This invention relates to the art of presses and, more particularly, to apparatus for feeding workpieces to a press work station and orienting the workpiece at the station for work to be performed on different portions of the workpiece.
The present invention find particular utility in connection with forging operations performed on large annular metal workpieces and, accordingly, will be described in detail hereinafter in connection with such use. At the same time, however, it will be appreciated that the apparatus can be employed in connection with workpieces other than annular workpieces and in connection with the performing of work other than forging operations on the workpiece.
Heretofore, in connection with the forging of large, heavy metal workpieces in the form of plates, discs and/or rings, the workpiece has been positioned in the press die space through the use of a crane or roller table. When so positioned, a portion of the workpiece is supported within the die space by the anvil of the press and the remainder of the workpiece is supported externally of the press by appropriate workpiece leveling devices associated with the press and/or the shop floor adjacent the press. During the forging operation, the leveling devices operate to maintain the workpiece in a level orientation relative to the forge tooling. When it is desired to perform forging operations on different portions of the same workpiece, the workpiece must be elevated following one forging operation and then reoriented relative to the die space to bring an unworked portion of the workpiece thereinto. In connection with such a reorientation which requires rotation of the workpiece in a horizontal plane, such rotation has been achieved manually heretofore utilizing levers suspended on chains from overhead cranes, and this operation not only requires a large number of personnel but also is very demanding physically and requires considerable time. Accordingly, if several forging operations are required with respect to a given workpiece, the cost of production is undesirably high as a result of both the time and number of personnel required to achieve such production.