Improvements in Means or Apparatus for Gauging and Sorting Spherical Rollers or Balls.
Year: 1891

page_text: Date of Application, 20th Apr., 1891
Complete Specification Left, 7th Jan., 1892-Accepted, 13th Feb., 1892
PROVISIONAL DIECIFICATION.
Improvements in Means or Apparatus for Gauging and Sorting
Spherical Rollers or Balls.
1, WILLIAM HILLMAN, of Stoke Green, Coventry, in the County of Warwick,
Managing Director of Works, do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be
as follows:-
The object of this invention is to provide machinery or apparatus whereby balls
such as are used in the bearings of cycles and other machines can be automatically
gauged and sorted in regard to their size and the same more economically effected
than by the present known methods.
The machine is provided with a pair of adjustable gauging bars, preferably
round, mounted in suitable adjustable brackets, and lying parallel with each other
in a horizontal position.
The balls to be gauged are placed in a tray or hopper in front of the said gauging
bars, the said tray or hopper being so tilted that the balls always roll down to the
gauging bars.
The machine is provided with a rotating cam shaft which has two cams fixed
thereon; one of the said cams serves by means of suitable mechanism to give
motion to a feeder to lift a row of balls from the hopper and feed them to between
the gauging bars. The top of this feeder, when in position to receive a row of
balls, is in line with, or a little below, the surface of the feeding tray or hopper,
and in feeding said balls to between the gauging bars, moves in an are around the
front gauging bar.
The other cam operates a lever having an inclined grooved head shaped to move
up and down freely between the gauging bars, the said grooved bead being the full
length of that part of the said gauging bars into which the balls are fed, and being
inclined from the horizontal, ejects from the gauging bars, all the balls which, in
consequence of being over the required size, have been retained between such bars;
the smaller balls fall between the gauging bars into a receptacle beneath the latter,
the larger ones run into a receptacle placed preferably at the side.
In practice a number of sets of the apparatus above described may be mounted
on one table and have one common cam shaft and set of driving gears or
pulleys.
Dated this 20th of Al 1001
WILLIAM HILLMAN.
By Harris & Mills,
23, Southampton Buildings, London, W.C., Agents.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Means or Apparatus for Gauging and Sorting
Spherical Rollers or Balls.
I, WILLIAM HILLMAN, of Stoke Green, Coventry, in the County of Warwick,
Managing Director of Works, do hereby declare the nature of this invention, and
in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and
ascertained in and by the following statement :—
The object of this invention is to provide machinery or apparatus whereby ball-
such as are used in the bearings of cycles and other machines can be automatically
gauged and sorted in regard to their size, and the same more economically effected
than by the present known methods.

page_text: The machine is provided with a pair of adjustable gauging bars, preferably
round, mounted in suitable adjustable brackets and being parallel with each other
in a horizontal position.
The balls to be gauged are placed in a tray or hopper in front of the said gauging
bars, the said tray or hopper being so tilted that the balls always roll down to the
gauging bars.
The machine is provided with a rotating cam shaft, which has two cams fixed
thereon; one of the said cams serves, by means of suitable mechanism, to give
motion to a feeder, to lift a row of balls from the hopper and feed them to between
the gauging bars. The top of this feeder, when in position to receive a row of
balls, is in line with, or a little below, the surface of the feeding tray or hopper,
and, in feeding said balls to between the gauging bars, moves in an arc around the
front gauging bar. The other cam operates a lever having an inclined grooved
head, shaped to move up and down freely between the gauging bars, the said
grooved head being the full length of that part of the said gauging bars into which
the balls are fed, and, being inclined from the horizontal, ejects from the ganging
.bars all the balls which, in consequence of being over the required size, have been
retained between such bars; the smaller balls fall between the gauging bars into a
receptacle beneath the latter; the larger ones run into a receptacle placed
preferably at the side.
And in order that my said invention may be more clearly understood, and readily
carried into effect, I will proceed, aided by the accompanying drawings, more fully
to describe the same.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
Figure 1 is a front view, Figure 2 an end view partly in section, Figure 3 a plan,
and Figure 4 a cross section of parts, representing my improved apparatus for
gauging and sorting spherical rollers or balls.
In Figure 1 the feeding tray or hopper is omitted for the sake of clearness.
a is the bed of the machine, b, are two adjustable gauging bars, which are
preferably round in cross section and are mounted parallel with each other, and in
a horizontal plane, in adjustable brackets a' a' fixed to the bed a of the machine.
These brackets a' are divided vertically from a short distance above their feet to
the top thereof, thus forming two armis separated from each other by a narrow
space. A gauging bar bis mounted in each arm, and a push screw a² is screwed
through the upper end of one of such arms and bears against the other arm, whilst
a binding screw a³ is passed freely through this latter arm and screwed into the
former arm, by which means the gauging bars b, b can be minutely and accurately
spaced.
The balls to be gauged are placed in a tray or hopper c in front of the gauging
bars; this tray or hopper is preferably fitted with a glass bottom, and is set at
such an angle as will permit of the balls rolling freely down to the gauging bars
without hanging or crowding.
The machine is provided with a rotating cam shaft d, which has fast and loose
pulleys d', d, and two eams t,, fixed thereon
which, by a link and lever, gives motion to a feeder e, to lift a row of balls
The came acts upon a lever ',
from the tray or hopper and feed them to between the gauging bars b. b. The
top of this feeler, when in position to receive a row of balls, is in line with, or a
little below, the surface of the feeding tray or hopper. The said feeder consists of
a segment of a cylinder concentric with one of the gauging bars, and it is
connected with loose bosses, mounted on said gauging bar with capability of
freely turning thereon; the boss forms the boss of the lever . In feeding the
balls to between the gauging bars, the feeder moves in an are around the front
gauging bar, so as to carry a row of balls over the top of said front gauging bar
and drop them into the space between the gauging bars.
The cam facts upon a ball ejecting lever mounted on a stud or axis at the
upper end of a bracket at the front end of this lever carries an ejecting head ƒ³,

page_text: the upper end of which is inclined and grooved; this ejecting head moves freely
up and down between the gauging bars b. b, and it is of the full length of that part
of the said gauging bars into which the balls are fed. Thus, in the rising of the
ejecting head between the gauging bars, all those balls which, in consequence of
being over the required size, have been retained between the gauging bars, are
lifted by the inclined grooved top of the ejecting head . and, by running down
the said inclined groove, are caused to fall into the box at the side of the
machine. The balls which pass through the space between the gauging bars are
received into a box extending to the front of the machine.
The bosses at the right ends of the gauging bars are inclined, as shown in
Figures and 3, to avoid any obstruction to the passage of the balls past the same,
and the right bracket a' is formed with a tapered inclined hole a, see Figures 1
and 2, to permit of the free passage of the ejected balls through the same.
In practice a number of sets of the apparatus above described may be mounted
on one table and have one common cam shaft and set of driving pulleys, and, for
very minute or exact gauging or sorting, the spherical rollers or balls, after having
been gauged or sorted in one machine, are passed through one or more additional
machines in which the gauging bars are set successively slightly closer together.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is :-
1. In means or apparatus for gauging and sorting spherical rollers or balls, the
combination of adjustable parallel gauging bars, a slightly inclined feeding tray in
front of the gauging bars, a feeder between the lower edge of the said tray and the
front gauging bar, and moving in an are around the latter, an inclined grooved
ejector working up and down between the gauging bars, cams and levers for
operating the feeder and ejector, and boxes for receiving the balls as sorted.
substantially as herein shown and described.
2. In means or apparatus for gauging and sorting spherical rollers or balls, the
peculiar combination and arrangement of parts, substantially as herein shown and
described.
3. In means or apparatus for gauging and sorting spherical rollers or balls, an
inclined feeding tray, a pair of adjustable gauging bars, a receptacle to receive the
balls which fall through the space between the gauging bars, a feeder which, when
in one position, forms a continuation of the feeding tray, and is moved in an are
around the front gauging bar, and an ejector acting to throw into a special recep-
tacle those balls which were too large to pass through the space between the
gauging bars, substantially as herein shown and described and for the purpose
stated.
4. In means or apparatus for gauging and sorting spherical rollers or balls, a
pair of adjustable gauging bars, between which balls below a given size will fall
into a receptacle below, means for feeding balls to such gauging bars, and an
inclined grooved ejector working up and down between the gauging bars and
ejecting into a side receptacle those balls which were too large to pass through the
space between the gauging bars, substantially as herein shown and described.
DJ..
LAWMARK. 1900
WILLIAM HILLMAN.
By Harris & Mills,
23, Southampton Buildings, London, W.C., Agents.