Reciprocating drive apparatus for automatic molding removing machine

A reciprocating drive apparatus for an automatic molding removing machine designed to remove a molded product from a molding machine by moving a chuck member, at least, in the longitudinal direction with a traveling member which is supported on a machine frame so as to be movable in the longitudinal direction. The reciprocating drive apparatus comprises a movable frame supported on the machine frame so as to movable in the longitudinal direction, the movable frame having a longitudinal dimension which is approximately half the distance of travel of the traveling member, a drive member for reciprocating the movable frame, a belt stretched between pulleys supported on two longitudinal end portions, respectively, of the movable frame, the belt having a portion thereof secured to the machine frame, and a movable member supported on the movable frame so as to be movable in the longitudinal direction, the movable member having a portion of the belt secured thereto and further having the traveling member attached thereto. Thus, when a molded product is automatically removed from the molding machine, it is possible to drive the chuck member to move horizontally through a distance which is approximately double the working stroke of the drive member and at a speed which is also approximately double the speed of the drive member.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
The present invention relates to a reciprocating drive apparatus designed 
to reciprocate a traveling member of an automatic molding removing 
machine. 
A typical automatic molding removing machine for automatically removing 
moldings from a molding machine has a reciprocating drive apparatus for 
horizontally reciprocating a chuck member that holds moldings. In one type 
of a generally known reciprocating drive apparatus, a pinion that is 
provided on the rotary shaft of an electric motor attached to a traveling 
member is meshed with a rack secured to a machine frame so that the 
traveling member is reciprocated in response to the drive of the motor. 
In another conventional reciprocating drive apparatus, a rod of a cylinder 
that is attached to the machine frame is secured to a traveling member so 
that the traveling member is reciprocated in response to the operation of 
the cylinder. 
These prior art apparatuses suffer, however, from the following problems. 
In the former prior art apparatus, a high-output and high-torque electric 
motor is used under the necessity of moving the traveling member at high 
speed in order to shorten the time required to effect molding removal. In 
this case, since the overall weight of the traveling member having the 
motor attached thereto increases and consequently the inertia acting on 
the traveling member when traveling increases, complicated braking control 
must be conducted for the motor in order to stop the traveling member 
within a short time and with a high degree of accuracy and a shock 
absorber is needed, which results in a rise in the overall cost of the 
apparatus. 
In the latter prior art apparatus, a cylinder having an axial length 
corresponding to the travel of the traveling member is needed, which 
results in an increase in the overall size of the molding removing 
machine. In particular, when the travel of the traveling member is long, a 
large-sized cylinder is needed, which results in a rise in the overall 
cost of the apparatus. 
OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION 
The present invention aims at solving the above-described problems of the 
prior art, and it is a primary object of the invention to provide a 
reciprocating drive apparatus for an automatic molding removing machine 
which is designed so that it is possible with a short-stroke drive member 
to move a traveling member through a distance which is approximately 
double the working stroke of the drive member and at a speed which is also 
approximately double the speed of the drive member and hence possible to 
reduce the overall size, weight and cost of the apparatus. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
To this end, the present invention provides a reciprocating drive apparatus 
for an automatic molding removing machine designed to remove a molded 
product from a molding machine by moving a chuck member, at least, in the 
longitudinal direction with a traveling member which is supported on a 
machine frame so as to be movable in the longitudinal direction, the 
reciprocating drive apparatus comprising: a movable frame supported on the 
machine frame so as to be movable in the longitudinal direction, the 
movable frame having a longitudinal dimension which is approximately half 
the distance of travel of the traveling member; a drive member for 
reciprocating the movable frame; a belt stretched between pulleys 
supported on two longitudinal end portions, respectively, of the movable 
frame, the belt having a portion thereof secured to the machine frame; and 
a movable member supported on the movable frame so as to be movable in the 
longitudinal direction, the movable member having a portion of the belt 
secured thereto and further having the traveling member attached thereto.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
One embodiment of the present invention will be described below with 
reference to the accompanying drawings. 
Referring to FIGS. 1 to 3, an automatic molding removing machine 3 has a 
machine frame 5 which is attached to a molding machine (not shown). The 
machine frame 5 extends horizontally as viewed in FIG. 1 and has a guide 
rail 7 rigidly secured to the upper side thereof so as extend in a 
longitudinal direction of the machine frame 5. A movable frame 9 is 
supported on the guide rail 7 so as to be movable in the longitudinal 
direction. The movable frame 9 has a longitudinal dimension which is 
approximately half that of the machine frame 5. The movable frame 9 is 
moved between two longitudinal ends of the automatic molding removing 
machine 3. 
To the right-hand end of the movable frame 9 (as viewed in FIG. 1) is 
secured a rod 11a of a cylinder 11 that is mounted on the machine frame 5 
to serve as a drive member. The cylinder 11 has a working stroke which is 
approximately half the longitudinal dimension of the machine frame 5. In 
response to the operation of the cylinder 11, the movable frame 9 is moved 
to reciprocate between the two longitudinal ends of the machine frame 5. A 
guide rail 13 is attached to the movable frame 9 so as to extend in the 
longitudinal direction, and a pair of pulleys 15a and 15b are rotatably 
supported on the movable frame 9 at respective positions corresponding to 
the two longitudinal ends of the guide rail 13. A belt 17 is stretched 
between the pulleys 15a and 15b. A portion of the belt 17 is secured to a 
securing plate 19 which is provided on an approximately central portion of 
the machine frame 5 in the longitudinal direction thereof. A movable 
member 21 is supported on the guide rail 13 so as to be movable in the 
longitudinal direction. Another portion of the belt 17 is secured to the 
movable member 21. It should be noted that shock-absorbing members 22 are 
attached to two longitudinal ends, respectively, of the machine frame 5 so 
as to abut against the corresponding ends of the movable frame 9. 
A traveling member 23 is attached to the movable member 21, and a cross 
frame 25 is attached to the traveling member 23 so as to extend in a 
direction perpendicular to the longitudinal direction of the machine frame 
5 (the direction in which the cross frame 25 extends being hereinafter 
referred to as "the cross direction"). A pair of upper and lower guide 
rails 27 are attached to the cross frame 25 so as to extend in the cross 
direction. A cross traveling member 29 is supported on the guide rails 27 
so as to be movable in the cross direction. The cross traveling member 29 
is in thread engagement with a feed screw 33 which is coupled to the 
rotary shaft of an electric motor 31 attached to the traveling member 23 
so that the cross traveling member 29 is moved in the cross direction in 
response to the drive of the motor 31. A vertical cylinder 35 is attached 
to the cross traveling member 29 in such a manner that its longitudinal 
axis extends vertically. A chuck member 37 is attached to a rod 35a of the 
vertical cylinder 35. The chuck member 37 holds an injection-molded 
product to move it from a specific removal position to a specific release 
position. 
The operation of the automatic molding removing machine 3, arranged as 
described above, will next be explained with reference to FIGS. 1, 3 and 
4. 
The way in which the movable frame 9 is reciprocated will first be 
explained. Referring to FIGS. 1, 3 and 4, if the cylinder 11 is activated 
when the movable frame 9 is at the left end (as viewed in these figures) 
of the machine frame 5 as shown in FIG. 3, the movable frame 9 is moved on 
the guide rail 7 toward the right-hand side as viewed in the figures. 
Since a portion of the belt 17 that is stretched between the pulleys 15a 
and 15b attached to the two longitudinal end portions of the movable frame 
9 is secured to an approximately central portion of the machine frame 5, 
the belt 17 travels in the direction of the solid-line arrow A shown in 
FIG. 3 in response to the movement of the movable frame 9. Further, since 
another portion of the belt 17 is secured to the movable member 21 
supported on the guide rail 13 provided on the movable frame 9, as the 
belt 17 travels, the movable member 21 is moved in the direction of the 
illustrated solid-line arrow B through a distance which is approximately 
double the distance of travel of the movable frame 9 and at a speed which 
is also approximately double the speed of travel of the movable frame 9. 
By the operation described above, the traveling member 23 that is attached 
to the movable member 21 is moved to reciprocate between the removal and 
release positions which are located at the two longitudinal ends, 
respectively, of the machine frame 5, as shown in FIG. 4. 
The operation of removing a molded product from the mold will next be 
explained. When the movable frame 9 is moved to the removal position at 
the left-hand end of the machine frame 5 (as viewed in FIG. 3) by the 
above-described function of the reciprocating drive apparatus, the chuck 
member 37 is lowered into the area between a pair of molds opened by the 
action of the vertical cylinder 35 operated. Next, the cross traveling 
member 29 is moved in the direction of the solid-line arrow C shown in 
FIG. 1 by the action of the feed screw 33 rotated by the electric motor 31 
that is driven in this state, so that the chuck member 37 is brought into 
contact with a molded product retained in the pair of molds so as to hold 
it. Next, the motor 31 is reversed to move the cross traveling member 29 
in the direction of the solid-line arrow D shown in FIG. 1, so that the 
molded product held by the chuck member 37 is extracted from the mold. 
After the above-described operation, the vertical cylinder 35 is moved 
upward, so that the molded product held by the chuck member 37 is taken 
out of the mold. Thereafter, the cylinder 11 is activated to effect the 
above-described reciprocating movement of the traveling member 23. That 
is, the traveling member 23 is moved to the release position through a 
distance which is approximately double the working stoke of the cylinder 
11 and at a speed which is also approximately double the speed of the 
cylinder 11. At the release position, the molded product is released from 
the chuck member 37, thus completing the removal operation. It should be 
noted that, when the chuck member 37 is moved to the release position, the 
molded product may be released from the chuck member 37 after the chuck 
member 37 has been moved to a desired position by properly driving the 
vertical cylinder 35 and the motor 31, if such an operation is needed due 
to the positional relationship between the release position and the chuck 
member 37 thereat. 
Thus, it is possible with this embodiment to drive the chuck member 37 to 
move horizontally through a distance which is approximately double the 
working stroke of the cylinder 11 and at a speed which is also 
approximately double the speed of the cylinder 11 when a molded product is 
automatically removed from the mold. Accordingly, it is possible to move 
the chuck member 37 at high speed and through a relatively long distance 
by use of the cylinder 11 which has a relatively short axial length and 
hence a relatively low cost. 
Although in the foregoing description the cylinder 11 is used as a drive 
member to move the movable frame 9, other types of drive member may be 
employed in place of the cylinder 11. FIG. 5 shows a modification of the 
present invention, in which a feed screw 61 is rotatably supported between 
the right end portion and central portion of the automatic molding 
removing machine 3 and coupled to a motor 63 attached to the automatic 
molding removing machine 3 and the right end portion of the movable frame 
9 is meshed with the feed screw 61 so that the movable frame 9 is moved on 
the automatic molding removing machine 3 in response to the rotation of 
the feed screw 61 driven by the motor 63. 
Although the present invention has been described through specific terms, 
it should be noted here that the described embodiment is not necessarily 
exclusive and that various changes and modifications may be imparted 
thereto without departing from the scope of the invention which is limited 
solely by the appended claims.