Conveyor Apparatus for the Transport of Sheet Metal Blanks

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a conveyer apparatus for the transport of sheet metal blanks from a cutter which produces sheet metal blanks in side-by-side rows to the magazine of a can welding machine.

2. Description of the Prior Art

A can welding apparatus continuously produces cans in a quick succession. Therefore, its magazine must be replenished continuously. The sheet metal blanks are produced by a cutter and must be filled into the magazine. Until now, for instance, a robot has been used for this procedure, which robot can hold and transport the sheet metal blanks by means of a suction force. Further known is also the use of a high-speed travelling conveyer belt between the cutter and the magazine. Due to the large number of sheet metal blanks per time unit which must be produced and simultaneously used up in the welding apparatus, the individual transporting of the sheet metal blanks is quite subject to break-downs. Furthermore, if the cans are additionally to be printed, for instance regarding the foodstuff content, a cutting of the printed sheet metal webs by means of the cutter at the one hand and the handling of the sheet metal blanks in an existing can welding apparatus having a bending machine for the producing the shape of the can at the other hand demand a turning over of the sheet metal blanks between the cutter and the magazine of the can welding apparatus, which can hardly be done any longer at a reasonable expenditure in case of the above mentioned individual transporting of the sheet metal blanks or other known machines.

It is, therefore, a general object of the invention to provide a conveyer apparatus for the above mentioned operation which is capable of operating at a high performance and without any break-downs and by means of which additionally the sheet metal blanks can be turned-over between the cutter and the magazine if such is needed.

A further object is to produce a conveyer apparatus which comprises a row of depositing receptacles arranged adjacent the cutter in a row extending along the cutter and intended each for receiving at least one sheet metal blank; a pair of conveyer chains having dogs which conveyer chains are movable under mentioned depositing receptacles and in a direction which extends perpendicularly to the direction in which the sheet metal blanks are leaving the cutter, which conveyer chains are operative to transport the sheet metal blanks which are engageable in said depositing receptacles at their side and to collect same by a sliding thereof over each other from one to the next depositing receptacle for producing a pile of sheet metal blanks on a transport surface adjacent the last depositing receptacle, which transport surface is designed as a slideway leading to a point above the magazine of the can welding apparatus and having a conveying means allocated thereto and which includes pawls which are movable in slots of the slideway and are intended for a pushing on of one respective sheet metal blank pile.

The invention will be better understood and objects other than those set forth above will become apparent when consideration is given to the following detailed description thereof. Such description makes reference to the annexed drawings wherein:

FIG. 1 is a schematic side view of a conveyer apparatus, and

FIG. 2 is a schematic top view of the conveyer apparatus illustrated in FIG. 1.

The conveyer apparatus interconnects a cutter 1 and a magazine 2, which latter is part of a not particularly illustrated can welding apparatus 3. The cutter 1 produces substantially rectangular sheet metal blanks for can bodies in five adjacent rows whereby the sheet metal is fed to the cutter 1 in the direction of the arrow 4 in FIG. 2. The sheet metal blanks arrive thereafter in five depositing receptacles 5 arranged mutually adjacent in one row and located on top of a frame 6 which supports at its left and right end guide wheels 7 and 8 for two mutually parallel conveyer chains 9 and 10. Dogs 11 are mounted to both conveyer chains. These dogs, during the movement of the conveyer chains 9 leading from the right to the left on the illustration in the drawing, grip the sheet metal blanks which have been deposited in the receptacles 5 at their rear edge and push the blanks further, and specifically such, that the sheet metal blanks located in the depositing receptacle 5 located furthest to the right hand side and which are firstly engaged by dogs are pushed over to the adjacent depositing receptacle 5 to the left and that thereafter all sheet metal blanks of this latter receptacle are transported into the further adjoining receptacle etc., such to collect the sheet metal blanks and to form a pile on a transport surface or plane adjoining the last depositing receptacle 5. For this reason the receptacles 5 have each a bottom surface 5a rising slanted in the direction of transport, such as can be seen in FIG. 1, in order to allow the sheet metal blanks to be pushed over each other from the one to the next depositing receptacle. For sake of a clear illustration FIG. 2 shows a sheet metal blank 13 located in the second receptacle from the right hand end such to make it clear that the bottom surface 5a of the depositing receptacle 5 is narrower than the sheet metal blank 13, such to guarantee that the dogs 11 of the conveyer chain 10 can move at the opposite sides between the bottom surface 5a and a respective sidewall 14 and 15, respectively belonging to the frame and between which the sheet metal blanks are guided when being pushed over each other, in order to allow the dogs to grip the sheet metal blanks at their rear edge.

After a pile of sheet metal blanks has been formed on the transport surface 12 such pile will be pushed by means of the conveyer chains 9 and 10 and by the dogs 11 still somewhat further to the left such to allow a further conveyer means to take this pile over at a slanted rising slideway 16 adjoining at the left side and which extends upto the front of the magazine 2 of the can welding apparatus 3, which further conveyer comprises pairs of pawls 17 located at a distance parallel aside of each other. These pawls 17 move in two parallel slots 18 in the slideway 16 and are coupled to a driving device extending along the slideway and not particularly illustrated in the drawing, which driving device is moved to oscillate in a timed fashion such that the pawls 17 travel always only along a predetermined path section. The pawls 17 which are kept upright by a spring force are urged down when they move back under the pile of sheet metal blanks which they just before have pushed further on. A plurality of pairs of pawls 17 are located within the slideway 16 of which every one pair moves one pile further. Regarding the passing on of the pile from the conveyer chains 9 and 10 to the pawl conveyer means these two conveyers cross each other with regard to the ends of the conveyer chains and of the end of the slots 18, for which reason the latter are arranged further inwards with respect to the conveyer chains 9 and 10.

In case the sheet metal blanks have been printed they must be turned over for the further handling in the can welding apparatus 3. It is, therefore, advantageous to always turn a complete sheet metal pile over. To this end beginning at about halfway of the slideway 16 a turning-over apparatus 20 is provided which consists basically of two parallel disk wheels 21 which are rotatably supported and move rotatingly in slots 22 formed adjacent the slots 18. The disk wheels 21 comprise radially extending slots 23 into which a respective pile of sheet metal piles is pushed when the disk wheels 21 are at rest whereafter the disk wheels 21 are rotated such that the entire pile has been turned over when the radial slot 23 is located again over the slideway 16 but now at the opposite side relative to the turn-over device. The pile is thereafter taken over by the pawls 17 located at that location and transported further such to finally arrive in the magazine 2. The conveyer apparatus can, however, also be used without this turning-over apparatus in case a turning over of the pile of sheet metal blanks is not necessary whereby the rest of the principle of transport remains unchanged. The slideway 16 including the turning over apparatus 20 is mounted on a frame 24 which is mobile and has an adjustable height such to be in a position to adjust the apparatus to the location of the magazine.