AU594844B2

AU594844B2 - Surface treatment of articles

Info

Publication number: AU594844B2
Application number: AU82271/87A
Authority: AU
Inventors: Jeffrey Dudley Jones
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1986-12-12
Filing date: 1987-12-09
Publication date: 1990-03-15
Anticipated expiration: 2007-12-09
Also published as: AU8227187A

Description

AUSTR ALIA Patents Act 594844 COMPLETE SPECIFICATION

(ORIGINAL)

Class Int. Class Application Number: Lodged: 9 *9 9* 9 9* 9 9 9 *9 9 9* .9 999 9 9 *9 *9 9 9 Complete Specification Lodged: Accepted: Published: Priority Related Art: This docu it jo-tains We ain-1fedments made inci: Section 49 and is correct' ii\i prin ing.

APPLICANT'S REF.: CAP of PH9481 Name(s) of Applicant(s): JEFFREY DUDLEY JONES Address(es) of Applicant(s): Actual Inventor(s): Address for Service is: Corner Seaforth Street Seabreeze Parade, North Shore, Geelong, Victoria 3214, Australia.

JEFFREY DUDLEY JONES PHILLIPS, ORMONDE AND FITZPATRICK Patent and Trade Mark Attorneys 367 Collins Street Melbourne, Australia, 3000 Complete Specification for the invention entitled: SURFACE TREATMENT OF ARTICLES The following statement is a full description of this invention, including the best method of performing it known to applicant(s): P19/3/84 This invention relates generally to surface treatment of articles, and in particular to apparatus for holding and transporting those articles during their surface treatment.

The apparatus is applicable for use in hot dip galvanising or other coating of small discrete articles such ns nails and the like, and it will be convenient to hereinafter disclose the invention in relation to that exemplary application. It is to be appreciated, however, that the invention is not limited to that application, Hot dip galvanizing is a process particularly suited to applying a protective metal coating on small articles, such as bolts, nuts, nails and screws. In this process, the articles to be galvanized are dipped in the series of chemical S treatment material baths as well as at least one bath of molten zinc or other suitable metal for coating the article.

The dipping process can be carried out by hand, but as well as being potentially dangerous to the worker, hand dipping is time consuming and generally inefficient.

Apparatus has been developed to facilitate the process.

One such apparatus, as disclosed in Australian patent 542552, includes a barrel in which the articles are loosely contained for dipping and subsequent spinning to remove any excess coating treatment material from the articles. Even with this

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apparatus, however, the process is labour intensive and generally inefficient.

It is the object of the present invention to provide an oo S apparatus for holding and transporting articles during their surface treatment, which is applicable to hot dip galvanizing 0S@*S@ S articles, to improve the efficiency of surface treatment.

With this object in mind, the present invention provides an apparatus for holding and transporting a plurality of discrete articles during dip treatment of those articles in a bath of treatment liquid, including: a receptacle for loosely containing articles during dip treatment, the receptaclc, having openings therein for free flow of treatment liquid into the receptacle when lowered into the liquid and out of the receptacle when raised out of the liquid; support means for the receptacle, the support means having a drive shaft arranged in an upright orientation with the receptacle 2 LL-* -L-8 I_ -L II connected to a lower end of the shaft, the drive shaft being rotatable about a longitudinal axis to spin the receptacle and being longitudinally movable for lowering and raising the receptacle respectively into and out of the bath of treatment liquid, the support means also having a support arm carrying the drive shaft and being movable for laterally shifting the receptacle toward and away from the bath; and, drive means for rotating the drive shaft about its longitudinal axis, rotation of the drive shaft when the receptacle is raised out of the treatment liquid causing the receptacle to spin so as to remove any excess treatment liquid from the articles contained therein about the upright axis.

Preferably, the receptacle is a basket, having one or more walls composed of perforated sheet or mesh material providing the openings for free flow of treatment liquid.

Moreover, the support arm is preferably mounted for pivotal movement about an upright axis remote from the drive S. shaft to arcuately move the drive shaft and thereby laterally S shift the receptacle.

The support means may further include a guide sleeve in which the drive shaft is rotatably mounted. The guide sleeve S may be longitudinally slidably mounted on the support arm so that sliding movement of the guide sleeve longitudinally moves the drive shaft. The drive means may include a drive motor carried by the guide sleeve for movement therewith and S" connected to the drive shaft to rotate that shaft.

The following description refers to a preferred embodiment of the apparatus of the present invention. To facilitate an understanding of the invention, reference is made in the description to the accompanying drawings showing a side elevation of the apparatus. It is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the embodiment as hereinafter described and as illustrated.

Referring to the drawing there is generally illustrated apparatus 1 for holding and transporting discrete articles, At 3

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such as nails, (not shown) while they undergo surface treatment in one or more baths B of the treatment liquid.

Although only one bath B is shown it should be appreciated that two or more baths B may be arranged to receive the articles in succession during a treatment process. Typically, those baths B will be positioned in a side-by-side arrangement adjacent apparatus i, as will become more apparent hereinafter.

Apparatus 1 includes receptacle 2 in which the articles are loosely contained. Receptacle 2 includes basket 3 preferably made from perforated sheet or mesh material, such as metal, having openings therein for free flow of treatment liquid into and out of basket 3. Basket 3 has an access S: opening (not shown) at the top thereof for loading and unloading basket 3 with articles. Conveniently basket 3 is of circular cross-section.

Apparatus 1 also includes support means 4 through which receptacle 2 is transported. Support means 4 is broadly constructed and arranged to position basket 3 in and retrieve receptacle 2 from baths B.

Support means 4 includes drive shaft 5 orientated at least substantially vertically and being rotatable about longitudinal axis 6. At lower end 7 of shaft 5 there is provided coupling means (not shown) through which receptacle 2 is connected to shaft 5 for rotation therewith about axis 6.

Shaft 5 is carried by support art 8 included within support means 4. In particular, support arm 8 has one free end 9 at which shaft 5 is mounted, with other end 10 of arm 8 being pivotally mounted for swinging, about upright pivot axis 11, in a horizontal plane to effect arcuate movement of drive shaft 5 and thus lateral shifting of receptacle 2. With this arrangement a plurality of baths B are usually positioned along an arcuate line equidistant from pivot axis 11 so as to enable shifting of receptacle 2 to each bath B.

Support arm 8 is mounted on base structure 12 included in apparatus 1 to elevate arm 8 so that, in use, the horizontal plane in which arm 8 can move is above the top of baths B. The elevation is preferably sufficient to allow a clearance between baths B and receptacle 2 when raised to 39 permit receptacle shifting toward and away therefrom. A motor 4 (not shown) may be housed within base structure 12 and connected directly or indirectly to support arm 8 for pivoting same.

Drive shaft 5 is also longitudinally movable along axis 6 in order to raise and lower receptacle 2 relative to bath B. The drawing shows receptacle 2 in a raised position (full line) and a lowered position (chain dot line). For that purpose support means 4 includes guide sleeve 13 slidably mounted in guide block 14 at one end 9, and rotatably housing drive shaft 5. In this way, shaft 5 can be rotated about axis 6 relative to sleeve 13 in order to rotate receptacle 2, and guide sleeve 13 together with shaft 5 can be longitudinally moved up and down so as to raise and lower receptacle 2.

To effect rotation of shaft 5, apparatus 1 includes drive means 15. Drive means 15 includes drive motor 16 mounted on guide sleeve 13 for longitudinal movement therewith and drivingly coupled directly (not shown) or indirectly (as shown) to shaft 5. Coupling of motor 16 and shaft 5 may be by 0.

way of drive transmission 17, such as pulleys 18 fixed on 24. motor output shaft 19 and drive shaft 5 and belt interconnecting those pulleys 18. Motor 15 is typically an S electrically driven motor. Other motor and transmission arrangements are envisaged as will be appreciated by those skilled in this art.

age 0 o Longitudinal movement of guide sleeve 13 and drive shaft is controlled by actuating member 21. Actuating member 21 preferably includes piston and cylinder actuator 22 mounted parallel to axis 6 and connected directly or indirectly to sleeve 13 and shaft 5. Cylinder 23 of actuator 22 is rigidly mounted at or adjacent one end 9 of support arm 8 while piston rod 24 projects downwardly therefrom and is connected to sleeve 13 or shaft 5 at or adjacent lower end 7 through bracket 25. In this way, extension and retraction of piston rod 24, during actuator operation, acts to vertically move sleeve 13 and shaft 5 and thus lower and raise receptacle 2, respectively. Actuator 22 may be hydraulically or pneumatically operated, To fully automate apparatus operation, an industrial 39 robot may be incorporated into the apparatus, the arm of the KW I 1 I

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robot providing support arm 8. The operating sequence of apparatus 1 may be controlled by the logic circuits of that robot. Control panel 26 may be provided on base structure 12 for controlling operation of motor 16 and actuator 22, as well as movement of support arm 8.

In using the above described apparatus for hot dip galvanizing articles, a series of baths B (one only shown) containing the prerequisite chemical treatment liquids and metal coating liquids are placed in the correct sequential order of dipping along an arcuate line extending about apparatus base structure 12. The radius of the arcuate line is approximately the distance from pivot axis 11 of support arm 8 to longitudinal axis 6 of drive shaft 9* With receptacle 2 containing articles to be galvanized it is raised with drive shaft 5 and guide sleeve 13 by operation of actuator 22, and support arm 8 is swung about pivot axis 11 to bring receptacle 2 over baths B stopping above each bath B in sequence. At each bath B, receptacle 2 Sis lowered into bath B for article treatment with the contained liquid. Thereafter, receptacle 2 is raised from the t.

liquid and, while remaining over that bath B, rotated to 9* return any excess liquid to the bath. In this way, apparatus 1 operates to transport the articles through baths B while they are retained in receptacle 2.

It is to be understood that various modifications and/or 00 alterations may be made to the apparatus without departing from the ambit of the present invention as defined in the claims appended hereto.

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Claims

2. Apparatus as claimed in claim i, wherein the receptacle is a basket having one or more walls composed of perforated sheet or mesh material providing the openings for free flow of S the treatment liquid. ooooo S 3. Apparatus as claimed in claim 1 or 2, wherein the support arm is mounted for pivotal movement about an upright axis remote from the drive shaft to arcuately move the drive shaft and thereby laterally shift the receptacle.
4. Apparatus as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the support means further includes a guide sleeve in which the drive shaft is rotatably mounted, the guide sleeve being longitudinally slidably mounted on the support arm so that sliding movement of the guide sleeve longitudinally moves the drive shaft. Apparatus as claimed in claim 4, wherein the drive means includes a drive motor carried by the guide sleeve for movement therewith and connected directly or indirectly to the KW 7 L b _1 IC drive shaft to rotate same.
6. Apparatus as claimed in any preceding claim, and further including an actuating member carried by the support arm and connected directly or indirectly to the drive shaft, the actuating member being operable to longitudinally move the drive shaft.
7. Apparatus for holding and transporting a plurality of discrete articles during dip treatment of those articles in a bath of treatment liquid, substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawing. DATED: 1 December, 1989 PHILLIPS ORMONDE FITZPATRICK Attorneys for: JEFFREY DUDLEY JONES 3460E 0 0 S.. 60 0i 8