DE29815610U1 - Device for inserting parts held together by means of a rivet bond, such as eyelets in a textile or plastic sheet - Google Patents

Description

Schröter & Haverkamp Patent Attorneys

European Patent and Trademark Attorneys

Franz Miederhoff OHG
Tube 50
D-59846 Sundern

Device for inserting parts held together by means of a riveted joint, such as eyelets, into a textile or plastic sheet

The invention relates to a device for inserting parts held together by means of a riveted joint into a textile or plastic web, for example an eyelet insertion machine. In particular, the invention relates to a device for inserting parts held together by means of a riveted joint, for example eyelets into a textile or plastic web, with a lower tool and an upper, lowerable tool that interacts with the lower tool, which tools have means for holding one part used for the riveted joint in each case.

&iacgr;&ogr; its position intended for tool engagement, as well as with feeders for feeding such parts.

Such eyelet insertion machines are used to insert eyelets, tarpaulin hooks, strap clamps, suspension hooks or the like into a tarpaulin, for example a commercial vehicle tarpaulin, or to attach them to it. The two individual parts held together by the rivet connection are fed to the lower or upper tool via an automatic feeder. Each feeder comprises a collecting container in which a large number of the individual parts to be fed to this tool are contained. On the output side, a feed track is connected to such a collecting container, onto which the individual parts to be fed to the respective tool are conveyed.

Utilizing gravity, the individual parts slide into a position that is located to the side of the respective tool. With the help of a feed rod that acts transversely to the feed flow of these individual parts, the individual parts are inserted into a part holder assigned to the respective tool. Such a part holder holds the individual part intended for the rivet connection in its position intended for tool engagement. A holding pliers is provided as the part holder assigned to the upper tool. In the previously known eyelet insertion machine, the lower tool itself also serves as the part holder for the individual part assigned to the lower tool. This is held on a tool plate and is laterally limited by holding jaws arranged at a distance from the tool. These holding jaws are pivotally hinged to the tool plate with springs, so that an inserted individual part is fixed in its intended position by the tool and the holding jaws. In order to equip the lower tool with a new individual part, movements take place in the working plane by feeding the individual part using the guide rod and catching this individual part with the spring-loaded holding jaws.

A working gap is formed between the upper part holder and the lower tool, in which the textile or plastic sheet is inserted, into which an eyelet, for example, is to be inserted. However, in order to ensure that the lower tool can be properly equipped with a new individual part, the textile or plastic sheet must not hinder the assembly process. The assembly process on a previously known eyelet insertion machine can be hindered, for example, by the textile or plastic sheet hanging down in the feed. In such a case, proper assembly of the lower tool cannot be guaranteed; accordingly, the desired insertion process cannot take place as intended.

When feeding the individual parts to the lower tool, it can happen that the individual parts to be fed are not properly held by the holding jaws, especially if such an individual part has damage to the edges. In such a case, the eyelet cannot be used as intended.

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Based on this discussed prior art, the invention is therefore based on the object of proposing a generic device for inserting, for example, eyelets into a textile or plastic web, with which an individual part feed to the lower tool is improved.

This object is achieved according to the invention in that the feed associated with the lower tool comprises a feed bracket consisting essentially of two legs which enclose the lower tool in the region of one end and are connected to one another, the legs of which form a guide gap for feeding the parts to be fed to the lower tool and are arranged with their free ends adjacent to a feed track so as to be pivotable upwards, and a feed rod which interacts with the feed bracket and with which the feed bracket can be raised when the feed rod is actuated so that a part to be fed to the lower tool can be brought into its intended position in the guide gap above the lower tool and that this part is arranged in its position intended for tool engagement after the feed bracket has been lowered, and which feed rod moves the part to be fed to the lower tool from the feed track into its intended position in the guide gap of the feed bracket when the feed bracket is raised.

By providing a pivotally connected feed bracket, the leg of which forms a guide gap for feeding the individual parts intended for loading the lower tool, whereby the feed bracket is raised above the upper end of the lower tool when loading such an individual part and the individual part is guided in the guide gap towards the lower tool. A feed is created with which the lower tool can be reloaded without there being a risk of obstruction from a textile or plastic web located in the working gap formed by the upper and lower tools. The part to be fed is fed to the lower tool in the guide gap below the level of the top of the feed bracket. Furthermore, the device according to the invention does not require any holding means that are movable in the plane of the textile or plastic web resting on it.

-A-

The guide gap of the feed bracket provides a conveying path that is protected from the other components of the feed bracket. The feed bracket is raised in order to bring the individual part to be fed to the lower tool into an axially aligned arrangement with the lower tool before the feed bracket is lowered again and the individual part is picked up by the lower tool and, if necessary, held by the front area of the guide gap. This movement also lifts a textile or plastic web that has been placed in the working gap, so that any obstruction to the tool loading, for example as a result of a sagging textile or plastic web, is avoided.

To operate the feed bracket, a feed rod is provided with which the feed bracket is raised and an individual part to be fed to the lower tool is moved into its intended position in the guide gap of the feed bracket.

In a preferred embodiment, at least one roller is arranged at the end of the feed rod that interacts with the feed bracket. Preferably, however, two rollers are provided. The underside of the feed bracket rests on the rollers on the top side; on the underside, the rollers are supported on a base. The top side of the base and the underside of the feed bracket form an actuation gap whose clear width is smaller than the diameter of the rollers. Consequently, when the feed rod is actuated, which involves a movement of the feed rod directed towards the lower tool, the guide bracket is raised in the area of its front end. The feed bracket pivots about its frame-side linkage. In order to achieve a sufficient lifting movement of the feed bracket with the shortest possible actuation path of the feed rod, a further development provides for the base to be designed in the manner of an inclined plane, rising towards the lower tool.

In a practical embodiment, the feed rod is the piston rod of a cylinder that can be operated in both directions, such as a pneumatic cylinder.

In order to transport an individual part from a feed track into the guide gap of the feed bracket to its intended position, the feed rod can have a driver cam on the top with which the individual part to be fed, which is separated on the feed track, can be gripped.

In a particularly useful embodiment, means for separating the individual parts arranged adjacent to one another on the feed track are associated with the actuating movement of the feed rod. This can be, for example, a separating pin which, after a first such individual part has been moved away from the feed track into the guide gap of the feed bracket, serves as a stopper for the subsequent individual parts.

Further embodiments of the invention and further developments are part of the remaining subclaims and the following description of an embodiment with reference to the attached figures. They show:

Fig. 1: A schematic partial side view of the work area

an eyelet insertion machine,

Fig. 2: a top view of the lower tool and adjacent

Areas of the eyelet insertion machine of Figure 1,

Fig. 3: a schematic front view of the upper tool

assigned part holder of the eyelet insertion machine and

Fig. 4: a schematic plan view of the parts holder of the figure

3.

An eyelet insertion machine (not shown in detail) comprises an upper tool 1 and a lower tool 2. The upper tool 1 is a punching and flanging tool; the lower tool 2 is a riveting die. The two tools 1, 2 are arranged axially aligned and interacting with each other, whereby the upper tool 1 can be lowered towards the lower tool in the direction of the arrow. The upper tool 1 is provided with a

A part holder (not shown in detail) is assigned to each of the eyelets, in which an upper part of the eyelet is held. The lower tool 2 is fastened to a tool plate 3, which in turn is arranged on a tool table 4.

The lower tool 2 is assigned a feed bracket 5 which is pivotably connected to the frame of the eyelet insertion machine about a rotation axis 6. As can be seen from Figure 2, the feed bracket 5 has two legs 7, 8 arranged parallel to one another which guide the lower tool 2

&iacgr;&ogr; are connected to one another at the front. The feed bracket 5 is thus approximately U-shaped. In the area of its front, tool-side end 9, the underside of the feed bracket 5 rests on the top of the tool table 4. The feed bracket 5 is in this position resting on the tool table 4 when an eyelet is inserted into a textile or plastic web using the eyelet insertion machine and for this purpose the upper tool 1 is lowered onto the lower tool 2 to carry out the punching and riveting process.

The legs 7, 8 of the feed bracket 5 define a guide gap 10 in which the eyelet bottom parts - collar disks - to be fed to the lower tool 2 are fed from a feed track 11. The sides of the two legs 7, 8 facing each other are adapted to the individual parts to be fed in terms of their contour to ensure the intended guide purpose and in terms of their clear distance from each other. The collar disks to be fed are held in the guide gap 10 in such a way that the top of the collar disk is in a plane below the top of the feed bracket 5.

A piston-cylinder arrangement 12 is provided for feeding such an individual part from the guide track 11 into the guide gap 10 and to the lower tool 2. The cylinder 13 of this piston-cylinder arrangement 12 can be actuated pneumatically in both directions, so that the piston rod 14 serving as a feed rod can be moved both away from the cylinder 13 and towards it. At the free end of the piston rod 14, two rollers 15, 15' are arranged on both sides of a bearing block 16. The rollers 15, 15' are supported on the underside on a base 17 which is arranged in the manner of an inclined plane to the tool.

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table 4 or is designed to rise towards the lower tool 2. The underside of the feed bracket 5 rests on the upper side of the rollers 15, 15'. The base bearing 17 and the underside of the feed bracket 5 thus form an actuation gap whose clear width is smaller than the diameter of the rollers 15, 15'.

A driver cam 18 is provided, projecting upwards from the bearing block 16 into the guide gap 10, with the front side of which facing the lower tool 2, the collar disk S located at the bottom on the feed track 11 can be pushed into its position above the lower tool 2. To carry out this loading movement, the cylinder 13 is actuated so that the piston rod 14 extends. During the extension process, the rollers 15, 15' are moved into the actuating gap between the base bearing 17 and the underside of the feed bracket 5 so that the feed bracket 5 is pivoted about the axis of rotation 6 into its position shown in dashed lines in Figure 1. The lifting movement in the area surrounding the lower tool 2 serves to bring the collar disk S to be fed into a position above the lower tool 2 in order to then bring the feed bracket 5 back into its lowered position by moving the piston rod 14 back. A collar disk S fed to the lower tool 2 is then held by the lower tool 2 so that in the embodiment shown this serves as a parts holder. In addition, an individual part can also be fixed by the front areas of the guide gap 10 of the feed bracket 5.

From the description of this eyelet insertion machine it is clear that by raising the feed bracket 5 when loading the lower tool 2 with a new individual part to be processed, a plastic sheet 19 can be placed in the working gap between the upper tool 1 and the lower tool 2 without hindering this loading process. The plastic sheet 19 resting on the top of the feed bracket 5 is lifted in accordance with the movement of the feed bracket 5 during a loading process and is thus kept at a sufficient distance from the individual part to be fed and the lower tool 2.

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In addition to the functions of the piston-cylinder arrangement 12 shown in Figure 1, namely the raising and lowering of the feed bracket 5 and the feeding of an individual part to be processed from the feed track 11 to the lower tool 2, the actuating movement of the piston rod 14 is also coupled to the movement of a separating pin (not shown in detail), by means of which the individual parts (collar disks) arranged in a row adjacent to one another on the feed track 11 can be separated. The pin, which is arranged in its extended position as soon as the piston-cylinder arrangement 12 is actuated to extend the piston rod 14, prevents the further individual parts from slipping as soon as the lowest one has been pushed away by the driver cam 18. Only when the piston-cylinder arrangement 12 is again in its basic position shown in Figure 1, the separator pin is lowered so that the next individual part is ready for loading the lower tool 2.

Figure 3 shows a schematic front view of the working area of the eyelet insertion machine. The upper tool 1 is assigned a parts holder 20 which is directly adjacent to a feed chute 21. The feed chute 21 is connected to the outlet of a parts collection container (not shown in detail), from which the individual eyelet parts 22 are conveyed to the feed chute 21. A brush conveyor, for example, can be used as the parts collection container. The parts holder 20 is arranged below the upper tool 1, with the eyelet parts 22 held individually in the parts holder 20 being held axially aligned with the upper tool 1. The eyelet parts 22 are held in the parts holder 20 by two spring-loaded clamps 23, 23', as shown in Figure 4. To separate the individual eyelet parts 22 from their adjacent arrangement in the feed chute 21, a slide 24 is provided which acts transversely to the inflow direction of the eyelet parts 22. The slide 24 is actuated by a pneumatically operated cylinder 25. The slide 24 is in its retracted position when the part holder 20 is to be equipped with a new eyelet part 22. Following the force of gravity, the eyelet part 22 located at the bottom in the feed chute 21 slides into the part holder 20. By actuating the cylinder 25, the slide 24 extends so that the other eyelet parts 22 are held back and thus the eyelet part 22 located in the part holder 20 is separated. Furthermore, the extension of the

Slider 24 for the exact positioning of the eyelet part 22 inserted into the part holder 20 between the two clamps 23, 23'. This direct part feed to the upper tool 1 eliminates the need for additional feed elements, such as feed rods.

The feed track 11 for feeding the collar disks to the lower tool 2 is connected to the output of a vibrating pot (not shown in detail). The vibrating pot is in cross section

Î circular and is operated with a vibration drive. In the vibrating pot, a multi-start conveyor spiral is arranged on the inner wall of the vibrating pot, via which the collar disks in the vibrating pot are conveyed to the feed track 11. The collar disks must be arranged in the correct position on the feed track 11 in order to be able to be fed accordingly to the lower tool 2. For this purpose, the conveyor spiral has a reject switch, with which those collar disks are separated out which are not in the correct position for feeding. The reject switch is arranged in a section of the conveyor spiral in which there is another conveyor spiral thread below it. In the area of the reject switch, the conveyor spiral consists of two conveyor rails arranged parallel to one another, the distance between which is dimensioned such that the collar disks can engage with their collars in this conveyor spiral opening. Collar discs that are conveyed with their collars pointing upwards fall through this conveyor spiral opening and are caught by the conveyor spiral below. Such a collar disc that has initially been sorted out then only needs to be transported down a single conveyor spiral in order to be fed back to the reject shunt. It has been shown that when the collar discs fall down, they rotate in the majority of cases, so that they are then conveyed further in the correct position. The resulting advantages are in particular that a high conveying speed can be achieved with this vibrating bowl, since rejected collar discs do not have to be conveyed along the entire conveyor spiral section again. In the area of the reject shunt, the conveyor spiral has no inner limiting web, so that collar discs that have been conveyed in the wrong position can also be removed by sliding down the

conveyor spiral can be sorted out.

To further increase the conveying speed of the vibrating bowl, the collar discs are conveyed in a tilted position in conveyor spiral sections in front of the reject switch, in which they only contact a transition area between the conveyor spiral top and an inner limiting web and the inner surface of the vibrating bowl. The resulting reduction in friction also leads to an increase in the conveying speed of the individual parts to be conveyed with the vibrating bowl. With these measures, the vibrating bowl can be made considerably smaller in diameter than conventional vibrating bowls, so that only correspondingly smaller vibration drives are required.

List of reference symbols

1 Upper tool 2 Lower tool 3 Tool plate 4 Tool table 5 Feeding bracket 6 Rotation axis 7 leg 8th leg 9 Tool side end 10 Guide gap 11 Feed track 12 Piston-cylinder arrangement 13 cylinder 14 Feed rod / piston rod 15,15' role 16 Bearing block 17 Sub-bearing 18 Driving cam 19 Plastic tarpaulin 20 Parts holder 21 Feed chute 22 Eyelet part 23, 23' bracket 24 Slider 25 cylinder S Collar disc

Claims (9)

1. Device for inserting parts held together by means of a riveted joint, such as eyelets, into a textile or plastic web, with a lower tool ( 2 ) and an upper, lowerable tool ( 1 ) which interacts with the latter, which tools ( 1 , 2 ) are assigned means for holding a part used for the riveted joint in its position intended for tool engagement, and with feeds for feeding such parts, characterized in that the feed assigned to the lower tool ( 2 ) comprises a feed bracket ( 5 ) consisting essentially of two legs ( 7 , 8 ) which enclose the lower tool ( 2 ) in the region of one end and are connected to one another, the legs ( 7 , 8 ) of which form a guide gap ( 10 ) for feeding the parts to be fed to the lower tool ( 2 ) and can be pivoted upwards with their free ends bordering on a feed track ( 14 ). are arranged in an articulated manner, and comprises a feed rod ( 14 ) which interacts with the feed bracket ( 5 ), with which the feed bracket ( 5 ) can be raised when the feed rod ( 14 ) is actuated so that a part to be fed to the lower tool ( 2 ) can be brought into its intended position in the guide gap ( 10 ) above the lower tool ( 2 ) and that this part is arranged in its position intended for tool engagement after the feed bracket ( 5 ) has been lowered, and which feed rod ( 14 ) moves the part to be fed to the lower tool ( 2 ) from the feed track ( 11 ) into its intended position in the guide gap ( 10 ) of the feed bracket ( 5 ) when the feed bracket ( 5 ) is raised. 2. Device according to claim 1, characterized in that at the end of the feed rod ( 14 ) which cooperates with the feed bracket ( 5 ) there is arranged at least one roller ( 15 , 15 '), on the upper side of which the underside of the feed bracket ( 5 ) rests and which is supported on the underside on a base ( 17 ), wherein the clear width of an actuating gap formed between the underside of the feed bracket ( 5 ) and the base ( 17 ) is smaller than the diameter of the at least one roller ( 15 , 15 '). 3. Device according to claim 2, characterized in that the lower bearing ( 17 ) is designed in the manner of an inclined plane rising towards the lower tool ( 2 ). 4. Device according to one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that the feed rod ( 14 ) is the piston rod of a cylinder ( 13 ) which can be actuated in both directions. 5. Device according to one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that the feed rod ( 14 ) has on its upper side a driver cam ( 18 ) for moving a part to be fed to the lower tool ( 2 ) from the feed path ( 11 ) into the guide gap ( 10 ) of the feed bracket ( 5 ). 6. Device according to one of claims 1 to 5, characterized in that the feed rod ( 14 ) has means for separating the parts arranged adjacent to one another on the feed track ( 11 ), which means are coupled to the actuating movement of the feed rod ( 14 ). 7. Device according to one of claims 1 to 6, characterized in that the feed of the part to be fed to the upper tool ( 1 ) comprises a feed track ( 21 ) which borders on a part holder ( 20 ) in which the fed part ( 20 ) is held individually in its position intended for tool engagement, wherein a slide ( 24 ) acting in the transverse direction to the feed flow of the parts ( 22 ) for separating the parts ( 22 ) and for positioning the separated parts ( 22 ) in the part holder ( 20 ) is arranged between the feed track ( 21 ) and the part holder ( 20 ). 8. Device according to one or more of claims 1 to 7, characterized in that for conveying parts to be fed to the tools in a predetermined position, the feed path of a feed is connected to the outlet of a circular-diameter vibrating pot in which a multi-start conveyor spiral with a reject switch is arranged, which reject switch is provided in an area of the conveyor spiral in which a conveyor spiral section is located below the reject switch, which conveyor spiral has a central opening in the area of the reject switch, so that incorrectly positioned parts fall, among other things, through the opening onto the section of the conveyor spiral located below this conveyor spiral section. 9. Device according to claim 8, characterized in that the parts to be fed are guided at least in sections in front of the reject switch in a tilted position in which they only contact the transition area between the top of the conveyor spiral and an adjacent inner limiting web as well as the inner vibrating pot surface at the edges.