Automatic drill deburring and sorting machine

Abstract

Drills (35), vertically oriented in a row/column array in a drill block (31), are moved in the column direction across a slot (49) located at a loading station (41). As the drills in each partially or fully occupied row reach the slot and drop, drill block movement halts. Thereafter a vertically oriented turn-over tube (51) is moved in the row direction beneath the slot (49). When an occupied drill position is reached, the drill drops into the turn-over tube, tube row movement temporarily halts, and the tube is rotated. The drill slides out of the turn-over tube (51) and down the channel (59) of a measuring station (43) until it hits a movable stop (61). After drill diameter is measured by a pneumatically positioned LVDT (87) and overall drill length is measured by a pneumatically positioned linear potentiometer (69)/proximity detector (PX3) combination, the stop (61) is withdrawn and the drill enters a clamp (95), which grips the adapter shank of the drill. The clamp (95) and the drill are moved by an air-over-oil mechanism toward a prepositioned bushing (385) that deburrs the drill when the drill enters the bushing. Drill movement stops when the end of the flutes reach the bushing, at which time the clamp position is measured by a linear potentiometer (100). The overall drill length measurement and the clamp position measurement are combined to determine the length of the drill's flutes. After the clamp (95) returns to its pickup position the drill is dropped into a prepositioned rotatable tray (123) located at a sorting station (47). The tray and a fan-shaped diverter (125) direct the drill into the appropriate upper or lower bin (131, 133). Drills having diameters other than the diameters to be sorted are dropped into the prepositioned tray without being deburred and directed to a non-selected bin. Bent drills (determined by the drill ends impinging on the periphery of the bushing, rather than entering the bushing) and drills with unacceptably short flutes are directed to a reject drill bin. The various mechanisms are controlled by control signals produced by a CPU (501).

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.