Patent GB-364501-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in the manufacture of electric incandescent lamps or the like articles
IPC: H01K3/28
Filed: 1931-06-04
Abstract: 364,501. Feeding lamp bulbs &c. to sealing-in &c. machines. GENERAL ELECTRIC CO., Ltd., Magnet House, Kingsway, London.-(Assignees of Patent Treuhand Ges. far Elektrische Gl³hlampen; 11, Ehrenbergstrasse, Berlin.) June 4,1931, No. 16273. Convention date, July 17, 1930. [Class 117.] A device for automatically feeding the bulbs of incandescent lamps &c. to sealing-in &c. machines comprises a table 11, Fig. 2, provided with rows of holes 12 in which the bulbs are seated, and movable in steps lengthwise and transversely through the distance between the holes, a vertically moving rod 83 which lifts the bulbs successively from the table, and a gripper device 108 which transfers the bulbs from the lifting rod to one of the heads 91 of a rotary sealing in machine. The table is slidable lengthwise in a frame 8 which is in turn slidable transversely on a stationary guide 3. The transverse movement is obtained by a block 5 working on a screwed spindle 6 which is driven alternately in opposite directions by pinions 33 at its ends actuated intermittently by levers 21, 34 and ratchet wheels 29. The levers are actuated alternately during successive halves of the revolution of a pin wheel 18 which is driven intermittently from the sealing- in machine by the gearing 14, 13, 15, 17. At the end of each transverse movement one of two pins 47 on the gear wheel 15 actuates a spring-pressed rod 52, Fig. 3, to rock a hinged transverse bar 56 provided with adjustable tappets 55 and actuate a spring-controlled lever 60 which engages a rack-bar 61 on the underside of the table and moves it through the distance between the rows. By the same movement a locking pin 72 is withdrawn from engagement with a recess 73 in the rack-bar by a pin 71 engaging a cam slot 69 in a slide 68 actuated by the link 65, lever 63 and the bar 56. In each adjusted position a spring pin 74 carried by the guides 8 engages a notch in the edge of the table 11. The lifting rod 83 which is cup-shaped at its upper end as shown in Fig. 5 is tubular and is connected by a flexible extension 84 to a suction device. Vertical movement is obtained by a rack 85 engaging a gear wheel 86. In order to hold the pedestal 78, 79, 80 in correct position the upper part of the lifting rod is made of magnetic material and forms the core of an electromagnet 89. The bulbs are held in the correct position in the seating holes by elastic cords 81. The gripper transfer device consists of a slide 97 carrying a pointed rod 111 on which is resiliently mounted a second slide 104 carrying pivoted grippers 108 normally closed by a spring 109. In the forward movement of the gripper to the sealing-in head, the slide is arrested by a stop 113 and the rod enters between lugs 110 to open the grippers. The rod is then connected rigidly to the slide by a spring catch 114. In the return movement, the grippers are thus held open, till the slide is again arrested by a stop 116 and the rod withdrawn from the lugs 110 and the grippers allowed to close over a bulb which has in the meantime been lifted into position by the rod 83.