Conveyors: power-driven – Conveyor section – Pusher conveyor and separate load support surface
Patent
1995-11-06
1998-01-27
Bidwell, James R.
Conveyors: power-driven
Conveyor section
Pusher conveyor and separate load support surface
198817, B65G 1926
Patent
active
057114129
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to a device according to the independent claim for serial transport of sheet metal blanks towards a subsequent processing station, wherein the acceleration force necessary for the transport is applied to the edge of the sheet metal blank which is the trailing edge in the transport direction. In particular the invention relates to a device for ejecting rounded sheet metal blanks from a rounding station or for onward transport of the rounded blanks towards a welding station in which they are welded to form cylindrical can bodies. However, the device may for example also be used in the manufacture of compound panels formed by welding flat sheet metal blanks together.
According to the state of the art, flat sheet metal blanks are welded together to produce compound panels, for example in accordance with European Patent No. 0279866. Also, for the manufacture of can bodies, flat sheet metal blanks are rounded between a cylinder and a hollow cylinder in a rounding station to which they are fed essentially tangentially to the rounding required, and are then ejected from the rounding station in the axial direction. Still moving in the same direction, they are then transported towards a welding station, in which their edges which have been made to overlap by the rounding operation and by a suitable edge guide are welded together.
Usually, flat panels or cylindrical bodies for welding are transported by means of pusher dogs; can bodies for example are ejected from the rounding station by directing the dogs on to the rounded edge of the sheet metal blanks which is the trailing edge in the ejection direction. A number of such dogs are for example attached to an endless chain which is guided and driven by sprockets so that as soon as a sheet metal blank has been rounded, an ejector dog is directed on to the rounded edge of the blank which is the trailing edge in the ejection direction, thus ejecting the rounded blank in the axial direction with an accelerated motion. The chain drive is controlled so as to accelerate each dog from an impact velocity to a maximum velocity for the ejection. The time required for the ejection is governed by (among other factors) the difference between the impact velocity and the maximum velocity, and by the acceleration which can be obtained.
With modern welding techniques, and with standard heights of can body (i.e. lengths of welded seam), production rates of up to 1000 can bodies per minute are possible, implying cycle times of down to 60 msec. In order to be able to achieve such high production rates in practice, it must also be possible to perform the rounding (assuming standard can body diameters) together with the ejection from the rounding station within the same very short cycle time. However, in order to be able to shorten the cycle time, it is necessary either to increase the rounding rate or to enable ejection to be performed within a shorter time.
It is therefore the object of the invention to provide a device for ejecting sheet metal blanks from a processing station, which device allows shorter ejection times than corresponding devices according to the state of the art (usually pusher dogs on conveyor chains driven by gears) so as to allow sufficient time for problem-free rounding even at the highest production rates and for can bodies with relatively large diameters. Besides meeting the stated object, the device according to the invention is capable of surviving jams or tailbacks of blanks without sustaining damage, and to guarantee extremely long and problem-free service life (e.g. 10.sup.8 can bodies). Furthermore, the device needs to be easily adaptable to different body sizes (body diameters). Moreover the device according to the invention can be used in the general transport system for flat panels or cylindrical bodies. For the transport of cylindrical bodies in particular, there exist other transport paths besides the ejection from the rounding apparatus, over which the can bodies have to be accelerated, and on which th
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Patent Abstracts of Japan, vol. 6, No. 263, 22 Dec. 1982.
Gysin Hanspeter
Ineichen Armin
Oehrli Hanspeter
Bidwell James R.
Elpatronic AG
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