Patent GB-513608-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in and relating to machines for basing electric incandescent lamps or similar devices
IPC: H01K3/20
Filed: 1938-04-14
Abstract: 513,608. Making electric incandescent lamps and similar devices. BRITISH THOMSONHOUSTON CO., Ltd. April 14, 1938, No. 11591. Convention date, April 17, 1937. [Class 39 (ii)] A machine for fixing caps upon electric lamps &c. comprises a movable carrier provided with a series of heads which are advanced intermittently from one station to another, each head being provided with a holder for a lamp bulb with the sealed leading-in wires extending therefrom and means being disposed adjacent to the path of travel of the heads at successive stations for positioning the leads to enable one of them to be threaded through an aperture in an insulating plug in a lamp cap which is fed from a position adjacent to the path of the bulbs. The carrier 25, Fig. 1, is of the rotary turret type mounted on a vertical shaft 34 and provided around its periphery with work heads 26 at stations A to J. As the heads pass through stations A-C an operator places a lamp 35 within.a holder 39 in the head where it is herd by suction with. the neck upstanding. The leading- in wires 36, 37 extend outwardly from opposite sides of the lamp neck, and the wire 36 is placed above a V-notch in a post 40. During the indexing of the head from station C to D the lamp neck is gripped between jaws 42, 43 in the head which straighten the lamp and hold it during subsequent operations. At station D the wire 37, which is subsequently to be passed through the. centre hole in the cap, is straightened by jaws 60, 61 which are mounted on a slide 64 and are operated to grip the wire, whereupon the slide 64 is moved outwardly from the head 26. The jaws 60, 61 are each provided with blocks formed with V-notched ends which co-operate together in the wire, and each notch interlocks with a boss on the side of the other jaw. The backward movement of the jaws 60, 61 in combination with a flame from a burner 79 serves to straighten the wire 37. At station E the leads 36, 37 are bent by fingers which operate so that the lead 36 is bent downwardly adjacent to the bulbous portion of the lamp which will later be in contact with the rim of the cap, while the lead 37 is bent upwardly by a finger at the end of an oscillating arm. The lead 37 is further straightened at station F and set into position so that it will enter the central aperture of the cap which is to be fed thereon at station G. The caps 145 are placed in a circular hopper 146, Figs. 10 and 11, and are selected for feeding by a notched wheel 147 located at the bottom thereof, which is turned so that the caps are agitated and fall into notches 148 in the periphery of wheel 147. The wheel 147 is indexed in an anti-clockwise direction by a pawl 152 engaging the notches 148, the means for actuating the pawl comprising a rod 157 which is linked to a camactuated rocking device below the table 28. Due to the weight of the glass insulating plug in the bottom of each lamp cap the caps generally fall into the notches 148 with the plug lowermost, and the notches are carried under a partition 175 which pushes off any extra caps that may have been caught on the wheel. The cap then passes before a resilient finger 176 which engages the outermost pin on the cap and rotates the latter into a predetermined position, after which it is indexed before a slide 177<1> which is moved inwardly to hold it while a pin 178, Fig. 12, is lifted to clear foreign matter, such as a burr of insulation from the hole therein. In the next indexing movement the cap is carried above a plunger 197 which is moved upwardly to push the cap out of the wheel 147 through a die 198 and into an arcuate channel 199, Fig. 10, in a circular or wheel bracket 200. Means are provided to ensure that caps which, due to some imperfection &c. do not register with the die. fall back again into a notch in the wheel. Inverted caps do not enter the die but axe indexed further on and ejected by a reciprocating pin 203, Fig. 12. The channel 199, Figs. 10 and 11, is formed with a groove to receive one of the cap pins and is entered by friction pin 207 on a blade spring 208 which prevents the lowermost cap from falling back. Succeeding caps force the caps already in the channel 199 towards a portion thereof where they are struck by an air jet from a pipe 209 and are blown along in the channel until stopped by encountering caps at the other end thereof. A feeler 212 mounted on one arm of a rocking-lever 213 is lifted intermittently above the path of the caps, the other end of the lever being connected by a link 219 to means for throwing the cap-feeding mechanism out of engagement to stop the supply of caps. The caps pass down the forward part of the channel 199 under gravity until engaged by a block in an escapement mechanism controlled by a lever 226, Fig. 10, which is actuated by an abutment screw 229 on a rocking-lever 230. The cap then falls between a pair of jaws mounted on a vertically reciprocating slide above one of the stationary positions G of a bulb-carrying head, whereupon the slide is lowered and simultaneously the upstanding leading-in wire 37 of the lamp is gripped between a pair of lateral arms on jaws 260, 261 which hold it accurately so that it enters the central aperture in the lamp cap, which is allowed to drop on to the wire-engaging arms. The slide moves upwardly for another cap, and the cap is allowed to drop on to the jaws which hold the lamp bulb in the turret. At the next indexing position, H, the cap is lifted between a pair of jaws and held while a small notch is cut in its rim to receive the laterally projecting leading-in wire 36 and allow the rim to seat firmly on the lamp bulb. The notching device comprises a die 310, Fig. 17, which is moved laterally by a link 315 to engage the rim 280 of the lamp cap, whereupon a blade 318 mounted on a slide 317 on the die 310 is operated by further movement of the link 315 to notch the cap. The die next moves away from the. cap and the jaws 42, 43 holding the bulb on the turret head are opened to allow the cap to drop on to the bulb, whereupon these jaws close upon the cap, which now has the leading-in wires 36, 37 located in the notched rim and central aperture, respectively. At station I the head 26 is located before mechanism which operates only to remove a lamp when it does not carry a cap. The lamps 35 with caps 145 thereon are unloaded automatically from the machine at station J, and placed in a capping machine which is located adjacent to it and is preferably of the type described in Specification 247,923, [Class 39 (ii)]. The unloading mechanism comprises a swinging arm 371 provided at its ends with two pairs of jaws which grip, respectively, upon the leading-in wires 36, 37 and thereby support the bulb and cap during travel from station J to station K, where the jaws open and the cap and bulb are released into a head of the capping device. The various automatic movements of the machine are controlled by a series of cams upon shafts located below the machine table 28.