Automotive tire stacking and strapping machine

In an automotive tire stacking and strapping machine, in combination, a machine framework establishing a forward stacking station and a rearward strapping station, means at said stacking station defining a tire support adapted to receive successive tires thereon in a horizontal position, a vertically shiftable lift member movable between a lower position wherein it underlies a tire on said support and a raised position wherein it engages and elevates such tire to a stacking level for upstacking purposes, means for actuating said lift member, a pair of opposed stack guiding and supporting assemblies movable in unison toward and away from each other substantially at said stacking level between inner positions wherein they define a stack guide and also engage and underlie the peripheral regions of the lowermost tire at said seacking level and serve to support the same, and outer positions wherein they release such tire, means for moving said assemblies, means effective when said lift member and assemblies have thus stacked a predetermined number of tires at the stacking station for shifting said assemblies, and consequently the stack of tires supported thereby, rearwardly to the strapping station, and for thereafter moving said assemblies to their outer positions to release the stack and thus deposit the same in the strapping station, and means at said strapping station for applying a series of binding straps through the stack and around the generally cylindrical rim region thereof to draw the peripheral regions of adjacent tires together in contiguity.

In a machine for strapping a vertical stack of superimposed coaxial horizontally disposed tires, a machine framework establishing a strapping station, a stack support at said strapping station and adapted for centered relationship thereon of successive stacks of tires, a pair of strapping heads on opposite sides of the support and movable toward and away from each other between inner positions wherein they engage the stack and remote outer positions, means for moving said heads in unison, a pair of upper fixed strap chute sections, one for each head, each section being effective when its associated strapping head is in its outer position to conduct strapping upwardly and inwardly from such head to a region in vertical register with the eye of the tire stack on the support, a pair of vertical strap chute sections, one for each head, movable vertically and axially between a lower position wherein it projects completely through the eye of the stack and the upper end thereof registers with an associated fixed strap chute section while the lower end thereof is disposed adjacent to said support, and an upper position wherein it is withdrawn from the stack, means for moving said vertical strap chute sections, a pair of radially extending aligned strap chute sections on said support, one for each strapping head, having its inner end adapted for register with the associated vertical strap chute section when the latter is in its lower position, and a second pair of fixed strap chute sections, one for each strapping head, each of said latter sections having its inner end in register with the outer end of the associated radial strap chute section and adapted, when the associated strapping head is in its inner position to conduct strapping thereto from said radial strap chute section, the strap chute sections associated with each strapping head serving to conduct strapping endwise from such head downwardly through the stack and back to the head to provide a closed loop which, upon tensioning thereof, becomes shrunk upon the generally cylindrical wall of the stack to draw adjacent tires in the stack together.