GB680753A - A method of and means for feeding and positioning articles - Google Patents

Abstract

680,753. Feeding articles in predetermined attitude. TIMKEN ROLLER BEARING CO. Feb. 16, 1951 [Nov. 13. 1950] No. 3763/51. Class 117 Articles having unlike front and back faces are aligned with like faces in abutment by forcibly advancing the articles in single file with like faces uppermost, shifting successive articles laterally in alternately opposite directions during such advancement and then aligning the articles with their like faces in contact. As shown, taper-roller bearing cups A each having a tapered bore 2 and a chamfered back face coming all in the same disposition from a previous working operation, are aligned in back-to-back, front-to-front relationship for presentation to a grinding wheel D by being advanced along a vibrating-feed conveyer channel 1, 3 on to a laterally divergent platform 4 having side rails 6 and a central upwardly inclined ridge 5. The platform 4 widens from cup width at its intake end to slightly less than twice cup width at its discharge end where two shoots 7 are arranged one at each side of the platform. The shoots 7 meet in a common exit shoot 9 dimensioned to allow the cups to roll therealong on edge. In operation, the cups, urged on from behind, ride up on the platform ridge 5 and successive cups slide in alternately opposite directions against the rails 6, the increasing slope of the sides of the platform 4 causing the cups to tilt almost on edge before sliding into the relevant shoot 7. Since the cups remain in single file, the time lag between successive cups entering their respective shoot 7 is such that the cups preserve the same order in the exit shoot 9 so that successive cups face in opposite directions when in the shoot 9. Axial displacement of the cups, as they leave the shoot 9, on to a conveyer 10 arranged transversely of the shoot 9, aligns the cups with their like faces in abutment.