The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Dec. 09, 1980
Filed:
Feb. 21, 1978
John A Buonauro, Mission Viejo, CA (US);
James L Frazier, Los Alamitos, CA (US);
Houdaille Industries, Inc., Fort Lauderdale, FL (US);
Abstract
A tool changing mechanism or assembly for a machine tool, which has a spindle for rotating a tool on an operating axis and has a tool storage magazine having at least one tool receiving means such as a socket for supporting a tool on a storage axis, has an improvement which enables increased distances between the spindle and the storage axis. The improvement is that a tool changing arm is mounted on a housing or a shuttle to rotate about a first axis and the shuttle is mounted on the frame of the machine tool so that it can be moved between two linear positions as the arm is rotated so that the axis of rotation of the arm is shifted in a linear path. Preferably, the arm in addition to rotating about a first axis is rotated about a second axis which extends along or parallel to the length of the arm so that the tool may be turned end for end as it is being transferred and the means for shifting the shuttle is driven by the same actuator that rotates the arm so that movement of the arm and shuttle are synchronized. In the preferred embodiment, intermittent motion of the shuttle is obtained by using an intermittent motion mechanism.