Patent GB-1271978-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in and relating to moulding apparatus
Inventor: NAKAI MIYOJI
IPC: H01M6/08
Filed: 1969-07-04
Abstract: 1,271,978. Compression moulding electric cells. MATSUSHITA ELECTRIC INDUSTRIAL CO. Ltd. 4 July, 1969 [4 July, 1968], No. 33846/69. Heading B5A. [Also in Division H1]  A depolarizer powder mixture is compression moulded within a preformed casing of an electric cell. The casing may be of ferromagnetic material, or of zinc, and the powder a mixture of manganese dioxide and carbon, and it is stated that a contact resistance of 0.2 to 0.3 ohm. is obtained between the depolarizer and the casing. A mercury cell may also be produced. It is stated that the moulding may be effected simultaneously with the insertion of the positive electrode elements. The moulding is effected on a machine including a rotary four armed horizontal table 13, provided with an aperture 14 having a liner 16 at the end of each arm thereof. The table 13 is secured to and indexed by a Geneva wheel 12 to locate each aperture 14 successively at four stations at which; (a) a casing 20 is transferred, by a vertically reciprocated plunger 24, with its closed end uppermost from a guide shoot 20 into an aperture 14 whereat, if made of ferromagnetic material, the upper face of the closed end of the casing 20 may be engaged by a magnet (56), Fig. 2 (not shown); (b) no operations are performed; (c) in the Fig. 1 embodiment, the outer face of the upper end of a casing is engaged by downward movement of an hydraulically reciprocable abutment 35, a tapered upper core portion of a vertically reciprocable spindle 26 is upwardly displaced from within a cavity 29 into abutment with the inner face of the closed end of the casing 20, and powdered depolarizer mixture 28 is then upwardly displaced from within the cavity 29 into, and compressed within, the casing 20 to form a tubular lining thereto, by upward displacement of an hydraulically vertically reciprocable sleeve 32 concentric with the spindle 26, entrapped air being vented by a passage 30 either extending through the spindle 26 or comprising a blind bore therein, the abutment 35 and spindle 26, followed by the sleeve 32, then being retracted, (d) the casing 20 is ejected into a delivery shoot 53, by downward displacement of a vertically reciprocable ejector 52. In an alternative embodiment, Fig. 12, the moulding is effected by forcing the easing downwardly by a plunger 35<SP>1</SP> from the aperture 14 into the cavity 29 filled with the powder, as the sleeve 32 and spindle 26 are upwardly displaced to compress the powder within the casing 20 and, after withdrawing the plunger 35<SP>1</SP>, the casing with the compacted lining is transferred back into the aperture 14 by upward displacement of the spindle 26. The liner 16 is retained within the aperture 14 between an upper liner flange (16a), Fig. 2 (not shown), and a lower liner clip (16b), a rubber washer (15) being interposed between the flange (16a) and the table (13). The cavity 29 is charged with the powder from a feed slide 46 attached to an arcuate plate 42 whereby it is arcuately reciprocated, during an indexing movement of the table 13, over a plate 47 between a position beneath a fixed powder hopper 45 and a position over the cavity 29, the slide 46 being provided with a sealing member (71), Fig. 3 (not shown), resiliently urged against the plate 47. The slide 46 is arcuately shaken and the spindle 26 is vertically reciprocated in a retracted position, during filling of the cavity 29, whereafter the spindle 26 is upwardly advanced to a position where the upper end thereof is level with the upper face of the cavity 29. The slide 46 is arcuately reciprocated from a gear segment 41 mounted on a shaft 39 which is reciprocated, via a spring biased arm 38, from a cam 9 on a machine cam-shaft 4, other cams whereon also vertically reciprocate, via spring biased lever connections, the plunger 24, the spindle 26, and the ejector 52, and the Geneva wheel 12 also being driven from a gear connection 11, 5, to the shaft 4.