Conveyors: power-driven – With means to facilitate working – treating – or inspecting... – Means engaging conveyor or load on a conveyor to align load...
Patent
1992-04-21
1994-08-23
Dayoan, D. Glenn
Conveyors: power-driven
With means to facilitate working, treating, or inspecting...
Means engaging conveyor or load on a conveyor to align load...
1984654, 271227, B65G 4700
Patent
active
053399412
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention pertains in general to a process and device for transporting flaccid workpieces to a scanning and aligning station where the workpieces are scanned and then aligned with each other and then transported away from the scanning and aligning station. More specifically the present invention describes a process and device where at least one of the workpieces is removed from a conveying means aligned with the other workpiece and then reattached to the conveying means and both the workpieces are transported away in alignment.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Similar processes and devices are known from European Paten Disclosure Document #EP-OS 0,260,331. In the prior-art process, the workpiece layers are fed to each other by conveying means. The conveying means comprise rail-guided carriages on which clamps are arranged holding the upper end of the workpiece layers. These conveying means have track sections directed in parallel to one another in a scanning station and an aligning station. To make possible the mutual alignment of the workpiece layers, the clamps are arranged on the carriages of one of the conveying means by means of a holding head which is movable in a plurality of directions in relation to the carriage carrying it. This holding head carries a magnetizable plate which comes into frictionally engaged contact in the aligning station with a permanent magnet that is fastened to the adjacent carriage of the other conveying means. Using an adjusting device of the stationary aligning station, the movable holding head of the clamps on the first-named carriage is adjusted, corresponding to the scanning result, such that the two workpiece layers that are adjacent to one another in the aligning station will reach the predetermined relative position. Based on the frictional engagement between the magnetizable plate on the holding head of one carriage and the permanent magnet on the other carriage, this relative position is maintained when the two carriages move together from the aligning station into the subsequent processing station after alignment of the workpiece layers.
This design is relatively complicated, because it requires an adjustable holding head that is adjustable in a plurality of directions at each of the carriages of one conveying means. In addition, to adjusting the holding heads, the adjusting device must exert a considerable force to reach the specified relative position of the two workpiece layers in order to overcome the frictional force between the magnetizable plate and the permanent magnet, which must, as is explained, be strong enough to maintain the relative position, once set, between the permanent magnet and the plate and consequently the aligned position of the workpiece layers.
SUMMARY AND OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION
The basic task of the present invention is to provide a process that is designed such that it can be carried out with a device of simple design.
This task is accomplished by the transporting the first workpiece in a substantially flat hanging position from a first transport means. The second workpiece is also transported in a substantially flat position from a second transport means. The first and second workpieces are transported to a scanning and aligning station. At the scanning and aligning station one of the workpieces is removed from the respective transporting means and aligned with the other workpiece. After alignment has been completed the detached workpiece is reattached to the respective transport means. The two workpieces are then aligned and transported in a substantially aligned manner for further processing.
A reduction of the overall alignment time is achieved if both workpieces are detached from the respective transport means at the scanning and alignment station. During alignment each workpiece is moved in a direction substantially opposite the moving direction of the other workpiece. Both workpieces are then reattached to the respective transport means. Since each workpiece only has to move half the distan
REFERENCES:
patent: 3726399 (1973-04-01), Beamish et al.
patent: 3897945 (1975-08-01), Faltot et al.
patent: 4917369 (1990-04-01), Moll et al.
patent: 5012752 (1991-05-01), Murata et al.
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