Patent GB-337301-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in the manufacture of electric incandescent lamps or the like
IPC: H01K3/00
Filed: 1930-01-28
Abstract: 337,301. General Electric Co., Ltd., (Assignees of Patent-Treuhand-Ges. f³r Elektrische Gl³hlampen). Jan. 30, 1929, [Convention date]. Making lamps.-In a rotatable pinch-making machine, for electric incandescent lamps and similar closed glass vessels, having a circular series of holding-heads each provided with grippers for supporting a foot tube and a small exhaust tube, and with a registering abutment for the leading-in wires, wedge-shaped notches are formed in a plate or the like above the abutment which supports the ends of the leading-in wires, and one or more clamping-levers are adapted to be moved automatically into the space between the plate and the supporting surface of the abutment in order to force the leading-in wires into the angles of the wedge-shaped notches and maintain them therein. The frame 1, Fig. 1, of the machine, which is moved round intermittently, is provided in known manner with a series of holding-heads each comprising a pair of vertical bolts 2, Fig. 3, carrying a forked member consisting of two arms 3<1> and a crosspiece 3 the upper surface of the fork having secured thereto a block 4, Fig. 1, within which a plate 5 is adapted to be slidden. A pin 7 projecting upwardly from the plate 5 and through a slot in the block 4 carries a roller 9 bearing upon a cam track 8. A pair of gripping-arms 13 for the exhaust-tube 12 are pivoted upon bolts 11 mounted on lugs on the plate 5 and are normally held in the closed position by a spring 16 connected between them. The plate 5 and grippers 13 are normally held in a forward position by a spring 17, Fig. 1, connected between extensions 18, 19 respectively provided on the block 4 and plate 5. The foot tube 21 is adapted to be clamped by two gripper arms 20 pivotally mounted below the fork 3, 3<1> upon the bolts 2 and normally maintained in the closed position by a spring 24. A block 25 mounted on one of the gripper arms 20 is arranged to contact with a set-screw 26 in a, lug 27 on the foot-tube gripper-arm mounted above it, the arrangement being such that, when a vertically displaceable thrust rod 28 is moved upwardly, its wedge- - shaped head penetrates between two adjustable stops 30 on the gripper arms 20, thereby opening these arms and also the arms 13 through the co-operation of the block 25 and set-screw 26. This operation is effected whether the grippers 13 are in the forward position or have been pushed back by the action of the cam track 8 upon the roller 9. Mounted below the openings of the grippers 13, 20 is a sleeve 35, Fig. 8, with a conical head 34, and secured inside the sleeve by a bayonet joint 37 is a bolt 36 which is flush with the top of the conical head and is provided with a recess 40 serving as an abutment for the bottoms of the leading-in wires. Above the recess 40 is a narrow head-plate 41 with two wedge-shaped notches 42, Fig. 4, extending to the same depth as the recess 40, and adjacent to the conical head 34 are a pair of horizontal arms 46 at the upper ends of cranked clamping-levers which are controlled by helical springs on their pivots so that the arms 46 are normally pressed through a lateral gap 47 in the head 34 and are held within the recess 40 in the bolt 36. The arms 46 are adapted to be moved outwardly from the recess 40 by means of a forked arm 54 on the end of a cam-controlled lever 49. The two pairs of gripper arms are opened when the holding-head is in the position prior to that in which the leading-in wires are inserted, and the roller 9 coacts with the cam track 8 to cause the plate 5 and the exhaust-tube grippers 13 to be pushed back, leaving a clear space above the foot-tube grippers 21 for the insertion of the leading-in wires 38. Directly the holding-head reaches the wire-inserting position the forked arm 49 pushes the arms 46 out of the recess 40 in the bolt 36, thereby exposing the wedge-shaped notches 42 and enabling the operator to insert the leading-in wires therein. Before any further movement of the holding-head occurs the cam controlling the arms 46 allows these members to be moved inwardly by their springs to clamp the leading-in wires 38 in the forward angles of the notches 42, and during the subsequent movement of the holding-head the gripper-arms 13 are allowed to move forwardly to carry the exhaust tube 12 into a position axially above the foot-tube 21. In the next working position the exhaust tube 12 is lowered in known manner to enter the foot tube, whereupon these members are heated and squeezed to embed the leading-in wires 38 therein.