GB1254189A - Stud feeder for stud welding tools - Google Patents

Abstract

1,254,189. Welding by pressure. TRW Inc. 24 April, 1969 [24 April, 1968], No. 21070/69. Heading B3R. Apparatus for feeding studs one at a time to a stud-welding tool comprises a rotatable stud container 12 having a number of peripheral openings, an arcuate track 14 for receiving studs passing through the openings from the container, an escapement mechanism 18 to receive studs from the track and a member 88 which co-operates with a portion of the periphery of the container to form the track, the member 88 having a stepped edge. In an embodiment the studs are fed from the arcuate track 14 down a transfer track 16 to the escapement 18 where they are blown through a flexible tube 20 to a receiver 22 of a stud-welding tool 24 being then pushed into the chuck 26 by an internal plunger. The container 12 comprises a hollow member mounted on a shaft 34, Fig. 2, rotatably held in a bearing 32 on an inclined plate 30, the peripheral edge of the member 12 being slightly spaced from the plate 30 and having notches or openings therein to receive a stem of a stud. The heads of the studs are received between the edge and the plate and two studs may be held in a single notch. The studs are supplied by a supply shoot 54 through an opening 52 in the plate 30 to the interior 50 of the member 12, and the studs move into the notches as the member 12 is rotated by engagement of an extension 56 of the shaft 34 by a piston-rod 62 of a fluidoperated cylinder 66 acting through a one-way clutch 58. The studs move into the track 14 from the notches under gravity and centrifugal force and then feed by gravity through the T- shaped track 16 to the escapement 18 where they are individually received in a notch 72 in a transfer bar 74 which carries them to a track 76 down which they are blown by air from a passage 78 to enter the receiver 22 of the tool 24. The slide bar 74 is operated by the piston 80 of an air cylinder 82. The stepped arcuate edge 90 of a removable cover-plate 88 forms part of the track 14, the cover-plate being secured by quick-release fasteners 76 to allow easy access to the tracks. A single valve controls the air supply to the cylinder 66, the cylinder 82 and the passage 78.