Gm Global Technolgoy Operations, Inc.

Peter A Lyon

George K Snyder

Michael A Breda

Warren L Gawve

David W Beddome

John P Papin

Jayesh B Patel

A loose assembly of parts which are not secured is moved from a pallet on a conveyor to a banding station. The assembly may vary in size and a machine readable tag on the pallet bears the size information. A transfer apparatus reads the tag and adjusts a clamp size to fit the assembly. An elevator lifts the assembly from the pallet to the clamp and guide fingers hold the assembly together during the transit. The clamp is suspended from an overhead trolley which carries the clamp and assembly to the banding station where the assembly is released. A lift cylinder on the trolley raises the clamp to clear the assembly and the clamp is then returned to its position above the conveyor, lowered, and adjusted to receive another assembly.

Transfer method for various sizes of assemblies

A conveyor assembly for a braze furnace includes a plurality of first chain links pivotally interconnected to form a continuous loop chain and a plurality of second chain links pivotally interconnected to form a continuous loop chain identical to the first chain links. The first and second chain links are interconnected by rod-like cross members which also integrally form the pintles for the respective first and second chain links. First and second rollers are rollably supported from each cross member adjacent the respective first and second chain links. First and second workpart support members are pivotally connected between adjacent pairs of cross members and disposed equidistantly between the first and second rollers. The first and second workpart support members may be either cast or stamped structures having a flat upper surface for supporting workparts above the first and second chain links and above the first and second rollers. The entire conveyor assembly is fabricated from stainless steel or similar corrosion resistant material.

Conveyor belt for braze furnace

Plates for forming heat exchanger tubes are assembled into pairs by an assembly machine having two cooperating rotors, each having a plate input, and a feed mechanism transfers plates of different types from stacks of plates to the machine in a desired order. A conveyor belt for each rotor carries plates from a number of magazines above the conveyor to the rotor. Escapements on the magazines drop plates onto the conveyors. A controller actuates the escapements in a sequence to arrange the plate types on the conveyor in the correct order, and also controls indexing of the conveyor and the assembly machine. Rollers associated with each rotor affords a conveyor return which does not interfere with the assembly operation.

Method for assembling heat exchanger tubes

A heat exchanger is formed by a pair of tanks with heat exchanger tubes connected therebetween. The tanks include a header plate with chamber indentions that cooperates with a tank plate to form a row of tank chambers for interconnecting the heat exchanger tubes joined to the header plate. The header plate has a plurality of tube indentations or dimples which extend at adjacent tube apertures and are contacted by a continuous tank rib on the tank plate within each chamber. The ribs and dimples provide substantially uniform contacting and sealing surfaces during brazing to strengthen the assembled header. The tank rib includes tube slots opposing the apertures in the tube plate to provide a stop for insertion of the exchanger tubes.

Heat exchanger tank and header

A strap feed assembly wraps a flexible strap around an item. A drive wheel is connected to a reversible drive motor for feeding and reversing the strap to wrap the strap around the item and to tension the strap once it is wrapped therearound. A controller operates the drive motor to control the speed, acceleration, direction of rotation, and tensioning of the strap. The velocity and acceleration of the drive motor are varied depending on the nearness of completion of the feeding and tensioning. Variable tension is achieved by monitoring the current drawn by the drive motor and comparing same to predetermined values to stop reversal and therefore tensioning.

Variable speed feed control and tensioning of a bander

A method and apparatus for assembling heat exchanger elements includes a pallet comprising a frame and a plurality of blocks slidably aligned on each side of the frame with opposed pairs of blocks slotted to receive pairs of plates dropped into the pallet. Lead screws driven by servomotors and engaging the blocks position the blocks at the loading station and control the block spacing (determined at each station by the screw pitch) to allow plate insertion or to allow insertion of fin elements between the plates. To quickly move the pallet into the station auxiliary lead screws connected to the main screws engage the blocks of the pallet outside the loading station to assert positive controlled advancement force on the pallet.

Jump indexing pallet and method for heat exchanger assembly

A method and apparatus for assembling heat exchanger elements includes a pallet comprising a frame and a plurality of blocks slidably aligned on each side of the frame with opposed pairs of blocks slotted to receive pairs of plates dropped into the pallet. Lead screws driven by servomotors and engaging the blocks position the blocks at the loading station and control the block spacing (determine at each station by the screw pitch) to allow plate insertion or to allow insertion of fin elements between the plates. To quickly move the pallet into the station auxiliary lead screws connected to the main screws engage the blocks of the pallet outside the loading station to assert positive controlled advancement force on the pallet.

A heat exchanger header is formed of a tube plate and a header plate having indentations that cooperate with the tube plate to form a row of tank chambers for interconnecting heat exchanger tubes joined to the tube plate. The tube plate has ribs extending between adjacent tube apertures that are contacted at a point midway along their length by respective projections from the indentations on the tank plate.

Growing community of inventors

Lockport, NY, United States of America

Peter A Lyon