US2497984A - Sheet metal bundling machine - Google Patents

Description

Feb. 21, 1950 J. FERRAN-DO SHEET METAL BUNDLING MACHINE Filed June 11, 1948 2 Sheets-Sheet l /2 /7 James F'er/-ana o Attorney Feb. 21, 1950' v FERRANDQ 2,497,984

SHEET METAL BUNDLING MACHINE I Filed June 11, 1948 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 James Fer/"500% Attorney Inventor Patented Feb. 21 1 956 UNITED srArEs Omar;

seem Mii'rAIl BUNDiinG MaoHnvE j assisting, south Leeehber Pa. itisiiaiitt nie 11, 1948, gn a, 32,481 2 Claims. (01. 153-105) {This invention relates a anovel machine of simple construction adapted for use in mashing:

or flattening sheet metal elements such as cans and drums for forming a compact mass capable of being readilytied into a bundle for sale as reclaimed or salvagedmetal, c

Numerous machines. have been provided for this purpose most of which, are operated by hyweight by coinparison' to, othenmachines now in use for the ,same purpose and Whichis capable ofbeing readily transported to, the location of piles of waste metal so that the flattening and bundling operation, can be accomplished without transporte ing the metal to the machinethereby materially reducing the salvage expense}, H More particularly,- it is an object of the present invention to provide a machine utilizing a gravity actuated ram or impact element with novelmeans for raisingltheram to a desired'elevation forrelease so {that sufficientforce will be imparted to,

the ramon its, down stroke for,--;accomplishing the flattening or mashing 'of themetal.

Anotherobject of the invention is to provide a novel hopper or, container for receivingfthe metal to be flattened and into which the ram or impact member is impelled by gravity;

son a further objector the invention s a pavide a novel latch arrangement for supporting the ram in a partially elevated positi onfio enable loading'of the hopper, or container through the open top thereof thereby afiording an extremely simple means whereby additional metal to be flat-,

tened can be added to thehopper or container after it hasbeen partially filled withilattened metal for 'compl V tingle, bundle of flattened metal of a predetermined size. 7 V More particularly, it is a primary object of the present invention to provide a novel friction means for engaging and elevating the ram which,

is manually controlled to permit the ram to be released at any elevation depending upon the amount of force required. I

Various other objects and advantages of the invention will hereinafter become more fully-apparent from the following description of the a 1 2 I i 4 drawings, illustrating a presently preferred embodiment thereof, and wherein:

Figure l is a side elevational view of the mav chine;

Figure 2 is a top plan view thereof; Figure 3 is a, front elevational view, looking from right to left of Figures 1 and 2, partly in section;

Figure 4 isa view partly inside elevation and partly in vertical section taken substantially along a plane as indicated by the line 4-4 of Figure 3 Figure 5 is a' horizontal sectional view taken,

substantiallyfalong a plane as indicated by the line 5 50f, Figure 3,,and

Figure 6 is ,a similar vievv take n substantially.

along a plane as indicated by the line (3-6 of Figure 3. c

Referring more specificallyto the the,

bundling machinein its entirety,iswdesignated generally I and includes a base designatedgenerallyfi which .is elongated and whichincludes side members or sills 9 connected byaplurality of cross members It and having. platforms or floor surfaces I l and I2 at the ends thereof, The base 8 adapted to be demountably supported on a pluralityyof ties orsimilar elements 13, n The rear" platform or floor 12 provides acsupporthfor a pair of laterally spaced bearing-ale;

merits M whilch are disposedthereabove and. sup

ported bydepending, diverging legs. l5 which are secured to said platform l2.

Mandhasa pulley I! fixedto each end thereof Y on any suitable motor, or engine,.not' shown, lo

J and c outwardly; of. thebearing elements It. A large, combinationpulle and flywheel l8,is fixed to the shaft, 16 between the bearing elements l4.

and is, adapted to be drivenby an endlessbelt l9 cated beyond the endiof the frame 8 providedwith the platf 01 ml} for revolving the shaft l 6 and the small belt pulleys l1. I;

The platformor floor i! also surface and has apair of laterally spaced guide postsjll and 2 I anchored thereinand rising there-i from. TIfhe uide sts Zland 2 I are, provided with opposed inwardly opening grooves or channels 22 V y,

A container or hopper, designated "generally 23 is supported on the platform H between the lowerends of the posts 20' an'dgZl with saidplats Iorm ll constituting the bottom of the container 23. The container 23 includes a lowersection 2A as best seenin Figure .5 including corresponding;

side walls 25 which are secured to the inner sides A shaft 16 extendsv through and is journaled in the bearing elements forms an. anvil of the posts 24 and 2|, a stationary rear wall 26 and a movable front wall 21, forming the door of the container or hopper 23 and which is provided with barrel portions 28 at the ends thereof adapted to fit between the barrel portions 29 on the forward ends of the side walls 25 and which are detachably connected thereto by hinge pins 30 so that by removal of both hinge pins, the wall 21 can be removed completely or by the removal of one of the hinge pins the wall 21 can be swung on the other hinge pin as a pivot to an open position, as illustrated in dotted lines in Figure 5. The upper section 3| of the hopper 23 is Secured to and supported by the posts 2|] and 2| and forms an upper, flared continuation of the top of the bottom section 24 which is open at its upper end.

An open, substantially rectangular superstructure or upper frame 32 is secured to and supported by the upper ends of the posts 20 and 2| and by corresponding ends of braces 33 which are secured thereto and to the posts 20 and 2| and which extend downwardly and rearwardly therefrom and are secured at their opposite ends to the bearing elements l4, as best illustrated in Figures 1 and 2.

A pair of laterally spaced bearings 34 are secured to the upper surfaces of the side portions of the frame 32 to provide journals for a shaft 35 which extends rotatably therethrough and to each end of which is fixed a belt pulley 3B. The belt pulleys 38 are spaced outwardly from the sides of the upper frame 32 and substantially in longitudinal alignment with the belt pulley l1 and an endless belt 3'! is trained over the aligned pulleys H and 36 for driving the shaft 35 from the shaft It. A friction roller 38 is fixed to the intermediate portion of the shaft 35 between the bearings 34 and within the Open central portion of the frame 32 and a gear 39 is fixed to the shaft 35 adjacent one end of the roller 38.

The forward end of the side members of the frame 32 are provided on their upper surfaces with guide channels 4!] for slidably receiving the base portions 4| of a pair of bearings 42 which project upwardly from the rear ends of said base portions or slides 4|. The base portions 4| with the bearings 42 carried thereby are supported by the guides 40 for sliding movement on the top frame 32 in a direction forwardl and rearwardly of the machine or toward and away from the bearings 34. A shaft 43 is journaled in the bearings 42 and is provided with a friction roller 44 corresponding to the roller 38 and longitudinally aligned therewith and a gear 45, also fixed to the shaft 43 is disposed to mesh with the gear 39. The gears 39 and 45 are provided with relatively long intermeshing teeth, for a purpose which will hereinafter become apparent.

The base members or slides 4| are provided with pins 46 which project from their rear ends and which slidably engage recesses 41 formed in and opening forwardly of the bearing members 34, as best seen in Figure 4. Each of the pins 46 carries an expansion coil spring 48 which bears against the adjacent ends of the aligned bearings 34 and 42 for urging said bearings 42 forwardly and away from the bearings 34. The opposite, forward ends of the slides or base portions 4| are provided with forwardly projecting pins or studs 49 each of which bears against a lever 50.

The levers 50 are fixed to a shaft which is supported on the forward end of the top frame 32 by bearings 52 which are secured to the forward'end of said frame and in which said shaft 5| is journaled. A lever 53 is fixed at one end thereof to one end of the shaft 5| and is disposed beyond one side of the frame 32 and above a lever 54 which is pivotally mounted at its rear end on the outer side of the post 20. The lever 53 extends rearwardly from the shaft 5| and is provided with an upwardly curved free end to which one end of a rigid link 55 is pivotall connected. The opposite, lower end of the link 55 is pivotally connected to an apertured ear 55 of the lever 54. Accordingly, it will be seen that the forward, handle end of the lever 54 can be manually engaged for swinging said lever downwardly as illustrated in Figure 1 for thereby rocking the lever 53 and shaft 5| counter-clockwise to cause the levers 50 to swing rearwardly and through their engagement with the studs 49 to displace the bearings 32 rearwardly against the action of the springs 48 for moving the shaft 43, friction roller 44 and gear 45 toward the shaft 35, friction roller 38 and gear 39. A pin or stop 51, secured to the top frame 32 liimts the upward swinging movement of the lever 53 and accordingl the extent to which the shaft 5| can be rocked clockwise as seen in Figure 1 by the springs 48 displacing the bearings 42 forwardly so that the gear 45 will be prevented from moving sufficientl in a forward direction for disengaging the teeth 39. As previously stated, the gears 39 and 45 are provided with relativel long teeth so that said gears will be enmeshed when the gear 45 is in either its forward or rearward position.

A ram or impact element 58 is disposed between the posts 20 and 2| and slidably connected thereto by upwardly and outwardly projecting flange members or slides 59 which slidably engage in the grooves or channels 22. The ram 58 is sized to fit into the lower section 24 of the hopper 23 and is provided with an upwardly projecting bar or shank 60 which extends upwardly through the opening of the frame 32 and between the friction rollers 38 and 44 and is of a thickness so that it will not be engaged by said rollers when the roller 44 is disposed in a forward position. However, when the lever 54 is swung downwardly, as previously described, for displacing the shaft 43 and friction roller 44 rearwardly, the bar or shank 60 .will be clamped between said rollers and as said rollers are driven in opposite directions and in directions for drawing the bar 60 upwardly therethrough, as will hereinafter be described, it will be readily apparent that the ram 58 will be elevated by the rollers when the roller 44 is displaced rearwardly or into an operative position.

The posts 20 and 2| are rovided with corresponding recesses 5|, as best illustrated in Figure 3, each adapted to accommodate a latch element 62 which is pivotally mounted therein on a pin 63, and intermediate of its ends. The recesses 6| open inwardly and outwardly of the posts 20 and 2| and said latch members 62 are provided with corresponding, remote ends which project outwardly from said posts. A shaft 64 is journaled in a pair of bearings 65 which are secured to the rear sides of the posts 20 and 2| and spaced rearwardly therefrom by spacer blocks 66. The shaft 64 is provided at its ends with forwardly projecting cranks 61 which are disposed on the outer sides of the posts 20 and 2| and below the outwardly projecting, remote ends of the latch members 62, to which the free ends of the cranks 61 are connected by links 68. A weight 69 depends from the cranks 67 which is disposed outwardly of the post 2| for normally urging the cranks 61 downwardly for urging the latch members 68 in a direction for causing their inner ends to swing upwardly and toward the posts 20 and 2| into nested positions in the recesses 6!, as illustrated in dotted lines in Figure 3.

A bracket 'Hlis attached to the forward side of the post 20 above the level of the latch members 62 and has an outwardly projecting stub shaft II for pivotally supporting a lever 12, adjacent one end of said lever. The rear end of the lever 72, which is disposed adjacent the pivot H and on the outer side of the post 20 is connected by a link 13 to the outer end of the .latch member '52- of the post 2 0-so that by manually engaging and swinging-the opposite, forward end of the lever 12 downwardly, the link-13 willbe elevated for rocking said last mentioned latch member 52 in a clockwise direction as seen in Figure 3 to thereby cause the crank connected thereto to be swung upwardly for rocking the shaft 64 and the other crank 61 in the same direction to permit the other latch member 62 to swing counter-clockwise so that the inner ends of the latch members 62 will extend into the space between the posts 20 and 2! so that the ram 53 in a partially elevated position can rest on said inner ends of the latch members 62 and will be supported thereby substantially above the hopper 23 so that said hopper can be loaded with scrap metal, not shown, such as tin cans, metal drums, parts of vehicle bodies and the like. After said hopper has thus been loaded substantially to its open top, and with the belt l9 being driven in the direction as indicated by the arrow 14 in Figure l for revolving the pulleys l8, l1 and 36 in the direction as indicated by the arrow 15, it will be readily apparent that the shaft 35, friction roller 38 and gear 39 will also be driven in the same direction while the shaft 43, friction roller 44 and gear 45 will be driven in the opposite direction by the meshing engagement of the gears 30 and 45. Accordingly, by pressing downwardly on the forward end of the lever '54, the ram shank will be frictionally engaged between the rollers 38 and 44, as previously described for elevating the ram off of the latch members 62 thereby permitting the weight 58 to rock the cranks 61 downwardl for swinging the inner ends of the latch members 62 into the recesses 6|. When the ram 58 has been elevated to a desired level by the engagement of the friction rollers 48 and 64 with its shank 68, the lever 54 is released to permit the springs 48 to displace the roller 44 forwardly thereby releasing the frictional grip on the ram shank 60 so that the ram 58 can drop by gravity into the hopper 23 for compressing the metal contained therein. This operation can be repeated until all of the metal has been flattened and if the bottom section 24 is then not filled with metal, the ram. 58 can be re-latched in a partially elevated position as seen in Figures 1, 3 and 4 and the upper section 3| of the hopper 23 may then be filled with additional metal and the operation repeated until the bottom section of the hopper has been completely filled. With the bottom section of the hopper completely filled with the flattened and compressed scrap metal, one of the pins 38 can be removed to permit the front wall 2'! to be swung outwardly, as seen in dotted lines in Figure 5 so that the compacted metal may be removed therefrom and tied with wire into a bundle. This is preferably and most easily accomplished by stretching several strands of wire 16 from front to rear across the bottom of the hopper 23 and having the rear ends of said strands extending upwardly and outwardly of the hopper and the overthe compressed metal and b 'then grasping both ends of each wire 16 the'compacted metal can be readily removed either before or after twisting the ends of the wiresfor securing the bundle.

In order to provide a positive safety feature for protection of the operators, a chain or other flexible member T! is anchored at one end thereof to the lever 54 and is adapted to be detachabl connectedat itsopposite end to a hook or other fastening 78 secured to thepost 20 above the lever 54 so that said lever can be held against being swung downwardly while the ram 58 is supported on the latch members 62 during the filling of the hopper or container 23.

It will be readily apparent that the belt pulley It also functions as a flywheel and that the ram 58 can be very quickly elevated so that an undue load will not be placed upon the engine or motor, not shown, utilized for driving the belt IS.

The machine 8 may be made in various sizes and is quite capable of utilizing a ram 58 weighing considerably in excess of a 1,000 pounds and yet may be constructed so that it can be readily placed upon a vehicle and moved to and setup in close proximity to a pile of scrap metal so that the flattening and bundling of the scrap metal ,can be accomplished without transporting the metal prior to bundling, thereby greatly reducing the salvaging expense.

Various modifications and changes are contemplated and may obviously be resorted to, without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention as hereinafter defined by the appended claims.

I claim as my invention:

1. .A machinev for flattening scrap metal comprising a platform, a pair of upstanding posts supported on and rising from the platform, a

hopper having an open top supported on the platform and secured thereto between the lower ends of the posts, a ram slidably guided by said posts for movement toward and away from the hopper and platform and into and out of the hopper, a top frame supported on the upper ends of the posts, a driven shaft journaled in the top frame, a pair of bearings slidably supported on said top frame for movement toward and away from the driven shaft, an idler shaft journaled in said bearings, a friction roller fixed to each of said shafts, a shank projecting upwardly from said ram between the rollers, spring means for normally urging the bearing and idler shaft away from the driven shaft for normally retaining said rollers out of frictional engagement with the ram shank, manually actuated means for displacing said bearings and idler shaft toward the driven shaft for positioning the rollers in friction-a1 engagement with the ram shaft, gear means connecting said shafts for causing the shafts to revolve with the rollers in opposite directions for drawing the ram shank upwardly therebetween when the shank is frictionally engaged by the rollers for elevating the ram, said manually actuated means being releasable for releasing the ram shank from frictional engagement with the rollers at any desired level of the ram to permit the ram to drop by gravity into the hopper, said hopper being adapted to contain scrap metal to be mashed and flattened by the impact force of the ram, latch -means swingably mounted in said posts and normally disposed in retracted, inoperative position, and manually operated means for swinging said latch means into the space between the posts for engaging under and supporting the ram in a partially elevated position and above the open top of said hopper to afford access to the open top of the hopper for filling it with scrap metal, said latch means being positively retained in an operative engagement with the ram by the Weight of the ram supported thereon until the ram is elevated by manual operation of said manually actuated means for positioning the rollers in frictional engagement with the ram shank.

2. A machine as in claim 1, and a safety attachment for rendering said manually actuated means inoperative to prevent the ram from being elevated out of engagement with said latch means While the hopper is being charged.

JAMES FERRANDO.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS

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