PARTING DEVICE

1485168 Flying saws SCHUMAG SCHUMACHER METALLWERKE GmbH 25 Nov 1974 [4 April 1974] 50982/74 Heading B5L [Also in Division B3] A flying shear or saw comprises a tool slide, a drive arranged to impart to the slide a speed which, unless reduced by braking, exceeds the speed of the material to be cut, a member kept moving in the same direction and at the same speed as the material and an overrunning clutch between the slide and the member so as to prevent the slide from exceeding the speed of the material, while permitting the slide to lag behind the member. As shown, Fig. 1, a slide 2 is attached by a rope 19 to both sides of a piston 18 in a double-acting pneumatic cylinder 17. A chain 14, constantly driven in direction 52 at the speed of material 1 to be cut via gears 11, 12 and shaft 13, passes round a chain wheel 16 mounted on an overrunning clutch 25, Fig. 4, on the slide 2. The wheel 16 can rotate freely in the direction of arrow 54, on rotation in the opposite direction, the clutch engages. The shaft 13 may be the main shaft of the machine producing the material 1 and may also drive the parting tools. In use, compressed air is supplied at 28 to drive the slide, carrying a shear 23 or saw 22, along tracks 4 in the same direction as, but faster than, the material 1 and thus the chain 14. At the moment when the wheel 16 would reverse, the clutch 25 engages and holds the slide at the speed of the chain 14 until the piston stroke is reversed. The required stroke length of the slide is less for a shear than for a saw cut. The piston stroke is reversed when a contact registers the completion of a cut.