GB1425859A - Work conveyor - Google Patents

Abstract

1425859 Screw conveyers M HERTER 2 March 1973 [10 March 1972] 10178/73 Heading B8A [Also in Division F1] Fig. 1 shows a drive device in which metal chips in a mass from a machine tool (not shown) are fed from a feed aperture 15 through a conveyer pipe 10 by a rotating worm 14 which is simultaneously reciprocated. As shown worm threads 16 are mounted on a tube 17 attached to an end plate 18 connected to a spindle 19 arranged to slide in a tube 24 to which it is keyed. Cutters 36, 37 may be provided to comminute further the metal chips. The tube 24 is connected to a further tube 27 rotated by a motor 32 through chain wheels 34, 30 and a chain. Pressure medium is supplied to either side of a piston 21 attached to the spindle 19 through inlets 44, 46 to reciprocate the worm 14. In a modification of the drive device, Fig. la (not shown), the piston drive is single action, the return being by a tension spring. The return movement is relatively faster than the forward movement, but the rotational movement is such that, even during retraction of the worm 14 the mass of chips continues to be moved in the direction of conveyance. Fig. 3 illustrates an embodiment of conveying apparatus according to the invention wherein a number of mass drives 62 similar to the drive described above feed a common conveyer pipe 60 at separate points, the cross-section of the pipe 60 being increased at each feed point to accommodate the added mass. The conveyer pipes 10, 60 need not be of closed cross-section, but may have the form of a channel (67), Fig. 4c (not shown). Two sections (10a), (10b) of conveyer pipe may be separated by a worm (14<SP>1</SP>) supplying further conveying energy, Fig. 6 (not shown). Other material, such as sludge, may be conveyed by the apparatus.