GB920561A - Apparatus for automatically delivering an orderly sequence of workpieces - Google Patents

Abstract

920,561. Feeding billets to furnaces. MANSILL, BOOTH & CO. Ltd. April 24, 1961 [Jan. 23, 1960], No. 14656/61. Divided out of 902,428. Class 51 (2). [Also in Group XXX] Billet-type workpieces 1 urged along a guide track 2 are either held against further movement by a piston 6 as shown, or the leading piece 1 is transferred by the piston 6 on to a conveyer 4. The latter conveys the pieces 1 through a furnace (not shown) and a time delay mechanism is provided so as to maintain the movement of the conveyer at the end of a working shift until the furnace was sufficiently cooled. The piston is operated by air pressure from a conduit 17 and controlled by a two-way change-over valve 16. The latter is operated by impulses received from a solenoid-controlled valve 14, itself controlled by a micro-switch 13 actuated by projections 11 on a drum 10 geared to the conveyer drive roller 5. Thus the pieces 1 are transferred by piston 6 at a frequency proportional to the conveyer speed. A pin 18 carried by the drum 10 acts on pins 19 carried by a screw 21 so as intermittently to rotate the latter. A nut 24 on the screw 21 during normal working, is set at the right-hand end of the screw 21 and is thus free from engagement with a bar 26 and is free to turn, and is not constrained to move axially. A bar 26 can be swung about a pivot 26a on the mounting 23 of the screw 21. At the end of a shift when the furnace is cooling, the nut 24 is set to the lefthand end of the screw 21, a slot 25 of the nut 24 engaging a downwardly projecting portion of the bar 26 so that the nut 24 is constrained to move axially to the right. When it reaches the right-hand end of the projecting portion of bar 26, sufficient time delay has elapsed to prevent pieces being damaged in the furnace. The nut thus operates a microswitch 28 to stop the conveyer drive.