Apparatus for moving and positioning objects to be press laminated

• US 20070241006A1
• Filed: 04/06/2007
• Published: 10/18/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 04/14/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Italpresse SpA
• Original Assignee: Italpresse SpA
• Inventors: Meda, Carlo
• Granted Patent: US 7,963,511 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 206/308.100
• CPC Class Codes: B30B 5/02 wherein the pressing means is in the form of a flexible element, e.g. diaphragm, urged by fluid pressure
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 269/90 Supporting structure having work holder receiving apertures or projections

Abstract

An apparatus for moving and positioning objects to be laminated inside a press, comprising a tray arranged on a horizontal plane and having multiple seats with vertical axis. Each seat accommodates a pin having a protruding head and forming, with their heads, a supporting surface for the object to be positioned in the press. The pins are movable along the seat axis to pass from a raised position, in contact with the object, to a lowered position, in which they are spaced downwardly from the object. The apparatus further comprises elastic wings which cooperate with each pin and seat in order to retain the pin in the raised position, and selection elements which can engage a protruding portion of each pin for the transition of the pin from the raised position to the lowered position.

Claims

1. An apparatus for moving and positioning objects to be laminated inside a press, comprising:

a tray which is arranged on a substantially horizontal plane and in which multiple seats are provided which have a substantially vertical axis;

a plurality of pins, each of which is accomodated in a respective said seat and is provided with a head which protrudes, with an end thereof, from an upper face of said tray;

a supporting surface for a lower face of an object to be positioned in the press formed by the heads of said pins, said pins being actuatable to move individually along the axis of the corresponding seat in order to pass from a raised position, in which the pins make contact with and support the object, to a lowered position, in which the pins are spaced downwardly from the object;

elastic means being provided for each of said pins and cooperating with each corresponding pin and seat in order to retain said corresponding pin in said raised position, said elastic means being flexible in order to allow transition of said pin from the raised position to the lowered position and vice versa; and

selection means which are actuatable to engage with a portion of each said pin which protrudes downwardly from said tray for actuating transition of said pin from said raised position to said lowered position.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein each of said pins comprises:

a head which protrudes upwardly from the corresponding seat, a stem which has a reduced diameter with respect to said head and is accommodated so as to be slideable along the axis of the corresponding seat, and a foot of the pin which is pivoted to the stem of the pin about a horizontal pivoting axis and is rotatable about said pivoting axis with respect to said stem of the pin, in order to vary a useful axial length of the pin, from an extended condition of the pin, in which the foot of the pin is aligned with the stem of the pin, to a shortened condition of the pin, in which the foot of the pin is rotated laterally to the stem of the pin, and vice versa.

3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein said foot of the pin, in the extended condition of the pin, with the pin in the raised position, is located so as to protrude downwardly, with a lower end thereof, from a lower base of said seat;

said selection means being actuatable to engage with said lower end of the foot of the pin which protrudes downwardly from the lower base of said seat in order to produce transition of said foot of the pin from said extended condition of the pin to said shortened condition of the pin upon rotation thereof about said pivoting axis with respect to the stem of the pin, and wherein said foot of the pin is adapted to interfere during said rotation thereof with said seat, for actuating the transition of the pin from the raised position to the lowered position.

4. The apparatus of claim 2, comprising bushes, each of which having formed therein a said seat and being inserted in a through hole which has a substantially vertical axis and is formed in said tray, each said bush further protruding with a portion thereof below said tray, and wherein said portion of each bush having a lateral recess, starting from its lower end, which is adapted to allow rotation of said foot of the pin about said pivoting axis, starting from the extended condition of the pin in said raised position, in a single direction of rotation, and wherein said recess further forms a lateral support for the foot of the pin, which is spaced downwardly from said pivoting axis of the foot of the pin in the raised position and in the extended condition of the pin, during the rotation of the foot of the pin about said pivoting axis in the transition from the extended condition of the pin to the shortened condition of the pin, in order to produce the transition of the pin from the raised position to the lowered position.

5. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein said bush portion having said lateral recess on only a region thereof so as to comprise a non recessed area which contrasts the rotation of said foot about said pivoting axis in the opposite direction with respect to the direction of rotation allowed by said recess when said pin is in the extended condition and at least in the raised position or in a position which is intermediate between said raised position and said lowered position.

6. The apparatus of claim 4, further comprising stop means for stopping a lifting of said pin with respect to said tray which contrast an upward extraction of the pin from said seat.

7. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein said stop means comprise at least one axial shoulder which protrudes laterally from said foot of the pin and is engageable with a stop element which is formed by said bush in order to limit the lifting of said pin with respect to said tray to a position which is further raised with respect to said raised position, and wherein a lower end of said foot of the pin, when the pin is in said further raised position and in the extended condition, being flush with a lower end of the non recessed area of said bush.

8. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein said pins are provided aligned along parallel rows and mutually uniformly spaced along a same row for an alignment of the pins arranged in the different rows of pins.

9. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein said selection means comprise a horizontal supporting bar, which is parallel to the rows of pins and is positionable in each instance below a row of pins;

said supporting bar being provided with a lower actuation element for each pin in a row of pins, and wherein said lower actuation element is activatable in order to interfere with the foot of the overlying pin, in the extended condition of the pin and in the raised position, in order to produce transition of the pin from the extended condition to the shortened condition of the pin, with simultaneous transition from said raised position to said lowered position.

10. The apparatus of claim 9, comprising reset means which are adapted to engage the pins in the lowered position in order to actuate transition thereof to the raised position.

11. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein said reset means comprise a supporting bar which is adapted to be positioned in each instance below a row of pins, said supporting bar being provided with a lower actuation element for each pin of a row of pins, said lower actuation element being adapted to interfere with the foot of the overlying pin, which is supported in a position which is intermediate between said lowered position and said raised position and in the extended condition of the pin, in order to move said pin to the raised position.

12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein said reset means are constituted by said selection means, said supporting bar being movable in a horizontal translational direction at right angles to the rows of pins with respect to said tray in order to actuate, through action of the activated lower actuation elements, the transition of pins from the raised position to the lowered position and in an opposite horizontal translational direction in order to actuate, through actuation of the activated lower actuation elements, the transition of pins from the lowered position to the raised position.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein each of said lower actuation elements comprises:

a side that is adapted to make contact with the foot of the pins during translational motion of said supporting bar in said horizontal translational direction and which is shaped as a vertical plane; and

an opposite side, which is adapted to make contact with the foot of the pins during the translational motion of said supporting bar in said opposite horizontal translational direction, said opposite side being shaped like a plane which is inclined with respect to the vertical.

14. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein said elastic means are mounted on the stem of a said pin and are adapted to engage at least one abutment provided on side walls of the corresponding seat.

15. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein said elastic means comprise at least one wing which is associated with the stem of said pin and protrudes laterally in order to engage said at least one abutment, said wing being elastically flexible toward an axis of the pin in order to move beyond said abutment during transition of said pin from said raised position to said lowered position or vice versa.

16. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein said at least one wing is formed monolithically with said stem.

17. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein said at least one abutment is formed by a narrower portion of said seat located at said at least one wing.

18. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein said elastic means comprise a pair of wings which are associated with two mutually diametrically opposite lateral regions of the stem of said pin, said wings being flexible elastically toward an axis of the pin in order to move beyond said at least one abutment during transition of said pin from said raised position to said lowered position or vice versa.

19. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein said pin foot, in a lowered position, protrudes downwardly from a said respective bush so as to be contacted by a lower surface of the press, which produces a rotation of the foot of the pin in the lowered position for transition thereof from the extended condition to the shortened condition of the pin and forms a supporting surface for said foot of the pin in the extended condition and in the shortened condition of the pin, depending on whether the pin is in the raised position or in the lowered position.

20. The apparatus of claim 12, comprising sensing means for sensing a contour of the object deposited on said pins, said sensing means being functionally connected to said selection means for activation of the lower actuation elements for pins of said plurality of pins which are completely covered by said object during said one horizontal translational direction of said supporting bar.

21. The apparatus of claim 20, wherein said actuation elements are functionally connected to a programmable electronic actuation element which stores the contour of said object and is adapted to actuate said lower actuation elements at pins which are completely covered by said object during said one horizontal translational direction of said supporting bar.

22. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said selection means are arranged in a positioning station which is located laterally with respect to the press to be served.