Viking Engineering & Development, Incorporated

Michael L Letson

A machine for stacking articles such as wooden pallets comprises a frame for supporting a carriage assembly that can be raised and lowered under control of a motor and where the carriage assembly supports an article grasping machine that is slidably mounted on the carriage assembly allowing horizontal movement of the article grasping assembly relative to the carriage. When using the machine to stack wooden pallets, a pallet may be picked up at a first location and elevated and translated so as to overlay a top pallet on a stack of pallets before the one being carried is released.

Pallet stacking machine

An apparatus for delivering fasteners, such as nails, screws and rivets from a supply source to an automatic fastener driver comprises an elongated flexible wire helix whose pitch is such that fasteners can be supported by their heads between adjacent convolutions. One end of the elongated helix is coupled to a vibratory bowl feeder that feeds individual fasteners in a desired order and orientation into a holding station. The opposite end of the wire helix is positioned over an inlet chute leading to a fastener holding chuck and the distal end of the helix is adapted to be driven through 360.degree. by an indexing motor upon each actuation of the fastener driver. In this fashion, for each nail that is dropped from the distal end of the helix into the driver's inlet chute, another nail is picked up at the holding station and advanced in incremental steps along the length of the helix.

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Prior Lake, MN, United States of America

Michael L Letson