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US 4,936,559 AGranted
Indexing work-piece holder for numerically-controlled machine tools
OwnerAntonio Diaz Torgainventor
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OwnerAntonio Diaz Torgainventor
Estimating the term…
The holder comprises a base adapted to be fixed to a part of the machine tool facing the tool holder, a work-piece backing plate rotatably carried by said base, a brake system carried by said base and by said backing plate and normally biased to a breaking position locking the backing plate against rotation in either direction. The backing plate has a hole through which a pin can be inserted, the pin causing release of the brake, so that the pin can rotate the backing plate to another indexed position. Upon withdrawal of the pin from the hole, the brake automatically blocks backing plate rotation. By fixing the pin to the tool holder of a numerically-controlled machine tool, the latter is converted into a machine tool with an additional axis of movement, namely indexing rotation of the backing plate under the control of the tool holder.
A work-piece holder device comprising, in combination, an elongated member, a base adapted to be fixed to a support surface, a backing plate rotatably carried by said base for rotation about the backing plate axis, said backing plate having means to carry a work-piece and having an elongated member-engaging means radially spaced from said backing plate axis and with which said elongated member can be releasably engaged, said member serving to rotate said backing plate, releasable brake means interposed between said base and said backing plate to lock said backing plate against rotatioin relative to said base and releasing means responsive to said member engagement with said member-engaging means to cause release of said brake means, whereby when said member is not engaged with said member-engaging means, said backing plate is locked by said brake means into a first indexed rotated position, and engagement of said member with said member-engaging means causes release of said brake means to allow rotation of said backing plate by said member to a second indexed rotated position.
A brake system for releasably blocking a pair of relatively displaceable first and second members having contiguous surfaces, the surface of said first member being a continuous surface, the surface of said second member being interrupted by cavities extending through said second member normal to said continuous surface, said cavities spaced along said second member, cam blocks shiftable in said cavities and having at one end of pair of oppositely-slanted cam surface portions facing said continuous surface, a roller for each cam block extending between said continuous surface and said pair of cam surface portions, whereby shifting of said cam blocks in said cavities towards said continuous surface causes contact of said rollers with said continuous surface and with the respective cam surface portions to provide a two-way lock of said first member to said second member, each cam block having at its other end a cam surface, all said cam surfaces equally inclined in the same direction, a third member movably guided along said second member and having fingers, each contacting the cam surface at the other end of said cam block, whereby upon shifting of said third member in one direction to a first position, said fingers cause movement of said cam blocks towards said continuous surface and locking of said first member, and further including biasing means acting on said third member to bias the latter in said one direction, and means to shift said third member away from said first position to a second position in which said cam blocks are allowed to shift away from said continuous surface, thereby unlocking said first member.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.