GB1254871A - Improvements relating to stacking apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

1,254,871. Stacking apparatus; conveying and transferring ingots; grippers. A. WORSWICK 28 April, 1969 [30 Jan., 1968], No. 4688/68. Headings B8A, B8C and B8H. Apparatus for stacking articles, such as metal ingots into multi-layer stacks, comprises a conveyer 2 for delivering articles successively past a detector 3 for rejecting wrongly placed, or oversized, articles, a counting unit 2, a pair of jaws 19 for turning over the articles when required by a programmed sequence, a layer forming unit 5 which accumulates the required number of articles to form a layer, a stacker unit 6 having a grab 7 for lifting a layer of articles from the unit 5 and depositing it in an appropriate position on a stack support, means 8 for displacing a completed stack to further, conveying means 9, and a programmed control, Fig. 9 (not shown), for initiating the required movement. As shown, when an ingot runs down rollers 1 mounted on a tiltable frame 10 and reaches a stop-plate 11, the frame 10 is lowered to centre the ingot above the beams 12 of the walking conveyer 2 which is reciprocated by a pneumatic cylinder C, acting through a rack (36) and link 48, the rack 36 also operating, through a ratchet (40), a lift cam (44) and follower 45, a rod 46, and bellcrank levers 47, the conveyer beams 12 to lift them as they move forward towards the ejector device. An arm 16 of the latter operates an ejector cylinder C5 through a valve 29. A pusher 17 is movable by an arm 18 controlled by a cylinder C2 to move the ingot past a counting arm 21 to the turnover device 4 which includes the jaws 19 which are intermittently rotated by a belt device 20 to turn the ingots over, the belt of the device 20 being driven when a sprocket (43), Fig. 5 (not shown), is moved from a fixed position (42) and coupled with a drive dog (39) on the shaft (38) by means of a cylinder (C6). The ingots are then pushed onwards by the pusher 17, to lie side-by-side on the accumulator section 5. The stacker, Fig. 7, comprises a support column 23 in which is rotatably mounted a radial arm 24 for oscillating horizontal movement through an arc of 90 degrees by a cylinder C13, the arm 24 carrying a column 25, which can be raised and lowered by a cylinder 10 and which carries a grab 7 having two grab arms 29 pivoted to a bridge 30 and actuated by cylinders C8, C9. Alternate layers are deposited from the accumulator section 5 on to the walking conveyer 8 at right-angles to the preceding layer, a sprocket 26, rotatably mounted on the upper end of the column 23 and connected, by a chain 27, to a sprocket 26 on the column 25, beinglockable to the column 23 or the arm 24, respectively, by plungers 53, or 54 operable by pneumatic cylinders. The completed stacks are conveyed by the conveyer 8 to a storage conveyer 9 which is chair-driven by an electric motor. The movements of the apparatus are regulated by a controller (51), Figs. 8, 9 (not shown), to correspond-with the sequence of stacking operations.