Patent GB-934925-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in apparatus for stacking metal sheets and the like
IPC: B65H29/36
Filed: 1961-04-18
Abstract: 934,925. Stacking sheets. SCHLOEMANN A.G. April 18, 1961 [April 21, 1960], No. 13910/61. Class 100 (1). [Also in Group XXX] In apparatus for stacking metal or other sheets, endless chains 14 are mounted on horizontally-disposed guide wheels 15, 16, each chain carrying a series of arms 27. Each arm 27 is perpendicular, in a horizontal plane, to its associated chain and carries a number of rollers 28 having rims of rubber or synthetic plastic material. Each arm is carried by a mounting 24 which is vertically slidable on a vertical rod 20 carried by the chain 14, but which is restrained against rotation thereon by vertical side members 82, 84 also carried by the chain 14, the side members engaging flat sides of the mounting 24. A pawl 39 is pivoted on the members 82, 84 and is spring-biased towards engagement with the mounting 24. The pawl engages beneath a shoulder on the mounting to hold the latter in its upper position on the rod 20 as shown in full-line in Fig. 5. The pawls are rocked out of engagement with the shoulders by means of a bar 46 which engages wheels 44 on the pawls. The bar 46 is mounted on eccentric pins 49 on pinions 50 which are rotatably mounted between the two rims of the chain 14. The pinions are rotated by means of racks 54 which are longitudinally movable by a fluid-actuated piston and cylinder arrangement 56, such rotation causing lateral movement of the bar 46 and consequent rocking of the pawls 39 out of engageent with the shoulders, whereby the mountings 24 and their associated arms 27 are allowed to fall to their lower positions as shown in broken lines on Fig. 5. Four parallel endless conveyer chains 65 are mounted below the chains 14 and run transversely thereto. A stacking plate 69 is supported between the chains 14 and 65 and can be moved vertically by lifting cylinders 72. An abutment 61 is mounted between the chains 14 and slightly above the level of the arms 27 when the latter are in their lower position. The chains 14 are continuously driven in the directions shown by arrows in Fig. 1, the arms 27 being in their lower positions on the outer runs of the chains. Metal sheets 80 are fed in slightly spaced relationship into the stacking machine, being given an impetus by the feeding means which carries them over a roller track 73 at the input end of the machine. As the arms 27 are carried round the guide wheels 15 rollers 30 carried by the arms engage cam tracks 45 which cause the arms and their mountings 24 to ride up the rods 20 until they are latched by the pawls 39. The arms reach their upper position near the inner end of the roller track 73 and receive metal sheets therefrom on their upper sides. When a sheet of metal 78 is wholly supported by the arms 27 and is clear of the roller track 73 it interrupts a light-beam to a photoelectric cell which actuates the piston and cylinder arrangements 56 so that the latter release the pawls 39 latching the supporting arms on each chain 14. The arms and sheet then descend to their lower position, shown in full line in Fig. 6 (not shown), the leading edge of the sheet engages the stop 61 and the sheet is stripped off the arms by the latter as the arms pass beneath the stop. The sheet falls on to a pile 79 on the stacking plate 69. The plate 69 is gradually lowered during the stacking operation until it comes to rest on the chains 65 which are then driven so as to carry off the completed stack on the plate to a discharge station 68 and to bring an empty plate 67 into position over the cylinders 72 which lift it to sheet-receiving position. The stacking plates have grooves 70 on their upper surfaces for the insertion of stack-lifting devices. A rollertrack 77 is provided at the opposite end of the machine to the track 73. If a given sheet is not required in the stack the abutment 61 may be raised out of sheet engaging position in which case the sheet is carried over the stack 79 and passes on to the roller-track 77 and out of the machine.