Patent GB-242982-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in machines for shaping members, such as wires or the like, projecting from a glass stem, for use, for example, in vacuum tubes or the like
IPC: H01J19/66
Filed: 1925-11-07
Abstract: 242,982. British Thomson-Houston Co., Ltd., (Assignees of Raus, A., and Isaac, E. B.). Nov. 12, 1924, [Convention date]. Filaments, supports for; leading-in wires. - An automatic machine for shaping and cutting supports projecting from a glass stem, for use in lamps having one or more filaments, has a turret or other movable carrier with a workholder for receiving a stem, and shaping and cutting mechanism operated as the work-holder registers therewith. Fig. 1 shows a plan and Fig. 2 a sectional elevation of a machine for shaping and cutting the supports for the electrodes of a vacuum tube. At the positions A, B, C the stems are inserted or removed, at D the anode supports 26, Fig. 14, are bent, at E the filament support 29 and the filament leads 28 and grid supports 27 are cut to size, and at H the leads 28 and supports 27 are bent. The turret 10 is mounted on a hollow shaft 11 with bearings on tables 14, 15, and is rotated intermittently from a shaft 21 through an arm and a pin 18 engaging with slots in a disc 16. Each work-holder comprises pivoted jaws 30, 31, Fig. 3, which are closed by springs 36 and are locked during rotation of the turret by a spring-pressed wedge 37 engaging with extensions 38, 39. The jaws are released from the wedge in the positions A, B, C by a roller 42 mounted on the wedge and riding against a cam 44 on the table 14. The stem is clamped by a head 45 carried by a rod 46 on a block 47, which is slidably mounted on rods 48, 49 extending from a base 50. At the positions A, B, C the head is raised by a roller 51 engaging with a stationary cam 52. At the positions A, B, C the head is raised by a roller 51 engaging with a stationary cam 52. At the position D the head is forced down on the stem by springs 54, and two horizontal pins 57, 58, Fig. 7, are advanced into engagement with the anode supports 26, and are rotated so as to bend the supports against the jaws 30, 31 and stops 73. The pins 57, 58 are mounted on eccentrics 60, Fig. 6, on shafts rotating in a block 63, which is reciprocated by an eccentric 71 operated from the shaft 21. The shafts 60 are rotated by cranks 75 from links 78 connected to a cross-piece 79 on a plate 80 which slides in a member 81 secured to the block 63. The plate 80 is reciprocated by a rod 82 operated through cam mechanism from the shaft 21 against the action of a spring 88<1>. At the position F a reciprocating block 89, Fig. 9, is advanced towards the stem, and a roller 90 engages with and bends the filament support 29 towards a die on the work-holder. At the same time a pair of forked arms 94, 95 grip the filament leads 28 and grip supports 27 whilst their ends are sheared off. The arms 94, 95 extend from a spring-pressed holder 99 slidably - carried on a cover plate 100. The block 89 is reciprocated by an eccentric operated through a rod 108 and cam mechanism from the shaft 21. At the position H the filament leads 28 and grid supports 27 are bent to the shape shown in Fig. 17 by two pairs of pins, each pair being mounted on an eccentric which is reciprocated and rotated in a manner similar to that described with reference to Figs. 6, 7. As the turret rotates to the position A the jaws 30, 31 are unlocked and the head 45 raised to permit removal of the stem.