Automatic brick placing machine loader

Details Automatic brick placing machine loader Automatic brick placing machine loader

1993-06-01

1994-11-22

Gastineau, Cheryl L.

Conveyors: power-driven

Conveyor system for arranging or rearranging stream of items

By laterally or vertically moving successive items in...

B65G 4712

Patent

active

053660668

DESCRIPTION:

BRIEF SUMMARY
The present invention relates to an automatic brick placing machine loader intended for use in conjunction with a brick placing machine such as that described in the specification of Australian Patent 599266.
While the brick placing machine described in that specification has been found to function very satisfactorily some shortcomings have been noted in relation to the loading of the machine. The receptacle of the machine cannot be reloaded until a cycle of operations has been completed and the receptacle returned to the loading position. With standard bricks the loading time for a full receptacle using two operators is approximately 40 seconds and the overall machine cycle time is approximately 68 seconds. By using more labour the loading time could be decreased but not significantly. If a smaller brick size were used necessitating the loading of more brick elements into the receptacle the loading time would increase and not decrease.
Consideration of the economics of the operation of the machine reveals that the cycle time of the brick placing machine is critical to commercial viability, in fact more critical than the labour content to operate it, due to the available time for the brick placing activity during a 12 hour brick manufacturing cycle.
The object of the present invention is to provide an automatic brick placing machine loader capable of loading the brick placing machine receptacle in a time of the order of 5 seconds utilizing one operator and any sized brick and reducing the overall cycle time to under 30 seconds. The fact that this can be achieved with smaller bricks is significant as, while greater productivity can be achieved and labour costs lowered with larger brick elements these are far less popular than the smaller bricks as a result of which brick manufacturers are reluctant to supply larger bricks.
The present invention consists in a loader for an automatic brick placing machine consisting of a frame, means for attachment of the frame to a receptacle of a brick placing machine for translational movement therewith, a plurality of motor driven rollers for the receipt of bricks arranged on the frame, said rollers being arranged in parallel at a plurality of stations and being constructed and arranged to move bricks towards a station from which the bricks are transferred to a brick placing machine, said stations including a first station having means for receiving a row of bricks in a close side by side configuration and moving said bricks into a configuration in which they are equally spaced apart at a predetermined interval, means at each station actuable to prevent movement of any brick caused by the rotation of one of said rollers, a final station for receiving a predetermined number of bricks arranged in predetermined position in accordance with the requirements of the brick placing machine in the formation of a brick panel, means to transfer said last mentioned bricks from the said final station to a receptacle of a brick placing machine while preserving the relative positions of said bricks, a pre-final station prior to said final station having means for moving bricks received from a previous station along the pre-final station to predetermined positions for transfer to the final station and a programmable logic controller or other like control device programmed to control the movement of moving parts of the machine to effect movement of bricks through the machine to transfer bricks to the brick placing machine in accordance with the requirements of a brick panel being formed by the brick placing machine.
In order that the nature of the invention may be better understood a preferred form thereof is hereinafter described by way of example with reference to the accompanying diagrammatic drawings in which:
FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an automatic brick placing machine loader according to the invention arranged adjacent a brick placing machine;
FIGS. 2 and 3 are views in elevation illustrating the operation of a belt for spreading bricks apart at station No. 1;
FIG. 4 illustrate

REFERENCES:
patent: 3148761 (1964-09-01), Niederer et al.
patent: 4067766 (1978-01-01), Larger
patent: 5016419 (1991-05-01), Boot et al.

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