US 6,267,574 B1Granted

Compacting press with picker system

AssigneeAMSTED Industries Incorporated

InventorsMatthew D. Bowman, Donald J. Knott

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Abstract

A press for making compacts out of raw material such as metal powder is disclosed. The press includes a removable picker system. The picker system has an elongate guide rail element and a gripper assembly fixed to a slide mounted on the guide rail. The gripper assembly may move toward and away from a die in the press platen to pick up and move a compact that has been ejected from the die. The gripper assembly has gripper arms and gripper fingers that move toward and away from a central vertical longitudinal plane that runs through the center of the die. The guide rail provides the sole support for the gripper assembly, and the guide rail is offset from the central vertical longitudinal plane. The picker system allows access to the die for inspection, cleaning or changing of the die without removing the picker system; the gripper assembly can be moved down the guide rail element away from the die to provide access to the die. The picker system is mounted on the platen on an upright mounting post that is spaced from the die. The picker system may be mounted and removed from the press by sliding it vertically on the upright mounting post.

Claims20

Dependent claims

A press for making compacts from a raw material, said press comprising:

a platen with a die space;
a die in the die space in the platen;
said press having a vertical press longitudinal plane at the center of said die space in said platen, a vertical press transverse plane perpendicular to said press vertical longitudinal plane, said vertical press longitudinal and transverse planes intersecting the surface of said platen, at least part of the surface of the platen lying in a non-vertical plane;
a guide rail element laterally spaced from said die, said guide rail element being offset from said vertical press longitudinal plane and positioned on one side of said vertical press transverse plane, at least part of said guide rail element overlying at least part of said platen;
a slide mounted on said guide rail element for movement along said guide rail element in a direction parallel to and spaced from said vertical press longitudinal plane, said guide rail element remaining on the same side of the vertical press transverse plane throughout the range of motion of said slide, said slide being movable to a position wherein at least part of said slide overlies at least part of said platen;
a pair of gripper arms supported for movement with said slide, one gripper arm being on each side of said vertical press longitudinal plane, at least a portion of each of said gripper arms being movable toward and away from said vertical press longitudinal plane to engage and release a compact, said gripper arms being offset along said vertical press transverse plane from a longitudinal plane through said slide.

3 more elements

A press for making compacts from a raw material, said press comprising:

a platen with a die space;
a die in said die space;
said press having a vertical press longitudinal plane at the center of said die space in said platen, a vertical press transverse plane perpendicular to said vertical press longitudinal plane, said vertical press longitudinal and transverse planes intersecting the surface of said platen, at least part of the surface of the platen lying in a non-vertical plane;
an upright mounting post extending upwardly from the surface of the platen at a position spaced from said die space and said die,
a picker system for moving compacts, said picker system including:
a guide rail element laterally spaced from said die, said guide rail element being offset from said vertical press longitudinal plane and positioned on one side of said vertical press transverse plane;
a slide mounted on said guide rail element for movement along said guide rail element in a direction parallel to and spaced from vertical press longitudinal plane;
a pair of gripper arms supported for movement with said slide, one gripper arm being on each side of said vertical press longitudinal plane, at least a portion of each of said gripper arms being movable toward and away from said vertical press longitudinal plane to engage and release a compact, said gripper arms being offset from said slide;
said guide rail element remaining on the same side of said vertical press transverse plane throughout the range of motion of said slide;
said picker system being removably mounted on said upright mounting post so that said guide rail element extends outward from said upright mounting post, said picker system being slidable vertically on said upright mounting post to mount and remove said picker system from the press;
and
wherein the weight of the entire picker system is supported on the platen on one side of the vertical press longitudinal plane.

9 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.