Cutter for wide flat bars

Claim 1

Apparatus for cutting wide flat bars, which bars may be of variable length, comprising: a supporting stand adapted to support at least two adjacent stacks of workpieces which are in the form of wide flat bars; a conveyor adjacent said supporting stand, said conveyor being adapted to convey flat bars in a given conveying direction; a cutting station including a cutting stand; means for feeding said flat bars at least one at a time from each of said stacks on said supporting stand onto said conveyor, said conveyor carrying flat bars thereon in said given conveying direction to said cutting stand at said cutting station, said feeding means including: feeder rods, each of said feeder rods comprising first and second pivotally connected members, and each of said first and second members including an engaging hook on its lower side for engaging a flat bar from one of said stacks; means for driving said feeder rods in a direction substantially transverse to said given conveying direction of said conveyor and across said stacks of flat bars on said supporting stand, each of said pivotally connected members of said feeder rods being mounted to engage and slideably feed the respective uppermost flat bars from said at least two stacks on said supporting stand in said substantially transverse direction to said conveyor and for then retracting said rods over said at least two stacks thereby feeding two bars to said conveyor substantially simultaneously; and means for raising said supporting stand after feeding of said uppermost flat bars from said at least two stacks so that the next uppermost flat bars are in position to be fed to said conveyor by said feeder rods; at least one automatically guidable cutter means at said cutting station for cutting a flat bar located on said cutting stand; and means for delivering cut flat bars from the cutting stand.