Brick Placing Machine

In order that the nature of the invention may be better understood a preferred form thereof is hereinafter described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is an isometric view of a brick placing machine mounted for indexing along a fixed mould with the bricks oriented parallel to the receptacle arm (Type 1 receptacle arm) for placement on the mould, according to the invention;

FIG. 2A is an end elevation thereof with the receptacle loaded with bricks;

FIG. 2B is a similar end elevation showing the receptacle in the process of placing the bricks upon the mould surface;

FIG. 3 is a perspective of apparatus for indexing the machine along the mould;

FIG. 4A is an elevation of the apparatus of FIG. 3 in its contracted form and of the device for locking it while in that form;

FIG. 4B is another elevation of the apparatus of FIG. 3 in its extended form;

FIG. 4C is an elevation of the apparatus of FIG. 3 in its extended showing the means for releasing the locking device:

FIG. 4D is an elevation of the apparatus of FIG. 3 in its contracted form with the locking device released;

FIG. 5 is an isometric view of bricks being clamped in the receptacle arm (Type 1 receptacle arm);

FIG. 6 a part plan view of the brick clamping means where the bricks are oriented parallel with the receptacle (Type 1 receptacle arm);

FIG. 7 is a sectional end elevation of the receptacle arm (Type 1) s the brick clamping means where the bricks are parallel to the axis of the receptacle arm;

FIG. 8 is an isometric view of the brick placing machine bricks oriented at 90.degree. to the receptacle arm (Type 2 receptacle arm);

FIG. 9 is an isometric view of the positioning and brick clamping means when the bricks are oriented at 90.degree. to the receptacle arm (Type 2 receptacle arm);

FIG. 10 is a part plan view showing the means for clamping an positioning the bricks where the bricks are oriented at 90.degree. to the receptacle arm (Type 2);

FIG. 11 is a part elevation of the receptacle arm (Type 2) showing the means for clamping and positioning the bricks where they are oriented at 90.degree. to the receptacle arm;

FIG. 12 is sectional end elevation of the receptacle arm showing the positioning and clamping means where the bricks are oriented at 90.degree. to the receptacle arm (Type 2); and

FIG. 13 is an elevation of a typical brick panel of approximately storey height with openings and of variable width using a Type 2 receptacle arm showing the interleaving or toothed pattern of each cycle of the brick placing machine.

The brick placing machine described herein consists of three major elements--a horizontal mould in which a brick panel can be found, an indexing carriage and a brick receptacle arm of which there are two interchangeable types. Type 1 is for variable height narrow panels and type 2 is for storey height panels of variable width similar to that shown in FIG. 13.

In FIG. 1 the indexing carriage end receptacle arm as shown adjacent to the mould 1 upon which the bricks 3 are to be positioned. The carriage 5 is positively connected to the carriage beam 5a at one end and supported at the other by the wheels 5c. The carriage beam 5a slides along a guide track 2 that is fixed and parallel to the mould 1. Guide wheels 5b keep it positioned at one end. The other end of the carriage beam 5a is located by a hydraulic cylinder 6 which when activated causes the whole machine to index that is to move a predetermiend distance along the mould 1. Also shown is the brick receptacle arm 4 which is connected to the carriage through a bearing 9c. The bearing 9c supports two large sprockets 9 which are in turn connected to two smaller sprockets 9a by two equal length continuous chains 8. The chains 8 are positively connected by a cross bracket 7a to a hydraulic cylinder 7 which is itself attached to the carriage 5. The two continuous chains 8 rotate around two larger sprockets 9b before finally returning around the two large sprockets 9. In FIG. 2A the connections of the retracted hydraulic cylinder 7 and the chains 8 are shown in diagramatic form with the receptacle arm 4 fully loaded ready to place the bricks 3 upon the mould 1.

In FIG. 2B the action of positioning the bricks 3 upon the mould 1 is described thus. The hydraulic cylinder 7 is activated (extended) which pulls the chains 8 via bracket 7a around sprockets 9b, 9a and 9. The effect of this is to cause the receptacle arm 4 to pivot around the bearings 9c until a position is reached whereby the bricks 3 can be released onto the mould 1. After this the hydraulic cylinder 7 is contracted which returns the receptacle arm 4 to its original position, i.e., resting onto the carriage 5.

FIG. 3 shows how the carriage beam 5a is supported vertically by means of friction pads 5c at both ends which are positively attached to the beams 5a and slide along the top of guide tracks 2 and are guided horizontally by four guide wheels 5b at both ends of the beam 5a and both sides of the guide track 2.

Also shown is the indexing hydraulic cylinder 6 as well as the locking mechanism activated by a hydraulic cylinder 10. The indexing method is better explained in FIG. 4A where the indexing cylinder 6 is shown in contracted form. Before the indexing cylinder 6 can be activated the end of the indexing cylinder 6a must be locked onto the guide track 2. This is achieved by activating a small hydraulic cylinder 10 which moves its wedge shape head 12a to push a similar wedge shape element 12 vertically and by doing so locks the cylinder end 6a to the guide track 2 by exerting pressure between the wedge shaped element 12 and a corresponding element 11 which is situated on top of the guide track 2. When enough force has been applied to the locking device 12, 12a and 11 by the cylinder 10 then the end of indexing cylinder 6a is firmly locked onto the guide track 2 and then indexing cylinder 6 can be activated or extended FIG. 4B. This has the effect of indexing the whole machine along the mould 1 to the next position. The amount of movement can be adjusted by attaching collar spacers (not shown) externally to the piston of the indexing cylinder 6. When in the required new position attained by the full extension of the hydraulic cylinder 7 the locking device is deactivated by reversing the locking procedure FIG. 4C. The indexing cylinder 6 can be activated to return it to its original contracted position where the cycle can be repeated.

The third major element of the brick placing machine is the receptacle arm 4. The mechanics of the arm itself when positioning bricks on the mould has already been explained. However, in order to pivot (FIG. 2B) over, it is obviously necessary that the bricks 3 within the receptacle be firmly held in place in their correct positions and subsequently released onto the mould 1. There are two interchangeable receptacle arms required one for brick orientation at 90.degree. to the mould length (for tall panels) called receptacle arm Type 1 and the second for when the bricks are oriented parallel with the mould (panels of approximately storey height and variable width) called receptacle arm Type 2.

FIGS. 5, 6 and 7 deal with receptacle arm Type 1, whereas FIGS. 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 and 13 refer to receptacle arm Type 2. Both types are interchangeable on the indexing carriage 5. The only variation between the two arms is that with Type 1 the bricks are oriented parallel to the arm itself and with type 2 the bricks are oriented at 90.degree. to the receptacle arm and are placed in a toothed or staggered bond manner. Obviously the brick clamping means are different for each type of receptacle arm.

Firstly, receptacle arm Type 1. Refer to FIG. 5 which shows the bricks 3 arranged parallel to the axis of receptacle arm 4. The bricks are supported by cross plates 27 welded to the receptacle arm 4. Each brick 3 is clamped separately by moving clamps 33 holding each brick or half brick against two fixed stops 32. To load the receptacle arm 4 the moving clamps 33 must be in the retracted or open position. The operator places the bricks within their various designated positions pushing them up to the longitudinal stops 32a. When this is complete the operator activates the clamping means. This is effected by the use of small air diaphram units 13 (FIG. 7). Air is injected into the diaphram 13 through the port 30. This causes an elastomeric diaphram 31 to push a rod 14 along a spindle 16 until the clamp 33 which is positively connected to the rod 14 presses hard against the bricks 3 (FIG. 5, 6 and 7). The brick 3 is held firmly then against the fixed stops 32 (FIG. 6) by the moving clamp 33.

When the bricks 3 are required to be released onto the mould the air is released from the diaphrams 13 and springs 15 on spindle 16 push clamps 33 back into the retracted position (FIG. 7). The receptacle arm 4 then is pivoted back onto the carriage 5 in its original position and is ready to be reloaded. As can be seen in FIG. 6 half bricks 3a also require a separate clamping means as if they were full size bricks.

With the Type 2 receptacle arm refer to FIGS. 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 and 13.

In FIG. 13 is shown a typical storey height panel with both door 35 and window 36 openings. This type of panel is manufactued with the bricks oriented parallel to the mould 1 which is at 90.degree. to the receptacle arm 4 and the panel is only limited in height by the width of the mould 1 or the length of the receptacle arm 4. On the panel in FIG. 13 there are shown bricks 3 that are shaded in a verticle staggered or toothed pattern. Each vertical (to the panel) toothed pattern represents a cycle of the brick placing machine. To make this panel twenty cycles of the brick placing machine were required C1 to C20 (incl). Cycle No. 1 (C1) represents a requirement of ten half bricks. Cycle No. 2 (shaded) shows that nineteen full bricks were required and so on for each cycle until the panel is completely positioned on the mould to the desired configuration. As can be seen from FIG. 13 it would be a relatively simple matter to program the required cycle sequence.

FIG. 8 shows the brick placing machine indexing along the mould 1. FIG. 8 is identical to FIG. 1 with the exception that the receptacle arm 4 is a Type 2 suitable for the manufacture of panels of the type shown in FIG. 13.

The brick clamping means consists of moving clamps 24 (FIGS. 9, 10 and 11). There are two moving clamps 24 for each brick 3 or one for each half brick and these clamps 24 hold a full brick 3 against three fixed stops 24b (FIG. 10) or two fixed stops 24b in the case of half bricks. The bricks 3 and half bricks 3a are supported by longitudinal steel bars 28. Before the moving clamps 24 are activated, however, the bricks 3 and 3a are placed within a designated position and prior to clamping are positioned in the other direction by the side positioners 20 (FIG. 12) which consist of a rigid angle to which is fixed a flexible hollow rubber hose 20a. The side positioner 20 is activated by a lever (not shown) and pushes the bricks against the fixed stops 24c (FIG. 10). In the case of half bricks 3a (FIG. 12) the side positioner 20 pushes these up against retractable stops 17. These stops 17 are spring loaded and therefore when a full brick 3 is placed in the receptacle the weight o the full brick 3 pushes the stops 17 down and they become inactive as they are only required when a half brick 3a is used (FIG. 12).

The moving clamps 24 are positively attached to four long shafts 22 that run the full length of the receptacle arm 4. Each clamp 24 pushes against the brick 3 and holds it by the action of a spring 23. The spring 23 is covered by a protective sheath 25 to prevent pieces of brick interfering with the spring action.

In order to release the claps 24 the long shafts 22 of which there are four are activated by two air cylinders 18 at either end of the receptacle arm 4 which depress the springs 23 and release the bricks 3 or half bricks 3a.

The Type 2 receptacle arm therefore clamps the bricks 3 by spring action and uses the air cylinder 18 to hold the springs 23 depressed for loading and releasing. However, it is a matter of choice as to whether spring action or air pressure is used to hold and clamp the bricks in place in either type of receptacle arm 4.

The type 2 receptacle arm has another distinct advantage in that the bulk of the steel reinforcing (not shown) required for the brick panels can be inserted whilst the bricks 3 are clamped in the receptacle arm 4 prior to placement of the bricks 3 on the mould 1. This greatly reduces the risk of brick dislocation on the mould when the reinforcing is inserted through the holes in the bricks.

In order to make the machine operator's task simpler it would be relatively easy to program the right sequence of bricks and half bricks in the receptacle by mans of a series of coloured lights positioned in the receptacle itself. The relevant colour would indicate to the operator whether to use a full brick, a half brick or no brick at all, thus accelerating the cycle times.

It should be noted that the preferred method of indexing is for the brick placing machine to be mobile. However, it would be quite possible in certain circumstances for the mould to move and index along in front of a stationary brick placing machine. The amount of index movement is different for Type 1 receptacle arm as against Type 2 receptacle arm, as they are placing bricks in a different orientation. Therefore the indexing means must be finitely variable.

Another important advantage of this type of machine is that the receptacle is away from the mould and can be conveniently loaded from both sides of the receptacle by as many operators as is practical.

This significantly accelerates the brick placing part of the overall panel manufacturing process. It would be possible for instance for a machine to have more than one receptacle arm.

The bricks required for loading would travel on a platform attached to the machine itself. A very important feature of this machine is that the bricks when loaded are "face up" so that visual inspection is both simple and easy.

It is imperative that the bricks are held or clamped from the back in order that they are placed face down onto the mould surface. This machine achieves this by a pivot action which is the preferred method. However, other mechanical designs could be devised which would achieve the preferred "face up" loading and "face down" placement of the bricks on the mould.

It would also be possible to mechandise the brick loading of the receptacle. However, it is considered that it would always be necessary to inspect the face of the bricks prior to placement on the mould.