Vamco Machine & Tool, Inc.

Patrick J Gentile

Joseph P Gentile

A pair of continuously driven pull rolls of stock puller supported on a table having a longitudinal bed engage a web of the stock material to continuously unreel the stock material from a coil. The pull rolls are rotated by a drive shaft that is coupled to an input shaft of a feed roll unit. The input shaft is continuously rotated by a pulley-belt drive connection from a common power shaft. Continuous rotation of the input shaft is converted to intermittent rotation of a feed roll that intermittently advances the stock material to a stock material forming device, such as a material stamping or punching unit followed by a material cutting unit. The stamping and cutting units also include input shafts that are drivingly connected by pulleys and continuous belts to the common power shaft. The common power shaft is continuously rotated by a pulley-belt drive connection from an output shaft of a variable speed DC motor supported by the table. The output speed of the motor shaft is adjustable to rotate the common power shaft at a preselected speed to vary the feed rate of the stock material to the stamping unit. The stamping unit, as well as the stock puller and cutting units, being connected to the common power shaft are responsive to a change in the feed rate to maintain the operation of these units synchronized with the material feeding operation.

Variable speed, synchronously operable, stock material feeding and

An input shaft is drivingly connected to a crankshaft of a punch press for rotation at a preselected speed. A geared cam drive drivingly connects the input shaft to a driven feed roll so that continuous rotation of the input shaft is converted to intermittent rotation of the feed roll. The intermittent rotation of the feed roll is timed with the punching operation so that the feed roll intermittently advances a preselected length of stock material to the punch press after each punching operation. Bevel gears drivingly connect the input shaft to a pull roll that rotates to continuously unreel stock material from a coil. During the punching operation, rotation of the feed roll is interrupted forming a loop in the stock material between the pull roll and the feed roll. At the end of each punching operation the material forming the loop is fed by the feed roll to the punch press so that the stock material between the pull roll and the feed roll moves from a loop to a horizontal position to insure feeding the same length of material to the punch press for each cycle of operation.

Punch press feeding apparatus

Drive and driven shafts are rotatably supported in a wall portion of a press frame and have free end portions extending into a gear case. A first drive gear is nonrotatably secured to the drive shaft and a second driven gear is nonrotatably secured to the driven shaft. A T-shaped member is pivotally connected to the wall and has an intermediate shaft member nonrotatably positioned in a slot for longitudinal movement therein. The intermediate shaft has a free end portion extending into the gear case with intermediate gears rotatably mounted thereon. The T-shaped member is arranged to be suitably adjusted to maintain different sized intermediate gears in meshing relation with different sized drive and driven gears so that the drive shaft imparts a preselected angular velocity to the driven shaft through the gear train. A pair of support arms each have an aperture adjacent one end and an elongated longitudinally extending slot adjacent the other end. Bearing members are mounted in the apertures and the ends of the drive and driven shafts are mounted in the bearings for rotation relative to the support arms. The slotted portions of the support arms are positioned in overlying relation with the intermediate shaft end portion extending therethrough. A nut secures the support arms in position on a threaded end portion of the intermediate shaft and thus the support arms connect the free ends of the three shafts to provide support for the end portions of the three shafts in the gear case and eliminate the torsional stress imparted to the shafts particularly the intermediate shaft.

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Pittsburgh, PA, United States of America

Patrick J Gentile