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US 4,790,061 AGranted
Machining the ends of lengths of wire and bar and similar workpieces
OwnerDerek W. R. Walkerinventor
Life of this patent
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OwnerDerek W. R. Walkerinventor
Estimating the term…
In an automatic bar and wire pointing machine, workpiece-feeding means comprises a carrier having two feeding wheels (38,40) mounted on a driving shaft (20). Each wheel comprises a circular pitch plate (42) providing four sets of six notches (N1, N2, N3, N4) spaced uniformly around its periphery; the notches form semi-circular recesses (R1, R2, R3, R4) of different diameters to accommodate different sizes of workpiece, and the recesses are all centered on a common pitch circle (P) of the pitch plate. The wheel comprises also a picker plate (44) comprising six lobes (66) which are spaced uniformly about the axis of the wheel and form radially-projecting edges (68) positioned adjacent to the notches of any selected one of the four sets of notches. Indexing means for rotating the carrier in uniform steps, successively to pick a workpiece from a rack (72), bring it to a machining position and deposit it on to an unloading ramp (74), comprises a treadwheel (82,84) secured to the driving shaft and having projecting spokes (102) to be engaged successively by an actuating cylinder (124).
In apparatus comprising a machining head for the automatic or semi-automatic removal of material from the ends of elongate workpieces such as lengths of wire, bar or tube, workpiece-transporting means comprising feeding means having a workpiece carrier arranged to carry a workpiece from storage and present it in a machining position at which the workpiece is held for one of its two ends to be machined by a tool mounted on the machining head, the carrier comprising a rotatable feeding wheel which has a plurality of peripheral workpiece-receiving notches which are uniformly distributed about the axis of the wheel and a plurality of workpiece-picking fingers which project radially adjacent to the notches for picking workpieces from storage and introducing them singly into the notches as the wheel rotates, and the transporting means comprising also indexing means arranged to cause rotation of the feeding wheel in uniform indexing steps in order to bring workpieces successively to the machining position.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.