Raw material feeder system

Abstract

Abstract A raw material feeder for automatically feeding flexible stock, such, for example, as tubes or small-diameter rods of metal, plastic, or fiber into an automatically-controlled machine tool such, for example, as an automatic lathe. The feeder consists of an indexing drum having a plurality of peripherally-disposed, hollow tubes, each for housing one piece of the raw stock. By means of pneumatic pressure, each unit of stock is periodically advanced into the automatic lathe for performing drilling, milling, grinding, and the like operations. When the work piece is finished, another portion of the stock is automatically advanced into the lathe. Indexing is effected also by penumatic pressure. The drum of the feeder additionally serves as an air container serving as a moisture trap. The capacity of the feeder may be as large as 2,000 feet of quarter-inch stock while having a length of 12 feet. Another embodiment of the feeder has means for rotating a special hollow feeder tube containing a piece of raw stock to be machined and disposed adjacent the lathe. This will speed up the operation of the lathe. An air sensor mechanism is also provided which makes it possible to sense when the last portion of the raw stock has been used up adjacent the machine tool''s collet. Alternatively, each of the hollow tubes of the indexing drum may be rotated by a suitable mechanism to reduce the space required for the feeder system.

Inventors

• 👤 W Fortune

Bibliographic Details