Patent GB-248361-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in or relating to apparatus for separately delivering wires from a bundle
IPC: B65G47/14
Filed: 1926-02-16
Abstract: 248,361. Naamlooze Vennootschap Philips' Gloeilampenfabrieken. Feb. 24, 1925, [Convention date]. Feeding articles from hoppers; feeding articles by magnetic and vacuum gripping and holding means; feeding articles by transfer devices not associated with bins, hoppers, and shoots.- Apparatus for feeding wires in the manufacture of electric lamps &c. comprises mechanism for isolating individual wires from a mass and mechanism for gripping the wires so isolated and conveying them to the required position. One form of the apparatus is shown in Figs. 1, 2 and 5, and comprises a duplex arrangement mounted on the same base and actuated by the same shaft 3. The bundles of wires are contained in holders 10 having converging sides 12, 13, a back plate 14 and an open front from which the wires project through a triangular opening in two parallel plates 15, 16. A plate 18 is reciprocated between the plates by means of levers 24 and a cam-wheel 6 having projections 26, in order to agitate the wires. Slides 17, actuated by levers 31 and a cam 7, have notches 28 which, at each reciprocation, receive a wire from each holder and carry them up inclined fingers 35 to a position where they are taken up by the gripping and transferring mechanism. The latter consists of a rigid arm and a spring arm 47 carried bv a holder 39 which has a slipping clutch connection with the shaft 37. Two arms 49 are fixed to the shaft 37 and carry a wedge member 48 lying between the gripping arms. The shaft 37 is locked by a vertically reciprocating rack 54 actuated by the spring 119 and cam 8. Movement of the grippers with the shaft is limited by stops 53, 53<1> and the subsequent relative movement thereto of the wedge member 48 determines the opening and closing of the grippers. Another form of apparatus is shown in Figs. 8 and 10. Bundles of wires are held in containers 74, each surrounded by a fixed solenoid 75, and coacting with a vertically-reciprocating solenoid 73. In the adjacent positions of the solenoids, the exciting circuit is closed and the wires are drawn up into conical seatings 81 in the upper solenoids, one wire from each bundle passing through an aperture 82. The solenoid circuit is then broken, and the bundles fall back into their containers. The wires which have passed through the apertures 82 are retained with the ends projecting by the creation of a vacuum in the cavities 83. The solenoids 73 are then raised and the projecting wires are gripped by devices comprising fingers 87, 88 pivotally mounted on swinging arms 86. The opening and closing movements of the fingers are obtained by pinions 89, 90 and a sliding rack 91 actuated by a pinion 93 which is in turn actuated by a sliding rack 114 carried by a rod 96 held by a spring in contact with the cam 110. The arm 86 is swung between its gripping and delivering positions by a rack 112 acting on a pinion 94 and carried by a rod 101 held by a spring against the cam 98. The main shaft also carries cams 62, 116 for actuating the reciprocating solenoids and controlling the solenoid circuits.