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US 3,930,808 AGranted
Automatic collet hinge/screw placement machine
AssigneeRoyal Industries, Inc.
InventorsLeslie R. Miller, John D. McKenney
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An automatic collet hinge/screw placement machine comprising a reservoir for bulk storage of screws, a vibrator segregating the screws into a plurality of magazines and an escapement mechanism for dispensing a set of screws essentially concurrently in time, the machine further comprising a table upon which the work, e.g., a cabinet door, is placed between stop structure for correctly locating the work. A hinge-holding/screw-placing head containing a collet for each screw of the set is mounted upon a reciprocating frame whereby the head is pneumatically lowered to position a hinge and a set of screws for placement following which the screws are inserted into the work through apertures in the hinge using a driver mechanism comprised of universal joints for each screw.
Claims14
An automatic screw insertion machine comprising:
- means for storing, delivering and inserting screws into a workpiece adjacent one edge thereof;
- a table upon which the workpiece is placed to receive said screws, one edge portion of the table being generally below the first-mentioned means;
- means for relatively lowering and elevating said table edge to facilitate placement of said workpiece edge directly beneath said first-mentioned means;
- first stop means physically locating said workpiece edge exactly along a predetermined line on said table;
- second stop means physically locating the ends of said workpiece in a predetermined position on said table in respect to said first-mentioned means.
2 more elements
In an apparatus for inserting a screw into a workpiece comprising:
- means for inserting screws into the workpiece;
- a table upon which the workpiece is placed;
- a plurality of edge stop abutments, at least one said edge stop abutment comprising a master switch enabling the apparatus, when actuated by engagement with one edge of the workpiece upon the table, said edge stop abutments serving to engage and precisely orient said workpiece edge along a pre-defined line on the table;
- a plurality of selectively operable end stop abutments, the end stop abutments serving to selectively engage and precisely orient respective ends of the workpiece on the table;
- means for relatively displacing each end stop abutment between interfering and non-interfering locations respecting the workpiece;
- whereby the workpiece is precisely three dimensionally located on the table.
3 more elements
In an automatic screw insertion machine:
- a frame;
- a waist level table supported by the frame;
- a plurality of horizontally oriented rods carried by the frame;
- a plurality of workpiece edge and end stop abutments slidably disposed upon at least one of said rods;
- means for locking each stop abutment in a selected position along said at least one rod;
- at least one mechanism, comprising a screw storage reservoir, screw feeding means, screw holding means and screw driving means movably mounted upon one or more of said rods for simultaneously inserting sets of screws into a workpiece;
- means for locking said at least one mechanism in a selected position along said one or more rods.
4 more elements
An automatic machine for simultaneously placing a plurality of screws into the body of a workpiece comprising:
- a screw delivery mechanism comprising:
- a. means for storing, in bulk, a supply of screws;
- b. means for segregating screws, received from storage, into at least one set;
- c. means orienting said segregated screws in a head up/threads down condition;
- d. means releasing said at least one set of segregated and oriented screws from time to time into at least one chute;
- a screw holding mechanism for receiving said set of screws from said at least one chute and releasably holding the screws of said set in a vertically erect condition;
- a screw driving mechanism comprising screw drivers equal in number to the number of screws in said set and power means for simultaneously rotating and advancing the screw drivers whereby the screws are engaged and advanced into the workpiece and free of the screw holding mechanism.
4 more elements
A screw insertion machine comprising:
- means receiving a workpiece;
- a screw placement mechanism comprising:
- a. at least one screw receiving body;
- b. a plurality of screw holding means carried by the body each defining a screw holding site;
- c. screw drivers, each reciprocably and rotatably disposed in respect to each screw holding means above the associated screw holding site;
- d. power means for selectively and simultaneously advancing and rotating all of said screw drivers to simultaneously engage, rotate and advance the screws into the workpiece;
- a relatively reciprocable carriage carrying the screw placement mechanism;
- and
- power means for relatively displacing the screw placement mechanism between positions remote from and juxtaposed the workpiece.
6 more elements
An automatic screw placement apparatus comprising:
- at least one screw receiving body having a plurality of screw retaining sites;
- retention means at each site for releasably retaining a body received screw oriented for insertion into a work piece, each said retention means comprising means releasing the screw from retention as the screw is being inserted into the work piece;
- means interposed between the retention means and the work piece for releasably retaining a hinge having an array of apertures corresponding to and aligned with said sites;
- power driven screw driver means at each site cooperating with the associated retention means, said screw driver means comprising a male driving end whereby all retained screws are simultaneously engaged, rotated and advanced by the screw driver means through apertures in the hinge into the work piece to affix the hinge to the work piece.
1 more element
An automatic screw driver assembly comprising:
- a plurality of screw driver shafts, the driving ends of which are adapted to be received in a screw insertion head;
- a relatively reciprocable carriage causing the screw driver shafts to be placed adjacent a workpiece;
- placement means carried by the carriage, through which each screw driver shaft rotatably passes, defining an array formed by the shafts to correspond to aperture locations in a pre-selected hinge and at least in part aligning the shafts in parallel relation;
- motor means carried by the carriage for selectively rotating the shafts;
- power transfer means carried by the carriage and spanning between the motor means and each screw driver shaft, each power transfer means comprising at least two universal joints non-rotatably coupled one to the other by a diagonal drive and respectively coupled to the motor means and one shaft for conveying rotation from the motor to the shaft.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.