GB736788A - Improvements in assembling fasteners with washers - Google Patents

Abstract

736,788. Assembling screws and washers. ILLINOIS TOOL WORKS. July 5, 1951 [Aug. 3, 1950], No. 16004/51. Classes 83 (2) and 83 (4). Relates to assembling screws &c. and washers and consists in feeding a strip of inter-connected washers along a path and feeding screws along a plane path that converges with the path of the strip in such manner as to insert the screws successively in the washers. The screws are fed from a hopper and pass by gravity down guide rails 184 provided with a guard rail 192 above the heads. A vertically movable yoke 204 engages the screw heads by a spring 212. If the supply of screws fails the spring no longer supports the yoke which descends, actuating a switch 214 to stop the driving motor. The rails end in a curved extension that delivers the screws through a gap in a guard rail adjacent a toothed wheel 48. Smooth passage from the rails 184 to the spaces between the teeth is ensured by light fingers engaging under opposite sides of the heads. A continuous strip of washers 34 in which adjacent washers are connected by opposed twisted teeth 404, Fig. 17, already weakened by the twisting, is in coiled form, as described in Specification 704,559, and the coil is placed on a drum 32, being supported by a flange. The drum is supported from below in such manner that it can be swung aside from under the wheel 48 to facilitate the loading of a fresh coil of washers. The end of the strip is led up the drum in the form of an open helix and it passes over a supporting roller 274 and under a detector roller 286 on an arm 282. If the strip breaks or runs out, the arm 282 ceases to be supported and actuates a switch 288 controlling the motor similarly to the switch 214. Beyond the roller 286 the strip enters a guide channel 218 that brings the washers along a path conforming to that of the screws and convergent therewith so that the screw shanks gradually enter the washers, being finally fully engaged by a spring 268. Further guides 294 with a spring hold-down 354 conduct the assemblies to indenting rolls 326, Fig. 14, that raise burrs on each side of indentations and render the washers captive during subsequent handling prior to the rolling of the screw threads, which renders the washers finally captive and removes all traces of the burrs and indentations. Guides 358 transfer the assemblies from the indenting rolls to a feed wheel 370, Figs. 4 and 16, from which they are stripped by an adjustable member 396, forming a guide channel with a fixed member 392, the angle of the channel in relation to the wheel 370 being such that the strip is given a sharp bend in the plane of the washers at the moment of stripping and this sudden bend is sufficient to sever the individual assemblies from the strip. Specification 736,780 also is referred to.