Patent ID: 7819621
Filing Date: 2010-10-26
Classification: B21B,B21D,B21F,B65G

Abstract:
1. A method of separating rod-shaped bodies from a bundle of such bodies supplied in a conveying direction and located transversely to said direction, comprising: providing a sensor containing a proximity sensor which measures a distance from a surface of a rod-shaped body present below said sensor, in the region of the sensor's vertical center line, determining with said sensor a vertical position of a detection region on the surface of a portion of the body located at a top of the bundle, wherein the sensor is located at a lateral first end region of the body, lowering the sensor vertically from above towards the bundle of elongated bodies until it abuts the bundle, comparing a measured value of the distance with a predetermined minimum distance value, and if the measured value is greater than the minimum distance value, moving the sensor over a surface of the bundle in the conveying direction up to a location at which the measured distance equals the predetermined minimum distance value, seizing the body with a first gripper at a pick-up location which is laterally adjacent, as seen perpendicular to the conveying direction, to the detection region; vertically lifting the body by a predetermined distance; engaging a further gripper under the body at a location which is offset from the pick-up location, as seen perpendicular to the conveying direction, in a direction of a second end region of the body by a predetermined length; moving the further gripper along the body in an initial direction, up to the second end region of the body, thereby lifting the body out of the bundle; moving the body to a vertical position with the further gripper, during or after displacement thereof, wherein the vertical position is higher than a predetermined minimum height, and vertical center lines of the sensor and of both grippers are located in a common vertical plane extending transversely, perpendicular to the conveying direction; and moving the picked-up body to a depositing location using both grippers or holding the picked-up body in a holding position for transfer.