Patent GB-718939-A (GB)
Title: Tube transferring apparatus
IPC: H01J9/24
Filed: 1953-01-14
Abstract: 718,939. Endless conveyers. SYLVANIA ELECTRIC PRODUCTS, Inc. Jan. 14, 1953, [Jan. 19, 1952.] No. 1153/53. Class 78 (1). [Also in Group XI] Apparatus for transferring elongated tubular articles from one machine to another, e.g. transferring tubular fluorescent lamps 10 from the jaws 18 of the conveyer 20 of a mount-sealing machine 12 to the jaws 34 of an exhausting- machine 14 comprises a tube-gripping jaw 106, Fig. 3, pivotally mounted at one end of a transfer arm 16 which is reciprocated in a horizontal plane between the tube delivery station of the sealing machine 12 and the receiving station of the exhausting machine 14, and means for moving the tube vertically at the receiving station. The jaw 106 is pivoted at the entrance of a cavity 102 in a hollow block or head 15 which is secured at the end of the arm 16 slidably mounted within a channelled guide 38, Fig. 2, secured on the upper end of a fixed column 42. A vertical pin 54, Fig. 1, on the arm 16 is engaged within a slot 52 at the end of a lever 50 secured at the upper end of a vertical shaft 48 which is supported by a bracket 44 on the column 42 and provided at its lower end with an actuating-lever 56 which is linked to a cam actuated rocking-arm 58 whereby a reciprocating motion is imparted to the arm 16 and head 15. The front of the head is shaped at one side to form two inwardly directed horns 103 which co-operate with the movable jaw 106 in gripping a tube 10. The jaw is mounted on a pivot 108 and has a resilient detent comprising an engaging- roller 114 at the end of a spring-loaded pivoted arm 110. In the normal position of the apparatus the jaw 106 is held in the open position, shown in broken lines, by a fin member 124 on a block 122 carried at the end of a rod 120 that is slidable within a passage parallel with the base of the head 15, the action being such that when the sliding plate 16 is in its rearward position the rear end of the rod 120 bears upon the rear end of the guide channel 38 so that the fin 124 is pushed forwardly against the adjacent part of the jaw 106. When the slide 16 is pushed forward to take a tube from the conveyer 12, the abutment of the jaw against the tube causes the former to swing clockwise on its pivot whereupon the lower part of the jaw swings behind the roller 114, and a serration 107 on the rear edge of the jaw engages a locking device 126 located in a vertical housing 128 on the side of the head 15, as shown in Fig. 3. The locking device 126 comprises a vertical bar 130 which is spring loaded and pressed downwardly within the housing 128 and, in the normal open position of the jaw 106, receives the rear edge of the latter within a lateral recess intermediate the ends of the bar. The lateral recess in the bar communicates with a vertical slot in the latter, so arranged that when the jaw 106 is closed upon a' lamp tube on the conveyer 20 the serration 107 on the rear edge of the jaw becomes aligned with the vertical slot in the bar 130, whereupon the bar is moved downwardly by the spring pressure at its upper end and the serration 107 enters the vertical slot and locks the jaw. The tube thus gripped is withdrawn from the conveyer 12 when the arm 16 commences its return stroke and, on approching the loading station of the exhausting machine 14, the tube is engaged between pairs 93, 95 of resilient fingers while a roller n32 on the lower end of the bar 130 engages a cam track 142, thereby lifting the bar to bring the rear edge of jaw 106 within the recess in the bar so that the jaw can be pivoted into its releasing position as a result of continued rearward movement of the arm 16.