Patent GB-397425-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in and relating to glass working machines
IPC: C03B9/20
Filed: 1933-04-06
Abstract: 397,425. Glass manufacture. BRITISH THOMSON-HOUSTON CO., Ltd., Crown House, Aldwych, London.-(Assignees of Brown, C. A.; 1854, Burnett Road, CRAIG, C. W., 13819, Orinoco Avenue, both in East Cleveland, and Vansickle, F. B. ; 135, Westbrook Drive, Euclid, both in Ohio, U.S.A.) April 6, 1933, No. 10328. Convention date, April 6, 1932. [Class 56.] Relates to a machine of the kind described in Specifications 26223/11 and 293,456, [both in Class 56, Glass], for making electric lamp bulbs and similar ware, in which a charge of glass is gathered by suction to form a blank, and the blank is dropped from the gathering- head into the blowing mechanism. According to the present invention, means are provided for turning the blank completely over during its fall, so that it settles with its chilled end uppermost in the machine head that supports and rotates it during the blowing operation. The machine comprises a rotatable turret 10, Fig. 2, that supports the mould units each of which comprises a number of blowing-moulds 117, and a number of gathering-heads 12 carried by an oscillating ram R of the kind described in Specification 293,456. The gathering-heads 12 are projected periodically into the furnace 13, and each head gathers by suction a quantity of glass which is cut off by a watercooled knife 15. The blank 14, Fig. 3A, formed in the head has a flange 20 around its lower end, and when the head is in its retracted position, the blank 14 is forced out of the head by air pressure and falls into a machine head, as shown in Fig. 3 B. During its fall, the flange 20 strikes a bar 21 so that the blank turns completely over and falls in an inverted position into the machine head, as shown in Fig. 3 C. The several machine heads of a mould unit are mounted in a plate 23. Each head comprises a retaining ring 25, Fig. 4, which supports in ball bearings 26 a positioning ring 27, a gear ring 28, a guide ring 29, and a blank-supporting ring 30. The ring 30 is made up of four equal parts supported by the gear ring 28, and the parts are normally held in contact with one another by the ring 27. When the gear ring 28 is lifted, the parts of the ring 30 fall away from one another and release the glass article they are supporting. Each of the machine heads is rotated by a stationary gear ring 34 as the turret 10 rotates, the gear ring being connected by intermediate wheels with the gear 28. As soon as the gathering-heads 12 have swung back to their initial position, blow-heads 57 are swung down on to the blanks and clamp them to the rings 30, as shown in Fig. 3 D. The blow-heads are provided with cooling fins 89, and they are supplied with air through flexible pipes connected to nipples 77. The air supply is controlled by a valve 99 operated by a stationary cam, and the air is first admitted to the blowheads as a series of puffs to expand the blank, as shown in Fig. 3 D. The expanded blank is next enclosed by the halves 117, 118 of the blowing mould and are blown to shape. Finally the moulds are opened, the gear rings are lifted by levers 153, and the parts of the rings 30 separate, as shown in Fig. 3 F. and allow the finished articles to drop into a shoot.