Patent GB-1236468-A (GB)
Title: Tube sorting apparatus
IPC: B65H67/06
Filed: 1968-11-18
Abstract: 1,236,468. Supplying cop-tubes to machines. ZINSER-TEXTILMASCHINEN G.m.b.H. 18 Nov., 1968 [21 Nov., 1967], No. 54551/68. Heading D1F. In apparatus for identifying and sorting damaged and sound, preferably conical or tapered, yarn-supporting tubes which are exchanged for fully wound tubes by means of automatic devices on ring-spinning or like textile machines, a feeler of a manually or automatically operated testing device internally probes the shape of at least one end of each of tubes successively fed thereto. The result of each test is signalled and/or indicated, the signals actuating other mechanisms of the apparatus. Tubes may be end-oriented and directed into separate channels for collection or restoration to the tube replacement system as by use of apparatus described in Specification 1,201,955. In the manual device shown in Fig. 1, a tube to be tested is positioned between conical, stepped members 12 and 13, and a motor 4 is started to drive a crank gear 5 and thereby move slides 8, 9, towards the tube ends into which members 12, 13, are thus inserted. If the tube is good (or is only slightly deformed so that it may be corrected by a member 12 or 13 pressed thereinto) the movement of the slides and the displacement of the members continue until the end edges of the tube abut on ledges 33 and 36 whereupon the contacts 31, 32, engage and complete a (battery) circuit to indicate a "good" tube e.g. by illumination of a lamp 29: if the tube end is deformed it remains on a part of a member 12 or 13 lying in front of the associated ledge, the slides are arrested and the contacts 31, 32, remain open so that a negative result is indicated; the motor 4 continues running because the guides 23, 24, due to yieldable mounting of rods 25, 26, on brackets 10, 11, can move closer together as the springs 27, 28, absorb the movement. The motor is reversed to free the tube ends. An alternative or addition to device 14 comprises switches (in a signal circuit) on members 12, 13, operable by continued travel of the internal surface of a good tube thereover. The apparatus represented in Figs. 3 and 5 comprises feeding, feeling, discharge devices and control apparatus for the automatic cyclic control of consecutive test processes, 40, 41, 42 and 43, and unstepped testing members 48, 49. In each cycle of operations, starting from a position at which discharge of a tested tube has just been completed, a separator slide 47 is moved by a motor-driven rack-and-pinion gear to release the lowermost single tube from chute 44 onto a part 77 of a slide 62, and then resume support of a vertical stack of tubes therein. Motor 4' acting through rack-and-pinion gear, Fig. 5, moves members 48, 49, into the ends of the tube and, according to the degree of penetration thereof, determines whether the contacts 56, 57, engage or remain open and thereby indicate a good or faulty tube. If tube is signalled as "good" a pressure part 64 is moved (by rack-and-pinion gear) until the tube is gripped between parts 64 and 65 whereupon the members 48, 49, are returned to their extreme outer positions: the slide 62 is moved until a longitudinal slot 63 gives access to a chute 58 into which the parts 64, 65, then release the tube, tilted by a knife-edge 75 to slide with the large end leading. If the tube is signalled "faulty" then, after removal of members 48, 49, the parts 64, 65, move to the left until stop 71 abuts limit switch 72 whereupon part 65 alone continues its movement and allows the rejected tube to fall, large end leading, into chute 59, the pressure parts then returning to their original positions. The control apparatus 43 may comprise a continuously driven drum cam carrying peripheral tracks each of which cooperates with one or more stationary switches controlling, perhaps through (time-delayed) relays and in conjunction with limit switches, the various driving motors and/or mechanisms, Fig. 6 (not shown). Modifications include selectively directing tubes into chutes by a movable deflector (carrying knife-edge 75) or a partly flexible, two-channel chute. In the testing apparatus of Fig. 9, springs 125, 126, continuously exert a torque on testing levers 110, 111, so that as a cam plate 133 is rotated anti-clockwise from the position shown, rollers 134, 135, are moved in the direction of arrows 146, 147, and levers 110, 111, and feeling levers 116, 117, tilt (in the direction of arrows) until ends 136, 137 abut the ends 144, 145, of the tube undergoing test and then penetrate therewithin. To a degree dependent on whether the tube is good or damaged, the pivot point(s) of lever(s) 116, 117, is/are moved inwardly thus causing the end(s) 123, 124, and therefore rod(s) 121, 122, to swing in direction of arrow(s) 150, 151. When rollers 134, 135, are opposite the deepest parts 153, 154, of plate 133 and assuming the tube to be good; then adjustable contacts 123, 124, engage to complete a circuit including a signal device 120: a damaged tube would cause the contacts to remain open. Good tubes are released to fall into chute 130 and faulty tubes are impelled into a container 161. Further rotation of cam plate 133 restores the levers &c to the starting position shown.