GB655379A - Improvements in or relating to an automatic feeder for presses and the like - Google Patents

Abstract

655,379. Hopper discharge. THOMPSON PRODUCTS, Inc. Feb. 19, 1948, No. 4910. Convention date, Nov. 27, 1946. [Class 78 (i)] [Also in Group XXII] In a device for feeding articles S in an orderly manner from a bin 15 to a press or the like, a reciprocating vane 17 in the bin having a trough 17a along its upper edge picks up the articles when lowered into the bin and slides them along when raised and tilted to feed them to the top of a transversely disposed inclined ramp 20 down which they roll in side by side relation to be successively ejected at the lower end. The bin 15 for the blanks is supported on a frame 16 above the level of the press die 13 and the vane 17 is pivoted at 18 therein and passes through a slot in the base. The vane 17 reciprocates between the position at the bottom of the bin where it receives the blanks and the position shown where the blanks slide into the top of the transverse ramp 20. A pusher plate 24 pivoted at 18 to the bin and coupled to the vane operates a plunger 21 on each lowering of the vane and feeds a single blank from the bottom of the ramp, advancing all the blanks one step forward along a track 22 in a furnace 23 and pushing a heated blank on to the top of a ramp 33 where it slides by gravity to a carriage 35 by which it is fed to the forging die. A geared motor 30 reciprocates the vane 17 and pusher plate 24 through a bell-crank 26 and push rods 25, 28, the speed of the motor being regulated to feed the blanks in time with reciprocations of the carriage 35. The blanks pass through a shoot 34 into a chamber 36, Fig. 4, in the end of the carriage 35 which slides over the press table 50 and die 13 under the action of a piston 41. A readily replaceable bar 38 spans the chamber 36 to prevent the blank from tipping while allowing retraction as soon as the blank begins to drop and is the only part of the carriage which would be struck by the ram 11 in the event of failure of the carriage to retract. The piston 41 is operated from a compressed air supply 46 through a solenoid valve 45 controlled by movement of the ram 11.