Patent GB-732771-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in and relating to the method of and apparatus for the finishing of glass and like bulbs
Inventor: KUBLIN WOOLF WALTER
IPC: H01K3/00
Filed: 1950-06-23
Abstract: <PICT:0732771/III/1> <PICT:0732771/III/2> <PICT:0732771/III/3> A method of finishing glass bulbs or like hollow objects comprises intermittently feeding the bulbs by their necks to a number of serially arranged working stations, holding the bulbs against advancement at each station, and working on the bulbs at the working stations so that in succession they are cleaned internally, coated or otherwise treated internally, cleaned externally, coated or otherwise treated externally, dried and finally cracked off their necks and removed from the machine, the necks or cullets being thereafter discharged from the machine.  In applying the method to the finishing of glass bulbs for Christmas trees the bulbs are filled internally first with a silver salt solution and then with a reducing agent to impart an internal mirrored surface, then given an external lacquer surface, and finally dried.  As shown in the drawings, the machine used comprises two pairs of sprocket wheels 12 round which two endless chains 16 pass, these being interconnected by transverse bulb-supporting bars.  A drive shaft 42 connected axially to a variable gear drive 44 of which the output shaft 46 is connected through a heliocentric reducer 48 and bevel gears 50, 52 to the sprocket-wheel shaft 14 via a cam-shaft 58 and mechanism controlled by cams 60, 62 which causes the drive to shaft 14 to be intermittent (see also Group XXX).  A cam-shaft 54-secured to shaft 46 extends over the machine's length, being fitted with cams at each working station.  The working stations of the machine are spaced at distances equal to or a multiple of the distance between each bulb bar and the first five stations at which the bulbs are washed internally with detergent, washed twice internally with water, filled with silver salt solution and filled with a reducing agent, have similar mechanisms.  The bulbs are turned over, emptied and turned back between each of these stations by cam-controlled mechanism action to rotate the bulb bars through 180 degrees (see Group XXX), and cam-operated mechanism shakes the bulbs before the silver-salt solution is emptied out.  When the bulbs are halted at the stations, liquid is ejected into each bulb through a number of pumps arranged above the bulb bars and secured to a pump transome which slides vertically in guides and is operated to cause nozzles to enter and leave the necks of the bulbs (see Group XXVIII).  At the stations for cleaning and externally-coating the bulbs, cams raise the baths containing the solutions for treating the bulbs and then lower them to draw off surplus liquid.  The bulbs then pass through a hot-air heated drying tunnel to a crack-off station.  Here the necks are heated by gas jets and then touched by a cold thin steel blade, both controlled by cam mechanism.  A shoot conveys the broken-off bulbs from the machine and the cullets are finally released from the bulb clamps by cam-operated unloading mechanism (see Group XXX). The method may be modified to impart "pearl" surfaces to the inside of bulbs by using a suitable corrosive substance and polishing the outside surfaces of such bulbs by passing them between rotating polishing heads.ALSO:In a machine for treating glass bulbs with external and internal coatings and the like, the bulbs are taken by a conveyer inter alia to a succession of stations where they are halted successively for the following treatments: washing internally with detergent, washing twice internally with water, filling with a silver salt solution and filling with a reducing agent.  Between the stations for the treatments, similar mechanisms are employed whereby the bulbs are turned over, emptied and turned back by cam-controlled mechanism which rotates the bulbs through 180 degrees (see Group XXX).  When the bulbs are halted at the stations, liquid is injected into each bulb through a number of pumps secured to a pump transome which slides vertically in guides and is operated to cause nozzles to enter and leave the necks of the bulbs (see Group XXVIII). Camoperated mechanism shakes the bulbs before the silver-salt solution is emptied out.