Patent ID: 8257010

Claim:
A bar feeder for feeding bar to a bar machining apparatus along a feed axis, comprising: a stock rack having a bar mount surface for allowing bar or bars to be placed thereon: a guide rail for guiding one of the bar taken out of the stock rack along the feed axis; and a bar supply mechanism for taking the bar one by one out of the stock rack and supplying the taken-out bar onto the guide rail, wherein: the bar mount surface is inclined downwardly in a direction from an upstream thereof far from the guide rail to a downstream thereof close to the guide rail; and the bar supply mechanism includes: a stopper member protruding upwardly from the bar mount surface at the downstream thereof to prevent the bar from dropping from the bar mount surface; a lifting member adapted to move upwardly at the downstream end of the bar mount surface to lift only a downstreammost one of the bar which is adjacent to the stopper member; a bar receiving member connecting the lifting member thereto, formed with a receiving portion for receiving thereon the downstreammost bar lifted by the lifting member, and adapted to supply the bar received on the receiving portion to the guide rail; and moving device adapted to move the bar receiving member and the lifting member between a bar receiving position where the bar is lifted up to a height of the stopper member and the receiving portion is aligned with the lifting member, and a bar loading position where the lifting member is retracted to a height equal to or below that of the bar mount surface and the receiving portion is located at a height equal to or below that of the guide rail; wherein the stopper member is slidable along the bar mount surface between a bar takeout position where only a downstreammost one of the bar is permitted to be located on or above the lifting member when the lifting member is in the bar loading position, and a holding position where the stopper member approaches and holds a second-downstreammost one of the bar to be subsequently supplied when the lifting member is in the bar receiving position and wherein the stopper member reciprocates between the bar takeout position and the holding position in every bar supply cycle.