Article transfer method

DETAILED DESCRIPTION The present invention pertains generally to automatically operable article transfer apparatus for transporting successive articles along an elevationally adjustable path of travel extending from one precisely located article loading station to another precisely located article unloading station and having intercooperating, selectively adjustable means for reorienting the position of each of such articles during the course of travel between such stations and to thereby deliver and deposit the articles in a precisely preselectable reoriented position at the work unloading station to which transported.
The apparatus is particularly suitable for the successive transfer of articles from a precisely fixed location or work loading station to a work unloading station at which the articles must be unloaded in a precisely reoriented position dictated by the operational characteristics of equipment located to receive the articles as they are discharged at the work unloading station.
In a particularly preferred embodiment, the present invention is characterized as apparatus for transferring hollow conically shaped objects such as the glass funnel components of a cathode-ray tube from a work loading station, which may be a fixed conveyor location, to a work unloading station where the next succeeding manufacturing operation requires a precise transpositional reorientation of the funnel when it is unloaded at the work unloading station.
The transfer apparatus is constructed and designed for automated overhead guided transfer movements along an elevated guide track of carrier means or shuttle means from which suspended transport means carries an article gripping chuck from a pickup station, or work loading station, such as a conveyor, to a work unloading station and after which the transfer apparatus automatically returns to its initial loading position at the work loading station.
The drive mechanism for transmitting forward and return movements of the carrier means along the guide track includes a motor driven crank arm acting through a pivotally mounted drive arm of adjustable stroke to shift the carrier assembly linearly along the guide track