GB1144164A - Apparatus for applying resilient annuli - Google Patents

Abstract

1,144,164. Applying resilient rings to equipment. AMARA CO. Ltd. 3 Aug., 1966 [3 Aug., 1965], No. 33245/65. Heading F2S. Apparatus, for fitting resilient rings, such as 0-ring seals to grooves, slots &c. in pieces of equipment such as 42, comprises a quill carriage 32 which is rectilinearly reciprocable, e.g. by means of an hydraulic or pneumatic thrust cylinder 30, along a guideway 33 and has at least three pivotally-mounted quills 33, which are biased together so that, upon a forward stroke of the carriage 32 they pick-up an O ring 28, e.g. from a break-away gate 18, 27, 28 at the base of an 0-ring feed and shoot 10, 13 having a synchronous escape mechanism 14, and are moved by cam means 36, 37 which spread the 0-ring and deliver it to an index position where there is a release mechanism 47 which is actuable, when the ring has reached the index position, to strip the ring from the tips of the quills. A stripper dog 46 is axially aligned over a groove 44 in the equipment 42 which is held, e.g., in a chuck 45, initial return stroke of the carriage 32 causing the stripper dog 46 to remove the ring from the end of the quills so that it collapses into the groove 44. The stripper dog 46, Fig. 1a, which straddles the equipment 42, has inclined rear edges 49 over which the 0-ring rides as it advances to the index position, vertical front walls abutting the ring to release it as the carriage commences its return stroke. The carriage 32 is reciprocably mounted in a housing 31 which has a cam-sleeve 36 with a cam surface 38 which, on a forward stroke of the carriage, is engaged by a cam follower projection 37 at the rearward end of each quill to pivot the latter. The spring of a spring-loaded ejection pin 41, which spring is compressed by the equipment 42 at the forward limit position of the carriage 32, may operate valves of control mechanism, not shown, to initiate the return stroke of the quill carriage 32 and actuate conventional means to loosen the clamps engaging the object 32, the pin 41 then ejecting the object 42 sideways from the chuck 45. In a modification, Figs. 2-4, not shown, in which the feeder and shoot 10, 13 and the break-away gates 15, 27, 28 are the same as shown in Fig. 1, each quill (56), shown in section, is pivoted at (57) to a carriage (55) and has an internal longitudinal slot (59) which houses a stripper member (60), the limited complex movement of which, relative to the quill, is determined by the movement of a pin (62), which is fixed to the quill and passes through a cam-shaped hole (61) in the stripper (60). The latter is biased rearwardly by a spring (69) so that the pin (62) lies in the upper forward end of the hole (61) as shown. A forward stroke of the carriage (55) picks up and expands the ring (12) and, at the index position, a leaf spring (66) urges the rear end (69) of the stripper (60) outwardly into contact with an abutment face (73) on a collar (72) screwed into the forward end of the housing (31). At the start of a rearward stroke of the carriage (55). the stripper (60) remains stationary and the quills move rearwardly a fraction of an inch relative thereto to strip the ring (12) from the quills, the pin (62) then riding up the inclined side of the hole (61) so that the end (69) of the stripper moves radially inwardly and the spring (64) snaps the stripper rearwardly to the position shown, the carriage continuing to move rearwardly. In a further modification, Fig. 7, not shown, the 0-ring (12) is picked up by the tips (85) of sleeves (90), one of which is slidably mounted, and spring-urged outwardly, on the outer end of each quill. Relative movement between the sleeves (90) and the quills, as abutments 92 on the sleeves (90) engage the equipment (80), strips the 0-ring (12) from the tips (85).