Article transfer apparatus
AssigneeToyoda Koki Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorsKenji Nomura, Kengo Yoshioka, Toshihiro Goto
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An article transfer apparatus is provided in which a transfer arm, having a pair of pivotable grippers on each of its ends, is fixedly mounted upon one end of a shaft, extending radially therefrom, the shaft being supported so as to be rotatable and axially movable by actuators. The apparatus further comprises a wedge member movable axially of the shaft for simultaneously operating the pairs of grippers, the wedge member being supported to be floatable radially of the shaft, so that reliable gripping actions are effected on both pairs of grippers.
Claims11
An article transfer apparatus comprising in combination:
- a main body;
- a rotatable shaft rotatably supported by said main body;
- first actuation means for rotating said rotatable shaft;
- a transfer arm fixedly provided upon one end of said rotatable shaft and extending radially therefrom;
- a pair of grippers pivotably provided, respectively, upon each end of said transfer arm so as to simultaneously grip two articles to be transferred;
- a wedge member supported at said one end of said rotatable shaft and axially movable relative thereto, said wedge member also being movable floatingly radially of said rotatable shaft;
- second actuation means for moving said wedge member axially of said rotatable shaft;
- and
- motion connection means provided upon said transfer arm and mechanically responsive to the axial movement of said wedge member to selectively open and close said pairs of grippers.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.