GB1097480A - Material feed apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

1,097,480. Metal sheet feeds. MAGNETIC METALS CO. March 16, 1966 [March 23, 1965], No. 11419/66. Heading B3W. [Also in Division F2] A sheet metal feed mechanism comprises a pair of feed rolls 84, 85, Fig. 4B, which are driven from a power take-off shaft of a press to which the feed mechanism is attached, through a gear train which includes an eccentrically mounted input gear 47 which rotates about a first fixed axis, an output gear 50 which rotates about a second fixed axis and an intermediate idler gear 48 which meshes with both the input and output gears and which rotates about a movable axis. The gear train is mounted in a casing 31, 32, 33 which is bolted to the base of a press and includes an input shaft 33 which runs in bearings in the casing walls and supports a crankpin 38 on which the input gear 47 is mounted. The output gear 50 is mounted on a shaft 51 which is also supported by the casing walls. The idler gear 48 is freely mounted on a shaft 49 which is supported by a pair of links 60 and a pair of links 61. The links 60 are freely rotatable on the crankpin 38 and on the shaft 49 and the links 61 are freely rotatable on the shaft 51 and on the shaft 49. As the shaft 34 rotates, with constant angular velocity, the shaft 49 rotates about the shaft 51 and, during each revolution of the gear 47, twice passes through the position where the axes of the shafts 33, 38 and 49 are in line. At these positions the rotation of the shaft 49 about the shaft 51 stops and then reverses direction. This rotation of the shaft 49 combines with the rotation of the gear 48 to produce a varying speed of rotation of the output gear 50. By suitable choice of the ratio of the gears, the eccentricity of the gear 47 and the distance between the shafts 33 and 51 there will be a period during each rotation of the input gear 47 when the output gear will be stationary. The output gear 50 drives a further gear 53 secured to a shaft 54 which also has fixed thereon a sprocket 27. A chain 17 connects the sprocket 27 to a sprocket secured to the shaft of the feed roll 84. The feed roll 85 is pressed against the roll 84 by springs 18 and is lifted once during every feed cycle, to allow the strip to be aligned longitudinally, by a cam 83 on the shaft 33 which actuates a push-rod (21), Fig. 1 (not shown), and links (19 and 22). This lifting of the feed roll occurs at the time that the strip is held between the punch and die of the press. In the example described, for which dimensions are given, the feed rollers rotate during 255 degrees, of the 360 degrees cycle of operation of the press. In a modification the amount of strip feed is varied by inserting a variable speed drive in the chain drive to the feed rolls.