GB1217202A - A dial feeder for a machine tool - Google Patents

Abstract

1,217,202. Indexing; feeding workpieces; tool-holders. GEORGE F. CLARK & SONS (TOOLMAKERS) Ltd. 16 Jan., 1969 [25 Jan., 1968], No. 3988/68. Headings B3B and B3W. In a dial feeder for, e.g. a press, of the kind having a rotatable disc with a plurality of work- or tool-locating stations adjacent its periphery, the disc including ratchet means and being rotatable by a pawl carried on a slide, an indexing pin movable normal to the plane of the disc into and out of engagement with successive holes in the disc is driven from the slide so as to lock the disc whilst a station is at the work position and so that the disc is free whilst a station is being moved to the work position. A disc 1 with holes 2 for receiving workpieces is rotated about a bearing 4, 5 on a bed 3 by the engagement with ratchet teeth 32 on the disc of a spring-loaded pawl 31 mounted on a slide 26 which is reciprocated in a dovetail groove 25 in an extension 24 of the bed 3 by means of a push-rod 30 and bell-crank lever (not shown) pivoted to an eccentric driven from the press. For accurate indexing holes 34 are provided in the disc at the same spacing as the holes 2 and a pin 37 located in an aperture 38 in the bed is moved to enter a hole 34 when a hole 2 is in registration with the tool. The pin 37 is pivoted to an arm 17 which is upwardly spring-loaded at (21), Fig. 2 (not shown), but is depressed between successive registrations of holes 2 with the tool by engagement of a cam roller 40 on the arm with a cam surface (39) on the slide 26. A spring-loaded pawl 43 carries an upstanding pin 50 which rides over the ratchet teeth when the disc 1 is rotated in the counterclockwise, operative direction and engages a ratchet tooth to prevent rotation in the opposite direction. Compression springs (23) in four equi-spaced holes in the underside of the bed exerts a downward pressure on a plate 11 clamped to the bearing 4, 5 so as to provide some friction in the notation of the disc to prevent its overrunning. The bed 3 is mounted on the press at adjustable height by means of brackets (51) with elongated screw holes. In an alternative embodiment, Figs. 3-5 (not shown), brackets (63) have slots allowing vertical and horizontal adjustment of the bed 3 relative to the press. The push-rod 30 is omitted and one arm of a bell-crank lever engages directly in a slot in the slide, the other being engaged by a reciprocating part of the press.