Abstract: The invention concerns a kinematic system of an industrial robot and a sequential control system of its operating cycle.The robot comprises a vertical spindle supporting a main rotating arm and a forearm fixed to a gripping component. A first vertical transfer jack is provided at the end of the forearm. Arms are mounted via bearings on a loose spindle in a link and can swivel, driven by servo-motors in a horizontal plane so as to form a kinematic system functioning in cylindrical coordinates. The servo-motors are programmed to drive the gripping component through a linear trajectory at the beginning of the cycle. A releasable couping system with memory device is provided for the tool-holder. The controller control system is arranged to ensure the transitory readjustment of each arm to a starting position.

Abstract: A transfer device for an industrial robot includes two members, preferably having tubular shapes, the first member being extendable and/or retractable over a certain distance and a second member, preferably telescopically coupled to the first member, which is extendable and/or retractable over substantially the same distance with respect to the first member so that the second member is extendable and/or retractable over about twice the distance the first member is moved with respect to a fixed reference point. The device further comprises a support on which the first member is mounted, first drive apparatus for extending and/or retracting the first member with respect to the support and second apparatus for extending and/or retracting the second member with respect to the first member.

Abstract: Each column of a press comprises a core rod 2 slidably surrounded by a sleeve 3. The tightening jack 10 associated with the column in question acts on the mobile plate 8 to tighten the mould 11, 12. The upper plate 4 transmits the reaction to the auxiliary jack 5-6 which, bearing on the core 2, applies to the plate 4 a force equal to that developed by the auxiliary jack. In this way the sleeve is theoretically subjected to no effort. The jacks 9, 10 and 5-6 may be supplied in parallel. If the tightening jack 9-10 is not coaxial to the column, one may be content with an approximate solution, or one may use as auxiliary jack a multiple jack in tandem, suitably supplied, or the deformations of the sleeve may be detected and the auxiliary jack controlled so that it cancels them.

Abstract: A fibrous web carried by a thin film disposed on a conveyor passes under a number of spray tubes which pour thereon a plastic material in liquid form which has been de-gassed under vacuum in a gas eliminating apparatus. The liquid absorbs gases from the fibres and overflows laterally into a lower trough from which it is recycled into the gas eliminating apparatus. The web is thus progressively de-gassed and impregnated with de-gassed plastic material. It is then covered by another thin film to form a sandwiched complex product for further operations.

Abstract: In the continuous casting of metals by means of a water-cooled tubular mold into which the molten metal is fed by means of a refractory pouring nozzle which opens in the molten metal bath below a supernatant protective layer of fusible slag, automatic control of the molten bath level is obtained by forming an image of the upper portion of the mold with the pouring nozzle and the slag layer by means of an optical instrument, by disposing a plurality of photo-electric cells on this image along a line substantially coincident with the axis of the nozzle on the said image, some of said cells being on the image of said nozzle and others on the image of the slag layer, by determining the radiation gradient between the successive cells along said line, by taking as the analog of the level of the molten metal bath within the mold the zone of said line where said gradient reverses and by deducing a controlling signal from the position of said zone along said line.

Abstract: In a molding press having short-stroke high-power mold-clamping hydraulic rams (9) disposed around the free end of each of its guiding columns (3), the cylinder (21) of each of these rams is fixed to a platen (7) which is movable with respect to the columns (3), while its tubular piston rod (16) through which the corresponding column extends has at its free end a locking device (11) including semi-circular keys 12 which may be selectively engaged into one of a number of successive circular grooves (3b) formed in the column to lock rod (16) therewith. A second locking device (132) of quite similar construction is provided between cylinder (21) and platen (7) to selectively lock the latter with the column, the keys (112) of this second device cooperating with the same series of grooves (3b) as the first one.