Patent GB-562327-A (GB)
Title: Improvements relating to machines for working tubular glass blanks
IPC: C03B23/11
Filed: 1943-02-02
Abstract: 562,327. Glass manufacture. ELECTROLUMINATION, Ltd., and KEPHART, A. T. Feb. 2, 1943, No. 1739. [Class 56] [Also in Group XI] Relates to a machine of the kind described in Specification 271,972, [Class 56], for parting and bottoming glass tubes in the manufacture of phials. According to the present invention, the tubes are conveyed one at a time from a magazine to the working position by a carrier composed of notched discs rotating step by step, instead of the chain conveyer described in the earlier Specification. Means for adjusting the positionof a tube in the working position and for adjusting the burners laterally of the machine are also described. The magazine for the tubes comprises sloping side members 20, Fig. 1, down which the tubes 17 tend to roll under the control of a pair of gates 18, 19 which are withdrawn alternately to release a tube. The support of one of the gates may carry a resilient plate which lifts and agitates the tubes in the magazine to prevent jamming. The carrier is formed by two pairs of parallel notched discs 38, 39, Figs. 1 and 3a, secured to a shaft 41 and rotated step by step by a Geneva gear 43, 51. A tube 17a, when released by the gate 19, rolls down and comes to rest in aligned notches 40 in the carrier and is conveyed by it to the working position. There the tube rests on freely rotatable rollers 58, arranged between each pair of discs 38, 39, and are pressed into contact with these rollers and rotated by discs 71. These discs are inclined at such an angle that the ends of the glass tube are urged in opposite directions. The glass tube while in rotation is heated at the middle part by two burners until the glass softens, when the ends are drawn apart by the discs 71 and forced into contact with abutments 92. The abutments are moved horizontally by cams 111 in such a manner that the tube ends are completely separated. They are then moved inwards to flatten the closed bottoms of the short tubes by contact with patters 98, Fig. 1, as described in the earlier Specification. Finally, the bottomed tubes are discharged into a shoot 42. The rollers 58, 59 are carried by a frame 60, Fig. 7, one end of which is provided with a screw 64 which rests on the table 68 of the machine. The screw 64 enables the height of the glass tube 17 in the working position to be adjusted. The other end of the frame is pivoted on a shaft 62 which is provided with eccentric trunnions 69 that are clamped in bearings 67. By rotating the shaft by hand and locking it in position, the position of the rollers 58, 59 can be adjusted horizontally. The tubes are heated by two groups of three gas burners. Each burner consists of a hollow box 120, Fig. 11, the top of which is provided with perforations through which the gas escapes, the burning gas being blown into an elongated jet by compressed air from a nozzle 120. The supply of.gas and air is controlled by a valve 139, Fig. 1; operated by a cam. Each group of burners is carried on a support 124 which slides laterally in guides 125 on a block 126. A screw 127 passes through a bore partly in the support 124 and partly in the block 126. The part in the support 126 is threaded and is engaged by the screw which is prevented from moving longitudinally by another screw 129. Thus rotation of the screw 127 causes the support 124 to move to and fro along the block 126 and enables the part of the tube which is heated by the burner flames to be adjusted.