GB1240282A - Improvements in and relating to machine tools having tool stores with tool changing devices - Google Patents

Abstract

1,240,282. Tool changers; boring machines. WERKZEUGMASCHINENFABRIK SAALFELD VEB. 19 Sept., 1968, No. 44509/68. Headings B3B and B3C. A machine tool comprises a tool store with a device for automatic tool changing, the tool store being constructed as a disc-shaped store 87 and the tool changing device having a pair of tool gripping devices, and is characterized in that the tool store disc is provided with tool storage bores on concentrically nested pitch circles and is mounted rotatably on a shaft carried by a tool store carriage 66 slidable on a guide means 65, and that a tool ejector carriage 67 is connected to the tool store carriage 66 and is arranged slidable relative thereto on said guide means, and that the tool ejector carriage is connected to a tool spindle through a copying device to be movable horizontally so that the axis of a tool ejector device on the tool ejector carriage can follow and be located in a common vertical plane with the tool spindle axis of the machine tool. The tool spindle 17 is arranged for movement along mutually perpendicular horizontal axis and a vertical axis, and the toolchanging mechanism is provided for exchanging tools for any position of the tool spindle in the vertical axis and the horizontal axis (X-X) (Fig. 2, not shown). Under automatic control the distance between the carriages 66 and 67 is altered to line up the ejector device with a desired pitch circle of tool storage bores in the disc 87, and then the disc 87 is rotated to line up a selected tool with the ejector device. The ejector device comprises an hydraulically extendable outer sleeve (109) (Figs. 10 and 11, not shown), which releases a lock which holds the tools into the disc 87, and an inner sleeve (107) which pushes a tool from the disc 87 into one of a pair of tool grippers (57), (58) (Fig. 18, not shown). The two grippers (57), (58) are mounted on a vertically movable carriage sliding on a vertical guide element 24 which is movable horizontally from the tool storage disc 87 to the front of the spindle 17. The empty tool gripper grips the tool already present in the spindle 17, the guide element 24 is moved horizontally to extract it, thepair of grippers are lowered, and the guide element moved horizontally to place the new tool into the spindle 17. The exchanged tool is then replaced in the disc 87. When the spindle is moved laterally along the horizontal axis (X-X) parallel to guideways 2, the storage disc 87 and ejector device automatically follow by movement of carriages 66, 67. This is controlled by a copying device and abutment (72), (73) (Fig. 9, not shown) adjacent a roller 71 engaging with the top 70 of a vertical bracket 69. The vertical position of the tool grippers (57), (58) are also controlled by a copying device (41)-(45) (Fig. 14, not shown) that automatically moves the carriage on which the grippers are mounted to align them with the spindle 17. The machine tool comprises a headstock 13 movable horizontally on a slide 10 which is movable vertically on a column 6. The column 6 is movable horizontally along guides 2 of a bed 1. An indexable work-table 63 is provided. Hydraulic motor-driven lead screws, and jacks are used to move the various slides and carriages. The grippers are moved independently by a rack- and-pinion device.