Conveyors: power-driven – Conveyor section – Screw
Reexamination Certificate
1999-10-06
2001-12-04
Nguyen, Tuan N. (Department: 3653)
Conveyors: power-driven
Conveyor section
Screw
C198S675000, C409S131000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06325203
ABSTRACT:
This invention pertains generally to providing a steady state stream of discrete, non-uniformly shaped pieces of scrap materials so as to enable the pieces to be more conveniently and efficiently processed for further use or disposal. More specifically the invention pertains to a method and apparatus for providing a steady state stream of machine tool chips which are generated at intervals, usually irregular in terms of time, from point generation sources, such as lathes, milling machines and similar tools used in industrial machining operations.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Literally millions of tons of machine tool chips and similar scrappage is generated each year in industrial machining operations including, primarily, machine shops. A machine tool chip is an irregularly shaped product in the sense that, though it may be a uniform few thousandths of an inch thick and wide, it may be anywhere from a fraction of an inch up to several inches in length, and the contour may be anywhere from straight (in an axial sense) to any twisted shape. Such chips must be rapidly removed from the immediate vicinity of their generation point, such as a lathe or a milling machine in a stand-alone or adjunct machine shop operation, and then conveyed to a collection point at which they may be further processed as by (1) dumping, (2) compacting and then dumping at a disposal site, or (3) assembled, with or without compacting or bundling, for recycling in a downstream industrial process, such as being remelted in a steel mill after leaving the steel mill's machine shop. The variations are nearly endless but common to all installations is the problem of ensuring that the volume of chips is maintained in a flowable condition at all times so that bunching or “hanging up” does not occur. When hanging up does occur the quantity of material moving per unit of time in the takeaway system is reduced or terminated and, worse yet, jamming of the system near the generation locations may force the generation locations, such as a machine tool, to shut down due to an inability to remove the chips. The problem of jamming or hanging up in hoppers which are downstream from the generation location, such as a lathe, is particularly troublesome in connection with machine tool chips since, no matter how regularly formed the chips may be, their sharp edges, projections and recesses inevitably cause them to interlock and agglomerate whenever two chips make contact with one another. The more hoppers in a chip takeaway system, the greater the problem.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The invention is an apparatus and a method of operating it which accepts machine tool chips at a temporary collecting location, usually a surge or collection hopper, and ensures that no matter how large or how small or how variable in size the chips or bulk material may be, there will be no jamming or hanging up in the hopper, and a steady state stream of chips—which are not agglomerated in bunches too large to be efficiently processed downstream—will continuously leave the hopper. Nearly all machine tool shops have a plurality of machine tools whose generated chips are fed into a hopper, and many machine tool shops have so many machine tools that a system comprising a plurality of hoppers must be employed, each having an associated takeaway conveyor. The present invention is applicable to both types of operation; i.e.: to single hopper or multiple hopper layouts, and to any hopper location within a system, including a hopper fed directly by a machine tool or a hopper fed by one or several upstream hoppers.
REFERENCES:
patent: 656346 (1900-08-01), Dietz
patent: 1118221 (1914-11-01), Pantaze
patent: 1202374 (1916-10-01), Fraser
patent: 1313729 (1919-08-01), Parsons
patent: 5951219 (1999-09-01), Stadtfeld et al.
patent: 778819 (1980-11-01), None
A. Finkl & Sons Co.
A. Finkl & Sons Co.
Nguyen Tuan N.
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