WO1990009873A1

WO1990009873A1 - Feed and discharge device for a press

Info

Publication number: WO1990009873A1
Application number: PCT/FI1989/000034
Authority: WO
Inventors: Jukka SIIRIÄINEN
Original assignee: Raute Oy
Priority date: 1989-02-27
Filing date: 1989-02-27
Publication date: 1990-09-07
Also published as: DE3991595T1; IT1229444B; IT8920785A0

Abstract

The invention concerns a feed and discharge device for a board press. The device consists of two conveyor units, which are placed side by side, which are narrow as compared with the width of the press, and which can be run into the opened press gap from opposite directions perpendicular to the direction of travel of the board (1) to be treated and which can be removed out of said gap by means of return movements of opposite directions. The conveyor units consist of a transfer base (3a) that receives the boards to be pressed as well as of a grasping-transfer member (3b) placed underneath said base (3a). The grasping-transfer members are arranged to be placed into contact with the pressed board (1) so as to raise the board off the lower heated plate (2b) of the press. By means of the operating movements of the transfer bases and of the grasping-transfer members, respectively, the pressed board can be removed out of the press and, in a corresponding way, a fresh board can be received as simultaneous operations.

Description

Peed and discharge device for a press

The invention concerns a feed and discharge device for a press, by means of which the board to be pressed is fed into the press. In particular, the feed device subject of the invention can be utilized in connection with a laminating press, whereby the board to be laminated and the laminating sheet placed on it are fed into the press that fixes the laminating onto the board, such as a hot press.

Presses impose rather high requirements on the construction of the feed devices. In particular when boards are being laminated, the laminating placed on the board that enters into the press is still loose at the feed stage, and, consequently, conveyor devices that grasp the face of the board cannot be used.

The latter problem can be solved by means of feed devices that include jaws that grasp the opposite edges of the board, by means of which said jaws the board and the coating sheet placed on it are carried into the open gap of the press. The jaws are mounted at the ends of pivot or draw arms so as to remove the jaws out of the gap of the press upon delivery of the board. On the other hand, the arms are, at each side of the press, connected to a beam or equivalent of a length substantially equal to the length of the press, said beams, placed at opposite sides of the press, being connected to one another so as to provide a transfer carriage. On the other hand, a dis¬ charge device carriage of corresponding sort is attached to this transfer carriage, which said discharge device carriage supports suction-pad grasps or equivalent, which can be passed into the opened press gap, so as to remove the laminated board out of the press. Thus, the devices operates with dual action. After the press has been opened, the discharge device is run to the sides of the press, whereby the feed device is, correspondingly, shifted to the position for fetching a board to be laminated. In these positions, the grasping members of the discharge device ace controlled onto the face of the finished board and, in a corresponding way, the jaws of the feed device are controlled onto the edges of the board to be laminated. During the movement of oppo¬ site direction, the discharge device carries the finished board out of the press gap and, in a corresponding way, the feed device introduces a fresh board and a laminating sheet placed on said board into the press gap for the press stage.

In this embodiment, the feed and discharge device becomes a unit of quite a heavy construction, which must be dis¬ placed back and forth at both sides of the press at the pace of operation of the press. Moreover, when it is taken into account that the fixing of the laminate to the face of the board can be carried out within a very short pressing time, the pace of operation of the feed and discharge device becomes quite high, which again increases the requirements to be imposed on the device. Thus, the feed and discharge device has frequently become a factor that restricts the operation of the laminating press.

Some improvement of the problem has been obtained by means of a prior-art feed and discharge device for a laminating press, wherein some essential components of the device are narrow belt conveyor units pushed into the opened gap of the press from opposite sides, perpendicularly to the di¬ rection of feed of the board to be laminated. Another es¬ sential component of the device consists of suction-pad grasping members, which are inserted into the press gap as the first operation when the press is being opened after the laminating stage. By means of these suction-pad grasp- ing members, the laminated board is raised off the heated plate in the press, whereupon said belt conveyor units are run in the lateral direction into the press gap. The board is lowered from the grasping members onto the belt con¬ veyors, which start running in the direction of removal of the board so as to remove the laminated board out of the press. At the same time, a board to be laminated is fed to the feed-in end of the belt conveyor, i.e. a fresh board is received in the press gap directed after the board that was removed.

After the board that was fed has reached its position in the press gap, the belt conveyor units are shifted apart from each other in the lateral direction in opposite direc¬ tions out of the press gap, whereby the board supported by them and the laminating sheet placed on the board fall be¬ tween the conveyors onto the heated plate in the press, and the press can be closed, in this construction, it has been possible to reduce the masses that move back and forth to an essential extent, and so also has it been possible to make their paths of movement essentially shorter than in prior art.

A problem and a factor that slows down the operation in the last-mentioned prior-art feed and discharge device is, how¬ ever, still the necessity of separate suction-lift grasping members, which said grasping members must be pushed into the opened press gap as the first, separate operation.

Problems involved in these prior-art devices have been re¬ duced by means of the feed and discharge device in accor¬ dance with the invention, which includes transfer units, in accordance with the prior-art device, which are placed side by side, which are inserted into the press gap from opposi¬ te sides of the press in the direction perpendicular to the direction of feed of the board to be laminated and which are removed out of the gap in the opposite direction. Ac¬ cording to the invention, these units are arranged so that they can be lowered and raised in the press gap, and their bottom faces are provided with grasping-transfer members so as to grasp the laminated board and to remove it out of the press gap.

The other characteristic features of the invention come out from the accompanying patent claims.

The invention will be described by means of the accompany¬ ing drawing of principle, wherein

Fig. 1 shows a laminating press and a related feed and discharge device in accordance with the invention at three different stages of operation a, b and c,

Fig. 2 shows the position of the feed and discharge device in an opened press seen from above,

Fig. 3 shows the position of the feed and discharge device when the press is closed, and

Fig. 4 shows one embodiment of the feed and discharge device in more detail on a larger scale.

Fig. 5 shows a variation of the feed and discharge device.

Fig. 1 is a schematical illustration of a laminating press 2, which comprises an upper press plate 2a which moves up and down as well as a stationary lower press plate 2b. In view of receiving the board 1 to be laminated and the lami¬ nating sheet l¹ placed on it, the equipment includes a waiting or delivery station 5, which, in the embodiment shown, may be, e.g., an endless belt conveyor operating under control. The operation of the delivery station will be described later. In the embodiment shown, the feed and discharge device proper consists of an endless belt conveyor 3a and of a roller-suction conveyor 3b placed underneath said belt conveyor. Both the endless belt conveyor 3a and the roller-suction conveyor 3b are made narrow in their direc¬ tion of transportation in comparison with the width of the press, as comes out from Fig. 2. At the side of the belt- conveyor/roller-suction-conveyor pair shown in Fig. 1, there is a second identical belt-conveyor/roller-suction- conveyor pair 4, as comes out from Fig. 2. These identical pairs of belt conveyor and roller-suction conveyor are ar¬ ranged displaceable horizontally in a direction perpendicu¬ lar to their direction of transportation into the opened press gap and, in a corresponding way, by means of a hori¬ zontal movement of opposite direction, displaceable out of the press gap, as is indicated in Fig. 3 by the movement arrows 7,8 and 10,11.

In addition to these mutual movements of approach and sepa¬ ration, the identical units consisting of the belt con¬ veyors 3a,4a and of the roller-suction conveyors 3b,4b are arranged so that they together can be raised and lowered in the opened press gap so as to grasp the board to be removed by means of the roller-suction conveyors and to raise the board to the level of removal.

Fig. la shows the stage of operation of the laminating press 2 in which the press has been opened after the lami¬ nating pressing and the feed and discharge units 3 and 4 consisting of the belt conveyors 3a,4a and of the roller- suction conveyors 3b,4b have been run into the opened press gap in the direction of the arrows 7,8 (Fig. 3). Herein¬ after the feed and discharge device has carried out a lowering and raising movement in accordance with the arrow 9 so as to grasp the laminated board and to lift the board to the level of removal. Hereupon it is possible to start the operations of the various components of the equipment that transfer the board forwards. These operations include, firstly, the transfer movement by the roller-suction conveyors 3b,4b, by means of which the laminated board, which has been lifted up from the press base, is run out of the press gap. At the same time with this movement of removal, it is rational to carry out the movement of receiving of the belt conveyors 3a,4a, and further the movement of transfer of the delivery stati¬ on 5, by means of which said movements the board 1 to be laminated and the laminating sheet 1' placed on the board can be run into the open press gap to be supported by the belt conveyors 3a and 4a and, further, to be lowered onto the heated plate in the press. It is rational to combine the movements of said conveyors 3b,4b, 3a,4a and 5 to take place synchronously so as to avoid delays in the transfers of the boards.

The board 1 placed on the belt conveyors 3a,4a in the press gap is lowered onto the heated plate of the press by shift¬ ing the units consisting of the conveyors 3a,3b and 4a,4b apart from each other in the direction of the arrows 10 and 11 in Fig. 3 out of the press gap. After the units 3 and 4 have come out of the press gap into the position shown in Fig. 2, the press 2 is closed for hot-pressing fixing of the laminating, whereinafter the operation goes on in ac¬ cordance with the cycle described above.

The units of equipment included in the equipment described above by way of example may be accomplished in a number of usable ways within the scope of the invention.

In the exemplifying embodiment, the grasping-transfer members 3b and 4b are described as a roller-suction con¬ veyor, whose construction is illustrated in more detail in Fig. 4. The conveyor consists of parallel ^"conveyor rolls or rollers 12 placed in a plane side by side, mounted in a suction box 13 open at the bottom. The rollers 12 receive their joint rotation-drive movement from a suitable power source, e.g., by the intermediate of a drive chain. When this grasping-transfer member is lowered onto the board to be raised and when the suction box 13 is subjected to negative pressure, a suction effect is applied to the board from between the rollers 12, whereby, supported by this suction, the board can be raised along with the trans¬ fer member and be carried forwards as the rollers 12 are rotated in the direction of transportation.

In stead of the roller-suction conveyor described here, it is also possible to use other suction-conveyor solutions for the same grasping-transfer purpose. As an example might be mentioned a conveyor based on a suction box and a perforated belt running along the bottom face of the box. In stead of the belt, there may also be a conveyor wire or a corresponding perforated conveyor structure. Further, the conveyor may be based on passive suction, i.e. on suction pads pressed onto the face of the board to be carried. Other passive grasping conveyors may also be concerned in this connection, as an example of which it is possible to mention conveyors or other transfer members with a sticky grasping face.

The receiving bases 3a and 4a that receive the board to be laminated and lower it onto the heated plate may also be accomplished as different equivalent solutions in stead of the belt conveyors described herein. A roller conveyor might be mentioned as one example.

In view of the operation of these receiving bases, it is preferable to give consideration to their optimal operation when the board is lowered onto the heated plate. At this stage, the bottom face of the board to be delivered has to glide against the faces of the receiving bases, so that the materials of these delivering faces ought to be chosen suitable for the purpose. The delivery may also be facil¬ itated by means of various constructional solutions, such as by making the receiving bases into constructions corre¬ sponding to suction-lifting conveyors, in which case it is possible to provide the conveyors with positive pressure which raises the board to be delivered apart from the faces of the receiving bases at the stage of delivery. On the other hand, the bases may also be provided with auxiliary rollers arranged in the direction of the movement of deli¬ very, which said rollers can be placed in their inoperative positions when the board to be laminated is being run onto the receiving base, and raised to their operative positions for the process of delivery.

In the embodiment described, it is suggested that the board to be removed is transferred in the same direction with the board 1 to be fed in. The equipment in accordance with the invention, however, also permits removal of the board in the opposite direction, in which case the laminating press can be placed as the last unit in the longitudinal direc¬ tion of a laminating line, making the operation take place in the reversed direction as compared with the feed of the board (Fig. 5) .

In this embodiment, it is also possible to make the con¬ structions of the transfer units 3 and 4 simpler. Since the movement of transfer of the grasping-transfer members 3b and 4b is thereby opposite to the direction of the movement of transfer of the transfer bases 3a and 4a, in principle, it is possible to accomplish the operations of these devices as an operation of opposite sides of the same conveyor member, for example, by means of an endless suction-conveyor belt. It is also included in the scope of the invention that the number of the units consisting of the transfer bases (3a,4a) and of the grasping-transfer members (3b,4b) is higher than two, which is given as the number in < he exemplifying embodiment, being, for example, four, in which case they may be combined in pairs so as to be displaced into and out of the press gap. Of course, there may also be a higher number of such units placed one after the other for one press.

Nor is the invention confined to the single-gap press de¬ scribed in the exemplifying embodiment by way of prin¬ ciple, but the described feed and discharge device may, of course, be provided for each gap in a multi-gap press.

In the exemplifying embodiment described above, the trans¬ fer units 3 and 4 are described as raisable and lowerable in the opened press gap so as to bring the grasping-trans¬ fer members 3b and 4b into contact with the pressed board 1^• ' placed on the lower press plate 2b. As an alternative, the invention can also be carried out in a press whose lower press plate 2b has been made raisable after the open¬ ing of the press and the running of the transfer units 3 and 4 into the press gap, in order that the board^' l'¹ pla¬ ced on the plate 2b could be brought into contact with the grasping-transfer members 3b and 4b.

The lower press jaw 2b may also be provided with a separate mantle by means of which the board 1 can be raised, after opening of the press, into contact with the removing con¬ veyor 3b and 4b.

Claims

WHAT IS CLAIMED IS:

1. Feed and discharge device for a press, such as a laminating press, by means of which said device a board

(1) , such as a particle board, plywood board, or a veneer board, as well as a laminating sheet (l¹ ) , if any, that may be placed on it are fed into the gap of a press (2) , for example a hot press, and removed out of the gap after the pressing stage, and which said feed and discharge device comprises two transfer units (3,4) placed side by side and comprising a substantially horizontal transfer base for the reception of the board (l¹), c h a r a c t e r i z e d in that, in an opened press gap, the transfer units (3,4) can be brought into contact with the pressed board (1' ' ) placed on the lower press plate (2a) and that the transfer units comprise a lower grasping-transfer member (3b,4b) for the purpose of grasping the pressed board (l¹¹) and removing the board out of the press gap in a horizontal direction perpendicular to the movements of positioning.

2. Feed and discharge device as claimed in claim l, c h a r a c t e r i z e d in that the transfer units (3,4) can be lowered in the opened press gap so as to bring them into contact with the pressed board (l¹¹) placed on the lower press plate (2b).

3. Feed and discharge device as claimed in claim l, c h a r a c t e r i z e d in that, in respect of vertical movement, the transfer units (3,4) are stationary in view of a press that is provided with a lower press plate (2b) that can be raised and lowered, or with a related member that can be raised, respectively.

4. Feed and discharge device as claimed in any of the preceding claims 1 to 3, c h a r a c t e r i z e d in that the grasping-transfer member (3b,4b) is arranged to deliver the laminated board (1* ' ) in the same direction as the board (1) is fed in.

5. Feed and discharge device as claimed in any of the preceding claims 1 to 3, c h a r a c t e r i z e d in that the grasping-transfer member (3b,4b) is arranged to deliver the laminated board (l¹¹) in a direction opposite to the direction in which the board (1) is fed in.

6. Feed and discharge device as claimed in claim 5, c h a r a c t e r i z e d in that the grasping-transfer members (3b,4b) are constructed as return-movement members of the transfer bases (3a,4a).

7. Feed and discharge device as claimed in any of the preceding claims 1 to 6, c h a r a c t e r i z e d in that the movement of reception of the transfer bases (3a, 4a) is arranged to take place synchronously. ith the move¬ ment of delivery of the grasping-transfer members (3b,4b).

8. Feed and discharge device as claimed in any of the preceding claims 1 to 7, c h a r a c t e r i z e d in that the transfer bases (3a,4a) are suction conveyors, such as suction-belt conveyors, in whose system of suction ducts a positive pressure can be produced optionally so as to facilitate the gliding of the boards at the stage of deli¬ very.

9. Feed and discharge device as claimed in any of the preceding claims 1 to 8, c h a r a c t e r i z e d in that the grasping-transfer members (3b,4b) are suction- lifting conveyors.

10. Feed and discharge device as claimed in claim 9, c h a r a c t e r i z e d in that the suction-lifting conveyors communicate with a suction equipment.

11. Feed and discharge device as claimed in any of the preceding claims 1 to 8, c h a r a c t e r i z e d in that the grasping-transfer members (3b,4b) are conveyors based on a sticky grasping face.

12. Feed and discharge device as claimed in any of the preceding claims 1 to 11, c h a r a c t e r i z e d in that there are two transfer units placed side by side in the direction transverse to the direction of travel of the board.

13. Feed and discharge device as claimed in any of the preceding claims 1 to 11, c h a r a c t e r i z e d in that there are four or more transfer units (3,4) placed side by side in the direction transverse to the direction of travel of the board, said units having been arranged to be shifted into and out of the press gap as two groups operating one opposite the other.

14. Feed and discharge device as claimed in any of the preceding claims 1 to 3, c h a r a c t e r i z e d in that, in the direction of travel of the board, there are two or more transfer units (3,4) placed one after the other.