Patent GB-378517-A (GB)
Title: Process and apparatus for scoring and snapping flat glass automatically
IPC: C03B33/10
Filed: 1931-05-15
Abstract: 378,517. Cutting flat glass. PILK. INGTON BROS., Ltd., 631, Tower Building, Water Street, Liverpool, and WALDRON, F. B., Norwood, Eccle#ton Park, Prescot, Lancashire. May 15, 1931, No. 14410. [Class 56.] Relates to an automatic apparatus for cutting sheet glass in which the glass is scored by movement relative to a cutting device, and consists in providing two members, one'on each side of the glass, adapted to apply a bending moment along the line of the score at the finishing end to snap the glass. The sheet of glass 4, Fig. 1, is supported on a table 1 that is movable beneath a frame 8, a straight edge 5 being attached to the table to engage one edge of the glass sheet. The cutting device 6, which is of the type described in Specification 355,928, is carried on cross rods 7 attached to the frame 8. The upper member of the snapping device consists of two wheels 13, Figs. 1 and 2, carried by a rod 10 which slides through an extension 11 on the cutting device and is fixed at any desired height by a set-screw 12. The wheels straddle the scored line 14 made on the glass by the cutter. The lower member of the snapping device consists of a plunger 15 which is mounted in a boss 16, formed on the underside of the table at a point immediately in front of the straight edge 5. The upper end of the plunger normally is flush with the surface of the table immediately below the line 14 scored on the glass. A cam 18 is pivoted on a rod 19 fixed to the frame and is prevented from moving to the right, from the position shown, by a stop 20. The cam engages the plunger 15, when this comes below the wheels 13, and forces it upwards to raise the glass. The plunger then co-operates with the wheels 13 to exercise a bending moment on the glass at the scored line 14 near the finishing end and snaps the glass. In a modified construction, the rollers 13 are mounted eccentrically on their axle and are so weighted that the portion of smaller radius is normally in the lowest position. When the glass is raised into contact with the wheels, they rotate as the glass travels, and being eccentrically mounted, they exercise a pressure on the glass. The upper member may consist of a single roller when the scored line is made above one of the sides of the table, and, in this case, the glass sheet is held in contact with the table by means of suckers. The roller may be eccentrically mounted on a pin 23, Fig. 6, which is secured eccentrically to two discs 30 adapted to turn in a yoke 31. An arm 32, secured to the pin 23, is engaged by one end of a lever 33 which is pivoted on the yoke 31. The other end of the lever carries a roller 36 which is pressed downwards by a spring 37. Assuming the glass to be moving to the left in Fig. 6, the roller 36, as soon as it runs off the edge of the glass sheet 4, moves downwards and brings the roller 13 into contact with the glass so that it rolls and exercises pressure on the glass. The lower member with this arrangement may be a fixed support. The wheel 36 also serves to vary the height of the roller 13 according to the thickness of the glass. The table 1 may be replaced by a travelling table of the continuous band type, and either the lower or upper member of the device may be brought into operation by means of an electromagnet. The device may also be arranged to work with glass moving vertically instead of horizontally.