Abstract: Plates, especially glass sheets, are fed for sorting to a putting-up machine wherein a glass sheet is set upright against a wall in front of which the glass sheet is held in a determined position by an air flow provided by a blower. One glass sheet at a time is withdrawn from this position and pulled into a sorting carriage by nippers. The sorting carriage is then displaced in front of a compartment carriage and the glass sheets contained in the sorting carriage are pushed out by the nippers and inserted into the corresponding compartment of a compartment carriage. The installation has a simple construction, works particularly efficiently and takes optimally care of the glass sheets.

Abstract: The flat stock (7) to be cut by means of a cutting head (8) rests on a grate of supporting arms (5) which are hinged on a shaft (4). By lowering groups of supporting arms (5) or all present supporting arms, cut pieces or residual skeletons, respectively, can be released and are allowed to drop onto a conveyor belt (22) for disposal. Each of said supporting arms (5) is connected to a control rod (11) which is capable of being reciprocated by means of a slider (20) comprising a pneumatic actuating cylinder (21) in order to couple a coupling tooth (18) either to a stationary holding beam (12) or to a coupling ledge (14a) of a vertically displaceable driving beam (14). A common drive for a plurality of supporting arms (5) is thus provided, and merely a coupling unit for each supporting arm is necessary.

Abstract: The supporting grate of a laser cutting machine is formed of swinging supporting arms which are swung from a horizontal supporting position to a lowered intermediate position or to a completely lowered, approximately vertical position. When the laser beam is travelling through their area, individual supporting arms are lowered to the intermediate position so as not to disturb the cutting operation, to avoid damages of the supporting arm and to prevent damages of the underside of the workpieces by reflections of the beam. Cutout pieces are continually removed by lowering the supporting arms under said pieces so that said pieces are dropped onto a conveyor belt and carried off. As soon as all pieces are cut out, all supporting arms are lowered, whereby the remaining grid is dropped onto the conveyor belt and can be carried off. A coordinated program control for the displacement of the cutting head and the movement of the supporting arms is provided.

Abstract: Roughly precut glass plates are delivered to a cutting and breaking station where they are cut and broken while invariably mounted. For this purpose, a processing head having a cutting head and a mechanical or thermal breaking system is provided which in a sequence of operations produces a cutting line and relief incisions and then breaks off the plate edges extending on the outside of said cutting line. As the plate is cut to shape, it is transferred, in a predetermined position, to a grinding station, where the plate edge is ground. Effecting the cutting and the breaking operation in one location allows a considerable simplification of the installation and an improved utilisation of all parts of the system. Positioning by means of stops as well as conversions of breaking tool adjustments for different plate shapes are no longer necessary. Programming of the various processing operations is particularly simple.

Abstract: To cut out workpieces from a sheet iron plate, the sheet iron plate is fed at first to a stamping and/or nibbling station in which stamping and nibbling operations ar executed. The sheet iron plate premachined in this way is then fed by means of transportation and buffer devices to a laser beam cutting machine in which longer, more complicated contours are cut out and the workpieces are cut out free from the sheet iron plate. During all cutting processes by means of the laser beam, the sheet iron plate remains stationary so that no problems arise with the handling of the cut free workpieces and the residual grid. Both existing machines can machine independently from each other for special works or can be utilized together for the successive machining of the same sheet iron plate, whereby buffers serve to store the sheet iron plates when e.g. the cycle time of the stamping and nibbling machine is higher than the cycle time of the laser beam cutting machine.