Improvements in or connected with Self-feeding Annealing Furnaces for Treating Metal Cartridge Cases.
Year: 1899

page_text: Date of Application, 9th Feb., 1899-Accepted, 15th July, 1899
Improvements in or connected with Self-feeding Annealing Furnaces
for Treating Metal Cartridge Cases.
I. PAUL PONDORF. of Goessnitz, Saxe-Altenburg, in the Empire of Germany,
Doctor of Science, 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 reference being had to the drawings hereunto
annexed and to the figures and letters marked thereon that is to say:-.
The subject of this invention is a feeding device to be used in combination with a
self-feeding annealing furnace employed for annealing metal cartridge cases.
In the accompanying drawings in which like parts are indicated by similar
letters of reference,
Figure 1 is a side elevation of the apparatus partly in section.
Figure 2 is a front elevation partly in section of the feeding device separately.
Figures 3 and 3 are top-views respectively of the revolving plate or disc and of
a stationary plate or disc separately and which latter when in position is placed
underneath the revolving plate or disc and.
Figure 4 is a plan of Figure 1.
a represents a stationary plate, or disc mounted in a horizontal position above
which, at a distance therefrom corresponding to the length of the cartridge cases q
another plate or dise bis mounted and constantly maintained in slow rotary motion
by bevel-wheels c and c¹ driven from the shaft d.which receives motion through the
driving pulley f mounted thereon.
The cartridge-cases 9 are placed in the trough, hopper or channel g, mounted
at a suitable angle of inclination and said cartridge-cases, by their own weight slide
down the hopper or channel g into the space between two arms of a star-wheel h
which receives a step by step rotary motion from suitable propelling mechanism
such as the ratchet wheel n and driver or pawl m and said star wheel carries the
cartridge cases one by one into a stationary guide or hoper i shown more
particularly in Figure 2 at the moment when one of the apertures k of the rotating
upper plate or disc b, Figure 3, comes to be situated beneath the said hopper or
guide when the cartridge-case q will drop through the hopper i and aperture k,
take an upright position base downward upon the lower stationary plate or disc a
and slide over the same during the annealing process as shown at Figure 1.
The cartridge-cases q are placed in the channel or hopper g transversely thereof
and roll down said hopper into the spaces between the teeth of the star-wheel h
and as the same revolves they are carried into the fork l, which engages them
near to their narrow or contracted ends, and are thereby prevented from capsizing
or overturning in the wrong direction and are turned with their bases downward so
that they fall into the stationary guide i.
The driver or pawl m receives reciprocating motion from a lever o mounted on a
pivot P
said lever being operated by a spring o* which tends to constantly force it
forward whilst it is intermittently retracted by means of an extension o' therefrom
which in the rotation of the upper plate or disc comes into contact with the

page_text: noses or tappets which are rigidly fixed thereto, thereby lifting the projection o¹
and consequently the tail of the lever o upward overcoming the pull of the spring o*
and drawing back the pawl m thereby rendering the star wheel h for the time being
inoperative.
The projection o¹ then slips off the noses or tappets k¹ as a result of the continued
rotation of the plate or disc b and the tension of the spring o* again throws the
driver or pawl m forward thereby turning the star wheel h and ejecting a cartridge-
case q.
To the lever o a counter-pawl o² is attached, Figure, 1, which permits the ratchet
wheel n to turn the distance of only one tooth at a time.
Concentric with and above the upper plate or disc 6 is arranged a stationary gas
heating apparatus fed from a supply pipe z as shown at Figure 4 and which is
provided with apertures or burners forming a ring of gas jets or flames which
surround or embrace the contracted parts of the cartridge cases q rising above the
upper disc b and anneal them as shown at Figures 1 and 4.
The stationary lower plate or disc a is provided with a single discharge orifice a¹,
Figure 3, which is situated with relation to the hopper aperture i in a direction
opposite to that in which the upper disc b revolves that is to say before the
revolving disc receives the cartridge cases and at a distance from the hopper i
corresponding to the distance between the apertures k in the plate or disc b so that
each cartridge case q is compelled to describe almost a complete circle during the
annealing operation and then falls through the aperture a¹ into the shoot y.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what
I claim is:-
In combination with a self-feeding annealing furnace for treating metal
cartridge cases a feeding device comprising a ratchet feed mechanism such
as o, o, o mn for conducting the cartridge cases to the heating apparatus, a
star wheel h, operated by said mechanism, noses or tappets ¹ so arranged upon a
rotary upper plate or disc b that the feeding takes place only when an aperture
of the rotary disc is situated under the feeding hopper i substantially as herein
shown and described.
Dotal thin th J
1000
WHITE & WOODINGTON,
Birkbeck Bank Chambers, Southampton Buildings, London, Agents.