Battery plate feeder having pick-up head with revolving suction grippers

摘要

A plate feed apparatus (10) has a cylindrical pick-up head (38) having a predetermined number of pick-up units (40) spaced about its periphery. The pick-up head (38) is attached to and rotates with a first shaft (42) at a first rotational speed. A feed mechanism (28) places the uppermost plate in a stack of plates a nominal distance from the periphery of the pick-up head (38) each time a plate is removed from the stack. A vacuum device (44) is selectively coupled to each pick-up unit (40) as it passes over the stack to pull the outermost plate away from the stack and into contact with the pick-up unit. A second shaft (62) has a cylindrical bore which rotatably journals the first shaft (42) and is offset from the centerline of the second shaft. The second shaft (62) is rotated counter to the first shaft (42) at a speed which is a multiple of the speed of the first shaft equal to the number of pick-up units (40). This causes the speed of the pick-up unit (40) to be slower and its distance from the uppermost plate in the stack less each time a pick-up unit picks up a plate. The feed mechanism has fingers (88) which are inserted under the stack of plates before the stack becomes depleted to keep advancing the stack as plates are removed and allow the feed mechanism platform (26) to be lowered to receive a new stack of plates. A microprocessor based controller (58) directs this activity without disruption of the feed mechanism. <IMAGE>