초록 ▼

This system selects and delivers a rivet of correct size for workpiece thickness at each rivet location. Positive control of rivet orientation is provided at the crucial junction point of plural supply paths with the delivery path to the riveting machine. This is done by a simplified modular device,

This system selects and delivers a rivet of correct size for workpiece thickness at each rivet location. Positive control of rivet orientation is provided at the crucial junction point of plural supply paths with the delivery path to the riveting machine. This is done by a simplified modular device, called a “transfer station,”which hands off one rivet from the correct supply path to the delivery path, on demand by a measuring device. Positive rivet-orientation control is also provided everywhere else in the system, including the escapements and the injector－making it feasible to use a pneumatic tube for delivery to the injector. Thus only the measuring device and injector need be mounted to the installing head of the riveter. Orientation at the escapement is fixed by a dual-blade mechanism that constrains each rivet shank, keeping the rivet from toppling head-first into a pneumatic supply tube to the transfer station. A two-stage mechanism at the injector fixes rivet orientation by delivering each rivet just below the installing head at a shallow angle.

대표청구항 ▼

A system for feeding rivets, each having a respective axis of symmetry and having various rivet parameters including length of such rivets, to the installing head of a riveting machine for installation into a plurality of locations in an article under manufacture by insertion of each such rivet para

A system for feeding rivets, each having a respective axis of symmetry and having various rivet parameters including length of such rivets, to the installing head of a riveting machine for installation into a plurality of locations in an article under manufacture by insertion of each such rivet parallel to its axis of symmetry of such rivet into such article, followed by upset of such rivet, such locations having correspondingly various location parameters including thickness of such article; such installing head being subject to limited clearance within the mouth of such riveting machine; said system comprising: automatic measuring means for measuring such location parameters for each one of such locations in turn; a plurality of storage containers, each container being adapted for storage of a multiplicity of such rivets having a particular set of such rivet parameters in common; a plurality of removal devices, each device being associated with a respective one of the storage containers for removing such rivets from its associated storage container; means defining a delivery path linking the transfer station, recited hereunder, with the injector, also recited hereunder; at least one transfer station having a plurality of independently actuable transfer devices; each transfer device being associated with a respective one of the plurality of removal devices and including: means for receiving such rivets from its associated removal device, and means for automatically transferring such rivets into the delivery path; whereby each different transfer device of the plurality may be identified with a different set of such rivet parameters, corresponding to such rivet parameters of rivets received from the associated removal device and storage container; each transfer device being actuable exclusively through a short rectilinear stroke, to effect transfer motions that are defined exclusively by alignment of two positive stops associated with each transfer device; automatic selection means, responsive to the measuring means, for determining and selecting a set of such rivet parameters which corresponds to such measured location parameters, for each one of such locations in turn, and for selecting a transfer device identified with that set of such rivet parameters; automatic actuating means, responsive to the selection means, for automatically actuating the selected transfer devices in turn; and an injector for receiving such rivets from the selected transfer device, via the delivery path, and for presenting such received rivets, one at a time in a controlled attitude, to such installing head, said injector comprising: means for accepting each such rivet from the delivery path by translation of such rivet substantially parallel to its axis of symmetry and at a substantial angle to the direction of upset, and means for moving each such rivet, from the position in which it is accepted, through at least one substantial angle into a feed position wherein its axis of symmetry is substantially parallel to the upset direction; whereby one such rivet, having such rivet parameters selected by the selection means as corresponding to the location parameters for each particular location, is delivered to such installing head in proper orientation for insertion and upset in that particular location, despite such limited clearance within the mouth of the riveting machine.