Plastic article or earthenware shaping or treating: apparatus – With apparatus assembly or dismantling means or with idle part – Including support or guide means for disassembled element
Reexamination Certificate
1999-11-19
2002-12-31
Mackey, James P. (Department: 1722)
Plastic article or earthenware shaping or treating: apparatus
With apparatus assembly or dismantling means or with idle part
Including support or guide means for disassembled element
C425S193000, C425S195000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06499985
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to a mold box changing method for a concrete block molding machine used for automatically changing a mold box for shaping or forming concrete blocks. The present invention provides a method and an apparatus for changing a mold box for a concrete block molding machine.
Heretofore, there has been known a method for changing a mold box consisting of a plunger (male mold) and a mold (female mold) which mold box is used for shaping concrete blocks. Until recently, it was an ordinary practice that the plunger and the mold are merely suspended in their separated states and carried in a predetermined location in those states. Then, a worker(s) fixes the plunger and the mold directly to the machine body by tightening bolts and nuts or by suitable other means at appropriate spots. An inconvenience associated this practice is that the mold box itself is extremely heavy (for example, one set of the plunger and mold weighs about 400 to 600 kg.) and therefore, time and labor consuming work is required for changing the mold box and in addition, this type of work often involves danger. For this reason, power saving was recently demanded for the mold box changing work. In line with this demand, there was proposed an auxiliary apparatus for attaching such a mold box, as disclosed, for example, in Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 3-18161, which was previously filed by the present applicant. In this auxiliary apparatus, at least a mold box-to-be-changed (hereinafter simply called as the “changeable mold box”) or replaced with a new one is once retained by a support arm disposed on a machine body, the changeable mold box is then loaded on a carriage travelling on a rail laid in this side of the machine body and then it is mechanically fed to outside the machine body. However, this apparatus still has such a shortcoming that for changing the changeable mold box with a new mold box on the carriage, the changeable mold box is once discharged by a separate hoisting mechanism at an outlet position and thereafter, a new mold box is separately lowered, by a manual operation, to load on the carriage in a suspended fashion. That is, the carriage itself is moved by the action of the cylinder and the action of the auxiliary apparatus (support arm) is operatively connected to an elevating table which is elevated upward by a cylinder so as to support the mold box automatically. However, a plunger composing a part of the mold box and a press which is elevated downward from an upper location of the machine body must be carried out manually by tightening a bolt in a conventional manner.
In this way, the carriage itself is self-traveled by an electric motor or by the action of the cylinder, and the support arm of the auxiliary apparatus is rotationally projected inward by movement of said carriage through an operatively connecting mechanism, thereby automatically supporting a side surface of the mold box which is elevated upward by a receiver. On the other hand, however, the attachment work of the plunger located at an upper location of the mold box to a lower surface of the press within the machine body is made by a manual operation, that is, by manually tightening the bolt in the conventional manner. Moreover, the most serious problem involved is that the attachment work of the plunger (in one pair of female and male component elements composing the mold box) located in the upper location to the press is not yet automatically made and therefore, the worker is obliged to creep into the narrow interior of the molding machine every time the attachment work is required and manually tighten the bolt. Since this work is not only troublesome but also quite risky, it is demanded that the changing work of the mold box be made completely automatically.
It is most desirable that the work for separating the changeable mold box composed of a plunger and a mold from the machine body, releasing the support of the support arm, loading the mold box on the carriage, discharging the mold box from the carriage, and at the outside of the machine body, loading a new mold box in the place of the changeable mold box on the carriage is all made automatically in a consecutive manner.
In the appearance of so-called color blocks which are currently in fashion in view of their fancy appearance, a proper quantity of color material and common concrete material (base material) is filled into two material feed hoppers as a process for molding such color blocks. For molding blocks of a wide variety of kinds each in a small quantity of production as currently increasingly required, mold boxes prepared in conformity with the configurations of such blocks are required to be changed frequently (for example, about 10 to 15 times a day). Early realization of shortening of the time for changing the mold box and creation of an automatic mold box changing apparatus having reliable safety means are keenly demanded.
The present invention has been accomplished in view of the above.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is, therefore, a general object of the present invention to provide a mold box changing method for a concrete block molding machine and an apparatus for carrying out the method, capable of obviating the shortcomings inherent in the prior art.
To achieve the above object, from one aspect of the present invention, there is essentially provided a mold box changing method for a concrete block molding machine comprising the steps of:
holding a new mold box, composed mainly of a female type mold and a male type plunger, in a standby position on an inlet path portion at one end of a linear type mold box feed line disposed in parallel to a concrete block molding machine body;
receiving an old mold box-to-be-changed, composed of a female type mold and a male type plunger, the old mold box being separable after use at the concrete block molding machine body, by a receiver;
loading the old mold box on a frame-like carriage located on an orthogonal feed path portion;
the orthogonal feed path being branched at a mid-way of the mold box feed line having a distal end located underneath the concrete block molding machine body,
moving backward the carriage until the old mold box-to-be-changed is brought to a branch path portion of the mold box feed line;
pushing and discharging the old mold box-to-be-changed to an outlet path portion disposed forwardly of the mold box feed line by being pushed by a side surface of a new mold wherein the new mold is pushed and moved by a pusher held in a standby position at one end of the mold box feed line;
loading the new mold box for taking the place of the old mold-box-to-be-changed on the carriage;
elevating upward the carriage with the new mold box loaded thereon to a predetermined location by an elevator-type receiver after the carriage arrives at underneath the concrete block molding machine body;
supporting the mold of the new mold box in the elevated position by a mold support extending from sideways thereof; and
locking a corner portion of the plunger engaged with the mold by a cylinder type split female/male thread type detaching/attaching device having a rotary support shaft extending downward from a press,
said press being elevated downward from an upper location of the concrete block molding machine body,
whereby the mold and plunger of the new mold box are held in vertically separated relation.
From another aspect of the present invention, there is also provided a mold box changing apparatus for a concrete block molding machine comprising:
a roller type mold box feed line spacedly disposed in parallel relation with respect to the concrete block molding machine,
one end of the mold box feed line being defined as an inlet path portion on which a self-travelling type pusher is disposed, an intermediate portion thereof being defined as a branch path on which a self-travelling rail type orthogonal feed path whose a distal end is located underneath the concrete block molding machine body, and the other end thereof being defined as an outlet path portion;
a lifter dispos
Hoshino Yoshinobu
Sekiguchi Yoji
Yoda Hironobu
Katsura Machine Co, Ltd.
Mackey James P.
LandOfFree
Apparatus for changing a mold box for a concrete block... does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Apparatus for changing a mold box for a concrete block..., we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Apparatus for changing a mold box for a concrete block... will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-2927016