Patent GB-375216-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in or relating to can closing machines
IPC: B21D51/32
Filed: 1931-12-24
Abstract: 375,216. Preserving food. ARMSTRONG, J. J. V., 12, Church Street, Liverpool.-(Continental Can Co., Inc. ; 100, East 42nd Street, New York, U.S.A.) Dec. 24, 1931, No. 35647. [Class 49.] A machine for closing filled cans in a chamber which may be placed under vacuum, and having a rotatable pocket valve closing said chamber, is provided with a series of devices travelling in a circular path for removing cans from the pockets of the valve for delivery to a closing unit in the chamber and for replacing cans in the pockets after closure for conveyance out of the chamber. As shown, the filled cans, having their ends loosely attached, are fed along a table 23 by a conveyer 24 and swept by a rotating arm 25 into a pocket 26 of a clockwise rotating valve 27. When the pocket coincides with the receiving-opening 30 of the chamber 3, the can is removed therefrom by one of a series of pins 70 mounted for vertical reciprocation in a travelling ring conveyer 67 which runs in a channel in the machine frame. Each pin carries a stud 71 on which is mounted a roller 72 which runs between cams 73, 74. The can is swept around to where a turret 80 removes it to a support 16 in the seaming unit. The means for closing the cans may be of any well-known type ; as shown the end is secured to the can by double seaming. The cans are rotated, whilst being seamed, to a position where they are swept from the seaming unit by a turret 84 into the path of the pins 70 and discharged through the opening 31 into a pocket of the valve 27, being crowded therein by a rotating arm 87, and later swept on to the conveyer by an arm 88. When a can is being thus discharged a slot 76a in the valve coincides with the slot 76 in which the pins move, and the pin engaging the can is submerged beneath the valve can support by the cams 73, 74, and moves in the slot 76a which is so curved that the pin will have a free movement, although the valve and pins are turning about different centres. When the pin reaches the point a, Fig. 5, it is raised and passes through a groove in the centre of the valve into another slot 70a, and so engages another unseamed can. All moving parts communicate with a gear 90, which is bolted to a sleeve 106 rotatably mounted on the shaft 18. The shaft 18 is driven by worm gearing from the main shaft. The gear 90 is driven from the shaft 18, through three yielding V-shaped latchpins 113 which fit into three V- shaped recesses in a ring 107 secured to the sleeve 106. Rotating with the shaft 18 is a control bar 118 which passes through the upper end of a rod 119 and rests on the raised parts of a control cam ring 120, bolted to the sleeve 106. If one of the moving members of the machine jams, the gear 90 will stop and the pins 113 will be forced down the inclined faces of the ring 107, the sleeve 18 continuing its rotation. The rod 118 thus drops off the raised parts of the ring 120, and, through the rod 19 and an arm 128, closes a mercury switch and energizes a solenoid 140. The resulting motion of the solenoid core through a link 151 rotates a disc 134 about its pivot 135 until the point of attachment 133 of another link 131 is moved past its dead centre the spring 137 continuing the movement. The arm 131, which is connected to the clutch and brake mechanism, Fig. 2 of the machine by a rod 7, is thus moved to the right, the brake 139 is applied and the clutch 6 disengaged, and the machine stopped. The disc may also be rotated manually by the handle 136. This clockwise movement of the disc results also in cutting off the solenoid current, an arm 155 on the disc engaging a lug 156 and releasing a switch 153. Specification 342,457, [Group XXII], is referred to.