Cincinnati Milacron Inc.

David I McDonald

Arnold L Kellermann

Robert Charles Dreisig

Raymond L Hallbach

Robert J Grone

James G Wiatt

Walter D Howard

Donald P Holmes

George William Sederberg

Gary David Stephenson

Collet

An article gripper has two cantilevered jaws biased together by a spring assembly to hold an article between arcuate surfaces of the jaws. The jaws are cantilever-mounted from respective pivot pins, and the article enters radially through an opening formed between the outboard ends of the cantilevered jaws. Between the pivot pins and the gripped article, the jaws have interengaging teeth which permit ease of engagement and disengagement as the jaws are pivoted, yet the teeth prevent unwanted sliding movement of one jaw past the other, as an article is located within the jaws.

Article gripper having opposed jaws cammed open by an article

An article gripper with a fixed jaw has a movable jaw mounted on reed springs. Deflection of the movable jaw permits the article to enter and exit the gripper. The movable jaw has an inlet cam surface and an outlet cam surface, configured so that a low-level inlet force deflects the jaw and reeds laterally, while a higher-level outlet, or removal, force is directed parallel to the reed springs causing the jaw to behave stiffly and thus resist pullout of the article.

Article gripper

An endless belt type of conveyor for small flat workpieces (chips) provides a series of pockets on a perforate belt, each pocket adapted to support a chip during conveyance through a zone wherein high velocity air jets are directed against the chip. The pockets are formed by facing pairs of series of 'H' or 'I' shaped crossbars connected between a spaced-apart pair of roller chains. The perforate belt is formed by a Teflon (polytetraflouroethylene) coated fiberglass screen (alternatively silicon rubber) supported by the H crossbars. This construction permits the pockets to move readily around the sprockets about which the roller chains are wound.

Conveyor

An impingement oven wherein a carrier-type conveyor passes between hot air plenums located above and below the conveyor. Horizontally adjacent plenums have their fans located in an off-set position to overhang the other one of the pair. Each plenum has a nozzle plate to direct heated air toward the conveyor so that the air flow is substantially perpendicular to the conveyor and such workpiece(s) as may be thereon. An oven module having four sets of plenums and four conveyors in the same enclosure is described. A plurality of such modules serially arranged provide a multizone oven. The oven is especially suited to heating flat workpieces of thermoplastic resin which are to be processed elsewhere into hollow objects such as containers.

Impingement oven and method

A method and apparatus are disclosed for precision placement of a workpiece onto a transport member. A plurality of workpieces are aligned in a predetermined spacial relationship upon an infeed conveyor. The workpieces are then moved transversely off the conveyor and dropped through a pair of counter-rotating lubricating rollers. An arcuate chute directs the workpieces from the lubricating rollers to a horizontally disposed planar surface where they are realigned by a cooperating scraper positioned intimately above. Relative movement between the scraper and the planar surface causes to workpieces to be discharged from the surface and precisely deposited upon the transport member.

Method of aligning and coating

A conveyor apparatus for carrying workpieces on flat trays has two parallel chains with tray supports connected at equal intervals between the two chains. Each tray support has a clamping device for clamping and releasing flat silicone rubber covered trays against itself. Cams are located between the chains to operate the clamping device to release the tray (for travel through a separate path) at one point in travel and later (when the tray returns from its separate path) to clamp it again. The conveyor is shown as combined with up-and-down elevator means in an oven to give a boustrophedontic path to a plurality of workpieces being heated on trays in the oven: the trays are released and clamped at the entrance to and exit from the oven to allow movement of the trays by the elevators through up and down paths at the release and clamping stations.

Conveyor for processing

A machine for automatically forging and thermoforming of hollow thermoplastic biaxially oriented articles has a carrier assembly to carry, lock and unlock forging dies, indexing means to move the carrier assembly and dies past a series of work stations, and an article unloading means. Three work stations are in the automatic machine: forging where the die parts are locked together and the workpiece is forged into engagement with the die; thermoforming to which the die with the workpiece (now called a preform) gripped therein is moved into register with thermoforming mold means; and article ejecting means which include mechanical means for unlocking the die and removing the hollow article therefrom. The carrier assembly is so supported that the strains of forging and thermoforming are taken up by frame tie rods rather than the die mounting means.

Machine for forging and thermoforming hollow thermoplastic biaxially

A coupling includes an outer cup-shaped member which acts as a support for other portions of the coupling and which itself is revolvably supported on a conveyor that moves the coupling between workpiece loading and unloading stations. The outer cup-shaped member acts as a shield against ambient conditions which may include heating, coating or other processing means. One embodiment of the invention has a plurality of fingers mounted to move radially inward of the coupling to grasp the workpiece, which fingers are mounted to form a part of the outer shield or wall at the time that they are grasping a workpiece. Another embodiment of the invention involves an internal chuck sort of coupling using an expandable elastomeric member which can expand outwardly into a grasping relationship with a hollow portion of the workpiece. The coupling and conveyor are suited for use in handling soft or easily marked materials such as plastic, soft metals and the like.

Conveyor combined with coupling for handling workpiece

A method and apparatus are disclosed for precision placement of a workpiece onto a transport member. A plurality of workpieces are aligned in a predetermined spacial relationship upon an infeed conveyor. The workpieces are then moved transversely off the conveyor and dropped through a pair of counter-rotating lubricating rollers. An arcuate chute directs the workpieces from the lubricating rollers to a horizontally disposed planar surface where they are realigned by a cooperating scraper positioned intimately above. Relative movement between the scraper and the planar surface causes the workpieces to be discharged from the surface and precisely deposited upon the transport member.

Article handling and coating apparatus

A mechanism to transfer small flat workpieces (chips) between locations has a pair of interlinked four bar mechanisms one of which mechanisms carries a chip spreading means operated by two cams so that the chip pickup and release means moves in substantially vertical and horizontal timed relation to pickup a number of chips, move through a shallow horizontal arc, simultaneously spread the chips further apart, drop the chip; and repeat. Mechanism is disclosed for moving a plurality of chips of biaxially orientable polystyrene between a heating means and a forming means while laterally increasing the spacing between the chips.

Mechanism to transfer workpieces between locations

A coupling includes an outer cup-shaped member which acts as a support for other portions of the coupling and which itself is revolvably supported on a conveyor that moves the coupling between workpiece loading and unloading stations. The outer cup-shaped member acts as a shield against ambient conditions which may include heating, coating or other processing means. One embodiment of the invention has a plurality of fingers mounted to move radially inward of the coupling to grasp the workpiece, which fingers are mounted to form a part of the outer shield or wall at the time that they are grasping a workpiece. Another embodiment of the invention involves an internal chuck sort of coupling using an expandable resilient member which can be an elastomeric ring to expand outwardly into a grasping relationship with a hollow portion of the workpiece. The coupling and conveyor are suited for use in handling soft or easily marked materials such as plastic, soft metals and the like.

A manually operated four bar linkage on a conveying device permits manual removal of preforms or other workpieces when they have not been ejected from the device at the desired unloading station. The linkage device has a cam track located adjacent to the return path of an endless type conveyor. The cam track is manually brought into conjunction with the couplings or collets which have accidentally retained a preform to force the coupling mechanism to move to a release position thus enabling manual removal of the preform. Preferably a bar or similar knock-out device is located downstream of the point where the cam track engages the coupling to ensure that all such preforms or other workpieces are removed.

Manual preform removal device

A coupling includes a pair of cup-shaped members with one mounted for sliding axial motion inside the other. The outside coupling acts as a support or base which is connected to a conveyor that moves the coupling between workpiece loading and unloading means. The inside member also carries detents which move radially in and out to grasp or release the workpiece in response to axial motion between the two cup-shaped members. When combined with a conveyor, appropriate cam and follower means are provided to cause the coupling to be operated for grasping and releasing the workpiece in a timed sequence and to move the coupling from a workpiece loading station to an unloading station. The coupling and conveyor are suited for use in handling soft or easily marked materials such as plastic, soft metals, and the like. A method for workpiece handling includes steps of rotating, advancing in stop-and-go fashion while continuously rotating, and unloading.

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Cincinnati, OH, United States of America

David I McDonald