Apparatus and method for stacking battery plates and separators
AssigneeGeneral Battery Corporation
InventorWilliam J. Eberle
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Battery plate elements and separator elements are maintained in racks along opposite sides of a conveyor. Pivotally swingable vacuum pickup heads serve to withdraw plates and separators from their racks and deposit them onto the conveyor. A plurality of plates or separators are withdrawn simultaneously, and the conveyor is indexed from withdrawal station to withdrawal station for stacking the plates and separators one upon the other, alternately, whereby at any given time a plurality of plate and separator sandwiches are being formed, in different progressive stages. Capability is provided for adjustments for handling different sized plates and separators as well as the number of elements in a given stack. Synchronous drive means and adjustable vacuum means are disclosed.
Claims21
An apparatus for picking up and interlaying in stacks battery plate elements and battery separator elements from different sources, comprising:
- a plurality of sources of elements for sequentially presenting the surface of the lead element in each source toward a pick-up means at pick-up stations where the presented lead element will be disengaged from the source and be picked up;
- vacuum head means for applying a vacuum to said elements, movable toward and away from the stations at which element surfaces are presented;
- said sources constructed to provide for the presentation of the lead element to the vacuum head means in an area wherein air currents can envelope said element upon application of vacuum to the presented surface;
- retaining means positioned in interferring relation to the egress of said lead elements fron said sources toward said vacuum head means;
- said retaining means with respect to said battery separator elements interferring with the egress of said battery separator elements only to the extent of not permitting them to depart from said stations in response to the means presenting them, and not to the extent that it would prevent a vacuum from withdrawing the lead separator element past said retaining means in the direction of presentation;
- and means for moving and positioning the vacuum head means in sufficiently close nontouching proximity to the presented element surfaces at stations that the negative pressure provided by the vacuum applied through said vacuum head means, alone, draws said presented elements from their sources past said retaining means into engagement with the vacuum head means whereby said elements are picked up by said vacuum head means;
- and element receiving means for receiving elements thereafter deposited by said vacuum head means to form said interlaid stacks.
A method of picking up and interlaying into stacks battery plate elements and battery separator elements from different sources of such elements, comprising the steps of:
- providing a plurality of sources of elements with the elements arranged on edge for sequentially presenting the lead surface of the lead element from each source to be picked up;
- positioning a retaining means in interferring relation to the lead element in each stack to retain said element in said source prior to being acted upon by a vacuum force;
- picking up only the presented elements and depositing them onto a conveyor in the form of interlaid stacks by withdrawing the elements from said sources past said retaining means;
- said picking up of the elements comprising providing a vacuum to a vacuum head means and moving the head means toward the stations at which the presented elements are to be encountered;
- arranging the lead elements with respect to the approaching vacuum head means so as to allow air currents to be generated about said elements to dislodge them from their sources and cause them to jump to the vacuum head means;
- followed by movement of the head means away from the stations for deposit of the elements onto a conveyor;
- with the movement of the head means upon its approaching the elements that are about to be picked up being such that the head means is brought into close but non-touching proximity to the presented element surfaces at the stations;
- with the negative pressure that is provided by the vacuum alone effecting the withdrawal of the elements from their sources to said vacuum head means for deposit thereafter onto the conveyor.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.