Controlled oriented discharge of cups from a blanking and forming press

In a press for blanking and drawing flanged cups of the type having a plurality of simultaneously operating blanking and forming stations, each station including cooperating upper and lower blanking punches for cutting a circular blank from a strip of product stock material, upper and lower pressure pads for capturing the blank to prevent wrinkling, a drawing punch cooperating with a drawing die for forming from the blank a cup having a flange around the upper edge, a lift-out member movable within said drawing die for lifting the bottom of the formed cup to a position slightly higher than the upper face of the drawing die to locate the cup at a discharge position, the improvement in combination therewith comprising means for discharging the blanked and drawn metal cups from the press including:

• a separator plate closely overlying the strip and having an opening associated with each blanking and forming station to permit free passage therethrough of said upper blanking punch;
• a pair of spaced air exhaust nozzles positioned adjacent each of said openings;
• means for providing a pressurized air pulse from said air exhaust nozzles to move the formed cups in a straight line from each of said stations onto said separator plate, each opening being positioned and configured to permit free movement without stumbling of the cup onto the plate;
• a conduit-like chute positioned on the opposite side of each opening from said air exhaust nozzles including a lower surface formed by said plate, spaced parallel vertical side walls extending away from said opening, and an upper surface spaced from and overlying said plate, said chute being dimensioned to permit free passage of the formed cups therethrough, the edges of said side walls adjacent said opening being beveled to facilitate entrance of the formed cups into the chutes, said side walls comprising hollow manifolds forming conveyor means for moving the formed cup through said chutes including a plurality of slots in the inner surface of said walls spaced along the axis of the chute and angled at acute angles away from said plate opening;
• and
• means for supplying a flow of high volume low pressure air to said side walls to provide directional airflow from said slots to assist the formed cups in moving through said chutes, whereby the formed cups from each of said blanking and forming stations may be separately conveyed through the associated chute.