GB1222652A - Method and apparatus for stacking hexahedral members, for example bricks - Google Patents

Abstract

1,222,652. Stacking bricks etc.; grippers. DUNCAN STEWART (BONNYBRIDGE) Ltd. 17 April, 1968 [16 Feb., 1967; 13 May, 1967], Nos. 7473/67 and 22287/67. Headings B8C and B8H. Articles, e.g. bricks, to be stacked are turned on their sides and formed into a row which is lifted by a clamping device and removed to form part of the stack. Bricks from a brickmaking machine 12 are conveyed on endless belts 13, 14 to a transversely movable trolley 17, having two sets of rollers 18, 19, arranged so, as one receives a brick from one of the belts 13, 14, another brick is pushed from the other, on to rollers 28. The bricks are then turned on their side by a pair of endless belts 30, 31 each twisted through 90 degrees and are individually delivered on to rollers 7 which lower to place the bricks on endless belts 3 and a device (171), Fig. 5 (not shown), positions each brick correctly. The belts 3 move intermittently to form a row of bricks spaced slightly apart. The first brick of the row actuates a valve causing plates 55, 56 to pivot, clamp the row and raise it clear of the belts 3. The plates 55, 56 are hinged on a frame 53, which is resiliently mounted via plungers (54), Fig. 2 (not shown), to the ram (52) of a piston and cylinder device 51 attached to a trolley 44. The trolley is moved by piston and cylinder devices 45, 46 and has buffers 73 which engage either the frame 66 or stops 71, 72 mounted on a rotatable shaft 62. These stops can thus arrest the movement of the trolley at three positions on each side of its loading position. A stack can be formed on a pallet on one side of the loading position with a base three rows wide, and a similar stack can be formed on a pallet on the opposite side. This change over is controlled by a cam (112), Fig. 5 (not shown), rotated by shaft 62 through gearing 115. In a modification (not shown) the brick tipping belts 30, 31 are replaced by inclined parallel roller conveyers with one preceding and slightly above the other and the bricks moving under gravity. Between the conveyers is a vertical L-shaped roller platform, with the horizontal face level with the first conveyer and pivoted about the edge opposite to that to which the upright face is fixed. Balance is maintained by an arm with a weight, extending beyond the pivot edge, until a brick is delivered on to the horizontal face causing the platform to pivot and the brick to tip on its side on to the previously vertical face which is now horizontal and level with the second conveyer. During the tipping a plate arrests the flow of bricks from the first conveyer.