Patent ID: 8117880

Claim:
A billet-rearranging device, disposed between a chute with an outlet to feed billets in a row to the device and a charger with a holder unit to hold two billets in tandem, said device having a billet-rearranging mechanism to rearrange two billets in tandem and feed them to the holder unit of the charger, wherein said billet-rearranging mechanism comprises: an upper slide plate positioned below the outlet of the chute; a lower slide plate positioned below the upper slide plate; and a fixed plate positioned below the lower slide plate, above the holder unit of the charger, wherein (A) the upper slide plate has the function of rearranging two billets in tandem, (B) the lower slide plate has the function of feeding two billets in tandem one by one to the fixed plate, and (C) the fixed plate has the function of guiding two billets in tandem simultaneously to the holder unit, and wherein (i) the holder unit of said charger is provided with a first and a second holder in tandem, the first holder being positioned in front of a position (hereinafter “center position”) right under the outlet of said chute and the second holder being positioned in a rear of the center position, (ii) the fixed plate of the billet-rearranging mechanism of the billet-rearranging device has a first and a second guide hole which are positioned right above the first and second holders, respectively, of the holder unit of the charger, (iii) the lower slide plate of the billet-rearranging mechanism of the billet-rearranging device has a first and a second receiving hole, the first receiving hole coming to the center position when the lower slide plate is slid most forward and the first and second receiving holes positioned right above the first and second guide holes, respectively, of the fixed plate when the lower slide plate is slid most backward, and (iv) the upper slide plate of the billet-rearranging mechanism of the billet-rearranging device has a rearranging hole, the rearranging hole being positioned right above the first receiving hole of the lower slide plate when the upper and lower slide plates are slid most backward and forward, respectively, and the rearranging hole being positioned right above the second receiving hole of the lower slid plate when the upper and lower slide plates are slid most forward and backward, respectively.