Patent GB-846388-A (GB)
Title: Machine tools
Inventor: SR GEORGE HAYWOOD KENDALL
IPC: B23Q41/04
Filed: 1956-10-17
Abstract: 846,388. Linear-dimension gauges. KENDALL, G. H., Sen., HOST, J. A., and KENDALL, G. H., Jun. Oct. 17, 1956, No. 31568/56. Class 106 (2). [Also in Groups XXII, XXIII and XXX] A multi-station machine tool for cutting, swaging, grinding, spinning, drilling, tapping, assembling and/or gauging comprises a frame having a plurality of straight intersecting ways 15, 16 forming a closed track, a plurality of separate work-carriers 18 slidably mounted on said ways and disposed in rows substantially filling the track, and means for advancing the carriers intermittently along the track in a continuous succession to tool units T1-T4 on the frame at work stations along at least two parallel stretches of the track. The work-carriers are square pallets guided by flanged tracks 19, 20, 21, Fig. 10, and having locating pins 85 and/or work-clamping means. The track may be opened at one station if it is desired to remove the pallets with the finished work rather than remove the work from the pallets. Alternatively, the pallets may ride on guides 23, Fig. 5, to prevent chips entering the guides, the lubricant and chips being conveyed away by passages 25, 26. The pallets may have grooved flanges to direct fluid to the passages 25. The pallets are fed along the ways 15 by rods 29 guided on rollers 30 and having wedging lugs 34 engaging between the pallets. The rods are reciprocated by a cam, electromagnets or fluidpressure means 33. Similar operating means 42 rotate gears 36, 37 on the rods 29 to rotate the lugs to disengage them on a retraction movement of the rods. The pallets are fed along the ways 16 by a single hydraulically operated pusher 44 engaging the end of the row. The machine is operated automatically by solenoid valves under the control of limit switches and cams rotated by a variable-speed motor. If movement of the pallets or the operation at any station takes longer than the time allowed by the cams, safety switches are operated which may stop the machine and operate warning lights. Safety switches 71 are also operated, if the lugs 34 are unable to enter between pallets, by the yielding of a spring in a telescopic connection to the ram causing rotation of the rods 29. Checking and testing units T4, Fig. 2, may be provided. A hold-down unit T5, Fig. 7, having pins 88 to engage a flange W2 on the workpiece W and operated by hydraulic means 89, may be provided. Locating taper pins 91 on the hold-down means engage bushed holes 92 in the pallet 18 to position the work accurately, the pallets having slight play in their guides. The frame of the machine is built of apertured girders and has a top deck 13. A bracket above the deck or a channel 102 in the deck carries cables and sockets into which the units may be plugged, the sockets being connected to a terminal board on a frame portion 11. A large bore pipe 108 below the channel carries fluid or compressed air to the units. A jogging switch is provided. Taut safety-switch-operating cables 204 on each side of the machine stop the machine instantly when they are touched by the operator.