Plate positioning system for presses

A system for feeding plates having leading and trailing edges through a press having a tooling position, including:

• a plate feeding slide;
• first releasable plate gripping means mounted to the plate feeding slide;
• first feeding slide guide means for guiding the plate feeding slide and first releasable plate gripping means parallel to a first axis through reciprocal plate feeding strokes toward the tooling position and return strokes away from the tooling position, such that the plate feeding slide reciprocates between a transfer position and a release position, wherein the transfer position is a position on the first axis at which the first gripping means is spaced from the tooling position of the press and grips the plate such that the leading edge of the plate is positioned at the tooling position of the press, the release position is a position on the first axis at which the plate feeding slide is at a position spaced from the transfer position in a direction toward the tooling position such that the trailing edge of the plate is positioned at the tooling position of the press, wherein the first gripping means grips the plate when the plate is positioned at the transfer position for a first tooling operation by the press, and releases the plate after a last tooling operation when the plate is at the release position;
• second feeding slide guide means on the plate feeding slide for guiding the plate gripping means along a second axis, wherein said second axis is generally transverse to the first axis in both said transfer and release positions;
• a plate serving slide including second releasable plate gripping means;
• and
• serving slide guide means for guiding the serving slide parallel to the first axis through reciprocal plate transfer strokes toward the transfer position and return strokes away from the transfer position, such that the serving slide reciprocates between a plate engaging position and the transfer position, wherein the plate engaging position is a position along the first axis at which the serving slide is spaced from the transfer position in a direction away from the tooling position and the leading edge of the plate is spaced from the transfer position, and the second releasable plate gripping means grips the plate when the serving slide is positioned at the plate engaging position, and releases the plate when the serving slide is at the transfer position.