Claims
- 1. A rivet feed chute for feeding a rivet around a small radius curve, comprising:
- a rivet guide shoe having a curved slot with an outside periphery, said outside periphery of said slot having an outwardly arched cross section slightly larger in width largest diameter section of said rivet, and constituting a sector of an annular curved guide surface around and along which said rivet slides in a path of travel along a curved axis of said outside periphery of said slot when fed into said slot, said slot having an inlet end into which rivets can be blown, and an outlet end out of which rivets emerge;
- a guide tube connected to said guide shoe at said outlet end of said slot, said guide tube having an inlet end and an exit end, and having an axial passage therethrough tangentially aligned with said curved axis of said slot, said axial passage having an internal diameter substantially equal to the width of said outwardly arched cross section of said slot;
- said guide tube having an ear which protrudes from said inlet end into said slot, said ear having a flared surface which tapers smoothly from the extreme end of said ear to merge with said axial passage through said guide tube.
- 2. A rivet feed chute as defined in claim 1, wherein:
- said outwardly arched cross section of said outside periphery of said slot is semi-circular and has a diameter substantially equal to said width of said outside periphery of said outwardly arched cross section.
- 3. A rivet feed chute as defined in claim 1, further comprising:
- means for blowing an annular curtain of air around the outside of said guide tube at said exit end thereof along said pt of said rivet travel to stabilize said rivet travel after exiting from said exit end of said guide tube and dynamically guide said rivet into a hole in a workpiece.
- 4. A rivet feed chute as defined in claim 3, further comprising:
- means for funneling said annular curtain of air radially inward toward said rivet.
- 5. A rivet feed chute as defined in claim 4, wherein:
- said funneling means is an inwardly tapering hole in a pressure foot attached to structure fixed adjacent to said exit end of said guide tube and aligned coaxially therewith.
- 6. A rivet feed chute as defined in claim 3, wherein said annular air curtain blowing means includes an air manifold around said guide tube upstream of said exit end, and means for blowing air into said manifold;
- whereby said air blown into said manifold exits said manifold in a uniform, smoothly flowing annular curtain of air along said guide tube to stabilize said rivet travel and dynamically guide said rivet into a hole in a workpiece.
- 7. A rivet feed chute for feeding a rivet around a small radius curve, comprising:
- a rivet guide shoe having a curved slot with an outside periphery, said outside periphery of said slot having an outwardly arched cross section slightly larger in width largest diameter section of said rivet, and constituting a sector of an annular curved guide surface around and along which said rivet slides in a path of travel along a curved axis of said outside periphery of said slot when fed into said slot, said slot having an inlet end into which rivets can be blown, and an outlet end out of which rivets emerge;
- a guide tube connected to said guide shoe at said outlet end of said slot, said guide tube having an inlet end and an exit end, and having an axial passage therethrough tangentially aligned with said curved axis of said slot, said axial passage having an internal diameter substantially equal to the width of said outwardly arched cross section of said slot;
- said guide tube being connected to said rivet guide shoe at said outlet end of said slot to receive rivets exiting from said outlet end and straightening said path of travel of said rivets.
- 8. A rivet feed chute as defined in claim 7, further comprising:
- an annular passage surrounding said guide tube adjacent said exit end thereof and connected to a source of air pressure for blowing an annular curtain of air around the outside of said guide tube at said exit end thereof along said path of said rivet travel to stabilize said rivet travel after exiting from said exit end of said guide tube and dynamically guide said rivet into a hole in a workpiece.
- 9. A rivet feed chute as defined in claim 8, further comprising:
- an inwardly tapering hole in a pressure foot attached to structure fixed adjacent to said exit end of said guide tube and aligned coaxially therewith for funneling said annular curtain of air radially inward toward said rivet.
- 10. A rivet feed chute as defined in claim 8, further comprising:
- an air manifold communicating with said annular passage around said guide tube and connected to said source of air pressure;
- whereby air blown into said manifold exits said manifold through said annular passage in a uniform, smoothly flowing annular curtain of air along said guide tube to stabilize said rivet travel and dynamically guide said rivet into a hole in a workpiece.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This is a division of U.S. application Ser. No. 07/632,445 filed on Dec. 21, 1990 and entitled "Drill/Rivet Machine", now abandoned.
US Referenced Citations (5)
Foreign Referenced Citations (1)
Number |
Date |
Country |
647582 |
Aug 1962 |
CAX |
Divisions (1)
|
Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
632445 |
Dec 1990 |
|