GB729687A - Improvements in or relating to conveyors for feeding workpieces to metal cutting andlike machine tools - Google Patents

Abstract

729,687. Endless conveyers. SOC. DES USINES A TUBES DE LA SARRE. April 9, 1953 [April 9, 1952], No. 9700/53. Class 78 (1). [Also in Group XXII] A conveyer arrangement for feeding workpieces to metal cutting and like machine tools wherein at least one conveyer that includes at least one endless chain, belt, or the like is employed, has the conveyer provided with a plurality of pairs of rollers, the rollers of each pair being side by side with their axes parallel to the axis along which the conveyer is adapted to advance the workpieces carried thereon, the arrangement being such that whilst in operation each workpiece to be machined rests on at least one pair of rollers and is located against sideways movement by this pair of rollers. In an arrangement for screw-threading both ends of a number of tubes, two conveyers 1, 2, Fig. 2, are provided. Each conveyer consists of an endless chain carried by a driving sprocket 3, 5, at one end and a guide sprocket 4, 6 at the other. The drive sprockets are rotated by gearing 37, Fig. 3, from a motor 36. The chain links 8 have depressions 9 so that the tubes a may engage supporting rollers 22, 23, arranged at intervals along the conveyer. The rollers have their axes parallel to the direction of movement of the conveyers and centralize the workpieces with respect to the axial plane of tool-heads F, G. Height adjustment to bring the work into line with the tool-spindles is effected by simultaneously moving a series of wedges 16 by a screwed spindle. The wedges bear on the undersides of vertical members 14 which slide in the uprights 10 of the frame and which have angle pieces 12, 13 to support the upper and lower runs of the conveyer respectively. The tubes are pushed along the transverse rails 39 to bring them into operating position and discharged on to rails 35, 40 by triangular members 26 pivoted at 28, Fig. 4, which are tilted by hydraulic or pneumatic cylinders operating through linkage 31-34. A tube, after being pushed on to the conveyer 1, Fig. 2, is moved by the conveyer up to the tool-head F for screw-threading one end, it is then retracted by reversing the conveyer belt, then moved by the plates 26 to the rails 35 where it may be transferred to the conveyer 2. This conveyer feeds the tube in the opposite direction to the tool-head G where the opposite end is threaded, the tube finally being moved off at a<SP>5</SP> on to the rails 40.