Patent GB-1256871-A (GB)
IPC: B28B11/04
Filed: 1968-02-09
Abstract: 1,256,871. Endless conveyers. STAFFORDSHIRE POTTERIES Ltd. 10 Feb., 1969 [9 Feb., 1968], No. 6599/68. Heading B8A. [Also in Division B2] Cups or other clayware are transported by an endless belt conveyer system through a spraying chamber 80 for receiving a coating of liquid such as glaze, coloured slip or colour in suspension. The cups are initially placed on a pair of belts 20 extending from a loading station to a roller 28 driven by a motor 30. The cups are centred on belts 20 by a pair of driven belts 40. The cups then pass to three belts 32 which extend about roller 28 and a first roller 36 and which accelerate or increase the separation between the cups which then pass to a pair of belts trained about two rollers 36. At the next stage the cups are conveyed through chamber 80 by two coated wire belts 22 trained about a roller 36 and a roller 44 driven by a motor 52 and a lower roller 46 located in an open tank 48. The cups pass into chamber 80 via a tunnel 150 and leave by a tunnel 152 opening into a larger tunnel 154. Each lateral side of chamber 80 is provided with two horizontal nozzles 82, 84 the front and rear of the chamber roof are provided with nozzles 86, 88 projecting downwardly in a plane extending along the path of travel of the cups, and the sides of the chamber roof are provided adjacent the tunnel 150, with two nozzles 90, 92, projecting downwardly and inwards. The nozzles are connected by flexible pipes 102 to a member 100 supplied by gravity with liquid from a header tank 106. The nozzles also receive compressed air at a pressure of about 25 lbs per square inch. The bottoms of the cups are coated by a fountain of liquid positioned between the belts 22 ahead of the jets 82, 84. A collector 118 below chamber 80 drains to a sump 116 and opens to an extractor pipe 120. Sump 116 receives liquid via a ball valve 122 from a storage tank 108. Liquid from sump 116 is delivered by a motor driven pump 126 via a filter or separator 112 to header tank 106. A pair of scraper blades (156), Fig. 3 (not shown), located between belts 22, one immediately after the nozzles 82, 84 and the other in tunnel 154, remove surplus liquid from the cup bottoms. The supports 160 for belts 22 have notched upper portions (162), Fig. 4 (not shown), in tunnel 154 whereat nozzles (164) direct compressed air on the exposed belts to remove liquid from the convolutions thereof. Drips from belts 22 are conveyed by troughs 50 to tank 48 containing cleansing liquid for the belts. From belts 22 the cups pass via a single belt 54 trained on rollers 44, 56 and driven by motor 52 to a broad belt 24 trained over upper rollers 60, 62 and a lower roller 64 situated in a tank 68. Belt 24 passes between the nip of roller 60 and a co-operating roller 176, both driven by motor 52, for squeezing from belt 24 the liquid absorbed thereby, and which is directed by a trough 178 into tank 68 containing cleansing liquid. An eccentrically-mounted roller 168, engaging the lower surface of belt 24 and driven by a motor 172, serves to vibrate belt 24 for wiping the bottoms of the cups thereon. The cups finally pass to a delivery belt 26 trained over an end roller 70. Pairs of rotatably-driven transfer discs 72 overlie the junctions of the belts 54, 24 and 24, 26.