GB1009734A - A feeder device for fragile laminar articles - Google Patents

Abstract

1,009,734. Feeding sheets. T. & T. VICKERS Ltd. March 23, 1964 [April 6, 1963], No. 13802/63. Heading B6B. Sheet-like articles are transferred from one position to another by a reciprocating suction carrier, the movements of which actuate means for establishing suction at the pick-up position, and for establishing compressed air at the release position. As described, fragile wafers are picked up from stacks at two outer stations 11a, 11b alternately, and they are delivered to a central position where a conveyer takes them to a creaming machine or a sandwich builder. Pile tables.-At each station 11a, 11b the wafers are stacked between side guides on a pallet 28 attached to a screw 29 engaging a nut 31 which can be rotated through ratchet means by an air cylinder 30. The air cylinder 30 is operated by a solenoid which is controlled by a photo-cell or other electric means which responds to the height of the stack, and causes the pallet 28 to be raised by a distance equivalent to the thickness of wafer each time a wafer is removed from the stack. The pallet can be lowered for stack replenishment by manual pneumatic, or electric means. Separators.-A carrier 12 is adapted to be reciprocated on rollers 14 along guides in a fixed frame 10 by means of a pneumatic cylinder device 16 connected thereto at 17, and comprises two spaced heads 12a, 12b connected by a duct 13. A fan 18, driven by a motor 20, has its inlet and outlet connected by two flexible pipes to the duct 13, and the latter includes a spring-loaded butterfly valve 23 having operating levers 32 provided with an upright stud 33. In the position shown, with the head 12a over the station 11a, the stud 33 has engaged a spring-loaded stop 34, and the valve 23 has established suction at the head 12a so that a wafer is picked up; at the same time, compressed air has been established in the head 12b to release forcibly a wafer which was previously picked up from the station 11b. On reciprocation of the corner 12 by the air cylinder 16, the stud 33 engages a spring-loaded stop 35 to reverse the valve 23, so that the head 12b picks up a wafer from the station 11b, and the head 12a releases the wafer carried from the station 11a.