Conveyors: power-driven – Conveyor system for arranging or rearranging stream of items
Patent
1980-10-06
1983-05-31
Smith, James G.
Conveyors: power-driven
Conveyor system for arranging or rearranging stream of items
198620, 221218, 221259, B65G 4722
Patent
active
043856861
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to a feeding device for feeding a plurality of objects.
The background of the invention is the need to achieve a secure and rapid feeding of rather small objects, in particular rollers for roller bearings, in connection with mass production and treatment of such objects.
A previously known kind of feeding device comprises feeding means in the form of two opposed, rotating friction discs, between which the objects are fed while being frictionally engaged by the rotating discs. However, this known device has a substantial disadvantage in that a desired frictional engagement cannot always be maintained for a long period of operation, and the feeding may be disturbed with consequent drawbacks such as the need for adjustment of the friction discs and interruptions of all the units included in a production line.
As appears from the Swedish patent application No. 7714299-0, in order to avoid these drawbacks, a feeding device has been designed which comprises an endless belt serving as feeding means and being provided with conveying means, said belt being arranged to embrace, with the side provided with the conveying means, a re-directing guiding member provided with a guiding groove for the objects. The guiding member is constituted by a rotatable wheel, and the objects are fed forward in that they are obliquely positioned while changing their direction in the guiding groove of the wheel, the conveying means engaging with an edge or the like on each object.
The device has turned out to operate excellently for large and medium-sized rollers for roller bearings. However, problems have arisen when trying to use the device for rather small rollers. Thus, the latter have a tendency to lose their well-arranged mutual orientation while being re-directed, and furthermore the guidance in the region adjacent the feeding outlet has not been solved in a satisfactory way.
The object of the invention is therefore to achieve a feeding device operating satisfactorily even for rather small objects, in particular rollers for roller bearings.
This object is achieved by a feeding device with the features stated in the claims. Additional suitable features and embodiments will appear from the detailed description below.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING
The invention is described more fully below with reference to the drawings, which illustrate a preferred embodiment.
FIG. 1 shows a central section through a feeding device according to the invention;
FIG. 2 shows a fractional section along the line II--II in FIG. 1;
FIG. 3 shows a fractional section along the line III--III in FIG. 1; and
FIG. 4 shows a section along the line IV--IV in FIG. 1.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
The feeding device shown in the drawings comprises two support plates 1,2 made of aluminium sheet and arranged at an angle, one of the support plates 1 being substantially vertical, whereas the other support plate 2 is substantially horizontal (see FIG. 4). The means shown in FIG. 1 may, if desired, be enclosed in casing 3 or a housing.
On the vertical support plate 1, two feeding wheels 4,5 are each rotatably mounted by means of ball bearings on an axle journal 6,7, respectively, so as to permit them to rotate in a common plane (in parallel to the support plate 1) and to form a nip 8 in the section III--III in FIG. 1 (compare FIG. 3). Adjacent this nip 8, there is an inlet channel 9 in an upper inlet block 10 and an outlet channel 11 in a lower outlet block 12. These channels 9,11 are connected to tubes or hoses 13 and 14, respectively, for feeding through the objects in question. In the illustrated embodiment, these objects consist of rather small rollers (length appr. 4 mm, diameter appr. 3 mm) for roller bearings. The rollers R are inserted (in a way not shown) into the inlet hose 13 and are arranged in well-defined orientation relative to each other in the inlet channel 9, which is adapted to the diameter of the rollers in the inlet block 10.
As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the inlet block 10
REFERENCES:
patent: 2297573 (1942-09-01), MacDonald et al.
patent: 3331488 (1967-07-01), Wellman
Projectus Industriprodukter AB
Smith James G.
Watts Douglas D.
LandOfFree
Feeding device does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Feeding device, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Feeding device will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-2243249