aligned relationship to the next work station, but, instead, will be mis-positioned upon reaching the subsequent work station.
In one garment industry operation, left and right pocket facings are cut simultaneously on a spreading table from a fabric stack having alternately face-up and face-down layers. The result is a plurality of smaller stacks of alter-nating left and right facing plies. It then becomes necessary r~
-- ~n90383 to separate these left and right facing plies into two separate stacks of all left and all right facing plies. In order to do this automatically, it is not only necessary to effectively separate the alternate left and right facing plies from the stack without misalignment, as described above, but it is also necessary to detect whether the stack somehow contains two facing plies oriented in the same direction, that is, face-up or face-down. It is further necessary to detect whether one of the differentiated plies has been dropped by the differentiating head since this would cause one of the stacks to be short in the number of facing plies.
-~s ,~, i~*: 6s SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The above and other disadvantages are overcome by the present invention of an apparatus for sequentially separating alternate layers of sheet-like workpieces from a -single feed stack, the apparatus comprising means for separ- -:-ating each top workpiece layer from the feed stack and means for transporting the separated top workpieces alternately to ~ :
a first location and to a second location, the separating means including at least one differentiating head having a pair of rotatable elements, means for mounting the rotatable elements parallel and opposite to each other, needles mounted in the rotatable elements so as to project exteriorly of the elements and in a direction away from the opposite rotatable element, means for selectively rotating at least one of the rotatable elements with respect to the other to engage and disengage the projecting needles of the rotated element with the top workpiece of the feed stack, depending on the direction of rotation, and for moving only one of the elements, alter-nately, with respect to the other to vary the spacing between the rotatable elements while the top workpiece is so engaged such that upon rotation of the one rotatable element in a direction which engages its projecting needles in the top-most workpiece, at least one edge of the topmost workpiece is thereby curled upwardly and, upon movement of the rotated element with respect to the other element, the topmost work-piece is pulled away from the corresponding edge of the next underlying workpiece by the force of the engaged rotatable element needles to thereby separate the topmost workpiece from the stack.
` 1090383 The foregoing and other objectives, features and advantages o~ the invention will be more readiiy understood upon consideration-of the following detailed description of certain preferred embodiments of the invention, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawinss.
~Z 1090383 .. BRIEF DESC.'RIPTlON OF THE DRAWI~IGS
I ~
21 FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a separating apparatus 3 according to the invention;
4 FIG. 2 is a dlagrammatic illustration for use in explaining ~¦ the operation of the embodiment depicted in FIG. l;
6 FIG. 3 is an enlarged, vertical, front view of the single 71 stack feed elevator of the embodiment depicted in FIG. 1, with 8 portions broken away and in section;
~ PIG. 4 is an enlarged, plan view of the elevator depicted in FIG. 3 and with portions broken away and in section;
11 FIG. 5 is an enlarged, vertical, side view of the elevator :
12 depicted in FIG. 3 with portions broken away, and in section;
13 FIG. 6 is an enlarged,-front view of the carriage transfer .
14 mechanism of the embodiment depicted in FIG. 1, with portions 15 broken away and in section; .
16 FIG. ? is a plan view, with portions broken away and in ~7¦ section of a differentiating head according to the invention;
18 FIG. 8 is an enlarged, vertical view of a differentiating 19 head according to the invention;
201 FIG. 9 is an enlarged, vertical, sectional view, with 21 portions broken away, of one of the differentiating cylinders of 22~ the differentiating head depicted in FIG. 8;
23l FIG. 10 is a vertical sectional view taken generally along 241 the lines 10-10 of FIG. 7; .
FIG. 11 is a perspective view of the separatin~ apparatus 26 of the invention used in conjunction with other garment 271 fabricating apparatus;
28 FIGS. 12A - 12H, inclusive, are diagrammatic illustrations 29 of a second embodiment .of the invention and its mcthod of 33l operation;
32 . .
l 1 FIGS. 13~. - 13G, inclu ;ive, are diagrammatic illustrations
The invention relates to automatic apparatus for separating alternately facing fabric workpieces from a single stack into two separate stacks.
It is often desirable in the garment fabrication industry to separate layers of stacked fabric workpieces from each other and to transport them to other work stations. Such prior art separating devices are described in U.S. Patents Nos. 3,253,824 granted on May 3, 1966 to L. & L. Manufacturing Inc. and 3,042,505 granted on July 3, 1962 to Esso Research and Engineering Company. As pointed out in those patents, separating stacked fabric layers is extremely difficult since the layers of fabric, during cutting, tend to have their end threads interwoven and are thereby bonded together. It requires considerable ingenuity to separate each layer of fabric from this bonding interengagement of the end threads without sim-ultaneously disrupting the placement of the layers in the stack.
It is desirable not to disturb the placement of the layers in the stack in order that the workpieces may be accurately aligned with respect to the separating apparatus and so that after separation they can be transported to another work station with a predetermined orientation. If the fabric layers are misaligned, they will not be properly transported in an aligned relationship to the next work station, but, instead, will be mis-positioned upon reaching the subsequent work station.
In one garment industry operation, left and right pocket facings are cut simultaneously on a spreading table from a fabric stack having alternately face-up and face-down layers. The result is a plurality of smaller stacks of alter-nating left and right facing plies. It then becomes necessary r~
-- ~n90383 to separate these left and right facing plies into two separate stacks of all left and all right facing plies. In order to do this automatically, it is not only necessary to effectively separate the alternate left and right facing plies from the stack without misalignment, as described above, but it is also necessary to detect whether the stack somehow contains two facing plies oriented in the same direction, that is, face-up or face-down. It is further necessary to detect whether one of the differentiated plies has been dropped by the differentiating head since this would cause one of the stacks to be short in the number of facing plies.
-~s ,~, i~*: 6s SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The above and other disadvantages are overcome by the present invention of an apparatus for sequentially separating alternate layers of sheet-like workpieces from a -single feed stack, the apparatus comprising means for separ- -:-ating each top workpiece layer from the feed stack and means for transporting the separated top workpieces alternately to ~ :
a first location and to a second location, the separating means including at least one differentiating head having a pair of rotatable elements, means for mounting the rotatable elements parallel and opposite to each other, needles mounted in the rotatable elements so as to project exteriorly of the elements and in a direction away from the opposite rotatable element, means for selectively rotating at least one of the rotatable elements with respect to the other to engage and disengage the projecting needles of the rotated element with the top workpiece of the feed stack, depending on the direction of rotation, and for moving only one of the elements, alter-nately, with respect to the other to vary the spacing between the rotatable elements while the top workpiece is so engaged such that upon rotation of the one rotatable element in a direction which engages its projecting needles in the top-most workpiece, at least one edge of the topmost workpiece is thereby curled upwardly and, upon movement of the rotated element with respect to the other element, the topmost work-piece is pulled away from the corresponding edge of the next underlying workpiece by the force of the engaged rotatable element needles to thereby separate the topmost workpiece from the stack.
` 1090383 The foregoing and other objectives, features and advantages o~ the invention will be more readiiy understood upon consideration-of the following detailed description of certain preferred embodiments of the invention, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawinss.
~Z 1090383 .. BRIEF DESC.'RIPTlON OF THE DRAWI~IGS
I ~
21 FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a separating apparatus 3 according to the invention;
4 FIG. 2 is a dlagrammatic illustration for use in explaining ~¦ the operation of the embodiment depicted in FIG. l;
6 FIG. 3 is an enlarged, vertical, front view of the single 71 stack feed elevator of the embodiment depicted in FIG. 1, with 8 portions broken away and in section;
~ PIG. 4 is an enlarged, plan view of the elevator depicted in FIG. 3 and with portions broken away and in section;
11 FIG. 5 is an enlarged, vertical, side view of the elevator :
12 depicted in FIG. 3 with portions broken away, and in section;
13 FIG. 6 is an enlarged,-front view of the carriage transfer .
14 mechanism of the embodiment depicted in FIG. 1, with portions 15 broken away and in section; .
16 FIG. ? is a plan view, with portions broken away and in ~7¦ section of a differentiating head according to the invention;
18 FIG. 8 is an enlarged, vertical view of a differentiating 19 head according to the invention;
201 FIG. 9 is an enlarged, vertical, sectional view, with 21 portions broken away, of one of the differentiating cylinders of 22~ the differentiating head depicted in FIG. 8;
23l FIG. 10 is a vertical sectional view taken generally along 241 the lines 10-10 of FIG. 7; .
FIG. 11 is a perspective view of the separatin~ apparatus 26 of the invention used in conjunction with other garment 271 fabricating apparatus;
28 FIGS. 12A - 12H, inclusive, are diagrammatic illustrations 29 of a second embodiment .of the invention and its mcthod of 33l operation;
32 . .
l 1 FIGS. 13~. - 13G, inclu ;ive, are diagrammatic illustrations
2 I of a third embodiment of the invention and its methot3 of
3 operation; .
4 ¦ FIGS. 14A - 14F; inclusive, are diagrammatic illustrations :-of a. fourth embodiment of the invention and its mcthod of .
6 operation;
7 I FIGS. 15A - 15F, inclusive, are diagrammatic illustraticns - .-8 ¦ of a fifth embodiment of the invention and its method of -9 operation;
10 ¦ FIGS. 16A - 16F, inclusive, are diagrammatic illustrations -ll of a sixth embodiment of the invention and its method of l .
l 2 ¦ opera tion; and l3 FIGS. 17A - 17D, inclusive, are diagrammatic illustrations l4 of a seventh embodiment of the invention and its method of opera~ o n 3~ . .
. ' :
~0903133 1 DETAIL~D DESCRIPT~ON OF TllE PREFE~R~D MsoDlr~tlT
2 ¦ . Referrinq now more particularly to FIG. 1, the single 3 I feed stack of alternating facing fabric workpieces 10 (sl~own 4 ¦ in dashed-line fashion for clarity of illustration) is carried 51 by a single feed elevator 12 mounted for vertical movement :
in a frame 14. The details of the elevator mechanism 12 7¦ will be described further in a subsequent portion of this 8 application. On the left and right sides of the feed 91 elevator 12 are positioned additional vertical elevators 16 and 18, respectively. The elevators 16 and 18 are also lII mounted in the frame 14 for vertical movement. Whereas 12 the elevator 12 is mechanized to make upward adjustments 13 as the layers of garment workpieces 20 are removed from 14¦ the stack 10, the elevators 16 and 18 are mechanized to index downwardly by a distance corresponding to the thickness 16 of one workpiece. The actions of the elevators 12, 16 and 18 17 will be described in greater detail hereinafter.
18 Positioned above the elevators 12, 16 and 18 is the 19 differentiating mechanism comprised of a horizontal bar 22 which carries separate differentiating heads 24 and 26 at its 21 rigllt and left ends, respectively. The differentiating heads 22 24 and 26 are each capable of removing the topmost workpiece 23 20 from the stack 10 without disturbing the remaining portion 24 of tlle stack 10. The manner in which this is done will be ;
described in greater detail at a later portion in this 26 application with particular reference to FIG. 7..
27 The horizontal bar 22 is carried on the lower end .
28 of a vertical pipe 28 which is flexibly at-tached to a 29 horizontally movable carriage 30 by means of a pair of 3 flexible horizontal s~raps 32. A second, vertical, hollow . 7 .
. __ - . , . -1090383 :
. ~
. I pipe 34 is also attaehed t~ the horizontal bar 22 by means 2 1 of a braeket 36 whieh is also attached to the first vertieal ~ -3 ¦ pipe 28. The pipe 34 ean be connected to a vacuum souree 4 ¦ (not shown) in some embodiments or it ean simply .serve as a S ¦ conduit for air lines 38 which activate the differentiating .
6 ¦ heads. :
7 The carriage 30 travels on a pair of vertically 8 ¦ spaced apart horizontal, parallel rails 40 mounted in a.
9 ¦ frame 43 over the area where the stacks of fabric ~Jorkpieces 10 ¦ are located. The carriage slides on the rails 40 by means 11 1 of sleeve bearings 42 and roller wheels.(not shown). A motor 12 ¦ driven sprocket chain 44 trained around sprocket gear wheels i3 46 at opposite.ends of the rails 40 provides the moving :
14¦ force for reciprocating the carriage 30 back and forth on ~ the rails 40. The carriage 30 is attached to the drive 16 ehain 44 by means of a pair of links 48 pivoted at one end 17¦ to the top and bottom of the carriage 30 and at their other .~ . -18 ¦ ends to separate vertices of a trianguiar member 50. The 19 third vertex of the tri-angular member 50 is rotatably : :
201 attached to the sprocket ehain 44. In thi.s way, no non-211 tensional forces are imparted to the drive chain 44 or to 22¦ the sleeve bearings 42 of the carriage 30. A roller 52 231 projeets outwardly from the vertex of the triangular member .
241 50 at the point where it attaches to the sprocket chain 44 - .
251 .and is eaptured by a reetangular brackèt 54. The 26¦ reetangular braeket 54 is mounted on one end or a shaft 56, 27 ¦ whieh 1S rotatably mounted in a boss 58 attached to.the 28 ¦ earriage 30. . :
291 At the opposite end of the shaft 56 a erank .
30 mechanism is mounted... The crank mechanism 60 is att~ched .
3~1 to the vertical'pipe 28 to raise and lowerthe vertical pipe 32 28, and hence the differentiating heads 24 and 26, each time . ~ -8- .
. -: :, .. ' :- . :- . - -- ~M90383 ~
1~ the rbller 52 passes around the ends of the sprocket gears 21 46.
4¦ The sprocket gears 46 are spaced apart by a distance S corresponding roughly to the distance between the central 6 feed stack and one of the receiving, separated ply stacks.
The length of the horizontal arm 22 is also equal to the 8 ¦ distance between the central feed stack 10 and one of the 9 ¦ separated ply stacks. In this way, as best viewed in 10 ¦ FIG. 6 in hidden-line fashion, when the carriage 30 is at 11 the extreme riyht hand end of travel as viewed in FIG. 6, 121 the differentiating head 24 will be positioned over the 13¦ receiving elevator 18 and the differentiating head 26 will 14 be positioned over the central feed stack elevator 12. ~t the extreme left hand end of the travel of the carriage 30, 16 as viewed in FIG. 6, the differentiating head 26 will be 17 positioned over the receiving elevator 16 and the 18 differentiating head 24 will be positioned over the central 19 feed stack elevator 12. As will be explained in yreater 21 detail hereinafter, the differentiating heads 24 and 26 are operated to engage the topmost workpiece 20 of the central 22 feed stack 10 on the elevator 12 at the same time that the 23 other differentiating head, positioned over one of the 24 receiving elevators 16 or 18, is releasing a previously differentiated workpiece.
27 Referring now more particularly to FIG. 3, the 28 apparatus for raising and lowering the stack elevators will 29 be described in greater detail. In the following descrip-30 tion, only the single stack feed elevator 12 will be -32 ~ ~ --.. ' . ..
' _g_ ' " . .
I I described, however, it shoul~ ~e understood that this 2 I description is equally applicable to the elevators 16 and 18 3 ¦ except that whereas the elevaior 12 is indexed up~ardly by 4 ¦ the thickness of each layer which is differentiated, the S ¦ elevators 16 and 18 are indexed downwardly for each 6 ! differentiated layer which is placed on top of the stack.
7 ¦ The elevator 12 has a leg 62 which is a horizon'al 8 platform for carrying the single feed stack and a vertical 9 I portion 64 intregaI therewith, which has an annular slide 10 I bearing 66 for slidably mountin~g the elevator 12 on a vertically 11 ¦ extending rod 67 mounted in the frame 14. The elevator 12 ¦ platform 12 is prevented from rotating in a horizontal 13¦ plane by a pair of rollers 68 which straddle a vertically 14 extending rail 70 spaced behind the rod 67, as viewed in 151 FIG. 4. The rollers 68 are attached to the vertically 161 extending portion 64 of the elevator 12 by means of an I -17 integrally mounted boss 72 on the vertical portion 64.
18 The elevator platform 12 is raised and lowered by 19 means of a vertically extending sprocket chain 74 which is trained around a sprocket pulley 76 mounted on a horizontal 211 shaft 78 at the base of the elevator and around a sprocket 22 ¦ 80 rotatably mounted on a horizontal shaft 82 at the top of 231 the elevator. The horizontal shafts 78 and 82 are rotatably 24 ¦ mounted in bosses or brackets attached to the frame 14. The 251 lower sprocket pulley 76 also has a drive chain 84 trained 261 around it which is driven by an electric motor 86. It is to 271 be understood that the motor 86 i~cludes suitable reduction 28¦ gearing (not shown). The lower sprocket pulley 76 is not 29 pinned to the shaft 78 and rotates freely about it. It is to be understood that each of the elevators 12, 16 and 18, 31¦ has an independent motor drive.
32 In order to completely stabilize the platform 12 .. .
. ' ~ ' . : - .
1~90383 ~1 in the horizontal plane, a l)air of vertically extending rods 2 88 and 90 are positioned on either side of the elevator 31 platform near the front, as best viewed in FIG. 4. The 41 vertical roa 90 is on the right side of the platform and the 51 vertical rod 88 is on the left side of the platform as .
61 viewed in FIG. 4. Separate rollers 92 and 94 mounted on 7 I the underside of the horizontal portion 62 of the elevator 8 bear against the rods 88 and 90, respectively. The vertical rod 88 is mounted on a horizontal swinging arm 96 which is lO ¦ pivoted on the frame 14 toward the rear of the hori~ontal 11 platform 62 at a point 98. This allows the vertical rod 88 12 ~ to be swung open from the platform elevator 12 when the feed l3 stack is placed on top of-the platform 62. The rod 88 is 14 thereafter swung closed to prevent the stack from being removed from the elevator 12.
16 The frame 14 includes a top horizontal working 17 space 100 which has a cut-out portion 102 to accommodate the 18 horizontal platform 62 of the elevator 12. It has similar 19 cut-out portions to accommodate the other elevators as well.
20¦ A pair of photo-opt:ic sensors 104 are placed on opposite 21 sides of the cut-out space 102 to detect the presence or 22 absence of the top layer of material in the stack carried by 23 the elevator 12. These photo-optic sensors lead to a 24 control panel (not shown) which control the indexing motion of the motor 86 which raises the elevator 12 by a distance 26 corresponding to the thickness of one ply of fabric in the 28 stack as it is removed by the differentiating lleads. ~
second pair of photo-optic sensors 106 are mounted on top of 29 the horizontal platform 100 of the frame 14 and are directed 30 upwardly to detect the contr~st of the underslde of the 332 fabric workpieces carried by the differentiating heads 24 and 26- This contrast is due to the faFt that the twill denim ' ,, , -11- , -~1l fabric from which the pocket facings are made, has a bluc 2 ¦ tint on the one side and a white line striped pattern on the 3 I opposite side. The white striped side reflects more light 4 ¦ and thus can be sensed by the sensors 106. The sensors 106
6 operation;
7 I FIGS. 15A - 15F, inclusive, are diagrammatic illustraticns - .-8 ¦ of a fifth embodiment of the invention and its method of -9 operation;
10 ¦ FIGS. 16A - 16F, inclusive, are diagrammatic illustrations -ll of a sixth embodiment of the invention and its method of l .
l 2 ¦ opera tion; and l3 FIGS. 17A - 17D, inclusive, are diagrammatic illustrations l4 of a seventh embodiment of the invention and its method of opera~ o n 3~ . .
. ' :
~0903133 1 DETAIL~D DESCRIPT~ON OF TllE PREFE~R~D MsoDlr~tlT
2 ¦ . Referrinq now more particularly to FIG. 1, the single 3 I feed stack of alternating facing fabric workpieces 10 (sl~own 4 ¦ in dashed-line fashion for clarity of illustration) is carried 51 by a single feed elevator 12 mounted for vertical movement :
in a frame 14. The details of the elevator mechanism 12 7¦ will be described further in a subsequent portion of this 8 application. On the left and right sides of the feed 91 elevator 12 are positioned additional vertical elevators 16 and 18, respectively. The elevators 16 and 18 are also lII mounted in the frame 14 for vertical movement. Whereas 12 the elevator 12 is mechanized to make upward adjustments 13 as the layers of garment workpieces 20 are removed from 14¦ the stack 10, the elevators 16 and 18 are mechanized to index downwardly by a distance corresponding to the thickness 16 of one workpiece. The actions of the elevators 12, 16 and 18 17 will be described in greater detail hereinafter.
18 Positioned above the elevators 12, 16 and 18 is the 19 differentiating mechanism comprised of a horizontal bar 22 which carries separate differentiating heads 24 and 26 at its 21 rigllt and left ends, respectively. The differentiating heads 22 24 and 26 are each capable of removing the topmost workpiece 23 20 from the stack 10 without disturbing the remaining portion 24 of tlle stack 10. The manner in which this is done will be ;
described in greater detail at a later portion in this 26 application with particular reference to FIG. 7..
27 The horizontal bar 22 is carried on the lower end .
28 of a vertical pipe 28 which is flexibly at-tached to a 29 horizontally movable carriage 30 by means of a pair of 3 flexible horizontal s~raps 32. A second, vertical, hollow . 7 .
. __ - . , . -1090383 :
. ~
. I pipe 34 is also attaehed t~ the horizontal bar 22 by means 2 1 of a braeket 36 whieh is also attached to the first vertieal ~ -3 ¦ pipe 28. The pipe 34 ean be connected to a vacuum souree 4 ¦ (not shown) in some embodiments or it ean simply .serve as a S ¦ conduit for air lines 38 which activate the differentiating .
6 ¦ heads. :
7 The carriage 30 travels on a pair of vertically 8 ¦ spaced apart horizontal, parallel rails 40 mounted in a.
9 ¦ frame 43 over the area where the stacks of fabric ~Jorkpieces 10 ¦ are located. The carriage slides on the rails 40 by means 11 1 of sleeve bearings 42 and roller wheels.(not shown). A motor 12 ¦ driven sprocket chain 44 trained around sprocket gear wheels i3 46 at opposite.ends of the rails 40 provides the moving :
14¦ force for reciprocating the carriage 30 back and forth on ~ the rails 40. The carriage 30 is attached to the drive 16 ehain 44 by means of a pair of links 48 pivoted at one end 17¦ to the top and bottom of the carriage 30 and at their other .~ . -18 ¦ ends to separate vertices of a trianguiar member 50. The 19 third vertex of the tri-angular member 50 is rotatably : :
201 attached to the sprocket ehain 44. In thi.s way, no non-211 tensional forces are imparted to the drive chain 44 or to 22¦ the sleeve bearings 42 of the carriage 30. A roller 52 231 projeets outwardly from the vertex of the triangular member .
241 50 at the point where it attaches to the sprocket chain 44 - .
251 .and is eaptured by a reetangular brackèt 54. The 26¦ reetangular braeket 54 is mounted on one end or a shaft 56, 27 ¦ whieh 1S rotatably mounted in a boss 58 attached to.the 28 ¦ earriage 30. . :
291 At the opposite end of the shaft 56 a erank .
30 mechanism is mounted... The crank mechanism 60 is att~ched .
3~1 to the vertical'pipe 28 to raise and lowerthe vertical pipe 32 28, and hence the differentiating heads 24 and 26, each time . ~ -8- .
. -: :, .. ' :- . :- . - -- ~M90383 ~
1~ the rbller 52 passes around the ends of the sprocket gears 21 46.
4¦ The sprocket gears 46 are spaced apart by a distance S corresponding roughly to the distance between the central 6 feed stack and one of the receiving, separated ply stacks.
The length of the horizontal arm 22 is also equal to the 8 ¦ distance between the central feed stack 10 and one of the 9 ¦ separated ply stacks. In this way, as best viewed in 10 ¦ FIG. 6 in hidden-line fashion, when the carriage 30 is at 11 the extreme riyht hand end of travel as viewed in FIG. 6, 121 the differentiating head 24 will be positioned over the 13¦ receiving elevator 18 and the differentiating head 26 will 14 be positioned over the central feed stack elevator 12. ~t the extreme left hand end of the travel of the carriage 30, 16 as viewed in FIG. 6, the differentiating head 26 will be 17 positioned over the receiving elevator 16 and the 18 differentiating head 24 will be positioned over the central 19 feed stack elevator 12. As will be explained in yreater 21 detail hereinafter, the differentiating heads 24 and 26 are operated to engage the topmost workpiece 20 of the central 22 feed stack 10 on the elevator 12 at the same time that the 23 other differentiating head, positioned over one of the 24 receiving elevators 16 or 18, is releasing a previously differentiated workpiece.
27 Referring now more particularly to FIG. 3, the 28 apparatus for raising and lowering the stack elevators will 29 be described in greater detail. In the following descrip-30 tion, only the single stack feed elevator 12 will be -32 ~ ~ --.. ' . ..
' _g_ ' " . .
I I described, however, it shoul~ ~e understood that this 2 I description is equally applicable to the elevators 16 and 18 3 ¦ except that whereas the elevaior 12 is indexed up~ardly by 4 ¦ the thickness of each layer which is differentiated, the S ¦ elevators 16 and 18 are indexed downwardly for each 6 ! differentiated layer which is placed on top of the stack.
7 ¦ The elevator 12 has a leg 62 which is a horizon'al 8 platform for carrying the single feed stack and a vertical 9 I portion 64 intregaI therewith, which has an annular slide 10 I bearing 66 for slidably mountin~g the elevator 12 on a vertically 11 ¦ extending rod 67 mounted in the frame 14. The elevator 12 ¦ platform 12 is prevented from rotating in a horizontal 13¦ plane by a pair of rollers 68 which straddle a vertically 14 extending rail 70 spaced behind the rod 67, as viewed in 151 FIG. 4. The rollers 68 are attached to the vertically 161 extending portion 64 of the elevator 12 by means of an I -17 integrally mounted boss 72 on the vertical portion 64.
18 The elevator platform 12 is raised and lowered by 19 means of a vertically extending sprocket chain 74 which is trained around a sprocket pulley 76 mounted on a horizontal 211 shaft 78 at the base of the elevator and around a sprocket 22 ¦ 80 rotatably mounted on a horizontal shaft 82 at the top of 231 the elevator. The horizontal shafts 78 and 82 are rotatably 24 ¦ mounted in bosses or brackets attached to the frame 14. The 251 lower sprocket pulley 76 also has a drive chain 84 trained 261 around it which is driven by an electric motor 86. It is to 271 be understood that the motor 86 i~cludes suitable reduction 28¦ gearing (not shown). The lower sprocket pulley 76 is not 29 pinned to the shaft 78 and rotates freely about it. It is to be understood that each of the elevators 12, 16 and 18, 31¦ has an independent motor drive.
32 In order to completely stabilize the platform 12 .. .
. ' ~ ' . : - .
1~90383 ~1 in the horizontal plane, a l)air of vertically extending rods 2 88 and 90 are positioned on either side of the elevator 31 platform near the front, as best viewed in FIG. 4. The 41 vertical roa 90 is on the right side of the platform and the 51 vertical rod 88 is on the left side of the platform as .
61 viewed in FIG. 4. Separate rollers 92 and 94 mounted on 7 I the underside of the horizontal portion 62 of the elevator 8 bear against the rods 88 and 90, respectively. The vertical rod 88 is mounted on a horizontal swinging arm 96 which is lO ¦ pivoted on the frame 14 toward the rear of the hori~ontal 11 platform 62 at a point 98. This allows the vertical rod 88 12 ~ to be swung open from the platform elevator 12 when the feed l3 stack is placed on top of-the platform 62. The rod 88 is 14 thereafter swung closed to prevent the stack from being removed from the elevator 12.
16 The frame 14 includes a top horizontal working 17 space 100 which has a cut-out portion 102 to accommodate the 18 horizontal platform 62 of the elevator 12. It has similar 19 cut-out portions to accommodate the other elevators as well.
20¦ A pair of photo-opt:ic sensors 104 are placed on opposite 21 sides of the cut-out space 102 to detect the presence or 22 absence of the top layer of material in the stack carried by 23 the elevator 12. These photo-optic sensors lead to a 24 control panel (not shown) which control the indexing motion of the motor 86 which raises the elevator 12 by a distance 26 corresponding to the thickness of one ply of fabric in the 28 stack as it is removed by the differentiating lleads. ~
second pair of photo-optic sensors 106 are mounted on top of 29 the horizontal platform 100 of the frame 14 and are directed 30 upwardly to detect the contr~st of the underslde of the 332 fabric workpieces carried by the differentiating heads 24 and 26- This contrast is due to the faFt that the twill denim ' ,, , -11- , -~1l fabric from which the pocket facings are made, has a bluc 2 ¦ tint on the one side and a white line striped pattern on the 3 I opposite side. The white striped side reflects more light 4 ¦ and thus can be sensed by the sensors 106. The sensors 106
5 ¦ addit~onally provide information as to whetller or not a - -
6 I pocket facing has been dropped by cne of the differentiating 71 heads which also would throw off the sequencing of the ¦ differentiation process.
9 I The controls for the operation of the carriage 10¦ transfer 30 and the control for the differentiating heads 24 ll and 26 will not be described in detail since such sequential 12 ¦ controls are well known to those skilled in the art. They ~3¦ basically involve a timing disc mounted to rotate in 14 synchronism with the drive for the carriage transfer. Th~e 15¦ timing disc includes sensor means for actuating pneumatic , 16 valves and the drive motors in a properly timed sequence.
17¦ Referring now more particularly to FIGS. 1, 2 and 18 7 - 9, the operation of the differentiating heads will be 19 described. Although the description relates particularly 201 to the differentiating head 26, it will be understood that 21 the description is equally applicable to the differentiating 22 ¦ head 24.
231 The differentiating head 26 includes a pair of 1 24¦ spaced apart rectangular, horizontal frame members 108 and ;
251 109 mounted on the horizontal bar 22. Separate groups of 26¦ cylindrical elements 110 and 112 are rotatably mounted on 27¦ the frame members lOB and 109, respectively. The 28¦ cylindrical elements are eccentrically mounted to rota~e 29 ¦ with shafts 114 and 116, respectively. The shaft 114 is 31 more or less centered through the lower right hand quadrant, . ' -12-. ~
:
Il 1090383 as viewed in FIG. 7, of the circular cross-section of the 2 cylindrical elements 110. The shaft 116 is more or less 3 ¦ centered through the lower left hand quadrant of the cross-4 ¦ section of the cyli,ndrical elements 112. The cylindrical S I elements 110 and 112 as well as the shafts 114 and 116 are 6 ~ all parallel to each other. The frames 108 and 109 are
9 I The controls for the operation of the carriage 10¦ transfer 30 and the control for the differentiating heads 24 ll and 26 will not be described in detail since such sequential 12 ¦ controls are well known to those skilled in the art. They ~3¦ basically involve a timing disc mounted to rotate in 14 synchronism with the drive for the carriage transfer. Th~e 15¦ timing disc includes sensor means for actuating pneumatic , 16 valves and the drive motors in a properly timed sequence.
17¦ Referring now more particularly to FIGS. 1, 2 and 18 7 - 9, the operation of the differentiating heads will be 19 described. Although the description relates particularly 201 to the differentiating head 26, it will be understood that 21 the description is equally applicable to the differentiating 22 ¦ head 24.
231 The differentiating head 26 includes a pair of 1 24¦ spaced apart rectangular, horizontal frame members 108 and ;
251 109 mounted on the horizontal bar 22. Separate groups of 26¦ cylindrical elements 110 and 112 are rotatably mounted on 27¦ the frame members lOB and 109, respectively. The 28¦ cylindrical elements are eccentrically mounted to rota~e 29 ¦ with shafts 114 and 116, respectively. The shaft 114 is 31 more or less centered through the lower right hand quadrant, . ' -12-. ~
:
Il 1090383 as viewed in FIG. 7, of the circular cross-section of the 2 cylindrical elements 110. The shaft 116 is more or less 3 ¦ centered through the lower left hand quadrant of the cross-4 ¦ section of the cyli,ndrical elements 112. The cylindrical S I elements 110 and 112 as well as the shafts 114 and 116 are 6 ~ all parallel to each other. The frames 108 and 109 are
7 ¦ adjustably mounted on the bar 22 by brackets 111 so that the
8 ¦ cylindrical elements 110 and 112 can be spaced apart by
9 ¦ slightly less than the width of any given group of fabric
10 ¦'workpieces 10. As best viewed in FIG. 10, the cylindrical
11 I elements 110 are adjustably spaced apart along the shaft 114
12 ¦ and the elements 112 are adjustably spaced apart along the
13 shaft 116.
14¦ Each cylindrical element 110 and 112 has at least
15 a pair of needles 12P threadably mounted in the cylinder so as
16¦ to project slightly beyond the cylindrical surface of the
17¦ cylinders and at an acute angle to the cylindrical surface (see '~
18¦ FIG. 8). The needles 120 are each mounted in a threaded
19¦ screw 121 which is screwed into a threaded bore 123. The
20¦ needles of the cylinder 110 are mounted so as to be inclined
21 ¦ to the cylindrical surface taken in the counterclockwise
22 ¦ direction. The needles of the cylinder 112 are mounted so , 231 as to be inclined to the cylindrical surface in the ' 241 clockwise direction. Thus, the needles of the cylinders 110 ' 25 1 and 112 are directed towards the ends of the topmost fabric 26¦ layer 20. ' 271 Each cylinder 110 and 112 has an outer 28 cylindrical lay~er of foam 122 through which the needles 120 29 project by a distance which is adjus~ted to be sliyhtly less 33o than the thickness of one layer of fabric in the stack 10.
32 ` ' ' ' . '. -13- ' ' .' : ' , ` , . ' -~
.., 1 109(~383 :
1 ' ~n this manner, when the ho~izontal arm 22 with the diffcrentiatin 2 head 26 is lowered onto the top of the stack 10 of the fabric -3 ¦ layers, the needles 120 will penetrate only into the top layer 4 20 of fabric. Ir. order to counter-rotate the cylinders 110 and 5 ¦ 112, with respect to each other, the shaft 116 of the cylinder 6 ¦ 1~2 is provided with a crank arm 124 which is pivotally 7 ¦ connected to the shaft 126 of a pneumatic actuator 128. Upon the 8 ¦ application of a proper pressure differential to the actuator 9 ¦ 12~ by means of air hoses 130, the shaft 126 may be made to .
10 ¦ withdraw into the cylinder 128 o~ extend from it. When it is 11 withdrawn into the actuator 128, the reaction is to rotate the 12 ¦ cylinder 112 in a clockwise direction, as indicated in 13 ¦ dash-liné fashion in FIG. 7. A similar actuator is disposed .
14 ¦ on the opposite side of frame 108 to operate the shaft 114 1.
15¦ and thus simultaneously rotate the cylinder 110 in the opposite 16 ¦ direction from the direction of rotation of the cylinder 112. .
17¦ Between the.frames 108 and 109, a second needle 132 is 18¦ .mounted in a downwardly extending portion 131 of the frame so as 19¦ to project beneath the frame and normal to a hypothetical plane ~.
20 lying tangent to the corresponding portions of the curved 21 ¦ surfaces of the cylinders 110 and 112. ~ block of foam 134 22 ¦ surrounds the needle 132.
231 The adjustability of the spacing between the cylindrical 241 elements, such as the elements 110, along their axis of rotation 251 allows workpieces of different shapes and sizes to be 26 ¦ acco~nodated.
271 In operation, the differentiating hcad 26 i.s 281 lowered by means of the carriage transfer mechanism, as 291 described in greater detail above, onto the top layer 20 of . .
31 . .
32 . .
. . .
~ -14--11 109(~383 the stack 10 of fabric pieces on the elevator 12. The foam 2 ¦ 122 on the cylinders 110 and 112 as well as the foam hlock 3 1 134 are slightly compressed and the pneumatic act~ator 128 4 and its corresponding counterpart on the opyosite side of the-frame, 108, are actuated to counter-rotate the 6 ¦ cylinders 110 and 112 so as to drive the needles 120 into 7 ¦ the topmost fabric layer. Because of the eccentric mounting - 8 ¦ of the cylinders 110 and 112 on the shafts 114 and 116 a more 9 ¦ favorable orbit of motion for the needles is thereby obtained -than lf the cylinders were centrally mounted. This eccentric 11 ¦ needle movement gives a more favorable angle of penetration, 12 ¦ i. e., nearly perpendicular to the top layer 20 by the needle 13 120. The needle 120 is also swung with less vertical displacement 14 when it is nearly parallel with the stack layers thereby providing a hooking action.
16 Because of the location of the cylinders 110 and 17¦ 112, being adjusted to be close to the edges of the fabric 18 layer 118, the counter-rotation of the cylinders tellds to 19¦ curl up the edges of the topmost layer, thereby breaking -20 ¦ the bond of interlocking threads which would otlierwise hold 21 ¦ it to the next most fabric layer. The effect is a 22 ¦ stretching of the topmost layer in addition to curling the 231 edges. The purpose of the stationary needle 132 is to 241 prevent any misalignment of the topmost fabric layer as it 25 ¦ is belng differentiated. Oncë the interlockinc~ thread ~ond 26¦ is broken by the action of the needles, 120, the 271 differentiating head 24 is raised to carry away the topmost 28¦ layer. After the differentiating head is positioned and 291 lowered onto the stack on the appropriate receiving elevator 16, the actuators, such as actuator 128, are operated in . .' -15- l " :' ' '', ~.'-~ 1090383 11l the reverse direction to exLend their shafts 126, thereby 2 counter-rotating the cylinders 110 and 11? in the reverse 3 direction from the previous operation to tl~ereby witl)draw ' 4 the needles 120 from the topmost layer 20 oE ~al,ric an~
5 I release it. ~t this point, the resiliency of the foam 6 layers 122 and 134 aids in separating the fabric from ' 7 the needles and releases the topmost layer 20 onto the top 8 of the stack carried by the elevator 16. ~s mentioned 9 previously, upon the removal of the topmost layer 20 from the stack 10 carried by the elev~tor 12, the photo cells 104 11 will cause the stack to index upwardly by a distance equal 12 to approximately the thickness of one layer of the fabric.
13 The photo cells 104 which control ,the positioning of the l4 elevator 16 will cause the elevator to index downwardly by 15 'the distance approximately equal to the newly deposited top-16 most layer 20 released by the differentiating head 26.
17 The control of the differentiating head actuators 18 128 is done by ,the'timing disc mechanism referred to above 19¦ (but not shown). It should be understood that in other embodiments other types of controls may be used, such as 21 contacting switches and photo-optic sensors.
22 Referring now more particularly to FIG. 11, the
32 ` ' ' ' . '. -13- ' ' .' : ' , ` , . ' -~
.., 1 109(~383 :
1 ' ~n this manner, when the ho~izontal arm 22 with the diffcrentiatin 2 head 26 is lowered onto the top of the stack 10 of the fabric -3 ¦ layers, the needles 120 will penetrate only into the top layer 4 20 of fabric. Ir. order to counter-rotate the cylinders 110 and 5 ¦ 112, with respect to each other, the shaft 116 of the cylinder 6 ¦ 1~2 is provided with a crank arm 124 which is pivotally 7 ¦ connected to the shaft 126 of a pneumatic actuator 128. Upon the 8 ¦ application of a proper pressure differential to the actuator 9 ¦ 12~ by means of air hoses 130, the shaft 126 may be made to .
10 ¦ withdraw into the cylinder 128 o~ extend from it. When it is 11 withdrawn into the actuator 128, the reaction is to rotate the 12 ¦ cylinder 112 in a clockwise direction, as indicated in 13 ¦ dash-liné fashion in FIG. 7. A similar actuator is disposed .
14 ¦ on the opposite side of frame 108 to operate the shaft 114 1.
15¦ and thus simultaneously rotate the cylinder 110 in the opposite 16 ¦ direction from the direction of rotation of the cylinder 112. .
17¦ Between the.frames 108 and 109, a second needle 132 is 18¦ .mounted in a downwardly extending portion 131 of the frame so as 19¦ to project beneath the frame and normal to a hypothetical plane ~.
20 lying tangent to the corresponding portions of the curved 21 ¦ surfaces of the cylinders 110 and 112. ~ block of foam 134 22 ¦ surrounds the needle 132.
231 The adjustability of the spacing between the cylindrical 241 elements, such as the elements 110, along their axis of rotation 251 allows workpieces of different shapes and sizes to be 26 ¦ acco~nodated.
271 In operation, the differentiating hcad 26 i.s 281 lowered by means of the carriage transfer mechanism, as 291 described in greater detail above, onto the top layer 20 of . .
31 . .
32 . .
. . .
~ -14--11 109(~383 the stack 10 of fabric pieces on the elevator 12. The foam 2 ¦ 122 on the cylinders 110 and 112 as well as the foam hlock 3 1 134 are slightly compressed and the pneumatic act~ator 128 4 and its corresponding counterpart on the opyosite side of the-frame, 108, are actuated to counter-rotate the 6 ¦ cylinders 110 and 112 so as to drive the needles 120 into 7 ¦ the topmost fabric layer. Because of the eccentric mounting - 8 ¦ of the cylinders 110 and 112 on the shafts 114 and 116 a more 9 ¦ favorable orbit of motion for the needles is thereby obtained -than lf the cylinders were centrally mounted. This eccentric 11 ¦ needle movement gives a more favorable angle of penetration, 12 ¦ i. e., nearly perpendicular to the top layer 20 by the needle 13 120. The needle 120 is also swung with less vertical displacement 14 when it is nearly parallel with the stack layers thereby providing a hooking action.
16 Because of the location of the cylinders 110 and 17¦ 112, being adjusted to be close to the edges of the fabric 18 layer 118, the counter-rotation of the cylinders tellds to 19¦ curl up the edges of the topmost layer, thereby breaking -20 ¦ the bond of interlocking threads which would otlierwise hold 21 ¦ it to the next most fabric layer. The effect is a 22 ¦ stretching of the topmost layer in addition to curling the 231 edges. The purpose of the stationary needle 132 is to 241 prevent any misalignment of the topmost fabric layer as it 25 ¦ is belng differentiated. Oncë the interlockinc~ thread ~ond 26¦ is broken by the action of the needles, 120, the 271 differentiating head 24 is raised to carry away the topmost 28¦ layer. After the differentiating head is positioned and 291 lowered onto the stack on the appropriate receiving elevator 16, the actuators, such as actuator 128, are operated in . .' -15- l " :' ' '', ~.'-~ 1090383 11l the reverse direction to exLend their shafts 126, thereby 2 counter-rotating the cylinders 110 and 11? in the reverse 3 direction from the previous operation to tl~ereby witl)draw ' 4 the needles 120 from the topmost layer 20 oE ~al,ric an~
5 I release it. ~t this point, the resiliency of the foam 6 layers 122 and 134 aids in separating the fabric from ' 7 the needles and releases the topmost layer 20 onto the top 8 of the stack carried by the elevator 16. ~s mentioned 9 previously, upon the removal of the topmost layer 20 from the stack 10 carried by the elev~tor 12, the photo cells 104 11 will cause the stack to index upwardly by a distance equal 12 to approximately the thickness of one layer of the fabric.
13 The photo cells 104 which control ,the positioning of the l4 elevator 16 will cause the elevator to index downwardly by 15 'the distance approximately equal to the newly deposited top-16 most layer 20 released by the differentiating head 26.
17 The control of the differentiating head actuators 18 128 is done by ,the'timing disc mechanism referred to above 19¦ (but not shown). It should be understood that in other embodiments other types of controls may be used, such as 21 contacting switches and photo-optic sensors.
22 Referring now more particularly to FIG. 11, the
23 facing ply separator of tho invention when used in 241 conjunction with an assembly line garment manufacturing system is illustrated. In this application, the facing ply 26 separator is used to feed alternately facing plies to tlle 27 inp~t to the assembly line system as well as providin~ a i8 stack of plies all of which are of one type. This is in con-29 trast to the apparatus described above in reference to FIG. 1 in which the single main feed stack was divi~ed into 32 , ' ' ~ . .
- -16- ' - `
1~90383 wo separate stacks of same type plles. As shown ln FIG. Il, the fscing ply separator apparatus 136 of the type described above, differentiates the topmost layer of the main feed stack 10 and sequentially and alternately places the differentiated topmost layer onto the stack carried by the receiving elevators 16 and onto a registration table 142. The registration tablè
142 is, in effect, a transparent glass, horizontal plane carried by a servD mechanism 138. Stationary photo-optic sensors (not shown) control the servo mechanism 138 to position the table 142 such that the workpiece 140 deposited by the facing ply separ-ator 136 onto the table 142 is precisely positioned with respect to a vacuum transfer mechanism 144. The transfer mechanism 144 ~
then reciprocates horizontally to place the separated piece 140 ~ - -at one input to the assembly line apparatus, the remainder of whic~h is not shown in FIG. 11. The registration table 138 and the carriage transfer mechansim 144 are not described in detail since such mechanisms are generally well known. See, for example, ~.S. Patents Nos. 3,548,196 granted on December 15, 1970 to Ivanhoe Research Corporation and 3,442,505 granted on May 6, 1969 to Ivanhoe Research Corporation. By this manner of placing one ply into a separate stack and the other ply onto the feeding means of a processing machine directly re- I`
stacking of the one half of the separated material is thereby !`:
avoided.
Referring now more particularly to FIGS. 12A - 12H, inclusive, a modification of the differentiating head depicted in FIGS. 7 - 10 is illustrated. Similar elements have been assigned corresponding reference numerals, primed. The basic differentiating head depicted in the modified embodiment is essentially the same as that depicted in FIGS. 8 - 10, with the exception of the center needle 132'. The center needle 132' ; ~,~, ,. :
~. ~;. I
~ ' . - ' .
D lQ90383 ~
is for the purpose of fi~ g the position of tl~e topln~s~ laycr ~ 20 with respect to the rotatable cylinders 110' and 112' 3 during the separation process, thereby preventing any misalignment of-the topmost layer 20 either during separation or during its release upon the separated workpiece piles. ' 6 The center needle 132' in the mGdified embodiment is 7 ¦ mounted on the end of a shaft 202 which projects from a vertical 81 arm 200. The arm 200 may be attached to the frame 22 (see FIG. 8) ¦ or it may be independently mounted. In any case, the arm 200 is ¦ ' raised and lowered simultaneously with the rotatable cylinders ll 110' and 112' during the separation process. A stripper 204 is 12 coaxially mounted about the shaft 202 and is slida~le Oll the 13 shaft 202 between a first position in which the needle 132' is 14 unsheathed so that it can penetrate the topmost layer 20 and a second position, shown in FIG. 12H, in which the needle 132 is 16 covered by the lower end of the stripper 204. The action of the 17¦ stripper 204 may be either by simple gravity and inertia or it 18 may be air cylinder actuated or spring loaded. , 19 The operation of this modified embodiment is depicted in 20¦ the seguence of drawings in FIGS. 12A - 12H. In FIG. 12~, the 21 differentiating head has been lowered onto the topmost layer 20 22 and the needle 132' has penetrated the topmost layer 20 and the 23 stripper 204 has been lifted to ,its uppermost position by the
- -16- ' - `
1~90383 wo separate stacks of same type plles. As shown ln FIG. Il, the fscing ply separator apparatus 136 of the type described above, differentiates the topmost layer of the main feed stack 10 and sequentially and alternately places the differentiated topmost layer onto the stack carried by the receiving elevators 16 and onto a registration table 142. The registration tablè
142 is, in effect, a transparent glass, horizontal plane carried by a servD mechanism 138. Stationary photo-optic sensors (not shown) control the servo mechanism 138 to position the table 142 such that the workpiece 140 deposited by the facing ply separ-ator 136 onto the table 142 is precisely positioned with respect to a vacuum transfer mechanism 144. The transfer mechanism 144 ~
then reciprocates horizontally to place the separated piece 140 ~ - -at one input to the assembly line apparatus, the remainder of whic~h is not shown in FIG. 11. The registration table 138 and the carriage transfer mechansim 144 are not described in detail since such mechanisms are generally well known. See, for example, ~.S. Patents Nos. 3,548,196 granted on December 15, 1970 to Ivanhoe Research Corporation and 3,442,505 granted on May 6, 1969 to Ivanhoe Research Corporation. By this manner of placing one ply into a separate stack and the other ply onto the feeding means of a processing machine directly re- I`
stacking of the one half of the separated material is thereby !`:
avoided.
Referring now more particularly to FIGS. 12A - 12H, inclusive, a modification of the differentiating head depicted in FIGS. 7 - 10 is illustrated. Similar elements have been assigned corresponding reference numerals, primed. The basic differentiating head depicted in the modified embodiment is essentially the same as that depicted in FIGS. 8 - 10, with the exception of the center needle 132'. The center needle 132' ; ~,~, ,. :
~. ~;. I
~ ' . - ' .
D lQ90383 ~
is for the purpose of fi~ g the position of tl~e topln~s~ laycr ~ 20 with respect to the rotatable cylinders 110' and 112' 3 during the separation process, thereby preventing any misalignment of-the topmost layer 20 either during separation or during its release upon the separated workpiece piles. ' 6 The center needle 132' in the mGdified embodiment is 7 ¦ mounted on the end of a shaft 202 which projects from a vertical 81 arm 200. The arm 200 may be attached to the frame 22 (see FIG. 8) ¦ or it may be independently mounted. In any case, the arm 200 is ¦ ' raised and lowered simultaneously with the rotatable cylinders ll 110' and 112' during the separation process. A stripper 204 is 12 coaxially mounted about the shaft 202 and is slida~le Oll the 13 shaft 202 between a first position in which the needle 132' is 14 unsheathed so that it can penetrate the topmost layer 20 and a second position, shown in FIG. 12H, in which the needle 132 is 16 covered by the lower end of the stripper 204. The action of the 17¦ stripper 204 may be either by simple gravity and inertia or it 18 may be air cylinder actuated or spring loaded. , 19 The operation of this modified embodiment is depicted in 20¦ the seguence of drawings in FIGS. 12A - 12H. In FIG. 12~, the 21 differentiating head has been lowered onto the topmost layer 20 22 and the needle 132' has penetrated the topmost layer 20 and the 23 stripper 204 has been lifted to ,its uppermost position by the
24 force of the fabric 20 against the lower edge of the stripper 204.
251 In FIGS. 12B and 12C, the rotatable cylinders 110' and il2' have 26 been counter-rotated to engage the topmost layer 20 and to curl 27 its outer edges up and away from t'he corre~sponding edges of the 28¦ next succee~ing layer in the stack 10. The rotata~le cylinders 29 110' and 112' are lifted upwardly with respect to the ar~ 200 31 ' , ' 32 ' .
. ' -18- `
. .
l I ~hicll causes the topmost ll;er 20 to bend around the projectiny 2 ¦ needle 132', thereby further aiding the separation of the tcpmost 31 layer 20 as best shown in ~IG. 12D.
4 In FIG. 12E the differentiating head has separate~ the S I topmost layer 20 and moves it to either- the first or the ~econd 6 1 location in the manner described above for the primary embodiment.
7 ¦ In FIG. 12F, the differentiating head has deposited the 8 ¦ topmost layer 20 onto one of the receiving elevators 16 or 18 and 9 ¦ is about to disengage the rotatable cylinders 110' and 112'. The 10 ¦disengagement of the rotatable cylinders 110' and 112' is accom-11 plished by count~r-rotation as is shown in FIG. 12G. The differen-12 ¦tiating head is then lifted clear of the receiving elevator and 13 ¦the inertia of the stripper 204 causes it to slide to its lowermost 14 position on the shaft 202 thereby forcing the topmost layer 20 15¦ ciear of the needle 132' to complete the differentiation process.
16 It should be apparent that in other embodiments the 17¦ stripper 204 may be stationary with respect to the arm 200 and 18¦ the shaft 202 may be withdrawable up into the arm 200. It is ~91 the sheathing and unsheathing of the needle 132' which the 20¦ applicant regards as his invention.
21 ¦ Referring now more particularly to FIGS. 13A - 13F, still 22 ¦ a further modification of the embodiment depicted in FIGS. 12~ -231 121~ is illustrated. In this embodiment, the differentiation of 24 ¦ the topmost layer is aided by a pair of separating rods 206. The 251 separating rods 206 are mounted parallel to the rotata}~le 26¦ cylinders 110' and 112'. The rods 206 can be supported hy a 271 lever arm or simply can extend through horizontal slots 208 in 28¦ a pair of horizontal members 210 positioned at opposite ends o~
29 the cylinders 110' and 112' so as to strad~le the cylinders, 30¦ as best shown in FIG. 13G.
~ 311 . . .
.' ~' . , . ~ 19-.
1~ 1090383 Ill rhe frame members 210 are ~ ached to the diffcrentiating head .. 2 frame 22. Tllus, the separating rods 206 are slida~le horizo~ lly . 3 in the slots 208 in a plane which is parallel to the topmost : 4 I workpiece 20. The separating rods 206 are biased to~ard tl-eir . 5 outermost positions, as best shown in FIG. 13G, by tension springs 212 which are attached to the frame members 210.
.7 A further difference from the embodiment depicted in FI~S.
- 8 12~ - 12H is that the rotatable cylinders 110' and 112' are 9 I movable vertically somewhat independently of the center needle 10 1 132'. To accomplish this, the vertical rod 200 wllicll carries 11 ¦ the needle 132' forms the end of a plunger in a hydraulic or 12 pneumatic actuator 213 which, in turn, is attached to the frame 13 22 of the differentiating head. The operation of this modified embodiment is best depicted in FIGS. 13A - 13F. The differentiat-ing head is first lowered onto the topmost layer 20 of the feed 16 stack as viewed in FIG. .13A. The rotatable cylinders 110' and . 17¦ 112' ar.e then counter-rotated to engage the needles 120' in the l:
; 8 ;workpiece 20. The differentiating head is then raised vertically . 19 slightly while the actuator 213 is caused to extend.the needle 132' downwardly so as to remain in contact with thc laycr 20 on 21 top of the stack 10. Simultaneously with the raising of the 22 rotatable cylinders 110' and 112', the workpiece 20 is caused 23 to bend around the separating rods 206 and to there~y exert a ~41 force inwardly towards the needle 132' on the rods 206. ~s this 251 process continues, the rods 206 are drawn toward the center of 26 the workpiece 20 and the needle 132 ', as b~est snown in FIGS. 13D
27 and 13E. All during this time, the actuator 213 causes the 28¦ needle 132' to press the center of the workpiece 20 a~ainst the 29 topmost.layer of the stack 10. Ultimately, the differentiating 32 . .
.
. -20-~ nead lifts the cylinders 1~' and 112' together with the center 2 ¦ needle assembly 132' and the workpiece 20 free of the stac~ 10 ' 3 as shown in FIG. 13F. : -4 ¦ The differentiating head releases tl-c separate~ work~iece 20 on one of the receiving elevators 16 or 18 ~y simply reversing the above described process. ~s in the embodimcnt.s depicted in 7 FIGS. 12~ - 12H, when the needle 132' is withdrawn from the 8 topmost workpiece 20 after its release the stripping mem~er 204, 9 either by inertia or by spring force, strips the workpiece 20 10 ¦ from the end of the needle 132' to aid in the separation.
11 Referring now more particularly to FIGS. 14~ - 14F, still l2 another variation of the embodiment depicted in FIGS. 12A - 1211 13 I is illustrated. The primary difference between this ernbodiment 14¦ and the embodiment depicted in FIGS. 12A - 12H is that the 15 rotatable cylindrical' elements 110' and 112' not only are l ¦~
i6 counter-rotated to engage or disengage the topmost workpiece 20, 17¦ but they are simultaneously moved closer or further away from 18¦ each other during engagement and disengagement with the l9¦ workpiece 20, respectively. Thus, as best shown in FIGS. 14B -20 1 14E, after the differentiating head is lowered onto the topmost ~ -21 workpiece 20 the cylinders 110' and 112' are counter-rotated 22 ¦ to engage the needles 120' in the topmost wor};piece 20 while at 23 ¦ the same time the cylinders are rolled clo'ser to each other 241 toward the center of'the workpiece 20 at the needle 132'. When the cylinders 110' and 112- have reached a predetermined syacing 26¦ immediately'adjacent to the needle 132', the differentiating head 271 lifts up with the workpiece 20 having its opposite ends rolled 28 around the cylinders 110' and 112'. The mechanism by which the 29 cylinders 110' and 112' are moved and simultaneously rotated is 301 illustrated in FIG. 14F. It should be understood that this is 32 :
. . ' . :
-21- ' ' l imply an example of one suitable mechanism for moving and 2 ¦ rotating the cylinders and numerous other types of mechanisms 3 ~ will undoubtedly be apparent to those having ordinary skills in 4 I the art. It is the type of movement of the cylinders 110' and 5 j 112' which the applicant regards as his invention rather than 6 the specific mechanism for carrying out this movement.
¦ ~s shown in FIG. 14F, the cylinders llOi and 112' are ~8 mounted on symmetric, axial shafts-114' and 116', respectively. -9 It will be noted that the shafts 114' and 116' are not mounted 10 ¦ in the cyllnders 110' and 112' eccentricàlly as is disclosed 11 ¦ in the primary embodiment. A modification to allow an eccentric 12 rotatable mounting would be apparent to those skilled in the art, 13 however, it-will be omitted for the sake of clarity in this 14 description. The shafts 114' and 116' are carried in a lS horizontal slot 214 in a horizontal frame memher 216 which is 16 attached to the differentiating head 22. It will be appreciated 171 that a frame member 216 is positioned at each end of the shafts 18 114' and 116' in order to support the cylinders 110' and 112'.
19¦ A gear 218 is mounted at one end of each of the shafts 114' and 116'. Each gear 218 engages a separate rack member 220 ?l l which is attached to the end of a plunger of a separate pneumatic 22 actuator 222 mounted on one of the frame'members 216. The 23 pneumatic actuators 222 are two-way acting. When they are ?4 l caused to retract, the rack members 220 move toward the center 251 of the'workpiece 20, that is toward the member 20n which is 26¦ centered between the cylinders 110' and 112'. The ac~uators 222 27 are simultaneously operated to thereby'simultaneously counter-28¦ rotat'e the cylinders 110' and 112' and roll them towards each 29 other. IA order to disengage the cylinders 110' and 112' from .' -22-- ' .
.
` j 109(~383 1 -` ' :
I _he workpiece 20, of cours~, the actuators 222 are operated to 2 extend their rack members 220 and thereby counter-rotate the 3 cylinders llO' and 112' away from each other. ~s mel-tioned 4 above, it will be apparent that numerous other modifications for accomplishing the same objective will be readily apparent to tl-ose skilled in the art and the applicant makes no claim of 7 invention to the particular mechanism for carrying out this 8 operation.
91 The cylinders 110' and 112' shown in FIG. 14F are of exaggerated size for aid i-n the illustration. In actual practice, the cylinders llO' and 112' would be of a relatively small 12 diameter to allow the workpiece 20 to be rolled thereon.
13 Referring now mQre particularly to FIGS. 15~ - 15F, still 14 another embodiment of the invention is illustrated. }leretofore, the differentiating head was moved by a transfer carriage 16 mechanism in order to sort the differentiated workpieces into two 17¦ separate piles. In the next series of embodiments, including the 18 embodiment depicted in FIGS. 15A - 15F, the differentiating 191 head rema-ins in relatively close proximity to the feed stack 10.
The separated workpieces are transferred sequentially to the - 21 first and second locations by means of a conveyor type belt. Such 22 a belt may have a gripper thereon or may be a vacuum operated 23 belt of the type which is well known to those skilled in the 24 making of automated,garment manufacturing devices. -In this embodiment, the differentiating head has a single 26 rotatable cyllndrical element 224 having a projecting needle 27 120'. The cylindrical element 224 is positioned at one edge of 28 the fabric ply stack 10. ~ separating rod 226 is located 2 immediately adjacent to the cylinder 224 on the side opposite 31 . .
. ' , . ' . ' - .
l I to the edge. During separa~ion the cylindrical ele~ent 224 is 2 ¦ ~otated, as for example, in a clockwise direction shown in FIG. .-3 15B to engage the needle 120' in the edge of the topmost fabric --workpiece 20. This curls up the edge of the workpiece 20. ~
S clamp 228 is rotated in a clockwise direction to hold down the , 6 I remaining edges of the feed stack 10.
7 I The cylindrical element 224 is then caused ~o move in an arc, as shown in F-IG. lSC, up and over the separatin~ rocl 226 and 9 ¦ then passes horizontally across the top of the feed .stack 10.
10 ¦ The,separating rod 226 can be mounted ln a framework similar to 11 ¦ that shown in FIG. 13G so that the separating rod 226 is spring 12 ¦ biased against the drawing force of the workpiece 20. Causing :
13 the workpiece 20 to bend around the separatiny rod 226 and to 14 'move the separating rod 226 across the fabric stack aids greatly '51 in the separation by producing a movable bend in the fabric 16 which disengages the threads of the workpiece 20 from the under-17¦ lying layer. It will be apparent that the movement of the 18 separating rod 226 is one half the speed of the movement of the 19¦ rotatable cylinder 224 in traveling across the top of the fabric 20 ¦ stack.
21~ The rotatable cylinder 224 delivers the curled up end of 22 ¦ the ~orkpiece 20 to a vacuum transfer belt 230.positioned above 2~1 and to one side of the fabric stack 10. The vacuum grips the 241 workpiece 20 through.holes 232 in the belt in the manner well 251 understood by those skilled in the art as the cylinder 224 is.
26¦ simultaneously rotated counterclockwise to disengage its needles 271 120.' from the workpiece. On the return stroke of the cylinder 28¦ 224, it presses the workpiece 20 up and in contact with.
29 the vacuum belt 230. ~imultaneously the separating rod 226 301 returns to its original position by the force of the sprin~ ' 31 attached to it. While a particular type o~ transfer belt is .
. ,' .-24-., 1 I illustrated, it should be apparent that other suitable types of 2 transfer belts may be utilized such as belts having cam operated 3 ¦ grippers thereon.
4 ~ne feature of this embodiment which is not disclosed in the embodiments described heretofore, is that wllile the workpiece ¦
; 6 20 is separated from the stack 10 it is also inverted. The I delivery of the separated and inverted workpiece to one of two 81 locations by the belt 230 is under separate control. The vacuum 9 on the belt over the first and second locations is alternately ~ -'I and sequentially closed off to cause the pieces to be dropped in 11 succession at the first location and then the second location.
12 Still another embodiment wl-ich both separates the topmost -13 workpiece and inverts it, is illustrated in FIGS. l~A- 16F. In 14 this embodin~ent, the rotatable cylindrical elements 110' and 112' are mounted on separate swing arms 234 and 236, respectively.
16 The swing arms, in turn, `are each attaclled at one end to separate '7I horizontal rotatable shafts 238 and 240. The mechanism for 18 rotating the rotatable cylinders 110' and 112' can be those 19 shown in the previously described embodiment depicted in FIC.S. 8 -20 10. Alternatively, the cylinders may be rotated by separate 211 servo motors. The shafts 238 and 240 can be rotated by means of 22 pneumatic actuato~rs operating through cranks or they may be 23 ¦ operated by still further servo motors or pneumatic actuators.
24 ¦ Since the mecl-anism for accomplishing tllese various movements 251 would be obvious to those skilled in the art, a more detailed 26 description of them will be omitted.
271 In operation, the cylinders 110' and ll2' a~e ro~ted by -281 mealls of the lever arms 234 and 236 and the sha~ts 238 and 240.
29 Initially the cylinderical elements 110' and 112' are positioned 31 on top of the topmost workpiece 20. The cylinder 110' is 3~
. . . ..
251 In FIGS. 12B and 12C, the rotatable cylinders 110' and il2' have 26 been counter-rotated to engage the topmost layer 20 and to curl 27 its outer edges up and away from t'he corre~sponding edges of the 28¦ next succee~ing layer in the stack 10. The rotata~le cylinders 29 110' and 112' are lifted upwardly with respect to the ar~ 200 31 ' , ' 32 ' .
. ' -18- `
. .
l I ~hicll causes the topmost ll;er 20 to bend around the projectiny 2 ¦ needle 132', thereby further aiding the separation of the tcpmost 31 layer 20 as best shown in ~IG. 12D.
4 In FIG. 12E the differentiating head has separate~ the S I topmost layer 20 and moves it to either- the first or the ~econd 6 1 location in the manner described above for the primary embodiment.
7 ¦ In FIG. 12F, the differentiating head has deposited the 8 ¦ topmost layer 20 onto one of the receiving elevators 16 or 18 and 9 ¦ is about to disengage the rotatable cylinders 110' and 112'. The 10 ¦disengagement of the rotatable cylinders 110' and 112' is accom-11 plished by count~r-rotation as is shown in FIG. 12G. The differen-12 ¦tiating head is then lifted clear of the receiving elevator and 13 ¦the inertia of the stripper 204 causes it to slide to its lowermost 14 position on the shaft 202 thereby forcing the topmost layer 20 15¦ ciear of the needle 132' to complete the differentiation process.
16 It should be apparent that in other embodiments the 17¦ stripper 204 may be stationary with respect to the arm 200 and 18¦ the shaft 202 may be withdrawable up into the arm 200. It is ~91 the sheathing and unsheathing of the needle 132' which the 20¦ applicant regards as his invention.
21 ¦ Referring now more particularly to FIGS. 13A - 13F, still 22 ¦ a further modification of the embodiment depicted in FIGS. 12~ -231 121~ is illustrated. In this embodiment, the differentiation of 24 ¦ the topmost layer is aided by a pair of separating rods 206. The 251 separating rods 206 are mounted parallel to the rotata}~le 26¦ cylinders 110' and 112'. The rods 206 can be supported hy a 271 lever arm or simply can extend through horizontal slots 208 in 28¦ a pair of horizontal members 210 positioned at opposite ends o~
29 the cylinders 110' and 112' so as to strad~le the cylinders, 30¦ as best shown in FIG. 13G.
~ 311 . . .
.' ~' . , . ~ 19-.
1~ 1090383 Ill rhe frame members 210 are ~ ached to the diffcrentiating head .. 2 frame 22. Tllus, the separating rods 206 are slida~le horizo~ lly . 3 in the slots 208 in a plane which is parallel to the topmost : 4 I workpiece 20. The separating rods 206 are biased to~ard tl-eir . 5 outermost positions, as best shown in FIG. 13G, by tension springs 212 which are attached to the frame members 210.
.7 A further difference from the embodiment depicted in FI~S.
- 8 12~ - 12H is that the rotatable cylinders 110' and 112' are 9 I movable vertically somewhat independently of the center needle 10 1 132'. To accomplish this, the vertical rod 200 wllicll carries 11 ¦ the needle 132' forms the end of a plunger in a hydraulic or 12 pneumatic actuator 213 which, in turn, is attached to the frame 13 22 of the differentiating head. The operation of this modified embodiment is best depicted in FIGS. 13A - 13F. The differentiat-ing head is first lowered onto the topmost layer 20 of the feed 16 stack as viewed in FIG. .13A. The rotatable cylinders 110' and . 17¦ 112' ar.e then counter-rotated to engage the needles 120' in the l:
; 8 ;workpiece 20. The differentiating head is then raised vertically . 19 slightly while the actuator 213 is caused to extend.the needle 132' downwardly so as to remain in contact with thc laycr 20 on 21 top of the stack 10. Simultaneously with the raising of the 22 rotatable cylinders 110' and 112', the workpiece 20 is caused 23 to bend around the separating rods 206 and to there~y exert a ~41 force inwardly towards the needle 132' on the rods 206. ~s this 251 process continues, the rods 206 are drawn toward the center of 26 the workpiece 20 and the needle 132 ', as b~est snown in FIGS. 13D
27 and 13E. All during this time, the actuator 213 causes the 28¦ needle 132' to press the center of the workpiece 20 a~ainst the 29 topmost.layer of the stack 10. Ultimately, the differentiating 32 . .
.
. -20-~ nead lifts the cylinders 1~' and 112' together with the center 2 ¦ needle assembly 132' and the workpiece 20 free of the stac~ 10 ' 3 as shown in FIG. 13F. : -4 ¦ The differentiating head releases tl-c separate~ work~iece 20 on one of the receiving elevators 16 or 18 ~y simply reversing the above described process. ~s in the embodimcnt.s depicted in 7 FIGS. 12~ - 12H, when the needle 132' is withdrawn from the 8 topmost workpiece 20 after its release the stripping mem~er 204, 9 either by inertia or by spring force, strips the workpiece 20 10 ¦ from the end of the needle 132' to aid in the separation.
11 Referring now more particularly to FIGS. 14~ - 14F, still l2 another variation of the embodiment depicted in FIGS. 12A - 1211 13 I is illustrated. The primary difference between this ernbodiment 14¦ and the embodiment depicted in FIGS. 12A - 12H is that the 15 rotatable cylindrical' elements 110' and 112' not only are l ¦~
i6 counter-rotated to engage or disengage the topmost workpiece 20, 17¦ but they are simultaneously moved closer or further away from 18¦ each other during engagement and disengagement with the l9¦ workpiece 20, respectively. Thus, as best shown in FIGS. 14B -20 1 14E, after the differentiating head is lowered onto the topmost ~ -21 workpiece 20 the cylinders 110' and 112' are counter-rotated 22 ¦ to engage the needles 120' in the topmost wor};piece 20 while at 23 ¦ the same time the cylinders are rolled clo'ser to each other 241 toward the center of'the workpiece 20 at the needle 132'. When the cylinders 110' and 112- have reached a predetermined syacing 26¦ immediately'adjacent to the needle 132', the differentiating head 271 lifts up with the workpiece 20 having its opposite ends rolled 28 around the cylinders 110' and 112'. The mechanism by which the 29 cylinders 110' and 112' are moved and simultaneously rotated is 301 illustrated in FIG. 14F. It should be understood that this is 32 :
. . ' . :
-21- ' ' l imply an example of one suitable mechanism for moving and 2 ¦ rotating the cylinders and numerous other types of mechanisms 3 ~ will undoubtedly be apparent to those having ordinary skills in 4 I the art. It is the type of movement of the cylinders 110' and 5 j 112' which the applicant regards as his invention rather than 6 the specific mechanism for carrying out this movement.
¦ ~s shown in FIG. 14F, the cylinders llOi and 112' are ~8 mounted on symmetric, axial shafts-114' and 116', respectively. -9 It will be noted that the shafts 114' and 116' are not mounted 10 ¦ in the cyllnders 110' and 112' eccentricàlly as is disclosed 11 ¦ in the primary embodiment. A modification to allow an eccentric 12 rotatable mounting would be apparent to those skilled in the art, 13 however, it-will be omitted for the sake of clarity in this 14 description. The shafts 114' and 116' are carried in a lS horizontal slot 214 in a horizontal frame memher 216 which is 16 attached to the differentiating head 22. It will be appreciated 171 that a frame member 216 is positioned at each end of the shafts 18 114' and 116' in order to support the cylinders 110' and 112'.
19¦ A gear 218 is mounted at one end of each of the shafts 114' and 116'. Each gear 218 engages a separate rack member 220 ?l l which is attached to the end of a plunger of a separate pneumatic 22 actuator 222 mounted on one of the frame'members 216. The 23 pneumatic actuators 222 are two-way acting. When they are ?4 l caused to retract, the rack members 220 move toward the center 251 of the'workpiece 20, that is toward the member 20n which is 26¦ centered between the cylinders 110' and 112'. The ac~uators 222 27 are simultaneously operated to thereby'simultaneously counter-28¦ rotat'e the cylinders 110' and 112' and roll them towards each 29 other. IA order to disengage the cylinders 110' and 112' from .' -22-- ' .
.
` j 109(~383 1 -` ' :
I _he workpiece 20, of cours~, the actuators 222 are operated to 2 extend their rack members 220 and thereby counter-rotate the 3 cylinders llO' and 112' away from each other. ~s mel-tioned 4 above, it will be apparent that numerous other modifications for accomplishing the same objective will be readily apparent to tl-ose skilled in the art and the applicant makes no claim of 7 invention to the particular mechanism for carrying out this 8 operation.
91 The cylinders 110' and 112' shown in FIG. 14F are of exaggerated size for aid i-n the illustration. In actual practice, the cylinders llO' and 112' would be of a relatively small 12 diameter to allow the workpiece 20 to be rolled thereon.
13 Referring now mQre particularly to FIGS. 15~ - 15F, still 14 another embodiment of the invention is illustrated. }leretofore, the differentiating head was moved by a transfer carriage 16 mechanism in order to sort the differentiated workpieces into two 17¦ separate piles. In the next series of embodiments, including the 18 embodiment depicted in FIGS. 15A - 15F, the differentiating 191 head rema-ins in relatively close proximity to the feed stack 10.
The separated workpieces are transferred sequentially to the - 21 first and second locations by means of a conveyor type belt. Such 22 a belt may have a gripper thereon or may be a vacuum operated 23 belt of the type which is well known to those skilled in the 24 making of automated,garment manufacturing devices. -In this embodiment, the differentiating head has a single 26 rotatable cyllndrical element 224 having a projecting needle 27 120'. The cylindrical element 224 is positioned at one edge of 28 the fabric ply stack 10. ~ separating rod 226 is located 2 immediately adjacent to the cylinder 224 on the side opposite 31 . .
. ' , . ' . ' - .
l I to the edge. During separa~ion the cylindrical ele~ent 224 is 2 ¦ ~otated, as for example, in a clockwise direction shown in FIG. .-3 15B to engage the needle 120' in the edge of the topmost fabric --workpiece 20. This curls up the edge of the workpiece 20. ~
S clamp 228 is rotated in a clockwise direction to hold down the , 6 I remaining edges of the feed stack 10.
7 I The cylindrical element 224 is then caused ~o move in an arc, as shown in F-IG. lSC, up and over the separatin~ rocl 226 and 9 ¦ then passes horizontally across the top of the feed .stack 10.
10 ¦ The,separating rod 226 can be mounted ln a framework similar to 11 ¦ that shown in FIG. 13G so that the separating rod 226 is spring 12 ¦ biased against the drawing force of the workpiece 20. Causing :
13 the workpiece 20 to bend around the separatiny rod 226 and to 14 'move the separating rod 226 across the fabric stack aids greatly '51 in the separation by producing a movable bend in the fabric 16 which disengages the threads of the workpiece 20 from the under-17¦ lying layer. It will be apparent that the movement of the 18 separating rod 226 is one half the speed of the movement of the 19¦ rotatable cylinder 224 in traveling across the top of the fabric 20 ¦ stack.
21~ The rotatable cylinder 224 delivers the curled up end of 22 ¦ the ~orkpiece 20 to a vacuum transfer belt 230.positioned above 2~1 and to one side of the fabric stack 10. The vacuum grips the 241 workpiece 20 through.holes 232 in the belt in the manner well 251 understood by those skilled in the art as the cylinder 224 is.
26¦ simultaneously rotated counterclockwise to disengage its needles 271 120.' from the workpiece. On the return stroke of the cylinder 28¦ 224, it presses the workpiece 20 up and in contact with.
29 the vacuum belt 230. ~imultaneously the separating rod 226 301 returns to its original position by the force of the sprin~ ' 31 attached to it. While a particular type o~ transfer belt is .
. ,' .-24-., 1 I illustrated, it should be apparent that other suitable types of 2 transfer belts may be utilized such as belts having cam operated 3 ¦ grippers thereon.
4 ~ne feature of this embodiment which is not disclosed in the embodiments described heretofore, is that wllile the workpiece ¦
; 6 20 is separated from the stack 10 it is also inverted. The I delivery of the separated and inverted workpiece to one of two 81 locations by the belt 230 is under separate control. The vacuum 9 on the belt over the first and second locations is alternately ~ -'I and sequentially closed off to cause the pieces to be dropped in 11 succession at the first location and then the second location.
12 Still another embodiment wl-ich both separates the topmost -13 workpiece and inverts it, is illustrated in FIGS. l~A- 16F. In 14 this embodin~ent, the rotatable cylindrical elements 110' and 112' are mounted on separate swing arms 234 and 236, respectively.
16 The swing arms, in turn, `are each attaclled at one end to separate '7I horizontal rotatable shafts 238 and 240. The mechanism for 18 rotating the rotatable cylinders 110' and 112' can be those 19 shown in the previously described embodiment depicted in FIC.S. 8 -20 10. Alternatively, the cylinders may be rotated by separate 211 servo motors. The shafts 238 and 240 can be rotated by means of 22 pneumatic actuato~rs operating through cranks or they may be 23 ¦ operated by still further servo motors or pneumatic actuators.
24 ¦ Since the mecl-anism for accomplishing tllese various movements 251 would be obvious to those skilled in the art, a more detailed 26 description of them will be omitted.
271 In operation, the cylinders 110' and ll2' a~e ro~ted by -281 mealls of the lever arms 234 and 236 and the sha~ts 238 and 240.
29 Initially the cylinderical elements 110' and 112' are positioned 31 on top of the topmost workpiece 20. The cylinder 110' is 3~
. . . ..
25-` 10~0383 ,hen rotated counterclockwi !;'.` to curl up the ed(3e of the topmost workpiece 20. A clamping hook 229 is then caused to bear down 3 against the edge of the next underlying workpiece. Thcreafter, ¦ the cylinder 110' is rotated in a clockwise direction to 5 ¦ disengage its needle 120' from the edge of the workpiece 20.
6 ¦ Simultaneously, the cylindrical elemer.t 112' is also-rotated ¦ clockwise to engage its needle 120'in the opposite edge of the ¦ workpiece 20, thereby curling it up and away from the edge of ¦ the next underlying layer.
10 ¦ As shown in FIG. 16D, the cylinder 112' is then raised 11 I upwardly by means of the lever arm 236 and the cylinder 112' 12 ¦ continues to rotate in the clockwise direction. This causes the 13 ¦ workpiece 20 to be pulled up and around the cylindrical element 14¦ 112' and to pass over a pro]ecting horizontal support ~2 lS positioned immedlately underneath the overhead vacuum type 16¦ conveyor transfer belt 230. The workpiece 20 is gripped hy the 71 vacuum of the belt 230 and is thereafter carried away as the 18¦ cylindrical element 112' is returned to its original position 19¦ by means of the lever arm 236, all as shown in FIGS. 16E and 16F.
20 ¦ Thls process may then be repeated or, alternatively, the li 21¦ sequence of operations may be reversed. Thus, for example, the 22 ¦ cylinder 112' would be rotated in the clockwise direction to 23 ¦ curl up the edge of the next underlying workpiece and the clamp 24 ¦ 228 would tilen be brought to bear against the top of the stack 10.
251 The cylinder 110' would then be rot~ted in a counterclock-
6 ¦ Simultaneously, the cylindrical elemer.t 112' is also-rotated ¦ clockwise to engage its needle 120'in the opposite edge of the ¦ workpiece 20, thereby curling it up and away from the edge of ¦ the next underlying layer.
10 ¦ As shown in FIG. 16D, the cylinder 112' is then raised 11 I upwardly by means of the lever arm 236 and the cylinder 112' 12 ¦ continues to rotate in the clockwise direction. This causes the 13 ¦ workpiece 20 to be pulled up and around the cylindrical element 14¦ 112' and to pass over a pro]ecting horizontal support ~2 lS positioned immedlately underneath the overhead vacuum type 16¦ conveyor transfer belt 230. The workpiece 20 is gripped hy the 71 vacuum of the belt 230 and is thereafter carried away as the 18¦ cylindrical element 112' is returned to its original position 19¦ by means of the lever arm 236, all as shown in FIGS. 16E and 16F.
20 ¦ Thls process may then be repeated or, alternatively, the li 21¦ sequence of operations may be reversed. Thus, for example, the 22 ¦ cylinder 112' would be rotated in the clockwise direction to 23 ¦ curl up the edge of the next underlying workpiece and the clamp 24 ¦ 228 would tilen be brought to bear against the top of the stack 10.
251 The cylinder 110' would then be rot~ted in a counterclock-
26¦ wise direction and simultaneously raised to pull the next 271 underlying workpiece up and over a horizontal support ~44 2~1 correspondin~ to the support 242. At this time, the belt 230 291 vould be driven in the opposite direction from that shown in the I 109(~383 .
I - , . ~
1 I.igures to convey the sepala-ed wor~piece to ~ second location.
2 This allows tlle topmost workp'ieces to be not only differentiatcd, 3 and inverted from face to face, but also to be inve~ted from end 4 to end and removed alternately to two separate locations.
S ¦ In this embodiment, the belt 230 is cyclically driven in 6 ¦ synchronism with the above described operation. ¦
7 ¦ A variation of this same embodiment is depicted in FIGS. 17~¦
8 ¦ ~ 17D where separation is aided by means of a separating bar 246 91 which passes underneath the separated workpiece 20 once the edge is curled up by the rotating cylindrical element 112' or 110'.
11¦ The'mechan'ism by which the bar 246 is propelled across the l21 top of the stack is optional and may be, fo~ example, a pneumatic 13 actuator pulling the bar. The framework in which the bar 246 14¦ is supported can be similar to that depicted in FIG. 13G.
15¦ The terms and expressions which have been employed here are 16¦ used as terms of description and not of limitations, and there is 17¦ no intention, in the use of such terms and expressions, of 18 excluding equivalents of the features shown and described, or I9 portions thereof, it being recognized that various modifications Z3 ~ ar possible witlin tle scope of the i-vention claimed.
32 ' ' . .
I - , . ~
1 I.igures to convey the sepala-ed wor~piece to ~ second location.
2 This allows tlle topmost workp'ieces to be not only differentiatcd, 3 and inverted from face to face, but also to be inve~ted from end 4 to end and removed alternately to two separate locations.
S ¦ In this embodiment, the belt 230 is cyclically driven in 6 ¦ synchronism with the above described operation. ¦
7 ¦ A variation of this same embodiment is depicted in FIGS. 17~¦
8 ¦ ~ 17D where separation is aided by means of a separating bar 246 91 which passes underneath the separated workpiece 20 once the edge is curled up by the rotating cylindrical element 112' or 110'.
11¦ The'mechan'ism by which the bar 246 is propelled across the l21 top of the stack is optional and may be, fo~ example, a pneumatic 13 actuator pulling the bar. The framework in which the bar 246 14¦ is supported can be similar to that depicted in FIG. 13G.
15¦ The terms and expressions which have been employed here are 16¦ used as terms of description and not of limitations, and there is 17¦ no intention, in the use of such terms and expressions, of 18 excluding equivalents of the features shown and described, or I9 portions thereof, it being recognized that various modifications Z3 ~ ar possible witlin tle scope of the i-vention claimed.
32 ' ' . .
-27- ~
Claims (3)
OR PRIVILEGE IS CLAIMED ARE DEFINED AS FOLLOWS:
1. Apparatus for sequentially separating alternate layers of sheet-like workpieces from a single feed stack, the apparatus comprising means for separating each top workpiece layer from the feed stack and means for transporting the separated top workpieces alternately to a first location and to a second location, the separating means including at least one differentiating head having a pair of rotatable elements, means for mounting the rotatable elements so that the axis of rotation of one element is parallel and opposite to that of the other element, needles mounted in the rotatable elements so as to project exteriorly of the elements and in a direction away from the opposite rotatable element, means for selectively rotating at least one of the rotatable elements with respect to the other to engage and disengage the pro-jecting needles of the rotated element with the top workpiece of the feed stack, depending on the direction of rotation, and for moving only one of said elements, alternately, with respect to the other to vary the spacing between the rotatable elements while the top workpiece is so engaged such that upon rotation of said one rotatable element in a direction which engages its projecting needles in the topmost workpiece, at least one edge of the topmost workpiece is thereby curled upwardly and, upon movement of said rotated element with respect to the other element, the topmost workpiece is pulled away from the corresponding edge of the next underlying work-piece by the force of the engaged rotatable element needles to thereby separate the topmost workpiece from the stack.
2. Apparatus for sequentially separating alternate layers of sheet-like workpieces from a single feed stack, the apparatus comprising means for separating each top workpiece layer from the feed stack and means for transporting the separated top workpieces alternately to a first location and to a second location, the separating means including at least one differentiating head having a pair of rotatable elements, means for mounting the rotatable elements parallel and opposite to each other, needles mounted in the rotatable elements so as to project exteriorly of the elements and in a direction away from the opposite rotatable element, means for selectively rotating at least one of the rotatable elements with respect to the other to engage and disengage the pro-jecting needles of the rotated element with the top workpiece of the feed stack, depending on the direction of rotation, and for moving at least the one rotatable element to vary the spacing between the rotatable elements while the top workpiece is so engaged such that upon rotation of the rotatable element in a direction which engages its projecting needles in the topmost workpiece, at least one edge of the topmost workpiece is thereby curled upwardly and, upon movement of said rotated element with respect to the other element, the topmost workpiece is pulled away from the corresponding edge of the next under-lying workpiece by the force of the engaged rotatable element needles to thereby separate the topmost workpiece from the stack, and further including at least one separating bar and means for moving the separating bar between the rotatable elements while simultaneously pressing the bar against the topmost workpiece after the workpiece is engaged with the needles of the moving rotatable element to produce, in the topmost workpiece, a bend which is moved across the topmost workpiece during its separation from the stack.
3. Apparatus for sequentially separating alternate layers of sheet-like workpieces from a single feed stack, the apparatus comprising means for separating each top work-piece layer from the feed stack and means for transporting the separated top workpieces alternately to a first location and to a second location, the separating means including at least one differentiating head having a pair of rotatable elements, means for mounting the rotatable elements parallel and opposite to each other, needles mounted in the rotatable elements so as to project exteriorly of the elements and in a direction away from the opposite rotatable element, means for selectively rotating at least one of the rotatable elements with respect to the other to engage and disengage the projecting needles of the rotated element with the top workpiece of the feed stack, depending on the direction of rotation, and for simultaneously moving both rotatable elements toward or away from each other to vary the spacing between the rotatable elements while the top workpiece is so engaged such that upon rotation of the rotatable element in a direction which engages its projecting needles in the topmost workpiece, at least one edge of the topmost workpiece is thereby curled upwardly and, upon movement of said rotated element with respect to the other element, the topmost workpiece is pulled away from the corresponding edge of the next underlying workpiece by the force of the engaged rotatable element needles to thereby separate the topmost workpiece from the stack and further including a pair of separating bars and means for moving the separating bars between the rotatable elements while simul-taneously pressing them against the topmost workpiece after the workpiece is engaged with the needles of the rotatable elements to produce, in the topmost workpiece, a pair of bends which are moved across the topmost workpiece during its separation from the stack.
Priority Applications (1)
| Application Number | Priority Date | Filing Date | Title |
|---|---|---|---|
| CA326,479A CA1090383A (en) | 1976-07-01 | 1979-04-27 | Facing ply separator |
Applications Claiming Priority (4)
| Application Number | Priority Date | Filing Date | Title |
|---|---|---|---|
| US70185776A | 1976-07-01 | 1976-07-01 | |
| US701,857 | 1976-07-01 | ||
| CA280,818A CA1069949A (en) | 1976-07-01 | 1977-06-17 | Facing ply separator |
| CA326,479A CA1090383A (en) | 1976-07-01 | 1979-04-27 | Facing ply separator |
Publications (1)
| Publication Number | Publication Date |
|---|---|
| CA1090383A true CA1090383A (en) | 1980-11-25 |
Family
ID=27165136
Family Applications (1)
| Application Number | Title | Priority Date | Filing Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| CA326,479A Expired CA1090383A (en) | 1976-07-01 | 1979-04-27 | Facing ply separator |
Country Status (1)
| Country | Link |
|---|---|
| CA (1) | CA1090383A (en) |
-
1979
- 1979-04-27 CA CA326,479A patent/CA1090383A/en not_active Expired
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