GB1562222A

GB1562222A - Apparatus for feeding tubular workpieces

Info

Publication number: GB1562222A
Application number: GB4065876A
Authority: GB
Original assignee: Manufacture de Machines du Haut Rhin SA MANURHIN
Current assignee: Manufacture de Machines du Haut Rhin SA MANURHIN
Priority date: 1975-10-02
Filing date: 1976-09-30
Publication date: 1980-03-05
Also published as: DE2644500B2; DE2644500A1; CH598880A5; FR2346072A1; FR2346072B1; DE2644500C3

Description

(54) APPARATUS FOR FEEDING TUBULAR WORKPIECES (71) We, MANUFACTURE DE MACHINES DU HAUT-RHIN S.A., a French Company of 10 Rue de Soultz.

68200 Mulhouse, France, do hereby declare the invention, for which we pray that a patent may be granted to us, and the method by which it is to be performed, to be particularly described in and by the following statement:- The invention relates to apparatus for feeding tubular workpieces such as cartridge case blanks one by one and each in a predetermined orientation. As is well known, cartridge case blanks generally comprise metal tubes which are open at one end and are closed at the other end. They are thus asymmetrical, about a transverse axis and even when correctly, e.g. vertically, aligned, they can be oriented the right way or the wrong way up.

The machines at present in use for processing cartridge cases of small and medium calibres are themselves capable of operating at very high rates of output, and most of these machines function in continuous fashion. On the other hand, the existing feeding devices, for feeding the workpieces to the machines, cannot feed the workpieces any faster than at most 120 pieces/minute. This is considerably less than the capacities of the processing machines themselves.

The aim of the present invention is to provide apparatus capable of feeding the tubular workpieces much more rapidly to the processing machines. The apparatus can, if desired, function in a continuous manner, or stepwise, depending on the nature of the downstream processing machine.

According to the present invention, there is provided apparatus for feeding tubular workpieces such as cartridge case blanks one by one in a predetermined orientation to a downstream machine tool or other processing device arranged to operate at a predetermined working rate, which apparatus comprises a feed hopper taking the workpieces in bulk, with a lower portion containing an extractor for extracting the workpieces one by one from the hopper and feeding them to a storage magazine in which the workpieces are stacked over each other with their sides in contact with each other, and orienting and transfer means situated under the magazine. the orienting and transfer means taking the lowest workpiece from the stack of workpieces in the magazine and rotating it into a vertical attitude for transference, correctly oriented, to the downstream device.

It should be observed that this arrangement, involving a magazine containing a stack of workpieces resting on top of each other in sideways array, with their sides in contact with each other, makes it possible to feed the workpieces in a far more rapid fashion, compared to previously known workpiece feeding apparatus in which the workpieces are stacked in the magazine over each other end to end. The rapidity of feed is largely determined by the interval of time required by the one-butlowest workpiece in the stack to descend fully into the lowest position, from where it can be ejected from the lower end of the magazine. This critical interval of time depends on the distance through which the workpiece has to fall and in the case of longitudinally stacked workpieces this is the length of the workpiece.In tubular workpieces of the kind considered here the ratio of length to diameter is often of the order of 4:1 to 8:1. Consequently the arrangement in accordance with the present invention makes it possible to reduce the critical time interval by a factor of between 2 and 3.

In a preferred embodiment of the invention the orienting and transfer means comprise a rotary orienting barrel which rotates about a vertical axis and contains a number of passages. Each passage receives a succession of tubular workpieces, vertical in attitude and correctly oriented, released from the lower end of the magazine.

Preferably each passage in the barrel has, in its lower portion, an elongate side opening through which a transfer wheel with radial notches can take the workpiece sideways out of the passage in the barrel, the transfer wheel being driven synchronously with the downstream processing device.

The invention will be better understood from the following description of the attached drawings, intended merely by way of example, in which: Figure 1 is a vertical section of a first embodiment of workpiece feeding apparatus according to the invention.

Figures 2, 3 and 4 are horizontal sections taken in the planes II--II, III--III and IV IV of Figure 1.

Figure 5 is a diagrammatical projection showing the passages in the rotary barrel shown in Figure 1.

Figure 6 is a vertical section showing a detail of a variant of the workpiece feeding apparatus.

Figure 7 shows a plan view of one half of the rotary barrel shown in Figure 6.

In Figure 1 the reference number 10 indicates generally apparatus for feeding tubular workpieces, for example cartridge case blanks, to a downstream machine tool, or train of machine tools, or to a device of some other kind for processing the blanks.

The workpieces are fed one by one at a predetermined regular rate of feed, each workpiece being fed in a predetermined attitude and correctly oriented to the downstream processing device. The downstream processing device (not shown) can operate step by step or contineeusly using the principle of continuous motion.

The feeding apparatus 10 comprises: an initial storage device into which the tubular workpieces are charged in bulk, for example a hopper 12 equipped with an extractor. for example a rotary extractor 14, which extracts the workpieces one by one form the hopper and delivers them to: an intermediate storage magazine 16 in which the workpieces stack themselves the one over the other in sideways array, that is to say with their sides in contact with each other, and: orienting and transfer means 18 comprising a rotary orienting barrel 20 with passages 22 into which the workpieces fall one by one from the feed magazine 16, the orienting barrel in turn feeding the workpieces one by one to a transfer wheel 24 which is driven in rotation synchronously with the downstream processing device.

In the illustrated embodiment of the invention, the hopper 12 consists of a stationary pan, open at the top, whose cylindrical lower portion 26 is inclined at an angle, for example 45 , to the horizontal.

The hopper 12 contains the rotary extractor 14 consisting of a circular disc 28 mounted to rotate on the axis of the cylindrical lower portion 26 of the hopper. The circular disc 28 rotates just above the sloping floor 30 of the hopper, the diameter of the disc 28 being approximately the internal diameter of the cylindrical lower portion 26 of the hopper. The circular rotary disc 28 has distributed around its periphery a number of elongated, radially open peripheral slots 32 each suitable for catching and containing one of the tubular workpieces which have been charged in bulk into the hopper 12.

The sloping floor 30 of the hopper has a corresponding elongated aperture 34 in the highest region of its periphery, so that whenever a workpiece, carried around in a peripheral slot 32 of the rotating disc 28 reaches the aperture 34 the workpiece falls through the aperture.

The circular, rotary disc 28 is fixed to a central shaft 36 which penetrates downwards through the sloping floor 30 of the hopper. The central shaft 36 is mounted in a driving sleeve 38 which rotates in two bearings 40 in a bearing housing 42 fixed to the underside of the sloping floor 30 of the hopper. The driving sleeve 38 is itself driven in rotation by an electric motor 44 through a bevel drive 46. The lower end of the central shaft 36 is connected to the driving sleeve 38 through a slipping clutch 48. This is a safety device to prevent the rotary extractor from being damaged should a workpiece become jammed in t'ne aperture 34.

Positioned under the hopper 12 there is a storage magazine 16. when the workpiece feeding apparatus is in operation each slot 32 contains, in principle, one tubular workpiece, which is carried around until it falls through the aperture 34. The workpieces therefore fall one by one through the aperture 34 and it will be observed that each workpiece falls sideways, that is to say in a direction perpendicular to its own axis.

From the aperture 34 the workpieces fall one by one into the compartments 60 of a rotary magazine feeding device 50. The function of this device is to ensure that each workpiece is lowered into the magazine 16 with its axis correctly aligned. The magazine feeding device 50 rotates on a horizontal axis 52 which is parallel to the longitudinal axis of the aperture 34. The magazine feeding device rotates synchronously with the rotating disc 28, driven through a bevel drive 56 (Figure 2) and a chain drive 54 from the driving sleeve 38 of the central shaft 36. The magazine feeding device 50 has a conical hub 58 which sets each workpiece, contained in a compartment 60 at a slight angle, with respect to the horizontal, so that it descends with its axis correctly aligned through the convergent chute 62 of the magazine 16.The magazine feeding device 50 preferably contains as many compartments 60 (for example 6) as there are peripheral slots 32 in the rotary disc 28.

But there need not necessarily be this number of compartments. If desired there can be a gear ratio other than 1:1 between the driving sleeve 38 and the shaft 52.

The magazine 16 has two opposite sidewalls 64, 66 spaced apart slightly more than the workpiece diameter. The sidewalls are preferably perforated, for example they can be in the form of grids, to give easy access to the interior of the magazine. The magazine 16 is preferably zigzag, partly to limit the weight applied by the stack 68 of workpieces to the lowest workpiece, at the bottom of the stack, and partly to allow the workpieces to align themselves correctly in sideways array on their way down through the magazine. Correct alignment of the tubular workpieces, with their sides truly in contact with each other, ensures correct feeding of the rotary orienting barrel 20.

The extractor 14 normally feeds the magazine 16 at a constant, regular rate.

Nevertheless it can happen that one or more of the peripheral slots 32 in the rotating disc 28 fails to catch and retain a workpiece, with the result that the magazine 16 is fed irregularly.

To compensate for any irregularity of feed the electric motor 44 may drive the disc 28 at a speed 10 to 20% higher than what would theoretically be necessary for keeping the magazine evenly charged with workpieces.

To prevent overfeeding of the magazine the action of the electric motor 44 is controlled by a sensor 70, of any suitable kind, which detects the position of the highest work piece in the stack 68 of tubular workpieces sideways arrayed in the magazine 16. When the stack becomes too high the sensor 70 stops the motor 44. The sensor 70 can, if desired, be a photoelectric sensor, as indicated in the drawing. A second sensor 72, of the same kind, can if desired be arranged to stop the downstream processing machine, or processing device, when the stack gets too low. Either of these sensors, or a third, intermediate sensor (not shown) may be used to restart the motor 44.

The orienting barrel 20 is mounted on the frame of the workpiece feeding apparatus to rotate about a vertical axis so that each of its passages 22 passes in turn under the outlet of the magazine 16, where it receives the lowest workpiece of the stack 68. The barrel 20 is driven in rotation by a mechanical transmission, synchronously with the downstream device which is to be fed with workpieces. The barrel 20 can be driven continuously or, if desired, stepwise.

As shown best in Figure 5, each passage 22 is funnel-shaped, with an upper, funnel mouthed portion 74. Across the mouth of each passage 22 there is a central pin 76 to rotate the workpiece as it falls so that it enters the lower, cylindrical portion 78 of the passage in a vertical, upright attitude. As a workpiece such as a cartridge case blank falls and strikes the pin 76. it will be rotated so that its heavier end, i.e. its closed base, falls first and it will come to rest with its open end uppermost. It should be observed that each passage can. as shown in the drawing, be long enough to accommodate several tubular workpieces, to compensate for any irregularity in the supply of workpieces arriving from the magazine 16.

The transfer of the lowest workpiece in the stack 68 into the passage 22 which has iust arrived under the magazine 16 can be effected by any suitable barrel feeding device 80 which operates synchronously with the barrel 20.

In the embodiment of the invention represented in Figure 1 the barrel feeding device 80 consists of an injector pin 82 acting horizontally and positioned to eject the workpiece from the lower end of the magazine into the mouth of the passage 22.

For this purpose the magazine has a slightly curved lower end and a side outlet opposite the injector pin 82. A return spring 84 (Figure 3) normally holds the injector pin 82 retracted. Under these circumstances the lowest workpiece in the stack 68 comes to rest in the lower end of the magazine 16, where it remains until the injector pin 89 goes into action. The pin 82 is actuated by any suitable means, synchronously with the barrel 20. In the example shown in the drawing the injector pin 82 is actuated by a lever 86 which pivots on a stationary axis 88.

The lever 86 is actuated by a roller 90 which follows a cam 92 fixed to the barrel '0.

When a passage 22 comes under the magazine 16 the cam 92, acting on the roller 90, thrusts the injector pin 82 inwards, towards the axis of the barrel 20, against the influence of the spring 84, thrusting the lowest workpiece in the stack 68 radially inwards through the side opening in the lower end of the magazine 16, so that the workpiece falls downwards into the mouth of the passage 22 of the barrel.

An important point which should be observed here is that when the lowest workpiece in the stack 68 has been injected into the mouth of the passage 22, by the action of the injector pin 82, the next workpiece in the stack 68 needs to move only a short distance downwards into position for injection by the injector pin 82.

This is obtained by stacking the workpieces in sideways array in the feed channel of the magazine 16. The point is important because it allows the workpieces to be injected in rapid succession by the injector pin 82. The arrangement allows the workpiece feeding apparatus to function at a high rate of feed.

In the variant embodiment of the invention shown in Figures 6 and 7 the feeding device 80 is arranged somewhat differently. The upper surface of the barrel 20 has horizontal, elongated recessed ledges 94 at the upper end of each passage. The lower end of the magazine 16 is vertical. The lowest workpiece in the magazine 16 drops straight down and comes to rest on the recessed ledge 94 of the barrel.

A said recessed ledge 94 is situated radially inwards at the upper end of the funnel-shaped mouth 74 of each passage 22 in the barrel. Each recessed ledge 94 has a horizontal base, to prevent the workpiece from rolling under gravity into the mouth 74 of the passage 22. From the recessed ledge 94 the workpiece can be injected into the passage 22 in any suitable way, for example by a centrifugal effect. In the example shown the barrel 20 is equipped with iniector pins 96 actuated by a stationary cam 98 fixed to the frame of the workpiece feeding apparatus. Each injector pin 96 is held in contact with the cam by a return spring 100.

When this embodiment of the invention is in operation the workpiece resting on the recessed ledge 94 is injected by the pin 96 into the mouth 74 of the passage 22, the workpiece striking a pin 76, which is set across the mouth 74 of the passage 22, so that the workpiece rotates as it falls, entering the lower portion 78 of the passage 22 in the correct vertical attitude. If the workpiece is heavier at one end than at the other, for example if it is a cartridge blank, the workpiece rotates to bring its heavier end downwards and enters the lower portion 78 of the passage 22 oriented in this way.

The rotating barrel 20 transports each workpiece in turn to the transfer wheel 24.

Each passage 22 in the barrel has, at its lower end, a side opening 102 which is high enough to allow the workpiece to be transferred to the transfer wheel still in a vertical attitude. The workpiece is prevented from falling out through the side opening 102 by a curved retainer rail 104 which goes all around the barrel except in the region of the transfer wheel 24. The transfer wheel is driven to rotate, in synchronism with the barrel, about a vertical axis by a gear train 106. The transfer wheel 24 has, distributed around its periphery, notches 107 for receiving the workpieces. Rotation of the transfer wheel 24 is synchronized with rotation of the barrel 20 in such a way that whenever a passage 22 comes into position ready for transferring the workpiece to the transfer wheel one of the notches 107 in the transfer wheel coincides with the side opening 102 of the passage 22.A stationary deflector rail 108, which partly surrounds the transfer wheel 24, retains the workpiece in the notch 107 of the transfer wheel. The front end 110 of the deflector rail 108 intersects the path of movement of the workpiece housed in the lower end of the passage 22, so that the workpieces are transferred one by one from the barrel to the transfer wheel, the workpieces passing across through the opening of the retainer rail 104.

It will be observed that when the workpiece is being transferred from the barrel to the transfer wheel the workpiece moves sideways, that is to say in a direction perpendicular to its own axis, the workpiece sliding across on its bottom end on a horizontal surface of the apparatus.

As already mentioned, in this embodiment of the invention each passage 22 in the barrel 20 is long enough to accommodate several workpieces stacked vertically end to end in the lower portion of the passage 22. This makes it necessary to provide a device for retaining temporarily the one-but-lowest workpiece in the passage 22 at the time when the deflector rail 108 is picking a workpiece out of the lower end of the passage 22. For this purpose a retainer device, shown in Figures 1 and 3, comprises a number of resilient arms 112, each fixed at one end to the barrel 20. Each arm 112 penetrates through a side opening 114 into the passage 22, so as to retain the one-butlowest workpiece temporarily. The resilient arms 112 are thrust radially inwards by an external, stationary curved rail 116 which acts on a roller 118 mounted on the free end of the arm 112.The rail 116 extends at least partly around the opening of the curved retainer rail 104.

It should be understood that the invention is not limited to the embodiments described and illustrated. Various modifications can be introduced without leaving the scope of the invention as defined in the claims.

WHAT WE CLAIM IS: 1. Apparatus for feeding tubular workpieces such as cartridge case blanks one by one in a predetermined orientation to a downstream machine tool or other processing device arranged to operate at a predetermined working rate, which apparatus comprises a feed hopper taking the workpieces in bulk, with a lower portion containing an extractor for extracting the workpieces one by one from the hopper and feeding them to a storage magazine in which the workpieces are stacked over each other with their sides in contact with each other, and orienting and transfer means situated under the magazine, the orienting and

**WARNING** end of DESC field may overlap start of CLMS **.

Claims

**WARNING** start of CLMS field may overlap end of DESC **. workpiece feeding apparatus to function at a high rate of feed. In the variant embodiment of the invention shown in Figures 6 and 7 the feeding device 80 is arranged somewhat differently. The upper surface of the barrel 20 has horizontal, elongated recessed ledges 94 at the upper end of each passage. The lower end of the magazine 16 is vertical. The lowest workpiece in the magazine 16 drops straight down and comes to rest on the recessed ledge 94 of the barrel. A said recessed ledge 94 is situated radially inwards at the upper end of the funnel-shaped mouth 74 of each passage 22 in the barrel. Each recessed ledge 94 has a horizontal base, to prevent the workpiece from rolling under gravity into the mouth 74 of the passage 22. From the recessed ledge 94 the workpiece can be injected into the passage 22 in any suitable way, for example by a centrifugal effect. In the example shown the barrel 20 is equipped with iniector pins 96 actuated by a stationary cam 98 fixed to the frame of the workpiece feeding apparatus. Each injector pin 96 is held in contact with the cam by a return spring 100. When this embodiment of the invention is in operation the workpiece resting on the recessed ledge 94 is injected by the pin 96 into the mouth 74 of the passage 22, the workpiece striking a pin 76, which is set across the mouth 74 of the passage 22, so that the workpiece rotates as it falls, entering the lower portion 78 of the passage 22 in the correct vertical attitude. If the workpiece is heavier at one end than at the other, for example if it is a cartridge blank, the workpiece rotates to bring its heavier end downwards and enters the lower portion 78 of the passage 22 oriented in this way. The rotating barrel 20 transports each workpiece in turn to the transfer wheel 24. Each passage 22 in the barrel has, at its lower end, a side opening 102 which is high enough to allow the workpiece to be transferred to the transfer wheel still in a vertical attitude. The workpiece is prevented from falling out through the side opening 102 by a curved retainer rail 104 which goes all around the barrel except in the region of the transfer wheel 24. The transfer wheel is driven to rotate, in synchronism with the barrel, about a vertical axis by a gear train 106. The transfer wheel 24 has, distributed around its periphery, notches 107 for receiving the workpieces. Rotation of the transfer wheel 24 is synchronized with rotation of the barrel 20 in such a way that whenever a passage 22 comes into position ready for transferring the workpiece to the transfer wheel one of the notches 107 in the transfer wheel coincides with the side opening 102 of the passage 22.A stationary deflector rail 108, which partly surrounds the transfer wheel 24, retains the workpiece in the notch 107 of the transfer wheel. The front end 110 of the deflector rail 108 intersects the path of movement of the workpiece housed in the lower end of the passage 22, so that the workpieces are transferred one by one from the barrel to the transfer wheel, the workpieces passing across through the opening of the retainer rail 104. It will be observed that when the workpiece is being transferred from the barrel to the transfer wheel the workpiece moves sideways, that is to say in a direction perpendicular to its own axis, the workpiece sliding across on its bottom end on a horizontal surface of the apparatus. As already mentioned, in this embodiment of the invention each passage 22 in the barrel 20 is long enough to accommodate several workpieces stacked vertically end to end in the lower portion of the passage 22. This makes it necessary to provide a device for retaining temporarily the one-but-lowest workpiece in the passage 22 at the time when the deflector rail 108 is picking a workpiece out of the lower end of the passage 22. For this purpose a retainer device, shown in Figures 1 and 3, comprises a number of resilient arms 112, each fixed at one end to the barrel 20. Each arm 112 penetrates through a side opening 114 into the passage 22, so as to retain the one-butlowest workpiece temporarily. The resilient arms 112 are thrust radially inwards by an external, stationary curved rail 116 which acts on a roller 118 mounted on the free end of the arm 112.The rail 116 extends at least partly around the opening of the curved retainer rail 104. It should be understood that the invention is not limited to the embodiments described and illustrated. Various modifications can be introduced without leaving the scope of the invention as defined in the claims. WHAT WE CLAIM IS:

1. Apparatus for feeding tubular workpieces such as cartridge case blanks one by one in a predetermined orientation to a downstream machine tool or other processing device arranged to operate at a predetermined working rate, which apparatus comprises a feed hopper taking the workpieces in bulk, with a lower portion containing an extractor for extracting the workpieces one by one from the hopper and feeding them to a storage magazine in which the workpieces are stacked over each other with their sides in contact with each other, and orienting and transfer means situated under the magazine, the orienting and

transfer means taking the lowest workpiece from the stack of workpieces in the magazine and rotating it into a vertical attitude for transference, correctly oriented.

to the downstream device.

2. Apparatus according to claim 1, characterised in that the orienting means comprises a rotary barrel rotatable about vertical axis and having passages for receiving vertically positioned and correctly oriented workpieces released from the magazine.

3. Apparatus according to claim 2, characterised in that each passage in the barrel has a funnel-shaped upper mouth portion, a tripping pin being interposed across the mouth portion for rotating the workpiece falling through the passage into the correct orientation.

4. Apparatus according to either of claims 2 and 3, characterised in that it comprises an injector pin actuated by a cam on the barrel, for thrusting the lowest workpiece of the stack in the magazine sideways towards the mouth of the passage in the barrel which has arrived under the mazagine.

5. Apparatus according to either of claims 2 and 3, characterised in that each passage in the barrel has, in its upper portion, a horizontal, elongate recessed ledge which, with the rotation of the barrel, comes under the magazine, for receiving the lowest workpiece of the stack of workpieces in the magazine, means being provided for thrusting this workpiece radially towards the passage in the barrel.

6. Apparatus according to any one of claims 2 to 5, characterised in that each passage in the barrel has, in its lower portion, an elongate side opening through which a transfer wheel with radial notches can take the workpiece sideways out of each passage in the barrel, the transfer wheel in use being driven synchronously with the predetermined working rate of the downstream processing device.

7. Apparatus according to claim 6, characterised in that each passage in the barrel is long enough to accommodate several workpieces positioned longitudinally one above the other, end to end, retaining means being provided for temporarilv preventing the one-but-lowest workpiece in a passage from descending at the time when the transfer wheel is taking out the lowest workpiece in that passage.

8. Apparatus according to claim 7, characterised in that the retaining means is in the form of resilient arms, each arm penetrating inwards into one of the passages in the barrel so as to retain the one-butlowest workpiece in place in a passage during removal of the lowest workpiece in that passage, the resilient arm associated with that passage being thrust radially inwards towards the axis of the barrel by a stationary rail which thrusts against the free end of the arm.

9. Apparatus according to any preceding claim, characterised in that the magazine is zig-zag in shape.

10. Apparatus according to any preceding claim, characterised in that a sensor is provided for stopping the downstream processing device whenever the upper end of the stack of workpieces in the magazine gets too low.

11. Apparatus according to any preceding claim, characterised in that a sensor is provided for stopping the extractor in the hopper whenever the upper end of the stack gets too high.

12. Apparatus according to any preceding claim, characterised in that it comprises a magazine feeding device rotating on a horizontal axis and positioned at the upper, inlet end of the magazine, the feeding device being driven to rotate synchronously with the extractor in the hopper, in order to stabilize each workpiece in a horizontal attitude on its way between the extractor and the magazine.

13. Apparatus for feeding workpieces substantially as herein described with reference to Figures 1 to 5 of the accompanying drawings.

14. Apparatus according to claim 13 modified substantially as herein described with reference to Figures 6 and 7 of the accompanying drawings.