Patent GB-682517-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in and relating to machines for heating and working glass cups
IPC: H01J9/32
Filed: 1949-10-13
Abstract: 682,517. Making electric lamps, vacuum tubes, &c. SYLVANIA ELECTRIC PRODUCTS, Inc. Oct. 13, 1949 [Oct. 13, 1948] No. 26373/49. Class 39(ii) [Also in Group XXX] To facilitate the manufacture of glass headers for vacuum tubes comprising a preformed glass cup or wafer within which a number of lengths of wire or terminal pins are sealed, as in the turret machine described in Specification 682,502, [Group XL(a)], the glass cups are subjected to a preheating in a smaller ancillary turret machine 20, Fig. 1, located adjacent to the main machine 10 and rotated in synchronism with it, the smaller turret having a series of rotating spindles 22 adjacent to its periphery to receive, in turn, at station G, a cold glass cup 60 from a feeding shoot 30 provided with an escapement device timed to operate in unison with the intermittent rotation of the turrets. The turret 20 rotates counter-clockwise and carries the cups thereon past three series of burners 31 .... 33, where they are subjected to progressively intensified heating until they reach an unloading station H. At this station a transfer arm 78 picks the heated cups from the successively indexed spindles 22 and transfers them to the spindles 12 on the main turret 10. The spindles 22 of the smaller turret 20 are rotated continuously by a large gear wheel which is journalled on the axial shaft 46 of the turret and engages a small pinion on the bottom end of each spindle 22. This operation is independent of the indexing mechanism, which may be of any known type. The axial shaft 46 serves also as a support for an arm 47, Fig. 3, carrying the cup-feeding shoot 30 and mechanism for .dropping the glass cups on to the spindles 22. The cup escapement is controlled by a horizontally rotating cam 48, Figs. 3 and 8, acting upon a roller 50 on a vertically reciprocable carrier 51 which supports a mounting 58 for a pair of vertically depending pivoted fingers 54, 55, Fig. 5, with their lower ends 56, 57 turned inwardly and counterbalanced by weights 59 which bring them sufficiently close to receive a cup from the shoot 30. As the carrier 51 is lowered by rotation of the cam 48 the cup is lowered until the counterweights 59 meet adjustable stops 61 which swing the fingers 54, 55 outwardly, and the cup drops on to a raised portion of a track formed by a pair of arcuate rails 63, 64 between which the spindles 22 pass, the raised portion permitting the central hole of the cup to be registered with a spindle 22 without dropping completely into position. To prevent a second cup escaping from the shoot as the fingers 54, 55 are lowered with a cup between them, a gate or escapement finger 68 is associated with the gripping-finger support and lowered therewith to block the exit from the shoot. Cup-transferring mechanism. The cups, after preheating during their travel on turret 20 are transferred to the sealing turret 10 by an arm 78, Figs. 1 and 8, which is secured to the upper end of a vertical shaft 106 and connected by a lever arm 76 and link 75 to one arm of a bell-crank 74 controlled by a cam 70 on the shaft 49 which also carries the cam 48 controlling the device for lowering the cups from the shoot to the pre-heating turret 20. The arm 78 is swung between the position H of turret 20 and the cup-receiving station C of the turret 10, and is provided at its free end with a cylindrical guide for a hollow sleeve 79 below the lower end of which a series of fingers 80 are mounted for radial movement about pivots 81 on a fixed member concentric with the sleeve. The lower end of the sleeve 79 carries a ring 82 which engages the inturned upper ends 80<SP>1</SP> of the fingers 80 when the sleeve is lowered by pressure exerted on its upper end by a lever 85 operated by a solenoid 90. When the arm 78 is swung into position above station H of turret 20 the solenoid 90 is energized so that sleeve 79 is pushed downwardly to open the fingers 80 around the cup at station H. The solenoid is next deenergized so that the fingers close upon the cup. The movement necessary for lifting and lowering the devices while holding the cup during transference is provided by vertical movement of the shaft 106, Fig. 8, the tubular standard 77 surrounding shaft 106 being slotted longitudinally to enable one arm 100 of a bell-crank lever to engage within a recess in shaft 106. The other arm' of the bell-crank carries a roller 99 cooperating with a horizontal cam 95 secured to the shaft 49.. The solenoil 90 is again 'energized when the cup is positioned above station C of turret 10, so that the cup is dropped on to a pair of spaced arcuate track rails 24, 25, Fig. 1, and over a spindle 12 carrying a mould 13 into which pins 118 have already been inserted. The pins engage the concavity of the cup which is thereby indexed along to station E of the main turret. At this station the spindle 12 is rotated positively during the halting of the turret and centering fingers 120, 122, Figs. 12-14 (not shown), extending inwardly and radially towards the cup, are lowered so that their arcuate inner ends lightly engage the upper surface and edges of the cup, which is thus centered accurately relative to the spindle and held stationary which the spindle revolves. The pins 118 thus find appropriate holes 114, Fig. 11, in the bottom of the cup, so that the cup drops as far as the rails 24, 25 permit until the spindle 12 leaves the area below the rails, whereupon the cup drops completely against the face of the mould 13 on the spindle. Pin-checking device. If, for any reason, a contact pin 118 is not fed into one of the receiving apertures of a spindle 12, a pinchecker in the form of a detecting-switch 172, Fig. 17, with a number of independently closable contacts, one for each contact pin, and situated at station B, closes the circuit of a solenoid 171 to prevent the transference of a glass blank from the turret 20 to the main turret 10. The solenoid 171 is associated with a circular memory dial 165 which is rotated in synchronism with the turrets 10 and 20, and is provided with a series of holes 167 around its periphery. the number of holes corresponding with the number of spindles 12 and 22 on the respective turrets. Each hole 167 of the memory dial contains a slidable pin 168 which is normally in a position to abut against and close a switch 169 in the circuit of a solenoid 90 controlling the operation of the arm 78 which lifts a cup off a spindle 22 and carries it over to the main turret. Energization of the solenoid 171 due to the absence of a pin 118, however, causes the pin 168 to be moved to a position such that it does not close switch 169, with the result that the lifting arm 78 is inoperative in so far as the incompletely filled spindle 12 is concerned, and the glass cup remains on the pre-heater spindle 22. The incompletely filled spindle without a glass cup is indexed around to station F where the absence of a cup is detected by a sensing arm 26. Fig. 1, whereupon a switch 175 closes the circuit of a solenoid 176 which produces operation of a contact pin extractor and, if not previously achieved by solenoid 171, moves the relative sliding pin 168 to operate further sensing switches to disable subsequent operations on that particular spindle 12.