US1075276A - Feeding-mechanism. - Google Patents

Description

' M. J. WBLLING.

FEEDING MEGHANISM.

APPLICATION FILED MAR.5, 1913.

1,075,276. Patented Oct. 7, 1913.

4 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

M. J. WELLING. PBEDING MEGHANISM.

APPLICATION FILED MAB.. 5,1913.

lg', Patented Get. '7, 1913.

4 SHEETS-SHEET Z.

M. J. WELLING.

FEEDING MECHANISM.

APPLICATION FILED MAR.5,191a.

1,075,276. Patented 001.11913.

4 SHEETS-SHEET 3.

M. J. WELLING.

FEBDING MBGHANISM. Y APPLIOATION FILED MAR.5,19'13.

'1,075,2?6. l menue@ @011.11913 4 SHEETS-SHEET 4.-.

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Fig. 2 is a would appear MATTHEW J'. WLLING, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS,

ASSIGNOR 0F ONE-HALF T0 -JOHN HOWARD MoELBOY, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

FEEDING MECHANISM.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented oct. '7, i913.

Application filed March 5, 1913. Serial No.- 752,039.

To all whom t may concern.'

Be it known that I, MATTHEW J. WELL- ING, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Feeding Mechanism, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact specification.

My invention is concerned with feeding mechanism intended primarily to feed st-rips of tin or sheet-met-al to a punch press or other automatic machine by a step-by-step movement, and is designed to produce a device of the class described in which the stepby-step feed shall be accomplished by a continuous rotary movement, instead of the reciprocating movement heretofore em loyed. My invention is further concerne with certain novel combinations of elements, as hereinafter more particularly specified.l

To illustrate my invention, I annex hereto four sheets of drawings, in which the same reference characters are used to designate identical parts in all the figures, of which,-

Figure 1 is a side elevation of a punch press hav-in my invention applied thereto; ront elevation of the same as it looking at it at right angles to the `lineof movement of the punch; Fig. 3 is a plan view in section on the line A-A of Fig. 1; Fig. 4 is a similar View in section on the line B-B of Fig. 1, with a portion of the casing broken away; Fig. 5 is an er1-- larged detail in section on the line C-C of Fig. 3; 6 is a view in section on the line D-D of *im 5; Fg.l7 is an enlarged section in detail on the line E-E of Fig.` 6;4

Fig. 8 (Sheet 2) is a erspective view showing the under side o a pirate; Fig. 9 is an enlarged view t-hrough one of the cups, showing the valve mechanism therein; and Fig. 10 is a detail in section, on a large scale, on the line F-F of Fig. 3.

I have shown my invention as applied to a punch press having the base 10 supported on the legs 11 in the customary manner. It maybe applied to any sort of an automatic machine where a similar step-by-step feed is necessary, but l have shown it as' attached to the aforesaid punch press as being the machine with which it was primarily desifrned to cooperate. The punch press is o the ordinary construction, and I have shown the automatic feeding mechanism as actuated from the main shaft 12 of said press.

As seen in' Figs. 1 and 2, a bracket casting 13 is bolted to t-he base of the ress, and the inclined front side 14 thereofP has projecting therefrom a shelf 15 which serves as a support for the blank strips 16 piled thereon. The strips 16 must be raised one b one from the pile at the proper time, an for this purpose I employ theffollowing mechanism: The shaft 12 has secured on one end thereof a miter gear 17 which meshes with a similar ear 1S secured on the upper end of the sha t 19, which is journaled at its upper end in a suitable bearing bracket 20 extending out to one side from the main frame of the punch press, and at its bottom in a bearing recess 21 formed in the plate 38, to be hereinafter described. 'The shaft 19 has secured on the lower end thereof a spur-gear-wheel 22, which, if the feeding mechanism is designed to feed each strip in four steps, will have one-fourth the diameter of the spur-gear 23, which is rigidly secured on the short shaft 24 journaled in the bearing bracket 25, whose axis is parallel to the axis of the bracket 20. The upper face of the spur-gear-wheel 23 has secured thereon the face cam `26, and the cam roove 27 thereof is'occupied by the antifriction roller 23 secured on the lower end of the vertical armof the bell-crank-lev'er 29, which is fulcrumed on the bearing bracket 30, also secured to the adjacent side of the frame of the punchpress. The outer end of the horizontal arm of the bell-crank 29 is pivotally connected by a pin passing through a slightly elongated slot to the ears 31 of the bar 32, which has at its ends bearings 33 through which pass the'tubes 34 of the vacuum cups 35 secured on the lower ends thereof. yThese tubes 34 are adapted to slide through stationary bearing sleeves 36 which are supported by brackets 37 from the cover plate 38, which is suitably suported, as will be hereinafter described, rom the bracket 13. The socket-s 33 of the bar 32 are provided, as indicated in dotted lines in Fig. 3', with spring-pressed plungers 39, which coperate with the tubes 34 to hold them in frictional engagement with the sockets 33. The upper ends of the tubes 34 are suitably connected, as seen in Fig. 5,

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with a transverse tube 40 from which the in Fig. 9, the tubes 34 have their lower-ends will be closed.

closed and an aperture 41 is made in one side, with which coperates the ground end of a lever 42 pivoted at 43 in ears supported on the interior of the cup and tending to hang by gravity so that the aperture 41 With this arrangement, the vacuum cup is not operative until it is low-- ered upon the sheet of tin, when'the con tact of the tin with the lower end of the lever 42 will rock the latter so as to open the aperture 41, when the vacuum will be formed in the cup. V

lThe operation of this lifting or separating mechanism for the tin blanks willvbe apparent. At each four operations of the press, the cam 26 will be given onecomplete rotation, and this, acting through the bellcrank, will raise andlower the cups. .As the cups are lower-ed, the tubes 34 move with the sockets 33 until the cups 35 strike the .uppermost plate of tin, when the downward movement of the tubes must cease, and. thereafter the sockets 33 slide down againstl the spring pressure of the plungers 39 until the e-nd of the stroke is. reached. During.

the return. stro-ke, the cups rise with the tubes 34 until the collars 44 contact with the lower ends of the sleeves 36, after which the. sockets 33 must slide on the tubes 34./ The.,

. tween the surface 46 ofY the intermediate against the stop 48 formed on the intermediate plate 45, I employ a sliding plate 49, which is mo-unted to slide in suitable ways formed in' the cover plate 38, and which is provided at its forward end with two hooks 50, the lower ends of which extend just below the level of the sheets of tin 16 held up by the cups,35. A helically-coiled contractile spring 51 secured at one end to a bracket 52 and at the other end to the center of the rear of the plate 49, tends to pull said plate 49 to the rear, and its movement is con- 'trolled by the anti-friction roller 53 jour naled on the upper side of said plate and co- '3 operating with a cam 54 secured on the under side of the gear-wlieel 23. The design of this cam is shown 1n Fig. 4, where 1t will be seen that there is a surface 55 extending .to the center of the cam, so that when the cam rotates far enough for the anti-friction roller 53 to reach this surface, the spring 51 will then be free to draw the plate rapidly t0 the rear, and thus carry the sheet of tin into the guide slot and against the shoulder 48. This inward feed of the sheet, of course,

must be rapid, as it must occur between one of the four ystep-by-step .feed movementsy wheel 56 which is connected by a sprocket chain 57 with a similar sprocket wheel 58 secured upon the upper end of al short shaft 59 journaledin stationary bearings formed in the bracket 13 and the plates 38 and 45.

other similar spiir-ge-ar-pi1iions 6() loosely mounted on three stub shafts 61, one of `which is" shown in Fig. 7. There are three idle spur-gear-wheels 62 which are journaled on headed pins secured in the outer ends of the arms 63, which are mounted on the lstub shafts 61. The shafts 61 have collars 64 thereon, and their lower ends are threaded and pass through elongated slots 65 formed in the horizontal portion 47 of the bracket casting' 13. These collars 64 rest in correspondingly large recesses in the ends of the arms 63, and by the connections thus shown, it is possible to space the four spurgear-wheels 60 apart any desired distance within the intended range of adjustment so as to secure different lengths of the step-bystep feed. It will beapparent that the shafts 61 can, be shifted in their slots 65, and when they arevspaced apar-t the desiredy distance, the arms 63 are swung to the proper angle to bring the spur-gear-wheels 62 in" -propermesh with the spur-gear-wheels 60,

after which the nuts 66 on the threaded ends of the shaft -61 are. tightened up and the parts are held in their desired position of adjustment.

The actual st-ep-by-step feeding of the sheets of vtin is accomplished by anti-fricti0n rollers 67, which are preferably of veryv This shaft has secured thereon a spurfgear-pinion 60, and' there are three of theintermediate plate 45. The action of y l.

this step-bystep feeding mechanism will.

now be apparent. Supposing that a sheet of tin 16 has been fed by the other mecha nism into the position shown in Fig; 6, The

shaft 19, through the connections described, rotates all the spur-gear-wheels 60, and the three inner anti-friction rollers 67 will pass through notches 71 in passing from the surface 72 of the intermediate -plate 45 to the surface 46 of said plate. The notches 71 are not deep enough to permit the anti-friction rollers 67 to engage the edge of the plate 16 which is now resting against the oifset 48, but said anti-friction rollers 67 engage the underside of the body of the plate, and do not serve to materially displace the same. The outermost anti-friction roller 67, however, is free to engage the rear end of the sheet 16, and as it. moves forward' from the position shown in Fig. 6, it will feed the sheet far enough so that. as the second anti-friction roller 67 comes around 0n the succeeding movement, the end of said sheet will be in position to be engaged by the end of said second roller, and so on until the sheet is fed entirely through, and at the end of the last feed of the sheet, the spring 51 will act to bring a fresh sheet into place.

, I have also shown, in connection with my feed mechanism, a kick-olf, which con-I sists o f an arm 7 3 having a pawl 74 pivoted on its lower end 'so' that saidlpawl can swing t0 the right of the position shown, but'not to the left, and said pawl will be springprgssed in the customary manner of' these devices. The arm 73 is rigidly secured on a rock shaft 74a suitably journaled in bea-rings formed in the frame of the press, and a short arm 75 is secured on the other end of said rock shaft. This arm 75 is engaged by a pin 76 carried by the spring-pressed rod 77, mounted t-o slide in suitable bearings in the framework of the press Land having an anti-friction roller 7 S at the out-er end thereof coperating with a cam 79 secured on the upper end of the shaft A helicallycoiled expanding spring 8O interposed between the end of the rod 77 and a bearin 81 serves to hold the rod 77 in its retracted osition, in which the arm 73 hangs vertical. lVhen the cam 79 comes into action, it thrusts the rod 77 rapidly to the right, and this swings the arm 73 to the right very quickly, and the dog 74, which has engaged an aperture in the sheet of tin which is ready to be discharged, by this rapid movement throws the sheet clear of the machine so as to be out of the way of the next sheet that is fed thereto.

I preferably provide suitable springy mechanism for holding the plates 16 of tin in the guideway or slot, and forthis purpose I may employ the construction best shown in Figs. 3, 4 and 10, where 1t will be seen that I provide three tubes 82 associated with the cover plate 38 and extending down through apertures in the intermediate plate 45. The middle one of these three tubes will extend through an elongated slot 83 formed in the reciprocating plate 49. Mounted in these tubes are spring-pressed plunger-rods 84 having heads 85 on the lower ends thereof with the edges beveled olf so that a 'sheet tin thrust into the guideway will raise the plunger against the resistance of the helically-coiled expanding spring placed in the tube between the head 85 and the adjusting nut 87 threaded in the top of the tube 82, by which the tension of the springis regulated tosecurel the desired pressure. These plungers 84 are opposed to the angles 88 which are formed in the casting 47, and furnish as much support for the blank 16 as is convenientand still leave clearance for the anti-friction rollers 67.

l-Vhile I have shown and described mylinvention as embodied in the form which I at present consider best adapted to carry out its purposes, it will be understood that it is capable of modifications, and that I do not desire to be limited in the interpretation of the following claims lence t as mayv be necessitated by the state of t e prior art.

That which I claim as new, and desire to secure. by Letters Patent of the United States, is:

1. In a feeding device, the combination with a rotating shaft parallel to the axis of the press, a cam carried by the shaft, and means for rotating the same; of a bell-crank lever having a vertical arm lcoperating with the cam, and a horizontal arm; a tube sup- 2. Ina feeding device, the combination with a rotating shaft parallel to the axis 'of the press, a lcam carried by the sha-ft, andv means for rotating the same; of a bellerank lever having a vertical arm coperating with the cam, and avhori-zontal arm carrying a cross-head; tubes slidin in said cross head, means for guiding t e tubes; and friction devices interposed between the cross-head and the tubes, for the purpose described. Y

3. In a feeding device, the .Combination with a rotating shaft parallel to the axis of the press; a cam carried by the shaft, and means for rotating the same; of a horizontally sliding hook-member coperating with the cam, and a spring to return the hook member.

4. In a feedingl device, the combination with a rotating shaft parallel to the axis of the press, two cams carried by the shaft, and means for rotating the same; of a bell-crank lever having a vertical arm eoperating with one of the cams, and a horizontal arm; a tube supported from-the horizontal arm, means for guiding the tube; a horizontally sliding hook-member coperat-ing with the other cam, and a spring to return the hook f the shaft, and means forrotat'ing the cam; of-a horizontal .spring-pressed plunger extending through the frame of the press, a

rock shaft at right angles thereto extending throughI the frame of the press, anV arm on said rock-shaft engaged by therodnear the axis of thev rock-shaft, and a kick-off arm depending from said'rock-shaft.

6. In afeeding device forn-punch-presses, the combination with a rotating shaft parallel to the `axis of the press, three cams carried by.- said shaft, and means for rotating.

the same; of abell-cra'nk lever having a vertical arin coperating with onel of the cams, anda horizontal arm; a tube supportrock shaft at right angles tothe plunger also extending through thel frame ofthe press, an arm on the rock-shaft engaged byy the plunger near the axis of the rock-shaft, and a kick-off arm -depending from said rock-shaft.

7. In a device ef the class described, the combination with a guideway, of a series of rotating, step #by-step feeding members swinging through said way `durin a p0r-` tion of their rotation and acting to eed only during said portion, and means for rotating said members.

8. Inv a 4device of the class described, the combination with a guideway, of a series of rotating, step -bystep feeding members swinging through said way durin a por-y tion of their rotation and, acting to eed only duringy saidportiommeans for rotating said members, and means for adjusting'the distance between said members without disengaging the rotating means.

9. In 1av device lo f the class described, the combination withfa igu'idewa'y, o-f a series of rotating step-by -ste feeding members swinginfythrough sai way during a portion oft Yeir rotation and acting to feed only during said portion, eccentrically mounted anti-friction rollers on said members, and means -for rotating said members. f

10. `In a device ofthe class described, the combination vwith a guideway, of a series of bearing shafts .mounted therein, rotating wheels journaled on. said Shafts, spring arms Copies .of vthis patent may be obtained for extending transversely of the shafts, contact members carried by thel outer ends of said arms and swinging through said way during a portionof their rotationy and acting to feed onl duringsaid portion, and means for rotating said wheels.

11. In a device of the class described, the

' combination with a. guideway` having a shoulder at its rear edge against which the sheet to be fed rests, of a series of rotating members swinging through said way on one side ,of the sheet therein, said way being partially out away on one side .to permit said'swinging" of the rotating members', contacts carrie-d by said members, and openings in said shoulder to permit the passage of the contacts. v v

12. In a deviceof the class described, the combination witha supporting member having a recess-in its-upper surface, of a pluo rality of rotating members journaled .in said s recess, arms pivoted on said members, contracts carried by the free ends of the arms,

springs tending to throw the arms upward,i

means for rotatingv said members, a plate above said supporting member having a shoulder thereon cooperating with the upper surface of the supporting .member t0 form a way, and recesses inthe shoulder t0 permit the assage of the contact members. 13. In a evice of the class described, the combination with a supporting member having a plurality of slotted apertures therein, of a corresponding plurality of bearing `studs mounted therein, means for securing said bearing Vstuds vin any desired position in the slots, shoulders on said studs, gear wheels journaled thereon above the shoulders, arms` interposed between the shoulders and the supporting members, bearing pins carried at the outer ends of the arms, idle gear-wheels on saidl pins meshing with the first mentioned gearwheels, contacts carried by the first mentioned gear-wheels, a plate over the supporting member forming `a guideway andhaving ashoulder, recesses in said shoulder i to permit the passage of the contacts, and means for rotating saidA gear-wheels.`

In witness whereof, 'I have hereunto set my hand and atiixed my seal, this 28th day `of February, A. D. 1913..

` MATTHEW J. "VVELLIl5TGn [14s.] Witnesses 2.

JOHN HOWARD MCELROY, JNO. G. ELLIOTT.

liveV cents each, by laddressing"the Commissioner of` Patents, Washington, D. C. v v

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