Loading mechanism for pulley splitter

A loading mechanism for placing blanks to be split in a pulley splitting machine having at least one work station in which it is desired to locate a blank, including:

• a magazine adapted to hold a plurality of blanks suitable for splitting to form pulleys;
• a linearly moveable slide assembly including a slide member, locating means for locating a blank to be split on said slide assembly in a predetermined position, and means for moving said slide member linearly to position the blank in said work station;
• and
• a pivoting loading arm having a first end rotatably disposed about a pivot point and a second end having gripping means carried thereon, said arm being rotatable between a first pick-up position in which said arm and gripping means are disposed contiguous to a blank disposed in said magazine and a second position wherein said arm and gripping means are disposed contiguous to said locating means, said gripping means being adapted to engage and remove a blank from said magazine when said arm is in said first position and release said engaged blank on said locating means when said arm has pivoted about said pivot point to said second position.

A pulley splitting machine for splitting a metal blank to form a pulley including:

• a work station;
• work holder means disposed at such work station for gripping and rotating the blank about a longitudinal axis of the work holder;
• a splitting tool moveable between a first position contiguous to the work station where it engages the rotating blank's peripheral edge to split the edge, and a second position distal the work station;
• a slide assembly including a locating means adapted to receive a blank and locate the center of the blank a fixed distance from the center of the work station, a slide member adapted to engage the blank on the locating means, and means for moving the slide member and engaged blank linearly into the work station;
• first and second magazines, one magazine being located on each side of the linear path of the slide member and each magazine holding a quantity of blanks to be split;
• first and second pivoting loading arms associated with the first and second magazines, respectively, first and second gripping means associated with said first and second pivoting loading arms, respectively, each of said pivoting loading arms being adapted to position its associated gripping means in a position to grip a blank in the associated magazine and place the gripped blank on the locating means;
• and control means associated with the magazines to load successive blanks from the first magazine until the first magazine is empty and then cause blanks to be successively loaded from the second magazine while moving the first pivoting arm to a position allowing reloading of the first magazine.