GB1034572A - Improvements in or relating to the production of bricks or the like - Google Patents

Abstract

1,034,572. Loading and unloading pallets; lift trucks; endless conveyers. S.I.I. FORNACI MAGNETTI S.p.A. June 11, 1964 [June 14, 1963], No. 24319/64. Headings B8A, B8C and B8H. Apparatus particularly for handling green bricks for a drying treatment prior to kiln firing, comprises a transfer station, at which mechanism is operative simultaneously to load bricks for treatment on to pallets and to unload treated bricks from pallets, a stacking station at which loaded pallets for treatment ejected from the transfer station are stacked, an unstacking station at which loaded pallets after treatment are unstacked. The apparatus also comprises means for transporting untreated bricks to the transfer station, for conveying loaded pallets from the stacking station to the treatment zone and from such zone to the unstacking station, and for removing unloaded treated bricks from the transfer station. Pallets.-The pallets consist of a rectangular platform 50 (Fig. 2, not shown) supported at each corner by a leg 52 and carrying parallel laths 51 along its top surface to hold bricks above the platform and permit insertion of a lift fork beneath them. Transfer mechanism.-The transfer mechanism comprises a body 58 rotatable intermittently through 90 degrees having attached to each side (Figs. 3, 4, not shown) lift forks 61 capable of vertical displacement. The body 58 also carries fixed to each side, a pair of pallet supporting arms 66. Palletizing and stacking.-The untreated bricks 25 are urged forward on to idler rollers carried in cantilever fashion at a fixed position 26 at the transfer station 1. Bricks are fed direct from a continuous extruder 22 being severed by a cutting device 23. At this position the respective lift fork 61 rises, its tines passing through the rollers and lifting the bricks. As the transfer mechanism rotates to position 28, the fork descends so that the bricks are placed on an empty pallet carried beneath them by the respective pair of arms 66. The loaded pallet is then ejected to position 29 by a reciprocating carriage similar to that 81, used to load the pallets with treated bricks on them on to the transfer mechanism (see below). Stacking mechanism located at the position 29, comprises a vertically reciprocating frame, Fig. 6 (not shown), having pivoted on each side a pair of dogs 107 biased inwards by springs 108 to engage a loaded pallet when the frame rises but being pivoted outwards by fixed elements 109 in the lower position. At the first upward movement a pallet is raised by the dogs and a further pallet ejected to beneath it by the transfer mechanism. When the frame descends it deposits the upper pallet on the lower and on its next descent, raises both pallets and so on. As each stack is formed it is carried away on a conveyer 4 to form a group of stacks, Fig. 1. A truck 6 on the platform 7 which runs along rails 33 is able to leave the platform and move along rails 32 to pick up the stacks and then move back on to the platform to convey the bricks to the treatment zone, defined by a wall 47. Pallets, loaded with treated bricks, are removed in the same manner from the treatment zone and delivered to the unstacking station 3. Unstacking, depalletizing and discharge.- Stacks are fed to the unstacking device by a conveyer 5. The device, Fig. 13 (not shown), is constructed and operates in a similar way to the stacker, with the difference that the dogs engage the next to bottom pallet and are urged in by guides 110 so that that pallet and those above it are raised while the lowermost pallet is freed to be fed to position 40 by a conveyer 8. Here the pallets are lifted on to the supporting arms 66 by a radially movable carriage 81, Fig. 4 (not shown), which runs on rollers 83 on a vertically reciprocable frame 73<SP>1</SP>. The carriage is thus moved along a rectangular path in the vertical plane to lift each pallet off the conveyer 8 and on to the supporting arms 66 with the lift fork tines 62 sliding beneath the bricks. The fork again lifts the bricks during the next movement through 90 degrees to the position 41 where the fork descends so that they are deposited on driven rollers similar to those at the loading position and discharged from the transfer station along the conveyer 9. The pallet remains on the supports 66 for loading again at the station 26.