Device for stacking cut plates in plate shears

A device for stacking plates or sheet metal blanks cut in guillotine shears includes a rotatable drum with radially outwardly extending partitions defining a number of compartments located around the circumferential outside surface of the drum and extending in the axial direction of the drum. Each compartment receives a cut plate in a first position, carries the plate to a second position where the plate is moved by a displacement device in the axial direction of the drum into a location corresponding to a stacking position, and then with further rotation of the drum, the compartment reaches a third position where the plate is removed to the stacking position. Further, conveyor belts can be used to receive plates from the compartments in the drum and to carry the plates to stacking positions spaced from the drum.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
The invention concerns a device for the automatic stacking of plates or 
sheet metal blanks cut in a guillotine shears. 
Devices of this type collect the cut plates for subsequent transportion or 
use. Such devices, however, are only suitable for cut plates of a uniform 
shape, that is, for plate strips of the same size. For plates of different 
geometrical form, as obtained particularly in the rational streamlined 
cutting of sheet metal plates, the sorting and grading of the cut plates 
is time-consuming and is frequently complicated by a lack of space. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
Accordingly the object of the invention is to provide a device for the 
automatic sorting and stacking of cut plates or sheet metal blanks. 
In accordance with the present invention two embodiments of a feeding and 
stacking device are provided, which can be adapted to the various 
operating conditions and can also be used in combination. 
Both embodiments provide a drum rotating in a frame and driven by a 
stepping switchgear or a hydraulic servo-drive system. The drum is 
subdivided by radial partitions into chambers or compartments, and the 
compartments can be moved into a certain position along one side of the 
drum to serve as a receiving compartment for the cut plates. 
In one embodiment, a displacement device is provided in the upper region of 
the drum for sorting the cut plates located in the compartments into 
specific positions aligned with the drum axis along the length of the 
compartments. The means for effecting displacement of the cut plates are 
disposed out of engagement during the rotational movement of the drum. 
Each compartment forms an output compartment on the side of the drum 
opposite the receiving compartment, and the output compartment opens onto 
stacking positions distributed over the length of the drum. Stops are 
provided in the compartments limiting the ejection of the cut plates to 
the stacking positions. 
In this device the sorting of the plates is achieved in the immediate 
vicinity of the plate shears. The cut plates can be moved from the 
stacking positions by the usual conveyer means to a further processing 
station. 
The second embodiment of the invention provides a belt conveyer at a small 
distance underneath the drum so that the cut plates received in a 
compartment acting as a receiving compartment move to the positions where 
the compartment acts as an output compartment where the plates are lowered 
onto the belt conveyer, that is, by unlocking the stop of a pivotal 
retaining claw or controllable ejectors in the compartment. Guide boards 
are located laterally of the belt conveyer below the output compartments 
and hold the cut plates in the upright position as the plates move from 
the output compartment onto the belt conveyer, if necessary with the 
cooperation of sorting gates or switches and turntable-conveyer parts or 
the like with branched conveyer belts or overhead conveyers. The belt 
conveyer carries the plates to a stacking location and includes a stacking 
table extending the guide board on one side of the belt conveyer. On the 
other side of the belt conveyer a sliding stop plate extends the guide 
board, whereby the cut plate or plates can be stopped at the location of a 
respective stacking device by the stop plate displaceable in or pivoting 
in the belt conveyer path. 
The control of the drum and stacking devices can be effected manually by 
the operator performing the separating and grading operations by a 
selector in the sequence control of the drive. 
The size and shape of the cut plates or blanks discharged from the drum can 
also be measured electronically on the conveyer belt and directed to 
various stacking devices. 
Furthermore, the control can be designed so that the cutting and working 
sequence of the plate shears is provided by an external data source to a 
process computer which uses the data to record the order of the inputs to 
the receiving compartment and transmits the corresponding stack positions 
to a microprocessor which controls the displacement device and stacking 
device. 
Other embodiments of the device according to the invention are described in 
the claims. 
The invention is illustrated in the drawing and will be described more 
fully on the basis of embodiments.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
In the drawing, plate shearing machine 1 receives sheet metal strips or 
plates from a plate feeding table 2, and a drum 3 according to the 
invention, receives the cut plates from the shearing machine. The drum 3 
is subdivided by radially extending partitions 4 into compartments 5 
extending along the drum 3. As the drum 3 rotates the compartments 5 
assume different functions. As shown in FIG. 1, compartment 5a is a 
receiving compartment receiving cut plates B from a conveyer belt 7 
running between the shear table 6 and the drum 3. 
In the embodiment according to FIGS. 1 and 2, the cut plates B arrive 
successively in the compartments 5 in the drum at the compartment position 
5b where a displacement device 8 is arranged at the vertex or crown of 
drum 3. This displacement device consists of carrier rakes or cradles, not 
shown, guided on chains traveling over chain wheels 9 and 9' and the rakes 
or cradles engage longitudinal grooves, likewise not shown, in the 
compartment partitions 4 and move the sheet metal plates inside the 
compartments 5 into one of the stacking positions 10 to 15. The carrier 
rakes or cradles are pulled out of the compartment partitions 4 during 
drum movement. In other words, each compartment is stopped, in turn, at 
the position 5b and the displacement device 8 locates the plate in the 
compartment at a stacking position. From the compartment position 5b, the 
rotation of the drum moves the compartments, with the plate in a stacking 
position, to compartment position 5c. The cut plates B are fed to the 
stacking positions from the compartment position 5c. Naturally the 
compartments to the right and left of the vertex or crown can also be used 
for the stepwise positioning or manipulation of the cut plates B into the 
stacking positions. 
A servodrive system, not shown, moves the drum 3 in synchronization with 
the movement of the plates into the compartments 5. The valves of the 
servodrive system and of the displacement device 8 are controlled by a 
microprocessor whose computer also records the order of the plates cut by 
the plate shears. 
FIGS. 3 and 4 shows a diagrammatic view of a modified stacking and sorting 
device with a device for moving a part of the cut plates to remote 
stacking and processing locations. In addition to the above-mentioned 
sorting facilities at the stacking positions 10-15, a conveyer belt 21 is 
arranged below the drum 3 along the stacking positions 10-15. As shown in 
FIG. 4, guide boards 22 and 23 are located laterally along the conveyer 
belt 21 and extend outwardly from the end face of drum 3. The guide boards 
are interrupted at stacking or belt conveyer sections or terminate at 
branches of conveyer belt 21 which can be adjusted by switches or sorting 
gates. 
Stacking device 24, according to the invention, consists of a sliding plate 
25 forming a continuation of the guide board 22 located along one side of 
the conveyer belt 21, and of a stacking table 26 with a bottom 26A forming 
a continuation of the other side. A stop 27 movable in the direction of 
the arrows shown in FIG. 4 can retain the cut plates B on the stacking 
device 24. 
The cut plates B retained by stop 27 are pushed onto a support surface 26a 
of stacking table 26 by the sliding plate 25 provide with a drive, not 
shown. The stacking table 26 stores the cut plates. Several stacking 
locations can be provided along the path 21a of the conveyer belt 21, 
preferably at individual machines processing the cut plates or at their 
stacking locations. 
Guide boards 32 are provided along path 21a.