Patent GB-137544-A (GB)
Title: Automatic machine for the manufacture of blown glass
IPC: C03B7/22
Filed: 1920-01-09
Abstract: 137,544. Lecoultre, E. Nov. 13, 1918, [Convention date]. Gathering molten metal; blowing; forming electric-lamp bulbs.-Relates to a multiple-head rotary automatic machine for blowing electric lamp bulbs. A number of blowpipes 42 are mounted on arms 16, which rotate about a central shaft 10. As each blowpipe makes one complete rotation round the machine the following operations are performed :-(1) The blowpipe is dipped into a tank P to gather the glass. (2) It is raised and the gather is mornered. (3) It is lowered and swung to elongate the gather. (4) The parison so formed is blown in a mould. (5) The pip of the blown bulb is drawn out for the attachment of the evacuating tube. (6) The bulb is severed from the tube. (7) The moil is removed from the end of the blowpipe. Each blowpipe 42 is carried by an arm 36 pivoted at 40 to one of the arms 16, which are loose upon the shaft 10 and supported at their outer ends by the casing 9. A cam-shaft 11 is driven at a constant speed by a motor 22 and, by means of a crank 25 and ratchet device, rotates intermittingly a toothed wheel 13 loose upon the shaft 10 and rotates the shaft 10 continuously by means of gearing 12, 12'. A detent 29, pivoted to each arm 16, and operated by a fixed cam 33, engages the teeth either of the wheel 13 or a wheel 14 fixed to the shaft 10, in the latter case causing the arm 16 to swing round with the shaft 10, and in the former case to remain at rest with the wheel 13 or swing forward with it at the increased speed. Each arm 36 is supported and swung about the pivot 40 by a fixed cam track 41 which has a gap at the gathering station. At this point, the arm 36 is supported by a lever 46 which is operated, through links 47, 50 and a bell-crauk lever 48, from a cam 49. The arm 36 is lowered, as shown, for the gathering operation, and is then raised in time to continue its travel along the cam track 41. The depth to which the blowpipe 42 is lowered is automatically increased, as the metal in the pot is used up, by a screw 52 which alters the effective length of one arm of the plate 48. The gather is mornered on a fixed plate 60, the blowpipe 42 being rotated by a rope drive D. The blowpipe 42 is then swung down to a vertical position and oscillated so as to elongate the blank. The latter motion is produced by giving the cam track 41 a sinuous form for part of its length. During a period of rest which follows the swinging operation, an ordinary two-part mould is closed round the blank, which is blown by air conveyed to the blowpipe 42 from a central distributing device 97 by a flexible tube. The neck of the bulb outside the mould is cooled by an air blast during blowing. The mould is then opened and, at the next halt, the bulb is pierced by a flame 74 provided with an automatic re-lighting device 75. The finished bulb is then cracked off and the moil removed from the blowpipe by cam-operated grippers. A jet of water or air may be directed upon the end of the blowpipe during this operation. The Specification as open to inspection under Sect. 91 (3) (a) states that some of the operations may be controlled electrically, and, also, that suction gathering may be employed. This subject-matter does not appear in the Specification as accepted.