Patent GB-695130-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in or relating to devices for separating sheets from piles
Inventor: GAZARD JOSEPH FRANK SHIRLEY
IPC: B65H3/08
Filed: 1950-10-05
Abstract: 695,130. Separating sheets from piles. STEEL CO. OF WALES, Ltd. Oct. 5, 1951 [Oct. 5, 1950], No. 24360/50. Class 100(i) A sheet-separating apparatus particularly for thin metal plates comprises an elevating device, carrying means e.g. pneumatic suckers for lifting the top sheet of a pile and a horizontally reciprocating transfer member adapted to move under the lifted top sheet and to receive it and then carry it horizontally to delivery means. Fig. 1 shows the complete apparatus which includes means for raising the pile table as the separation proceeds. The pile table 16 is supported on a screw 21 engaged in a nut member 28, Fig. 2, rotatable by a ratchet wheel 26, the teeth 30 of which are enclosed in an annular casing 33 oscillated about the wheel axis by a rod 43, Fig. 1, actuated by a cam on the drive shaft 56. A spring loaded pawl 35 on the casing engages the ratchet wheel to advance the pile. The pawl may be put out of action by a lever 47 or automatically at the end of its stroke by the wedged end 53 of a limit stop rod 46 lifted into effective position by engagement between its bottom end 51 and a collar 52 attached to the end of the screw. The elevating device comprises a bridge member 64 extending over the pile and slidably arranged on rods 61. It is moved up and down by a rod 83 connected to one arm 82 of a bell-crank lever the other arm of which engages a cam on the drive shaft 56. Suckers 68 on the bridge member 64 are connected by flexible pipes to a cylinder 70 in which slides a piston 71 actuated by a cam on the shaft 56. The piston is moved out of the cylinder to apply suction to the suckers and into it to destroy the suction. A carriage 88 mounted to slide on horizontal rods 85 on each side of the pile carries the transfer member in the form of a tray consisting of a number of rods 90 having hooked ends 91. Stops 104 mounted on a fixed bracket 105 may swing to allow a sheet on the tray to pass away from the pile but prevent its moving towards the pile. A delivery guide is provided under the tray to receive sheets swept off the tray by the stops 104 in its movement towards the pile. The guide consists of a number of rods 108, a bracket 113 and a pair of rollers 111 and 112 feeding the sheet to a stamping or other operating machine. In operation the bridge member 64 descends to move the suckers into contact with the top sheet; the piston 71 rises to create a vacuum in the suckers; the elevating member 64 rises, carrying the top sheet upwardly; the transfer tray 90 moves to the left under the top sheet; the piston 7 descends to destroy the vacuum and allow the sheet to fall on to the tray; the tray moves to the right, the hooked ends 91 of the rods ensuring that the sheet is carried therewith and the suckers descend again on to the new top sheet. The sheet on the tray is made to fall into the delivery guide as described above. Compressed air nozzles may be used to assist separation of the top sheet. Where the sheets in the pile are of ferrous metal, magnetic separators may replace the suckers 68 and separation of the top sheet may be facilitated by magnetizing the top sheets of the pile so that similar poles are closely adjacent and cause a repelling action.