GB805637A - A method and apparatus for placing workpieces in a predetermined angular position in a machine tool - Google Patents

Abstract

805,637. Machine-tool details. ARNFIELD, Ltd., J. & E. Jan. 11, 1957 [Oct. 11, 1955], No. 28994/55. Class 83 (3). Apparatus for placing workpieces 2 in a predetermined angular position in a machine-tool (not shown), e.g. a lathe, comprises means 3 for pushing the workpieces singly from a stack 1 to a transporter 4, means 20, Fig. 4, for rotating the work on the transporter to bring it to a predetermined angular position, and means 27, 28 for moving the transporter between the stack and the machine-tool to place the work in the machine-tool for a machining operation. The transporter has two pairs of work-gripping jaws 13 ... 16, Fig. 3, operated by screws 18, 19 of opposite hand rotated by a rack-and-pinion gearing 17 driven by fluid pressure. The jaws are mounted on sleeves 10, 11 rotatable between collars 12 on tubes 5, 6 which are separated by a washer 7 and adjustable radially of the piston rod 8 of a fluid-operated clamping device 9 for securing the tubes after adjustment. The transporter is mounted on a lever 27 carried by an arm 28 on a shaft 30 bearing in a carriage 31 movable along a guide 32 by a fluid-operated ram, Fig. 1. A fluid-operated rack 34, engaging a pinion on the shaft 30, rocks the arm 28, and a fluid-operated piston 29 controls pivotal movement of the lever 27. Operation. With the arm lowered, Fig. 1, the workpiece at the bottom of the stack is pushed axially into the transporter, on which it is rotated by the oppositely-reciprocating, spring- pressed plates 21, 22 of the device 20, until the plates engage driving flats 25, 26 on the work, thus bringing the work to the predetermined position, in which the jaws 13 ... 16 are closed by the gearing 17 and secured by the clamp 9. The transverse movement of the plates may stop their reciprocation. The arm is then pivoted towards the machine-tool and moved axially of the machine, by movement of the carriage 31, to clear the headstock. Opposite movement of the carriage follows to bring the work against the headstock centre, after which the tailstock centre is advanced to engage the other end of the work, which is then released by the transporter. Operation of the piston 29 and the rack 34 then withdraws the transporter. Means (not shown) associated with the arm 28 may prevent manual or automatic start of the machining operation until the work is correctly positioned. After machining, the work is removed by the transporter and preferably delivered to a station adjacent the magazine 1, where it can be ejected from the jaws by the operation of positioning the next workpiece in the jaws. The apparatus may be controlled by signals derived from a punched tape.