U.S. patent application number 12/221359 was filed with the patent office on 2010-02-04 for automatic screw feeder.
This patent application is currently assigned to Lins Air Tools Enterprise Co., Ltd.. Invention is credited to Allen Lin.
Application Number | 20100025424 12/221359 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 41607299 |
Filed Date | 2010-02-04 |
United States Patent
Application |
20100025424 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Lin; Allen |
February 4, 2010 |
Automatic screw feeder
Abstract
An automatic screw feeder serves to automatically align a
plurality screws laying in disarray and feed the aligned screws one
by one to a power screwdriver so as to avoid screw clogging.
Inventors: |
Lin; Allen; (Taichung City,
TW) |
Correspondence
Address: |
CHARLES E. BAXLEY, ESQUIRE
90 JOHN STREET, SUITE 309
NEW YORK
NY
10038
US
|
Assignee: |
Lins Air Tools Enterprise Co.,
Ltd.
|
Family ID: |
41607299 |
Appl. No.: |
12/221359 |
Filed: |
August 1, 2008 |
Current U.S.
Class: |
221/183 |
Current CPC
Class: |
B23P 19/003
20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
221/183 |
International
Class: |
B65H 3/00 20060101
B65H003/00 |
Claims
1. An automatic screw feeder, comprising: a feeding device, having
an immovable seat and sliding block, wherein the immovable seat
consistently stands at a predetermined position while the sliding
block is able to linearly reciprocate with respect to the immovable
seat; and a distribution board, configured to be perpendicular to
the feeding device and is able to linearly reciprocate with respect
to the sliding block between a receiving position and a feeding
position, said distribution board having one lateral formed with a
receiving recess, wherein when the distribution board is at the
receiving position, the receiving recess receives one screw and
when the distribution board is at the feeding position, the screw
at the receiving recess is pushed by the sliding block and falls
into a feeding pipe.
2. The automatic screw feeder of claim 1, wherein the immovable
seat and the sliding block jointly define a blowing vent at between
and the feeding pipe connected with the immovable seat has an upper
opening communicated with the blowing vent, so that when a blowing
unit gives a high-pressure air to the blowing vent, the screw
falling into the feeding pipe is pushed to advance along the
feeding pipe and delivered to a power screwdriver.
3. The automatic screw feeder of claim 1, wherein the sliding block
is driven by an extendable shaft of a feeding cylinder to linearly
reciprocate.
4. The automatic screw feeder of claim 1, wherein the distribution
board is driven by an extendable shaft of a distribution cylinder
to linearly reciprocate.
5. The automatic screw feeder of claim 1, further comprising a rail
that allows a plurality of screws aligned therein, wherein a screw
body of each said screw is received in a groove of the rail while a
screw head of each said screw is propped by a top surface of the
rail.
6. The automatic screw feeder of claim 5, wherein a depressor is
set along the top surface of the rail and separated from the top
surface of the rail by a predetermined distance so that the
depressor contacts tops of the screws in the rail to level the
screws.
7. The automatic screw feeder of claim 5, wherein two ends of the
rail are defined as an inlet end and an outlet end, respectively,
said rail tilting with the inlet end standing higher than the
outlet end that contacts the lateral of the distribution board
where the receiving recess is formed.
Description
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0001] 1. Technical Field
[0002] The present relates to automatons and, more particularly, to
an automatic screw feeder which serves to automatically align a
plurality of screws and feed the aligned screws one by one to a
power screwdriver.
[0003] 2. Description of Related Art
[0004] Power-driven screwdrivers or pneumatic screwdrivers are
tools facilitating rapidly screwing screws one the strength of
electric power or pneumatic power. For the convenience of
illustration, power-driven screwdrivers or pneumatic screwdrivers
are hereinafter referred to as power screwdrivers. In one
conventional application of the screwdriver, a user may manually
hold and position a screw at a preset location and operate a power
screwdriver to screw the screw tight. Such manual delivery of
screws however retards the overall operation and nullifies the
advantageous efficiency of the power screwdriver. Therefore, a
screw feeder has been developed to align plural screws with heads
of the screws upward and deliver the aligned screws to a feeding
pipe for a power screwdriver to use. However, the conventional
screw feeder tends to suffer from screw clogging and is not
adaptive to screws smaller than a certain extent.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0005] One primary objective of the present invention is to provide
an automatic screw feeder that serves to automatically align a
plurality of screws laying in disarray and automatically deliver
said screws one by one to a power screwdriver so as to prevent the
feeder from screw clogging. Besides, since the screws are delivered
one by one to the screwdriver, it is possible to count the amount
of the screws used in one process by providing a counter to the
automatic screw feeder.
[0006] Another objective of the present invention is to provide an
automatic screw feeder that is adaptive to screws of various
dimensions, and is especially advantageous to fit very small
screws.
[0007] To achieve the aforesaid objectives, the automatic screw
feeder of the present invention primarily comprises a feeding
device, a distribution board and a rail. The feeding device has a
sliding block that is able to linearly reciprocate. The
distributing board is able to linearly reciprocate between a screw
receiving position and a screw delivering position. The
distributing board receives one screw at the screw receiving
position, and then moves to the screw delivering position to make
the sliding block abut against an immovable seat so that the screw
is pushed into a blowing vent formed between the sliding block and
the immovable seat by the sliding block and in turn falls into a
feeding pipe. Then, when a high-pressure air is introduced into the
feeding pipe, the screw is pushed to advance along the feeding pipe
and delivered to a power screwdriver.
[0008] Thereupon, the present invention enables delivering the
screws one by one to the screwdriver with a predetermined time
interval. Besides, it is possible in the present invention to use
the rail and distribution board 30 of dimensions fitting
specifications of the desired screws.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0009] The invention as well as a preferred mode of use, further
objectives and advantages thereof, will best be understood by
reference to the following detailed description of an illustrative
embodiment when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings,
wherein:
[0010] FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an automatic screw feeder of
the present invention;
[0011] FIG. 2 is another perspective view of the automatic screw
feeder of the present invention, wherein a distribution board is
moved to receive a screw;
[0012] FIG. 3 is another perspective view of the automatic screw
feeder of the present invention, wherein the distribution board
returns and the screw received thereby is delivered to a feeding
device;
[0013] FIG. 4 is another perspective view of the automatic screw
feeder of the present invention, wherein a sliding block pushes the
screw at the feeding device into a feeding pipe;
[0014] FIG. 5 is a top view of the automatic screw feeder of the
present invention;
[0015] FIG. 6 is another top view of the automatic screw feeder of
the present invention, wherein the distribution board is moved to
receive a screw;
[0016] FIG. 7 is another top view of the automatic screw feeder of
the present invention, wherein the distribution board returns and
the screw received thereby is delivered to the feeding device;
and
[0017] FIG. 8 is another top view of the automatic screw feeder of
the present invention, wherein the sliding block pushes the screw
at the feeding device into the feeding pipe.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
[0018] While a preferred embodiment is provided herein for
illustrating the concept of the present invention as described
above, it is to be understood that the components in these drawings
are made for better explanation and need not to be made in
scale.
[0019] Referring to FIGS. 1 and 5, an automatic screw feeder of the
present invention comprises a feeding device 10, a feeding pipe 20,
a distribution board 30, and a rail 40.
[0020] The feeding device 10 includes an immovable seat 11 and a
sliding block 12. The immovable seat 11 consistently stands at a
predetermined position while the sliding block 12 is able to
linearly reciprocate with respect to the immovable seat 11 along a
direction described by Arrow A in the drawings so as to approach or
leave the immovable seat 11. The immovable seat 11 and the sliding
block 12 jointly define a blowing vent 13 at contacting surfaces
therebetween. In the present embodiment, the sliding block 12 is
driven by an extendable shaft 51 of a feeding cylinder 50 to
perform a linear reciprocation.
[0021] The feeding pipe 20 is connected to the immovable seat 11
and has an upper opening communicated with the blowing vent 13.
[0022] The distribution board 30 is configured to be perpendicular
to the feeding device 10 and is capable to perform a linear
reciprocation with respect to the sliding block 12 between a
receiving position and a feeding position, as indicated by Arrow B.
The distribution board 30 has one lateral 31 formed with a
receiving recess 32 (shown in FIGS. 2 and 6), whose upped end and
lower end open to a top and a bottom of the distribution board 30,
respectively. When the distribution board 30 is at its receiving
position, the receiving recess 32 receives one screw 33 and when
the distribution board 30 is at its feeding position, the screw at
the recess 32 falls into the feeding pipe 20. The screw 33 is a
known one having an expanded screw head and a screw body. The screw
body of the screw 33 is received in the receiving recess 32 while
the expanded screw head of the screw 33 is propped by the top of
the distribution board 30 surrounding the receiving recess 32. In
the present embodiment, a distribution cylinder 60 has its
extendable shaft 61 driving a driven board 62 so as to move the
distribution board 30 fastened to the driven board 62.
[0023] The rail 40 allows a plurality of screws 33 aligned therein
in the manner that the screw bodies of the screws 33 are received
in a groove 41 of the rail 40 while the screw heads of the screws
33 are propped by a top of the rail 40. A depressor 42 is set along
the top of the rail 40 and separated from the top of the rail 40 by
a predetermined distance so that the depressor 42 contacts tops of
the screws 33 in the rail 40 to level the screws. Two ends of the
rail 40 are defined as an inlet end 43 and an outlet end 44,
respectively, while the rail 40 tilts with the inlet end 43
standing higher than the outlet end 44 that contacts the lateral 31
of the distribution board 30 where the receiving recess 32 is
formed.
[0024] As can be seen in FIGS. 2 and 6, when the distribution board
30 leaves the feeding device 10 along a direction indicated by
Arrow B1 to a preset position, the headmost screw 33 at the outlet
end 44 of the rail 40 slides into the receiving recess 32 of the
distribution board 30. Meanwhile, the sliding block 12 leaves the
immovable seat 11 along a direction indicated by Arrow Al.
[0025] Referring to FIGS. 3 and 7, the distribution board 30 moves
along a direction indicated by Arrow B2 to meet the feeding device
10 so that the receiving recess 32 and the screw 33 correspond to
the upper opening of the feeding pipe 20. Then the lateral 31 of
the distribution board 30 abuts against the outlet end 44 of the
rail 40 to uphold the screws 33 in the rail 40 from falling.
[0026] Reference is now made to FIGS. 4 and 8. The sliding block
now moves along a direction indicated by Arrow A2 to meet the
feeding device 10 and pushes the screw 33 to make the screw 33 in
turn fall into the feeding pipe 20. When the immovable seat 11 and
the sliding block 12 are completely combined, a blowing unit can be
implemented to give a high-pressure air to the blowing vent 13 so
that the screw 33 is pushed to advance along the feeding pipe 20 to
a power screwdriver (not shown).
[0027] Through the previous description, it is learned that each
time of said reciprocation of the distribution board 30 merely
allows one screw to be received and delivered to the feeding
device, so as to deliver the screws one by one to the screwdriver
with a predetermined time interval. The rail 44 aligns and levels
the screws in advance so that the screw can slide into the
receiving recess 32 of the distribution board 30 one by one.
According to specifications of the desired screws, the rail 40,
distribution board 30 and feeding device 10 can be properly
designed or replaced, thereby allowing the present invention to be
used with screws of various dimensions. The present invention is
particularly advantageous for being adaptive to very small
screws.
[0028] Although the particular embodiment of the invention has been
described in detail for purposes of illustration, it will be
understood by one of ordinary skill in the art that numerous
variations will be possible to the disclosed embodiment without
going outside the scope of the invention as disclosed in the
claims.
* * * * *