Patent Description:
The object of this invention falls on an extruding machine comprising the aforementioned device, said device essentially comprising a sliding carriage along a guideway with capacity to transfer a separating caisson along it and to deposit it and come back to pick it up acting in a synchronized manner with the guillotine of the machine concrete flow, it has the aim of facilitating the placement and extraction of the said separator, the said separator placement and extraction is done in a fully automatic manner , that means, avoiding the manual intervention of operators to carry out the said placement, with the subsequent saving of effort and cost of workforce and improvement in the dimensional accurateness of the products of concrete.

The field of application of this invention is within the sector of the industry engaged in manufacturing products of concrete, preferably prestressed concrete.

In some countries, the construction regulations request that the products of concrete, preferably products of prestressed concrete, for slabs (girders, solid slabs, ribbed pre-slabs, honey-comb slabs. ) are produced leaving apparent the ends of the reinforcing steels. This is the case, among other, of France and countries having a French influence in Africa (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia. ) that are governed by the French construction regulations.

To leave the reinforcing steel apparent between the products of prestressed concrete, that means without the concrete, allows that this apparent reinforcing steel remains integrated in the field-poured concrete during the construction of the building in addition to allow to separate the said products without cutting the concrete by means of a diamond disk saw, saving the cost of the diamond disk and of the electric power and cooling water consumption.

Since over <NUM> years ago, the extruding machines/slipformers/ molding machines/flow former, with which the products of prestressed concrete are manufactured, comprise a guillotine device to cut the concrete flow.

One of the historic problems of this system is to achieve the sufficient accurateness in the sizes of the finished part, as well for the length as for the straightness of the cut and perpendicularity with the section.

When the concrete flow newly starts when lifting the guillotine, due to the extruding pressure exerted, the concrete slides over the bench producing a lengthening of the part.

On the other hand, the concrete does not come out with the same speed along the full width of the cut, producing a curved instead of straight cut.

To avoid these unwanted effects, caisson-shaped separators are used, normally of metal, that are placed manually after each cut of the guillotine.

The objective of this invention is, therefore, to develop a new device that avoids that the placement of the said separators is to be carried out manually by an operator. The placement manually of the separators by an operator presents the following drawbacks:.

On the other hand, and as reference to the current state-of-the art, at least the applicant is not aware of the existence of any other device for the placement of separators in products of concrete or of prestressed concrete extruding machines or of any other invention having a similar application that presents technical and constitutive characteristics same or similar to those herein claimed.

The concrete extruding machine comprising a device for the placement of separators that the invention proposes is configured as the suitable solution to the above-mentioned objective, the characterizing details making it possible and that distinguish it are conveniently appearing in the final claims attached to this specification.

Concretely, what the invention proposes, as it was said before, is an extruding machine comprising a device that has the aim of carrying out the placement of a separating caisson that serves in order that the concrete of the guillotined parts is not deformed.

For this and more specifically, the said device comprises, essentially, securing and displacing means to carry out the placement and extraction of a separating caisson so that the caisson remains placed in the intermediate gap existing between the rear and front ends of the parts formed, the time necessary to avoid their deformation while the machine goes on extruding.

The device further comprises a carriage adapted to slide along a horizontal guideway that is incorporated to the machine, above its concrete flow outlet, next to the cutting guillotine provided on the said outlet. In the carriage, it is foreseen to include securing means to secure the separating caisson and transfer it with the carriage along the guideway and vertical displacement means for lifting and lowering the separating caisson, to lower the caisson and that it remains deposited in the gap existing after the cutting of the part of concrete that the guillotine carries out and to newly lift it later on.

Preferably, the carriage is moved on a linear guided system that can be hydraulically, pneumatically or electrically powered.

Preferably, the means that allow the downwards and upwards movement of the separating caisson comprise, at least, a linear actuator, linked to the hydraulically, pneumatically or electrically powered caisson securing means,.

Preferably, the caisson securing means are constituted by a fixed anchorage system, for example, a screwed platen, which always keeps the caisson joined to the device carriage.

Optionally, the caisson securing means consist of a removable anchorage system, for example based on electromagnetic attraction, the means of which only hold the caisson at the moment of making it go down and lift it again, but not during the time in which it is acting as separator of the guillotined parts.

In a preferred embodiment, the device for the placement of separators in products of concrete extruding machines comprises a PLC (Programmable Logic Controller, known by its initials in English), that controls the operation of the machine and synchronizes its movement based on the movement of the displacement of the extrusion of material and of its guillotine.

With all this, the device allows to avoid the efforts that the operator should have to make to put and pick up in each separation of parts one or more separating caissons while it significantly improves the accurateness of the separating caisson placement, consequently improving the accurateness of the part of concrete sizes. At the same time, the device of the invention allows to cut down the cost of the workforce specially dedicated to the said task.

To complement the description being carried out and in order to assist to best understand the characteristics of the invention, attached to this specification, as an integral part thereof, there is a set of drawings in which, for illustration and no limitation purpose, the following has been represented:.

Seen the said figures, and according to the numerals adopted, a non-limiting example of embodiment of the device for the placement of separators in products of concrete extruding machines of the invention can be seen, which comprises what is described in detail below.

Thus, as it can be seen in these figures, the device (<NUM>) of the invention is applicable for its installation in an extruding machine (<NUM>) parts (<NUM>) of concrete, preferably concrete with reinforcing steel threads (<NUM>), for instance beams or girders, of those comprising a guillotine (<NUM>) to cut the concrete outflow and form the said parts (<NUM>) and the respective ends of which, rear (3a) and front (3b), are kept formed and without being deformed by placing between them a separating caisson (<NUM>) and it is distinguished in that it comprises securing and displacing means (<NUM>,<NUM>,<NUM>,<NUM>) to carry out the placement and extraction of the said separating caisson (<NUM>) so that the caisson (<NUM>) remains placed in the intermediate gap (<NUM>) existing between the said rear (3a) and front (3b) ends of the parts (<NUM>) formed the time necessary to avoid its deformation while the machine goes on extruding.

For this, in a preferred embodiment of the device (<NUM>), it comprises, essentially, a carriage (<NUM>) adapted to slide along a horizontal guideways (<NUM>) that is incorporated to the machine (<NUM>) above its outlet (2a) of the concrete flow (<NUM>), next to the cutting guillotine (<NUM>) provided at the said outlet, in which carriage it is contemplated to include securing means (<NUM>) to secure the separating caisson (<NUM>) and transfer it with the carriage (<NUM>) along the guideway (<NUM>), as well as means of vertical displacement (<NUM>) to lift and lower the separating caisson (<NUM>) that means, to lower the caisson (<NUM>), so that it remains deposited in the gap (<NUM>) existing after the cut of the part (<NUM>) of concrete that the guillotine (<NUM>) carries out and its further lifting.

Preferably, the carriage (<NUM>) is hydraulically, pneumatically or electrically powered.

Preferably the means of vertical displacement (<NUM>) of the separating caisson (<NUM>) comprise, at least, a linear actuator, linked to the hydraulically, pneumatically or electrically powered securing means (<NUM>) of the caisson (<NUM>) to the carriage (<NUM>). On its hand, in an embodiment, the securing means (<NUM>) of the separating caisson (<NUM>), as the example of the <FIG> show, are constituted by a fixed anchorage, for example, a screwed platen that keeps the caisson (<NUM>) joined to the carriage (<NUM>) of the device (<NUM>).

Optionally, although it was not represented in the figures, in an alternative embodiment, the securing means (<NUM>) of the separating caisson (<NUM>) consist of a removable anchorage, for example an electromagnetic anchorage, that only secures the caisson (<NUM>) during the transfer with the carriage (<NUM>) along the guideways (<NUM>) and at the moment of lowering and lifting it again, but not during the time in which it remains located in the intermediate gap (<NUM>) existing between the consecutive parts of concrete (<NUM>).

According to the <FIG>, the different steps of each operating cycle of the device (<NUM>) of the invention can be seen synchronously with the operation of the machine (<NUM>) and the guillotine (<NUM>) that cuts the parts (<NUM>) of concrete, the figures of which show, approximately, in the following:.

In a preferred embodiment, the placement and extraction of the said separating caisson (<NUM>) through the securing and displacement means (<NUM>,<NUM>,<NUM>,<NUM>) is carried out by means of a PLC (2b) which controls the operation of the machine (<NUM>) and synchronizes it with the displacement of the machine (<NUM>) in its forwards movement to determine the outflow of extruded concrete that forms the parts (<NUM>) and with the periodical triggering of the guillotine (<NUM>) that is cutting the said parts (<NUM>).

It shall be pointed out that the time during which the caisson (<NUM>) remains placed in the intermediate gap (<NUM>) shall be sufficient in order that the material of concrete is no longer deformed at the moment in which the said caisson (<NUM>) is newly extracted, therefore the length of the guideway (<NUM>) shall be conveniently calculated for this, especially in this example of embodiment, in which the means (<NUM>) securing the caisson (<NUM>) on the carriage (<NUM>) are fixed because the device (<NUM>) is being displaced together with the machine (<NUM>) itself.

On the other hand, it shall be pointed out that, although it cannot be seen in the figures, as well the guillotine (<NUM>) as the separating caisson (<NUM>), that preferably comprises a parallelepiped metal body, presents caissons coinciding with the position of the reinforcing steel threads (<NUM>) that remain integrated in the concrete of the parts (<NUM>) that are being formed so that, once formed, they remain joined by the said reinforcing steel threads (<NUM>) that, later, will be conveniently cut by means of a suitable saw.

Claim 1:
Concrete extruding machine (<NUM>) comprising a guillotine (<NUM>) to cut a concrete outward flow for forming concrete parts (<NUM>), characterized by comprising a device (<NUM>) configured to keep the respective rear and front ends of consecutive parts (<NUM>) undeformed by placing a separating caisson (<NUM>) in an intermediate gap (<NUM>) between said rear and front ends of the consecutive parts (<NUM>), the device (<NUM>) comprising:
- a carriage (<NUM>) configured to slide along a horizontal guideway (<NUM>) above an outlet (2a) of the concrete flow next to the cutting guillotine (<NUM>) provided on the said outlet (2a);
- securing means (<NUM>) configured to secure the separating caisson (<NUM>) and transfer it with the carriage (<NUM>) along the guideway (<NUM>); and
- vertical displacement means (<NUM>) configured to lower the caisson (<NUM>) in the gap (<NUM>) existing after the cutting of the part (<NUM>) of concrete that the guillotine (<NUM>) carries out and to lift said caisson (<NUM>) again later on,
the device (<NUM>) being configured to automatically place and extract said separating caisson (<NUM>), so that the caisson (<NUM>) remains placed in the intermediate gap (<NUM>) existing between the said rear and front ends of the parts (<NUM>) formed the time necessary to avoid their deformation while the extruding machine (<NUM>) goes on extruding.