Patent GB-1513212-A (GB)
Title: Combination with a thread-cutting machine of a tap transport device
IPC: B24B41/00
Filed: 1976-03-29
Abstract: 1513212 Dispensing articles FERG SL 29 March 1976 [29 Dee 1975] 12579/76 Heading B8U Tap blanks which are stacked in a vertical magazine 53 are individually fed therefrom by a clamp arrangement 90-92 to the chuck 104 of a thread cutting machine R where a thread is formed thereon and are then deposited on to an endless conveyer 103 for delivery to a collector device (not shown). The tap blank feeding apparatus T comprises a support 1 on which a frame comprising parallel plates 13 is movable along cylindrical guide bars 4, the frame supporting a lower platform 14 on which an upper platform 20 is mounted for pivotal movement about a shaft 18, the platform 20 supporting a lower 74 and an upper 73 hydraulic cylinder. The piston rod 80 of cylinder 74 has the clamp arrangement 90-92 mounted on a block 85 at its outer end. The apparatus T also includes the magazine 53 which is in the form of a vertical guide of U-shape section whose outer open side faces towards the clamp arrangement, and the tap blanks are located in the magazine 53 by means of chasers (54), Fig. 7 (not shown), each chaser having a square hole (55) in which the peg (56) of a tap blank (57) is received so that the tap blanks project from the open side of magazine 53. In operation of the apparatus T the upper cylinder 73 is actuated so that its piston rod 76 is extended forward to rotate a lever 86 into engagement with the upper clamp arm 91 of the clamp arrangement to open the latter relative to a block 90 and to move the block 85 forward so that a tap blank in magazine 53 is engaged between clamp arm 91 and block 90, after which the piston is retracted. Then an hydraulic cylinder (67) is actuated, Fig. 8 (not shown), the cylinder (67) being associated with the magazine 53 and being located behind the tap blank grasped by the arm 91 so that that tap blank is pushed from its chaser by a shank (71) on the piston rod of the cylinder (67), and then a further hydraulic cylinder (5), Fig. 2 (not shown), is actuated to move the frame 13 and thus the platforms 14, 20 and the clamp arrangement along the guide bars 4 in the direction towards the observer in Fig. 1 so that the grasped tap blank is lined up with the space between pins (96, 97) of the chuck (104), Fig. 14 (not shown). Fluid is then supplied to cylinder 74 to extend its piston rod 80 and thus the clamp arrangement towards the chuck 104, or as shown in Fig. 10 (not shown). It is assumed that a tap blank which has been threaded is located in the chuck (104), and when the clamp arrangement reaches the chuck the lower clamp arm 92 engages the said threaded tap blank, after which the chuck releases it. Then an hydraulic cylinder 11 actuated to extend its piston rod 22 to rotate the upper platform 20 upwardly about shaft 18 so that the unthreaded tap blank clasped by arm 91 is moved downwardly to a position for grasping by the pins (96, 97) of the chuck which then takes place. The piston rod 80 is then retracted, thereby leaving the unthreaded tap blank in the chuck (since the arm 91 rides over the tap blank during retraction of the clamp arrangement); and when the clamp arrangement reaches a bevelled stop 100 formed in the wall 99 of machine R the lower clamp arm 92 engages the stop 100 and is thus caused to open so that the threaded tap blank engaged thereby is released and drops via a ramp 101 on to the conveyer 103.