Article transfer apparatus
AssigneeTokyo Shibaura Denki Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorsKatsuhiro Fukuyama, Masatoshi Haruta, Takashi Takahashi
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A number of identical articles, for example, coiled filaments for electric lamps are retained by a shutter member at a starting station. When the article is not present in a hopper station which is arranged at an intermittent feeding mechanism of an article assembling station and which temporarily retains the article, the shutter member is opened so as to feed the article from the starting station to the hopper station through two chutes which are slanted at different angles. The article is fed to the intermittent feeding mechanism of the article assembling mechanism from the hopper station at the operating timing of the intermittent feeding mechanism.
Claims18
An article transfer apparatus for continuously sequentially receiving a number of identical articles held in a feeding unit and for transferring each of the articles to an article assembling station with a feeding mechanism, comprising:
- a starting station having a receiving end and a delivery end, which is connected to said feeding unit at said receiving end thereof, and sequentially receiving the articles from said feeding unit;
- shutter means operative to selectively open said delivery end of said starting station, upon which the article is fed from said delivery end of said starting station, the shutter means having a plate member which is rockably mounted about an axis, said plate member being located substantially vertically in a closing position to close said delivery end, and said plate member rocking along the feeding direction of the article to be separated from said delivery end when said plate member moves to an opening position;
- chute means connected to said delivery end of said starting station and slanted so that the article fed from said starting station upon the opening operation of said shutter means rolls down therealong;
- hopper means adapted to open and close freely and located close to said feeding mechanism of said article assembling station so as to receive the article rolled down by said chute means and to temporarily retain the article, the article within said hopper means being transferred to said feeding mechanism of said article assembling station when said hopper means is opened;
- hopper actuating means for opening or closing said hopper means;
- detecting means for detecting a presence or absence of the article in said hopper means and for generating a detection signal corresponding thereto;
- and
- means for opening said shutter means in response to the detection signal representing the absence of the article.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.