GB1366599A - Apparatus for stacking ingots - Google Patents

Abstract

1366599 Machines for stacking ingots IRKUTSKY FILIAL VSESOJUZNOGO NAUCHNO-ISSLEDOVATELSKOGO I PROEKTNOGO INSTITUTA ALJUMINIEVOI MAGNIEVOI I ELEKTRODNOI PROMYSHLENNOSTI 2 May 1973 [5 May 1972] 20802/73 Heading B8C A device for stacking metal pigs, i.e. ingots, provided along their sides with formations for interlocking side-by-side pigs, comprises a supporting frame 1 on which are mounted, in the direction of operation a first conveyer 2, a rotatably mounted drum 3, for inverting selected pigs, an intermediate support table 4, an accumulator table 5 for collecting a row of pigs and which is vertically adjustable into three positions, and a gripping mechanism 8 for transferring each row of ingots onto a stacking table 7 which is vertically movable in steps. In operation, the first four ingots which form the lower row of a stack are initially fed, with their pouring faces upward, one by one, by the action of pushers 13-15 of a carriage 12 which moves horizontally to-and-fro along the conveyer 2 provided with skids 10, through an opening 18, provided with aligned skids 19, in the drum 3, which remains stationary, and onto the intermediate support table 4. Each ingot is transferred from the table 4 by two pusher arms 33 on a second horizontally reciprocable carriage 31 of the conveyer 6 which moves synchronously with the carriage 12. Twinned arms 34 of the carriage 31 move the ingots along skids 25 on the accumulator table 5 which is pivotally mounted, at its downstream end, to the frame 1, and which, for the feeding of the bottom row of ingots for forming a stack, has its upstream end level with the table 4. The row of intots collected on the accumulator 5 is gripped by the mechanism 8 which lifts, transfers laterally, and lowers the row onto the table 7 located in its uppermost position, the table then being lowered a step. A stop fork 39, located on the rod 38 of a piston-and-cylinder unit 37 for reciprocating the carriage 31, is adjustable to take into account whether a row is formed of upright ingots, or of ingots alternately inverted and non-inverted. When the fifth pig, which is the first pig for the second row of the stack, enters the drum 7 it is inverted by the latter. Similarly, successive alternate pigs, in this and the remainder of the rows of the stack are inverted by the drum 17. The formations on the sides of adjacent ingots in rows of the stack above the first row are interlocked by lowering then raising, or raising then lowering, respectively the accumulator 5 with respect to the table 4 depending upon whether the ingot just deposited on the table 4 is one that is non-inverted or, inverted. After the second and each succeeding row, is formed of the accumulator 5 it is transferred, by the gripping mechanism 8, to the table 7 which is lowered a step for each row until the stack has been completely formed whereupon the stack is moved by a pusher 42 off the table 7, and onto a roller bed 43. Instead of being pivotally mounted the accumulator 5 may be movable bodily vertically into its three positions.