Blank-feeding system for die-stamping press

Abstract

Blanks of noncircular, especially polygonal (e.g. heptagonal), outline are fed to a die-stamping press of an embossing plant such as a mint by means of a turntable with radially oriented transport plates projecting beyond its periphery at angularly equispaced locations. Each transport plate has an outwardly open recess with inner edges conforming to part of the blank outline and with two substantially parallel jaws spaced apart by the maximum width of the blanks, the depth of the recess being less than this maximum width to let an inserted blank protrude by one corner in an incorrect position and by two corners but to a lesser extent in a correct position. The engaged blanks are advanced stepwise from a loading station to the die press over about half the circumference of the turntable; in a first quadrant their path is bounded by a fixed ring segment accommodating incorrectly positioned blanks while in a second quadrant another ring segment, of slightly lesser radius, tends to reposition such blanks properly in their recesses. The latter ring segment is divided into several independently spring-loaded sections which are outwardly yieldable, one such section actuating a sensing switch to stop the press and the turntable motion upon being repressed by a blank resisting reorientation. At the die press an oncoming blank is restrained by a slider which is cammed radially outward by an ascending lower die and by a descending upper die to allow for a small radial expansion of the blank during embossing.