Workpiece manufacturing apparatus

A workpiece manufacturing apparatus comprising:

• a lower die assembly;
• an upper die assembly, which is movable vertically to approach and separate from the lower die assembly;
• a workpiece extracting device;
• and
• a workpiece conveying device, wherein
• the lower die assembly includes a punch configured to punch out a rectangular plate-shaped workpiece into the upper die assembly from a plate-shaped unprocessed material held between the lower die assembly and the upper die assembly,
• the upper die assembly includes an ejector configured to eject the punched out workpiece downward from the upper die assembly,
• the extracting device includes
• a catch plate configured to receive opposite ends in a longitudinal direction of the workpiece ejected from the upper die assembly, and
• a moving mechanism, which moves the catch plate between a position below the upper die assembly and the conveying device by displacing the catch plate horizontally in conjunction with vertical movement of the upper die assembly,
• the moving mechanism including
• a gear block, which is attached to the upper die assembly to be movable integrally with the upper die assembly,
• a pinion, which is supported by the gear block so as to be rotational around a center line extending in a vertical direction,
• a conversion mechanism, which converts vertical motion of the gear block into rotational motion of the pinion, and
• a rack, which meshes with the pinion and moves horizontally based on rotation of the pinion,
• the catch plate is attached to the rack of the moving mechanism so as to be moved integrally with the rack, and
• the moving mechanism is configured to move the catch plate from the conveying device to the position below the upper die assembly as the upper die assembly moves upward and to move the catch plate from the position below the upper die assembly to the conveying device as the upper die assembly moves downward.