Patent GB-1150223-A (GB)
Title: Plating Apparatus.
Inventor: JONES KEITH COLLIER
IPC: B65G49/04
Filed: 1965-03-25
Abstract: 1,150,223. Reciprocating conveyers. W. CANNING & CO. Ltd. 24 June, 1966 [25 March, 1965], No. 12648/65. Heading B8A. [Also in Divisions B7 and C7] Plating apparatus for automatic operation includes a plurality of arms 15 and jigs 19 for carrying workpieces, each jig having a block 65 which is capable of operating switches 66 for controlling solenoids 48 and 59. These solenoids determine whether certain of the workpieces receive reduced plating time or are not plated at all. The tanks are arranged end-to-end and in two spaced parallel lines which are joined at one end by a curved tank 11. A tank 1 Or contains chrome-plating solution, the tank 11 contains nickel plating solution and tanks 10 contain washing and cleaning solutions. A carriage extending the length of and intermediate the line of tanks can be raised and lowered by hydraulic jacks (not shown) and includes girder members 12; the carriage has rails 13, 14 mounted on its sides. The arms 15 are movable along the rails by pushers 21 mounted on two traverse bars 20 which have a reciprocatory motion and which serve the lines of tanks. Adjacent ends of the bars are connected by chains 22 on which pushers 21a are provided. When the carriage is lowered the traverse bars 20 are returned to their original position ready for when the carriage is next raised. In Fig. 2, rails 25, 26 are fixed above the nickel plating tank 11 and below the rails is a traverse chain 27 provided with push pieces 28, Fig. 4. The chain extends the whole length of the apparatus and is arranged to be moved in one direction only. When the carriage is lowered the rails 13, 14 are brought into alignment with the rails 25, 26 respectively, the push pieces 28 are operated and a loaded arm 15 is transferred to the rails 25, 26. At the downstream end of the nickel plating tank 11 an arm 15 carrying workpieces which have completed their treatment in the tank is moved by a push piece 28 on to rails 31b, 32b of a vertically movable trolley 33 when the carriage is in its lower position. This workpiece-carrying arm is removed from the tank the next time the carriage is raised. For reducing the time of treatment in the nickel plating tank 11, a trolley 29 controlled by the solenoid 48, Fig. 2, receives an arm 15 carrying workpieces to be removed and when the carriage reaches its upper level, the arm is moved on to fixed rails 25a, 26a by one of the pushers 21a connected to the traverse bars 20. The trolley 33, together with similar trolleys shown to the right and left of Fig. 1 can, after being moved to its upper position with the carriage, be retained in this position by a hook 57 actuated by the solenoid 59. An arm 15 carrying workpieces which are not to be chrome plated is moved by a pusher 21 on to the raised right hand trolley 33 and then on to fixed rails 31a, 32a. The arm is then moved on to the left hand trolley 33 when the carriage is raised where the arm remains until the carriage is next raised when the arm is moved on to the rails 13, 14. Workpieces to be chrome plated are lowered into the tank 10a since the right hand trolley is allowed to go down with the carriage. The arm 15 carrying the workpieces is then moved along fixed rails 31, 32 by the push pieces 28.