Patent GB-801777-A (GB)
Title: Apparatus for transferring or loading lamp bulbs into machines
IPC: B65G47/14
Filed: 1956-06-14
Abstract: 801,777. Making electric lamps. SYLVANIA ELECTRIC PRODUCTS, Inc. June 14, 1956 [June 17, 1955], No. 18468/56. Class 39(2) Apparatus for transferring lamp bulbs to a carrier, e.g. a rotary turret 25, Fig. 1, having means for receiving them, comprises a bulb holder, or holders, 20 provided with spring biased retaining means into which the bulbs are fed preparatory to transfer and which position them in central registration over the receiving means on the turret, means being provided for urging the bulbs downwardly against the force of the retaining means. In the example the apparatus is used for loading lamp bulbs 28 neck downwardly on to lamp "mounts" carried in work-holding heads 27, Fig. 1, on the turret 25, the bulb being subsequently heat-sealed to the flare of the glass stem forming part of the mount. The bulbs are fed to the apparatus by way of two pairs of inclined rails 21 which guide them to one or the other of a pair of indexing turrets 20 rotating in opposite directions in a horizontal plane, each on its own vertical mounting. The bulb holders on the respective turrets 20 are formed by a series of circumferential seatings each provided with three inwardly-directed spring-biased fingers 23 arranged to support a bulb but to yield under further applied pressure and permit the bulb to pass downwardly on to one of the heads 27 of the sealing machine turret. As shown the left-hand turret 20 is indexed anti-clockwise, whilst the right hand turret is indexed clockwise. The receiving turret 25 is, however, double-indexed anti-clockwise, i.e. indexed through a distance equal to the space between alternate heads 27, whereby a head forming one of an adacent pair is indexed successively to stations A, C, E, &c. and the other head of the same pair is indexed to stations B, D, F &c. The bulb transferring apparatus is duplicated, so that a bulb 28 is loaded into the seat 24 of each of the heads 27 at stations C and F respectively during a dwell in the movement of turrets 20 and 25. On the arrival of a bulb above a lamp-mount in a head at stations C and F its neck portion is aligned accurately in the cradle formed by the three supporting fingers 23, whereupon a vertically reciprocating loading-plunger 22 with a vacuum or suction cup 29 at its lower end engages the rounded end of the inverted bulb and in one motion pushes the bulb through the fingers 23 and deposits it over the mount and in the seat 24 of the head 27 of turret 25 beneath it In order to prevent a bulb from being loaded into a head 27 which has not been provided with a mount 30, mount-detecting devices 25 are placed at stations A and D, i.e. one station in advance of each bulb loading station. The absence of a mount at either station A or D results in both prevention of movement of the relevant turret and actuation of its associated plunger when the vacant head 27 arrives at the loading-station. Each plunger 22, Fig. 2, is tubular, and slidably mounted in a housing 47 secured to a bracket 48 which is fast on, and extends laterally from the upper end of a vertically reciprocating shaft 61, the arrangement shown in Fig. 3 being duplicated Initially the plunger 22 moves downwardly with the shaft 61, during which time a cam-actuated valve in a suction line 54, Fig. 2, is opened as the suction cup 29 approaches the upper surface of the bulb. After the cup 29 has engaged the bulb the plunger 22 is forced upwardly in its still descending housing 47 until its headed upper end 49, Fig. 2A, contacts an O-rin, 51 in an adjustable cap 50 50 suspended above it, thereby sealing the upper end of the plunger while at the same time a passage between the suction line 54 and suction cup 29 is effected through a peripheral groove and radial aperture 58 leading into the bore of the the plunger. The plunger is thus held in position by the suction and descends further with rod 61 until the bulb approaches the seat 24 of a work-holder 27 whereupon the suction is turned off, the plunger 22 drops t to its initial position in the housing 47, and the bulb is released on to the seating. At the end of the bracket 48 opposite to the housing 47 mounting the plunger 22 a sleeve 63, Fig. 3, supports a lightly spring-loaded plunger carrying a cup 64 which is brought down upon the end of a bulb 28 'during the halt subsequent to its entry into the turret 20, and at the same time as the plunger 22 at the opposite end of the bracket 48 completes its loading motion, the cup 64 serving as an abutment for the bulb while a monogramming or printing stamp (not shown), is applied to its interior. The turrets 20 are provided with separate indexing mechanisms, each comprising a ratchet wheel 31, Fig. 3, secured on the underside of the turret, and a co-operating pawl 32 on a pivotally mounted yoke 33 which is connected by a link 36 and bell-crank 35 to a vertical actuating-rod 34. Vertical reciprocation of the rod 34 is effected by a cam-actuated rocking-lever 36, Fig. 6, through an interposed lock-out device which is operated to prevent indexing of the turret whenever a hand 27 arrives at the transfer station minus a mount. The lock-out device comprises an extension member attached at the lower end of the vertically reciprocating rod 34, Fig. 5, and provided with a longitudinal slot the bottom end of which is widened to engage slidably a portion 41 of a stud 83 extending transversely from the end of the rocking-lever 36. The end of the rocking lever 36 also carries two independent solenoids 43 each with an armature carrying an end roller which engages the adjacent reciprocating member 40, so that energization of the solenoid and resultant outward movement of the armature will push the slotted member 40 off the part 41 of stud 83 on to a narrower part 44, against the pressure of a spring 42, whereupon the part 44 rides idly within the elongated slot 45. Mount detecting device. The mountdetector, which is located station A, comprises an air nozzle 85, Fig. 9, and a cooperating switch 86 fixedly positioned at opposite sides of the path of mounts being indexed towards the bulb-transferring stations, solenoid-operated valve 87, Fig. 10 (not shown) being controlled by a camoperated switch to admit air under pressure to the nozzle 85 in correspondence with the indexing of the turrents. The switch 86 is operated when a butterfly 88, mounted in front of it on an arm 91, is moved rearwardly by a blast of air from the nozzle 85, which operation takes place only when no mount is present in the head 27. With a mount in the head the airstream is deflected, and the-butterfly 88 is unmoved. Operation of the switch 86 closes the circuit of an associated solenoid 43, Fig. 5 and disengages the connection between the part 41 of the member on the rocking-lever 36 and the extension 40 of the pawl-actuating rod 34. The bulb aligning or centralizing mechanism provided at each of the transfer stations acts to position the necks of the inverted bulbs correctly before the rounded portions of the bulbs are engaged by their respective plunger 22. The mechanisms, which are duplicated, each comprise a pair of centralizing arms 110, Figs. 1 and 3, pivoted on a base plate 111, fixed between turret 25 and turrets 20, and geared together to operate in unison, one arm 110 being secured to a short shaft 120 connected by a crank arm 119 to a link 118 which is pivoted to a rocking lever 116 secured on a central shaft 115. A crank arm 114 fast on the shaft 115 is connected to a link rod 117 which is reciprocated horizontally by a bell-crank 112 and a camactuated vertically reciprocating rod 113. Each pair of arms 110 is closed about the neck of a bulb 28 at the respective loading stations just before the bulb is engaged by a plunger 22, the centralizing engagement being maintained briefly as the bulb is engaged by the plunger 22 and starts to move through the turret 20.