Patent GB-549412-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in and relating to filament sorting apparatus
IPC: B65G47/14
Filed: 1941-09-26
Abstract: 549,412. Endless conveyers. BRITISH THOMSON-HOUSTON CO., Ltd. Sept. 26, 1941, No. 12480. Convention date, Sept. 26, 1940. [Class 78 (i)] [Also in Group XIX] Filaments are gauged for length by a carrier supporting the filament being moved to present the ends of the filament successively to pairs of spaced contacts the distance apart of the contacts of each pair decreasing in steps so that when the ends of a filament make contact with any particular pair, an electric circuit is completed to discharge the filament into a container at that gauging station. The filaments 11, the length of which is to be measured, are placed on a table 10. After inspection under the illumination provided above and below a frosted glass insert, they are placed individually by tweezers into the buckets 17, 18 on a conveyer chain. Each bucket is formed in two parts, a fixed part 17 secured to a link'and a pivoted part 18 which swings to closed position under its own weight. The buckets are shorter than the filaments which are carried between stationary guide bars which centralize the filament. Midway in front of the table 10, the chain 14 passes between upper and lower guide rails 30, 31 and shortly thereafter the block 19 slides on to a rest 32. The sorting apparatus 33 divides the filaments 11 into five groups, the numbers in four groups being counted. Both sorting and counting means are operated by the engagement of the ends of the filament 11 with the bar contacts 34, 35, 36, 37, 38 arranged so that the bar 34 is on one side of the path and the bars 35-38 on the other side of the path and are successively nearer the bar 34. If the filament 11 is of greater length than the distance between contacts 34, 35, an electric circuit is completed between the contact and the filament is dropped into the bin 39. If it passes the first pair of contact and makes contact with the second pair, it drops into bin 40 and so on. The discharge of the bucket is accomplished by the descent of the bar 88 extending along the gauging contacts to engage the lug 44 and swing the half 17 of the bucket about its pivot. Filaments passing all gauge contacts are discharged while the lug 44 engages an adjustably fixed cam 51. The electric circuit is as shown in Fig. 3. The cathode and anode of a thyratron valve 62 are connected on opposite sides of a condenser 68. The condenser is charged through a transformer 58 and rectifying valve 63, sufficient negative bias being supplied to the grid of the thyratron to prevent discharge. A relay 71 is connected between the anode of the thyratron and one section of the condenser, and one contact 37 of each pair of gauging contacts is connected to the control grid of valve 62 and the other to the condenser 68 through a resistance 69. When the contacts 37, 34 are bridged by a filament, the grid bias on the thyratron is reduced and the condenser discharges through the valve, the relay 71 closing the circuit of the solenoid 72 to actuate the lever 47 and open the bucket. The bar 43 carries spring contacts 85, 87, so arranged that an insulation button 84 on the lower contact strikes the block 19 when the bucket is below that particular pair of contacts and the bar 43 is moved down. Such pair of contacts are connected to one of the counters to operate it in a well-known way.