Patent GB-741974-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in machines for handling and assembling fasteners and washers
IPC: B23P19/08
Filed: 1953-11-06
Abstract: 741,974. Assembling screws or nuts with washers. ILLINOIS TOOL WORKS. Nov. 6, 1953 [Nov. 6, 1952], No. 30858/53. Class 83 (2). [Also in Group XXX] In a machine for assembling screws, screwblanks or nuts with washers, both members are fed at uniform rates along separate paths to a point where they are in alignment and are then moved axially into engagement while continuing on their lateral feeding movement. A nut and washer assembling machine is carried by an inclined base 32, Fig. 3, and comprises a hopper 44 from-which nuts 120 are fed along a shoot 46 into the peripheral recesses 138 of a rotary feed disc 48 and a hopper 40 above a rotary feed disc 50 with peripheral recesses 64 which carry washers into alignment with the nuts in the disc 48. Fig. 7 shows a nut 120 with a spigot 122 and a slot to receive the upper end 124 of a dished washer 116. Both feed discs are driven from a shaft 76. Washers in the hopper 40 are stirred by a pair of diverging arms 94 with loops 98 extending adjacent the surface of the disc 50. The arms are mounted on an oscillating shaft 82 and cause the washers to settle in the recesses 64, those settling with the lip 124 underneath either falling out as the disc rotates in its inclined plane or being displaced by the fingers 130 of a deflector 128 so that those remaining in the recesses are fed lip uppermost to a position beneath and in alignment with the nuts in the disc 48 so that a nut may be dropped on to a washer to form the assembly of Fig. 7. Articles leaving the feed discs, which may include in addition to the assemblies of Fig. 7, loose nuts and washers and also imperfect nut and washer assemblies, travel along a plate 168 towards a rotating selector disc 172 which is spaced above the plate and which has an undercut edge, Fig. 11. Loose nuts and washers pass beneath the disc, improperly assembled nuts and washers are deflected by the outer edge 178 of the disc while correct assemblies pass beneath this outer edge and are directed by the lower undercut edge 180 into a shoot 182 leading into a guideway 204 of a deforming unit 52 where they come successively to rest against a forwardly extending finger 330 of a slide member 326 which is operated by a cam 356 to move the assemblies at right-angles to the guideway 204 into a position where the nut spigot is expanded beneath the washer lip as shown in Fig. 13, thus permanently securing the nut and washer. The deformation is effected by a punch 236 carried by a slide 230 actuated by a cam 262, the top of the nut bearing against an anvil 298 which bears through adjacent locking nuts 302 against an anvil plate 294. The anvil is slidable on guide-bars 292 and is resiliently supported by springs 306 from a plate 304 which is adjustably supported from a fixed member 288 by a screw 310. As the punch is retracted, the slide 326 also retracts and as it does so, an L-shaped member 364 secured thereto engages one end of a bent pivoted lever 400 which thereupon rotates, fingers 404 and 406 at its other end serving to eject the finished assembly from the deforming unit into a discharge shoot 54. In a machine for assembling screw blanks and washers, washers 474 are picked up from a hopper 40a, Fig. 14, by peripheral recesses 460 in a feeding disc 50a and carried successively to a position beneath screw blanks which are fed successively by a recessed feeding cylinder 48a from a shoot 46a supplied from a hopper 44a. As the screw blanks reach a position above the washers, the lower ends ride off a supporting plate 574 and drop through the washers. The screw blank and washer assemblies are fed forward by the cylinder while loose washers pass beneath an arcuate bridge portion 570 and drop into a receptacle 602. loose screw blanks are deflected by a spring 590, Fig. 16, into a track 586 leading to a receptacle 604. As complete assemblies approach the track 586, the washers engage the tip 600 of a finger 594 which pivots against a spring 598 to close the track 586 and deflect the assemblies into a track 606 leading to a deforming unit 52a. As they enter the track a spring wire 620, Fig. 22, bears on the tops of the blanks to ensure that they are pushed fully into the washers. The deforming unit comprises a nicking wheel 656, Fig. 24, and a backing-up wheel 674 between which the assemblies pass, the nicking wheel having peripheral recesses 664 which carry the shanks through the pass while flattened side portions 688 of the recesses bite into the shanks to form projecting washerretaining ears 690.