GB1189859A - Method and Apparatus for Stacking Bricks - Google Patents

Abstract

1,189,859. 8tacking bricks; endless conveyers. J. LINGL. 21 June, 1967 [21 June, 1966], No. 28750/67. Headings B8A and B8C. Bricks are stacked by forming two separate brick layers, inverting one layer and placing it upon the other so that the brick faces in contact will not be discoloured during subsequent firing, lifting the double-layer group and separating it into individual rows of double brick height and depositing the rows, e.g. on a kiln trolley, to form the base of a stack. The apparatus for stacking comprises a conveyer 1, carrying a continuous row 2 of bricks, and a reciprocating pusher device, Fig. 2 (not shown), for moving rows 3 and 4, of fixed length, alternately from conveyer 1 on to conveyers 5 and 6. A pusher 14 moves rows 4 from conveyer 6 on to an intermittently moving conveyer 21 until a first layer of three abutting rows is formed. A pusher 8 moves rows 3 from conveyer 5 on to a platform 49 until a second layer of three abutting rows is formed. The pushers 14 and 8 are actuated when the rows 4 and 3 abut respective end stops (60, Fig. 5). The second layer is then lifted, inverted and lowered on to the first layer by a gripper assembly 7, which rotates through 180 degrees about an axis 13. A gripper head 29 is lowered and picks up two adjacent groups 22, 23. The head 29 then separates the groups into rows running perpendicularly to the original rows 3, 4. The head 29 is substantially as described in Specification 1,002,288 and is mounted on rails 24, 26, for longitudinal and transverse movement, for setting down the separated rows in a convenient position on a kiln trolley 55 to form stacks 25. The head 29 may be rotated through 90 degrees so that the next batch of separated rows may be stacked at right angles to the first. Conveyer 5 and platform 49 may be higher than conveyers 6 and 21 by a distance equal to one brick height.