Importance

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Abstract

An apparatus for grinding annular workpieces has a predetermined number of grinding stations including an upstream station and a downstream station, the stations are spaced a predetermined distance from one another along a straight path, a holder at each of the stations for gripping and rotating the workpieces, a tool at each of the stations for grinding the respective workpiece held by the respective holder, and an input device adjacent the upstream station for feeding workpieces sequentially to the apparatus and an output device adjacent the downstream station for receiving workpieces from the downstream station. An elongated transport bar has the predetermined number of laterally and generally upwardly open seats including an upstream seat and a downstream seat with the seats spaced longitudinally apart on the bar by the predetermined distance. This bar is stepped through an arc between an upstream position with its upstream seat aligned with the input device to receive a workpiece therefrom and the others of its seats aligned with the grinding stations to position a workpiece held in the other seats in the respective station and a downstream position with its upstream seat aligned with the upstream station to supply to it the workpiece received from the input device and with its other seats aligned with stations downstream of the upstream station to supply to them the workpieces from the immediately upstream stations.

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First Claim