CA1192406A - Electronic control glass forming machine - Google Patents

Abstract

ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE

Each section of a multi-section glass forming machine contains a plurality of mechanisms for moving functional mem-bers in sequence for forming gobs into glass containers and for sweeping the containers from a cooling dead plate to a mov-ing machine conveyor. Electric motors are provided to operate the rotation of the sweepout mechanism and for operating the other mechanisms, namely, the parison mold opening and closing mechanism, the funnel operating mechanism, the baffle opera-ting mechanism, the invert arm operating mechanism, the blow mold operating mechanism, the blowhead operating mechanism and the take-out mechanism. Each motor is coupled directly to the drive shaft of the mechanism and the rotation of each motor is controlled by a programmable controller which permits the adjustment of the timing and velocity during machine opera-tion of each motor independently of the other electric motors.
The programmable controller is capable of storing several pre-programmed timing patterns easily selectable by switching.
Also, the motors are coupled with velocity and position-sensing means which may provide feed-back signals for control of the motor.

Description

.~;r ~
0~;
, 1~927 ELECTRONIC CONTROL GLASS FORMING ~ACHINE
BACKG~OUND OF THE I~VENTION
The manufacture of hollow glass articles is a very ancient and well known art. However, the necessity of modern mass production of certain glass articles such as glass con-tainers has created the requirements and has resulted in the desi~n oE modern automated glassware orming machines. As in ;; most manuEacturing processes, the cost o labor has increased to such an extent that automation to conserve lahor has become a desirable and necessary fact of operating modern manufacturing facilities. In the glass forming art, the most widely used machine for the production oE blown glass containers is the I.S. machine manufactured by the Hartford Division of Emhart Industries. This basic machine also is manufactured by other glass machinery manufacturers in othex parts of the world and an example of such a machine may be found in U.S. Patent 1,911,119 issued to Ingle on May 23, 1933.
In general terms, the process of orming hollow glass articles which is carried out by the above-referred-to machine, comprises the sequential feeding of glass gobs to the plurality of forming sections of the machine and sequen-tially controlling the performance of each forming section of the machine in order to carry out the sequence of operations necessary to produce , the finished glass container. This sequence begins with the forming of the gob by the feeder and the distributing of the gobs to the forming section by the operation of a gob distributor mechanism which is positioned beneath the feeder and above the forming machines. The gobs normally are moved by gravity along , , 1~927 tracks in troughs to the various sections of the glass forming machine. The gob feeder will produce that number of gobs which will correspond to the number of cavities that are found on the parison mold side o~ the forrniny machines. ~or example, the I.S.
forming machine, when a double gob machine, has two gobs formed ~ simultaneously and severed from the feeder to fall by gravity to .
; the parison mold which will have the two cavities therein at khe parison forming station. The parisons which are formed within the parison or blank mold, are formed either by operation of a pressing mechAn;~m or by a blow and blow operation where the '` glass is blown against the baffle and thereafter counterblown in-to the shape of the blank mold. Once the parison has been formed in the blank or parison mold, the mold will be opened thus leaving the parison in an inverted position, neck down, and carried by the neck molds which surround the neck of the parison.
; The parison is transferred by a merh~ni~ termed an "invert arm"
i which turns through 180~ to carry the parisons from the blank or ,; parison forming station to a blow mold station. ~t the blow mold station, the parisons are normall~ released to the blow molds which are closed about the parisons and the parisons dangle from the upper edge of the blow molds and the neck rings are opened and moved back toward the parison forming side of the machine.
At this time, the blowheads will come into overlying relationship with respec-t to the parisons carried in the blow molds and the ' parisons will be e~panded into the shape of the molds. After the parisons have been blown into final form, the blow molds are normally opened exposincJ the completed bottles, still positioned on bottorn plates of the molds, and the upper ends of the con-tainers are gripped by a set of take-out tongs which will be c):~
~ 1~927 ;~ moved upwa~dly and then outwardl~ ~o transfer the comple-ted containers from the blow molding station and place the blown ware on a cooling dead plate where cooling air will help se~ up the bottom of the containers.
Each of the foregoing operations have in the past been under the mechanical operation of a plurality of reciprocating air~operated motors. All of the motors are c~nnected by pipes which have their other ends commonly located at what is termed the "kiss plate" or manifold plate of the IoS~ foxming machine.
This manifold plate, generally speaking, is a horizontally ex-tending, elongated plate with a vertiGal face through which a plurality of passages corresponding in number to the number of operating mo-tors that are found on the glass forming machine.
; Typically, there are motors which raise and lower the blowheads, i previously mentioned, operate the take-out tong m~chanism to carry the finished containers from the blow molds to the cooling dead plate, baffle operating mech~n;~m at the. parison forming station, and motors for opening and closing the parison molds and blow molds. Each section of an individual I.S. section machine has all of these individual motors therein. The various motors found on the typical I.S. glass forming machine are con-trolled, as to their operation, by the timing of the introduction of air to the motors to effectuate the operation in one direction I or a return direction. The air used to drive the motors, depend-ing upon the size of the motors, could be either ver~ low pressure, such as 10-15 psi, up to pressures as high as 50 pounds per square inch, this being par-ticularly true for those pieces of m~chanism which have fairly large mass and are being ;

:, 3~j 1~927 moved in a ~airly shor-t period of t~me~ The control valves for the air normally were fi-tted in what w~s termed a l'val~e ~lock".
The valve block basically was a casting which would i have as many as 21 vertically positioned poppet valves in pass-` ages therein, with the poppet valves being mechanically operatedthro;ugh valve lifters, the lifters in turn being operated by buttons carried on the circumference of a rotating drum. The position of the buttons on the drum was adjustable, circum-~erentially thereof, by the manipulation of a hand tool in the setting up and adjusting that could be carried out by the machine operator. Each of the individual section machines had a drum of its own and its own valve block. This drum and all the other drums in the other sections would normally be driven by a common drive shaft which in turn was driven in time with the initial 5 tim;n~ motor positioned near and normally electrically coupled to the feeder. The drive motor for the drum shaft would also be electrically coupled to a transmitter found at the feeder.
The sequential operation of the different elements of the glassware forming machine were thereby controlled by the position of a plurality of cam elements arranged in a correspond ing plurality of grooves circumferentially extending on the sur-face of the timer dr~m. It is obvious that ~he timing operation was not considered as very accurate, primarily because the ad-jusbment of the cams was done by hand and it is difficult with a hand adjustment to make the very precise, proper adjustment that would be necessary when trying to fine tune the machine. This positioning of the cams on the timing drum is an inexact pro-cedure at best when the drum is stationary and when the operator 3~
1~927 first sets up the tLming or the operatiQn prior to the first ; startup, but it would become even more time-consuming and a painsta~ing task to change the settings of the cams wi-th any ~ degree of accuracy while the drum is ro-tating. ~s you might expec-t, the degree of accuracy is likely no greater than 3~ in the ull circumference of the drum. The glass forming machine being a machine that is handling a gob of ho-t glass through a series of manipulations to ultimately produce a bottle is so sensitive to th~rmal imbalances that once the machine is running, it normally is necessary to keep it in hot glass in ordar to be assured of a thermally balanced operation. Therefore, the ad-justment which are normally carried out after the startup, are done as the drum is rotating. In addition to the difficulty with ' repositioning the cams, as accurately as possibler b~ loosening and then retightening a nut, tha continuous use of the timing drum and the cams causes mechanical wear of the cam surface o~
of the follower associated with the valve member, that actually operates the valve when ac-tuated by the cam. Such wear som~-times delays the operation of the valve to a significant degree, resulting in irxegularities in the forming operation and the re-sultant production of ware which is unacceptable or which is not J properly formed. Finally, the worn cam surfaces may ail to actuate the cam follower operating the valve~
In an effort to avoid the afoxementioned problems, electronic timing systems ha~e been devised and provide electro-nic circuits and counters with memor~ or determining the number o~ degrees o rotation associated with each operation of a glass-ware forming machine to accuratel~ proportion the duration of _ 5_ 1~9~7 .
the operation and the sequence thereoE so as to avoid the mechanical failures oE the cam members of the very well-known mechanical timing drums~
U.S. Patent No. 3,762,907 issued to Quinn et al., dis-closes an electronic control system which controls and maintains the.sequence of events constituting the various steps of ware formation with a degre~ of accuracy unobtainable by the mech~nic-al timing drum.
The sequen-tial timing of the operation of each forming section of the machine, in accordance with the above-mentioned i patent, is accomplished by means of a timing pulse generator located on the drive shat of the machine which generates one pulse for every degree of rotation of the shaft. While the re-set pulse g.enerator is also mounted on the drive shaft for j generating one pulse for every 360~ o rotation of the shaft, in ~ order to reset the control for the beginning of a new cycle of : ~ the machine, this control contains electronic circuitry and memories to store suficient inormation to carry ou-t in sequence the necessary operation of each s.ection o~ the machine. By this means, -timing of the operation of a function may be ordered by the mere manipulation of a switch or by the advance or retarding of a memory input as opposed to the somewhat cumbersome procedure previously ~ound necessary in the prior axt o using a timing drum. The sequential timing pulses and reset pulses which are generated by the pulse generator are taken to a se~uence-dis-tributing circuit in order to distribute sequential and reset signals to the plurality of individual forming sections contained in the total machine. The electronic control system, in accord-ance with this patent, also contains emergency stop means as well I

, 1~9~7 as a program s-top means for each sec tîOIl of the machine in order to enable th~ operator to stop the operation of various m~ch?n-isms of the machine, either in a program stop whexe the sequence will finish ou-t the movement of a glass gob through the machine before the stop, or an emergency stop where the machine will stop in a mode that would avoid the possibility of operator injury.
This electronic control system disclosed in U.S. Patent ~,762,907 represen-ts a mere replacement of mechanical timer drum and, in essence, acts in much the same manner as the timing drum, inasmuch as the electronic system pro~ides signals to a series of solenoids which control the operation o the plurality of valves, ra-ther than the mechanical operation Q~ those valves which were accomplished previously by the cams on the drum. While the , electronic control system is capable of changing or shifting the timing of relative variables, and it may be easily concluded that relative variables, i.e., timing of operations that are computed as a proportion af the duration of the enti~e cycle, may be accurately shifted, with the selection of the position of a pre-determined number of switches. It may also be concluded that the handlin~ and changing or shifting of absolute values can hardly be accomplished because the system is not equipped to effect such changes and even if it were, there is no way o testing the new times selected by the operator and there is no way of knowing in advance if the time selectors are correct to ~prevent a cut~ing down of certain variables that cannot be decreased or lengthened i in order to coordinate them or the total duration of the cycle.

In other words, if the absolute times selected by the operator are not accuratc and proper, then this must be learned the hard way ~z~

2-l because the mistakes cannot be appa~ent un-til -the machine begins .
normal operation and the ormed goods are then detexmined to be defective~
. One of the operations which is critical, after the bottles are formed into their final shape and the take-out mechanism has moved the bottles to a dea~ plate, is the sweeping o~ the bottles from the dead plates onto the moving conveyor, which moves past all of the sections of the forming machine and the sequence with which the bottles are formed and the timing of the movement of the bottles from their dead plates onto the con-veyox is a very critical and important operation. There are dela~s that are built in au-tomatically and in present day form-ing machines these sweepout mech~nisms which sweep the ware through approximately a 90 arc, when moving the ware from the dead plate onto the conveyox, have to be operated at a very con~ .
trolled xate so as not to tip the bottles as they are engaged by .
the sweepout fingers to transfer and move the bottles from the dead plates to the moving conveyor~ At pxesent, this operation i~ carxied out primaril~ throuyh the rotation of a cam at each section, driven hy a drive mechanism which is driven in syn-chronism with the movincJ conveyor..
In the present invention, however, this sweepout meh~n;~m and the other major moving mech~n;.~m~ of the forming machine are to be directly coupled to a reversible, electric motor.operating undex the control of a computer where there is a master computer for the entire machine and individual micro-processors within a section operators control box which are pro-grammed and may be operator-changed so as to be tuned in 1~927 ; conn~ction ~ith each o~ the sections generally/ independently of the other sections. There is dependence, however, on each of the micro-processors with the section operators control box . .
being under the control of the main computer and the memory S contained therein.
FIELD OF THE INVENTIO~
The present invention relates to electronic control s~stem for glassware and~or other thermoplastic article-forming machines. More particularly, the invention is in reference to electronic timing control systems for glassware machines which provide a real time control of the operation of the ware-forminy c~cle of the machines.
The present invention provides direct drive, reversible, electric motors for all of the mechanical ope~ations presently carried out on glassware forming machines by reciprocating types of air-operated motors~

SUM~RY OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to the operation o~ a glass , forming machine in which the charges of glass are delivered into I parison molds that are positioned at individual sections of a multiple section I.S. machine. The parisons are fonmed with their necks down either by press and blow or by the blow and blow process in which a baffle is seated over the open end o~ the pari-son mold and the charge is compacted into the shape of the pari-' son mold against the baffle by either the introduction of airunder pressure through the neck opening oE the parison in the blow and blow process or by -the insertion of a long plunger through the neck rings in-to the parison mold. The baffle is .
_ g_ 1~927 seated by the operation of an electric, reversible motor. After the parison is completely formed, the parison mold is opened, - I again by the operatlon of a reversible, electric motor and the !~ formed parison is inverted from the parison mold to a bLow mold by the operation of a further reversible, electric motor directly coupled to the mechanism for driving the invert arm. The blow molds also are of the split variety and are opened and closed b~
a reversible, electric motor. After the bottle is formed by the blowing of air through a blowhead in through the neck of the bottle so as to shape the bottle into its final form, the blow-heads are moved out o~ alignment with the necks of the bottles by the operation of another reversible, electric motor driving the I mechanism which operates the blowheads and raises them into ¦ position and lowers them over the necks of the bottles to per~orm the blowing operation. Once the bottles are completely ~ormed, the blowhead is retracted, a set o take-out tongs are operated to come into position over the necks of the bottles and grasps them by their necks and moves the bottles Erom the blow molds to a cooling dead plate mechanism. The tongs are operated as a mechanical unit, through the operation o a reversible, electric motor directly coupled to the take-out arm-suppor~ing sha~t.
Wi Wi-th the bottles sitting on the cooling dead plate, a sweepout mech~n; .sm, which also is directly coupled to a reversible, electric motor, moves the bottles from the dead plate onto the moving conveyor. ~hus i-t can be seen -that all of the major moving mechanisms on the glass orming machine are each operated by a reversible, electric mo-tor. All of -these motors then are under the control o the micro-processor which is pre-programmed to ~ 3~

~927 effectuate the timing of the various motions and control the motors in their repetitive operating mo-tions of the mechanisms.
All of the motor driven mechanisms on the glass forming machine are such as to be operated by the operation of its associated electric motor throu~h less than 360 xotation of ~he motor. In most instances, 180 or less is all that is necessary to effect the total movement of the mechanism through its complete cycle of operation.

FIG. 1 is a schematic, perspective view of a glass forming machine embodying the invention;
FIG. 2 is a side-elevational view of the sweepout mech~ni sm. of the machine;
FIG. 3 is a top plan view o one station of the apparatus of FIG. 2;
FIG. 4 is a tGp plan view, similar to FIG. 3, on an enlarged scale and with the sweepout head removed;
~ IG. 5 is a partial cross-sectional view taken at line 5-5 of FIG. 4;
FI~. 6 is a side-elevational view of the apparatus of FIG. 4;
FIG. 7 is a cross-sectional view taken at line 7-7 of FIG. 6;
FIG. 8 is a schematic, electrical circuit diagram of the electrical interconnections of the sweepout portion;

FIG. 9 is a schematic, side-elevational v:iew of a take-out mechanism;

I ~5'29~()i ' 1~927 i .
FIG. 10 is a schematic, side-elevational view of the ; drive mechanism for the invert arm;

FIG. lQa is a schematic, side-elevational view of a second embodiment of a drive mechanism ~or the invert arm;
~i; !
FIG. 11 is a schematic, perspective view of the drive system for the parison mold;
FIG. 12 is a side-elevational view o~ the drive system for the baffle mechanism ~ound at the parison forming station ;
10 1 and ,~ FI~ 13 is a schematic~ control circuit diagram of the '~ interconnections of the various motors and their control boxes for each section, as well as the integratlon of these programmable controllers with the overall controller found for each entire machi~e.

In FIG. 1, the view is that of what might be termed "one section of a multiple section glassware forming machine with many of the mechanical details removed for the purpose of clarity of illustration but providing a view of the setting for the motor-driven mech~nismR".
The overall schematic apparatus depicted in FIG. 1 shows an end section of a multiple section glassware forming machine with a conveyor 10 having a surface 11 passing along the side of the machine. The section bed has been designated b~y , reference number 91. The section bed 91 actually serves as a bed for the entire number of individual sections which make up the full machine. An individual section frame ~2 is positioned ' ~ 2~ 9~7 on the bed. Generall~ speaking, the section Erame is a rectangular box within which many oE the mechanisms for operating the various mechanical members of the machine may be found. ~s an example, a parison mold-actuating motor 93 which is ~ re-S versible, electric mo~or, is geared so as to drive a pair of , vertically ex-tending rods 94. A schematic view in FIG. 11 may be ., . I
1, referred to to show how the xeversible, elec-tric motor 93 drives ; the vertically extending rod 94 and its companion rod 95 throùgh ' , the intermediary of a gear 96 and 97. The gear 97 carries a pair of links 98 and 99 which are connected to a pair of cranks 100 and 101 which in turn are connected to rods 94 and 95. The upper ends of the rods 94 and 95 have a pair o cranks 102 and 103 to which links 104 and 105 are connected. The links 104 and 105 are connected to mold halves 106 and 107. The mold halves 106 ; 15 j and 107 are pivoted about a vertical axis 108. Thus it can be ~ seen that the parison mold which is composed of the two halves ! 106 and 107 is operated by the electric motor 93. The parison ' mold, when in its closed position, will be provided with one or more mold charges, depending upon whether it is a single, double or perhaps triple cavity mold. Once the charges have been de-livered to the mold, a baffle mechanism 109 will be operated to place the baffle over the open upper end o~ the parison mold.
This ba~fle mechanism is schema-tically shown in FIG. 12.
When the baf~le me~h~n;~m is placed in the position, it necessarily will ha~e come from an extended position up above and swung out of the way so that the parison molds can be loaded.
The baf~le shown here in FIG. 12, has baffle member 110 carried adjacent the outer end of a baffle arm 111 which in turn is 1~1927 clamped to a vertically extending rod 112~ The roa 112 c~rri~s a cam ~ollower roller 113 intermediate its lenyth, the lower end of -the rod 112 is coupled to a rack 144 by a slip coupling arrangement 115. The rack 144 in turn is in engagement with a pinion 11.6 carried on a shaf-t 117 of a reversible, electric ! motor 118. The cam follower 113 rides within a spiral cam track provided in a ca~ mem~er 119. The mechanism illustrated in FIG. 12, of course, is schematic; however,.it can be seen that -the operation of the motor 118 will cause the rack 144 to be reciprocated vertically and during the ver-tical reciprocation, the driven arm 111 will move vertically upward and swing in a clockwise direction due to the travel of the follower 113 within the cam member 119.
i Once the parison is completely formed in the parison 15 ; moid, the mold halves are opened leaving the parison held from beneath by its neck in a neck mold which is carried by an invert arm 120. The position of the invert arm depicted in FIG. 1 is actually the position o~ the invert arm aEter it has delivered . its parison to the blow or final mold and is about to be xevexted 20 ~rom its position back to the pariC~on or blank mold.
FIG. 10 may be referred to as showing the electric motor drive mech~nism ~or operatincJ the invert arm 120. This mechanism is comprised of an electric motor 121 driving a spur gear 122 meshing with a second gear 123. The gear 123 drives a crank 124 whose extending end is coupled to one end of a con-nec-tor rod 125, with the other end of the rod 125 being coupled -to a rack 126. The rack 126 is guided wi-thin a housing 127 which is mounted on the upper surEace of the section frame 92.

--1~

2~

The rack 1~6 is in mesh with a pinion 1~8 which rotates ~ sha~t ! 12g and the invert arm 120 is coupled to the shaEt 129 for move-ment through 180 of rotation. The cran~ 124 is limited in its two extremes of movement by a pair of adjustable stops 130 and ' 131.
The foregoing description of FIG. 10 is of one em-j bodiment of the invert drive mechanism and reference may be had to FIG. 10a where a second embodiment o~ an inver-t drive mechanism is illustrated. In this embodiment, the reference numerals that were applied in FXG. 10 are carried with the subscript "a" when referring to substantially the same mechanism.
For example, the drive motor 121a drives a pinion 122a which in turn meshes with a second pinion 123a. Pinion 123a is mounted on a spindle 1~5. The spindle 145 carries a pinion 146 which is in drivin~ engagement with a rack 126a. The drive apparatus of FIG. 10a is actually the preferred drive mechanism and the ratio of the aiameters of the gears 122a and 123a would be 4 to 1 with pinions 122a and 146 being the same size. Additionally, the ratio of the pinions 146 to 12g would be 2 to 1. It should be understood that khe invert mechanism of -the I.S. type forming machine requires greater torque since this mechanism has con-siderable mass. This is particularly true when the machine may be a triple mold machine where three ~arisons are simultaneously being transferred. In FIG. 10a the parison transfer has not been completed and th~ blow mold half is shown slightly ajar.
With regard to FIG. 1, as previously explained, the parison that is formed at the parison mold is inverted and trans-ferred to the blow mold 1~2. Once the parison has been trans-ferred to the b~ow mold and the blo~J mold closed abou-t it, the i ' 14927 neck riny will open and the invert arm is reverted back to the ,' parison side and a blowhead mechanism generally designated 133 i will be operated to move the blowhead into overlying relationship ' with respect to the blow mold. The blowhead operating mechanism is of substantiall~ the same character and the motions are essentially the same as that provided by the baffle operatin~
'. mechanism in FIG. 12 and an electric motor again will be used to actuate the blowhead mechanism and move it into alignment ovex the blow mold.
After the paxison is expanded into a completed bottle in the blow mold, the blow mold will be opened and a take-out . mechanism generally desiynated 134, will be brought into ope-ration to grasp the bottle which has been formed at the blow mold , station and transfer the bottle from the blow mold station t~ the cooling dead plate 13. The take-out mechanism is schematically illus-trated in FIG. 9. This mechanism is comprised of a vertical support 135 to the upper end of which is mounted a reversible, electric motor 136 having an output shaft 137. The shaft 137 is coupled to a take-out arm 138 and the extending end of the take-out arm 138 supports a tong mech~n;~m 139. The arm 138 is shown in simple outline. It should be understood that in actual practice, a sprocket would be coupled.to the shat 137 and a second sprocket of equal size would be rotatably mounted at the opposite end of the arm 138. Then, with a chain extending around both sprockets, oscillation of the shaft 137 would result in movement oE the arm throuyh 180 while at the same time maintain-;
iny the upriyht attitude of the tong mechanism 139, the tonys are opened for deposi.ting the comple-ted ware on the cooling dead plate 13. After the ware is placed on the dead plate 13, it is moved from the dead plate by the operation oE the sweepou-t mechanism 17.
;

~, , J~927 !
With particular reference to FIGS~ 2 and 3, there is shown a machine conveyor, generally designated 10, having an uppe~, moving belt surEace 11, moving in -the direction of the arrow shown thereon and to the left, as viewed in FIG. 1. The machine conveyor is also comprised of an elonga-ted beam 12 which~, in actual practice, is hollow along its leng-th bein~ closed at the top by the moving belt 11 and containing cooling air which is circulated therethrough. The cooling air is guided into a hollow~
chamber 14 over which a perforate plate 13 i~ mounted. The plate 13 is co~monly re~erred to as the "cooling dead plate" of a glass container forming machine. Newly formed containers are placed upon the upper surface of the plate 13 and their bottoms are cooled by the movement of air thereagainst~ These con-tainers, while positioned on the plate 13, are enyaged by fingers 15 and 16 of a sweepout head, generally desi~nated 17. The general relationship of the sweepout head 17, the conveyor 10 and the details of the sweepout head itself, which is pneumatically operated, may be found in U.S. Patent 4,19g,344 of common assignee to the presen-t case. Such patent 4,199,344 is hereby incorporated by reerence and disc~osure with regard to the sweepout head and the relationshîp of a sweepout mechanism to a forming machine conveyor will be found therein~
In view of the foregoing "incorporation by reference"
of the above patent, detailed description of the sweepout head is not being set orth herein and the relationship of the sweep-out head will onl~ be described with regard to the new system for, oscillating the head through a 90 an~le wherein the fingers 15 and 16 are moved from the position show~ in FIGS. 1 and 3 in a counterclockwise direc-tlon to slide the container Erom the dead plate 13 onto the surface 11 oE the conveyor 10.

1~927 i It should be understood tha-t the sweepou-t head 17 is mounted upon a generally horizontal disk 18 which is fixed ~o the upper end of a vertical drive sha-Et 19, as best seen in FIGS. 5 and 7. The disk 18 has a raised boss 20 which serves to accurately locate the posi~ioning o the sweepout head 17 there-on.
As can be seen in FIGS. 4 and 7, the raised boss 20 has a pai~ of diametrically opposed holes 21 and 22 exkending downwardly therethrough. These holes 21 and 22 match up with holes provided in ihe undersurface of the sweepout head mounting plate and air under pressure is fed through these holes alter-natively to efEect the outward stroke of the fingers 15. Either the hole 21 or 22 co~es into play, depending upon whether the j unit is a right-hand sweeping unit or a lef-t-hand sweeping uni~.
The particular unit which is illus-trated herein is a right-hand unit and by the connections shown in F~G~ 6, an inlek pipe 23 shown connected by a connector 24 to a port 25, will supply air under pressure out throuyh the hole 21. In the event the apparatus were to be a left-hand unit, the pipe 23 would be con-nected to a port 26 shown in the diametrically opposite side ofthe mechanism in FIG. 6 and, when so connected, the air under pressure would exit through hole 22 and thus eEfect the extension of the fingers 15 and l6 at the proper sequence in the sweepou~
operation.
~he disk 18 is shown in ~IGS. 5-7 as extending up-wardly through an opening formed in a cover plate 27. The cover plate 27 is bolted to the upper end of a generally rec-tangular castin~ 28. The casting 28 is shown in E'IGS. 4 and 5 as attached i.

i ~

~ (3~ 9~7 -to the sidewall of i~he conveyor 10 by bolts 29.. The casting 28 .' has a cen~ral opening wit.hin which a motor module is held. This motor module has a bore 30 ext~n~'ng vertically downward there-, through. The shaft 19 is supported within the bore 30 by a pair 5 :` of bearings 31 and 32. The bearings are spaced apart by anannular sleeve 33 and the lower bearing 32 engages a mount.ing ring 34 for an annular rotor 35. ~he mounting ring 34 is pro-vided with a keyway within which a key 36 is positioned.
As can be seen in FIG. 7, the shaft 19 is also pro-vided with a keyway 37 within which the key 36 is also positioned.The shaft 19, below the keyway 37, is externally threaded and a ref~;n;ng nut 38 is threaded thereon and abuts the lower end of the ring 3~, thus clamping the bearings and the mounting ring 34 , together as a unit, rotatable with the shaft 19. The rotor 35 15 ~.~ actually sits within an annular recess 39 formed in the external or circumferential portion of the ring 34 and is retained in this~
recess by an annular retaining ring 40. The ring 40 is held to the mounting ring 34 by a series of bolts 41. -In surrounding ~ relationship to the rotor 35 and spaced therefrom, is positioned an annular stator 42. Electrical leads 43 are shown extending from the area of the stator, through a lower c~lindrical housing 44 whi.ch is positioned coaxially with respect to the lower end of the casting ~8. The housing 44 is held in engagement with the lower end of the casting 28 by a plurality of bolts 45 ~See FIGS. 2 and 6~.
The housing 44 has an inner wall that forms an annular ledge 46 to the underside of which is mounted a tachometer 47.

The tachomeker 47 is a purchased unit having an annular stator 48 which is bolted to the ledge 46 by bolts 49. An example of a i ~ 927 . .
tachometer that has been found to be suitable for the system set for-th herein is one designated TG-2168, made b~ the Inland Motor ~ivision of Kollmorgen Corp.~ R~dford, Virginia. This tacho-' meter is supplied in three components, thè brush ring assembly, . armature assembly and sta-tor a-ssembly. The shaft l9.extends coaxially through the tachometer 47 and.has its lower end pinned . by a pin 50 to a lo~er sleeve portion 61 of an armature 62 of the ! tachometer 47. The armature 62 is also mechanically part of the rotor of the tachometer.
A split sleeve coupling 51 in tur~ is coupled to the lower end of shaft 19 and to a vertical shaft 52 of a synchro~
resolver 53. The resolver 53 may, for example, be a Resolver Control Transmitter (brushless~ sold by The Singer Company, Kearfott Div., Little Falls, New Jersey under specification M-2779. As can best be seen in FIG. 7, the coupling 51 is mounted within an extension 54 beneath the housing 44, with the extension 54 being bolted thereto b~ bolts 55 ~See FIG. 5). A
lower, elongated housing 56 is held to the lower end of the ex-tension 54 by bolt 57 and serves as the housing for the resolver 53. It can be seen that the resol~er 53 has a plurality of wires 58, actually 6 in number extending therefrom, along with the wires 43 from the stator 42 of the motor 59, and leads from the tachometer 47 extend to a connector 60. The connector 60 is a multiple pin plug for connecting the electrical leads within the drive unit for the sweepout to a computer for controlling the timing of the input to the motor 59 and the feedbac~ input to the computer from the tachometer and resolver.

~Z~13~ 27 The motor 59 may be of any known ~ype of reversible D.C~ torque motor. An example of one motor which has been used successfully is the frameless motor designated T-4036 or the T-4076 made by Inland Motor Division of Kollmorgen Corp., Radford, Virginia.
Stator 65 of the tachometer 47 carries a set of brush ring assemblies 66 which ride on the armature 62. The stator 42 of the reversible motor 59 also carries brush asse~blies desig~
~i nated 67 which bear against the armature 35~ Current is fed -to 10 j` the motc)r 59 through the leads ~3 and will cause the motor to rotate about its axis to the extent necessary to complete a sweep-ou-t motion. This degree of motion is normally 90~; however, it is sometimes desirable to have the sweepout rotate through ; essentiall~ the full 90D ~ but to retract the fingers at som~
point either just short of or just beyond the 90 position. This position of bottle release is dictated by the position of the re-tract air inlet coinciding with the port in the base of the sweep-out head.
As previously explained, the fingers 15 and 16 are ex-tended by the alignment of the port 21 with an underlying port 67in a sprin~-biased bushing 68 which ricles against the undersurface of the disk 18. The bushing 67 is connec~ed by passageways in the casting 28 to the pressure inlet pipe 23. Air from pipe 23 is controlled by the setting of a throttle valve 62 in the cast-j ing 28. A similar throttle valve 63 in the casting 28 will con-trol the flow of air through bushing 69 when a lef~-hand unit is used.

; When the sweepout, controllably driven by the motor ~. 59, at a rate monitored by the tachometer and computer, and with ,~ its xotational position being monitored by the .resolver 53, ~ . approaches the end of its 90 sweep, the port 22 will come into 5 , alignment with a port 70 (see FIG~ 5), in a bushing 71. The '~ bushing 71 is in the form of a movable block 72 which also has a passage 73 therethrough. This passage 73 communicates with a ! passage in a spring-biased bushing 74. The bushing 74 connects through a passage (not shown) to a conduit 75 that is coupled at 76 to the casting 28. A second bushing 77 tha-t is at 180 with , respect to bushing 74 serves as a vent for the other side of the motor on the head 17.
The block 72 is supported for linear, horizontal move-~ ment relative to the casting 28 by a rectangular slideway 78 that extends through the casting 28. The block 72 has an internally ' ~ threaded portion at 79 within which a threaded shaft 80 extends. , The shaft 80 is rotatable by either hand wheel 81 or 82, depend-ing upon where the operator may be positioned. It can be seen that rotation of either of the hand wheels will effect rotation of the shaft 80 resulting in movement o~ the block 72 as the threaded sha~t will drive the threaded portion 79. The block 72 is slideable in the slideway 78 and thus the position of the opening or port 70 therethxough can be adjusted relative to the position that the port 22 in the disk 18 will occupy after a particular angular rotation. Thus it can be seen that the align-ment position of the ports 22 and 70 may be adjusted and the retraction of the Eingers may be controlled to eEfect the release, paint in the 90 sweepout motion for the ware bein~ transferred ~22-32~3~
1~927 to the conveyor. The ability to adjust this retraction point is important and it should be kept in mind that retraction is done only after the ware is on the conveyor and has moved away from the fingers. The profile of sweepout velocity is selected so ~hat this occurs at the right time and at the proper velocity dictated by the type of ware.
The sweepout inger retraction is related to the deceleration pro~ile of the sweepout head. Since the total time is a constant, we can adjust the retract without further disturbing the profile. Start and stop positions of the head are constant thus we only want to adjust the time to start retract. A numerical display in the controller will give actual time lapse readings and by the use of retard or advance controls the start of the sweepout motion maybe selected.
As best shown in FIG. 2, the connector 60 has a plug 85 engaged therewith with the plug being connected through a cable to an overhead control box 114 which in turn is connected to a control console 86 by a cable 87. While the console 86 is shown adjacent the machine position, it should be pointed out that its actual physical location will normally be at the end of the machine and will be connected to the plurality of sections that make up the machine. The console 86 may also be provided with a display 88 which will give a readout, on command, of the timing sequence of operation of each of a plurality of sweepout motors and other motors found on the forming machines connected thereto. Furthermore, an additional display 89 that is connected to the section control boxes may give a digital readout of the relative times of operation of each section and its relationship to the other sections.

-23~

i !

1~9~7 ,. Some bot-tles may be tall and less stable than o-thers, , thus the necessity for having close control over the m~tion of the sweepout mechanism. Obviously, chan~es to the control system . may be made in the usual manner by the manual entry in the form ; of a keyboard 90 or the contrjl of the sweepout motor, as well as the other reversible, electric motors, may be e~ected by a , central computer (not shown) connec-ted to the console 86.
As shown in the schematic, circuit diagram of FIG. 13, the control console 86 which may be termed a Forming Machine Controller, is connected with each of a plurality of section operator control boxes 114. Each box 114 serves as the immediate controller for the ei~ht reversible motors, including the sweep- .
out motor 59 which in this diagram is represented by box 59, the take-out motor 136, the blowhead operating motor 141, the blow mold opening and closing motor 142, the in~ert drive motor 121, the parison mold openiny and closing motor g3, the baffle operating motor 118 and a funnel operating motor 143. The funnel operating motor 143 is connected to the funnel mechanism 1~0 (see FIG. 1). The funnel operating mech~nism is substantially identical to the baffle operating mechanism, bu-t is located at the opposite side of the section from the ba~fle mech~n;sm. The funnel serves to yuide charges into the parison mold and is re-moved before the baffle is seated on the mold for pressing a counterblow of the parison. The sequence of the operation of . 25 these mechanisms is clearl~ set forth in the U.S. Patent 1,911,119 mentioned previously.
Each of these motors may be of th.e "stepping type"
.C. motors which may, in effect, be controlled by a so-called -2~-1~927 "electronic cam`' ~hich is clocked :Erom within the console or from the section operato.r con-trol box. In the case of the D.C.
sweepout motor, where the tachorneter and resolver are shown, in detail, it should be apparent that this arran~ement would be ~unctional for each of the other motors. However, the important ' consideration is that all o the motors can be timed and con-' trolled in their operations wikh a great deal of accuracy and `. certainly with much closer control than is presently capable of 'I being achieved where the electronic timing of the machines is 10 ,, through the operation of a series of solenoid valves being usedto trig~er pilot valves for the pneumatic motors that are pre-sently on the machines. These pneumatic motors are potentially capable of inconsistent opera-tions due to the fact that these . air motors and air supply systems are sensitive to amhient 15 tempexature, humidity and lubrication failure such that they may . fail to cycle in a precise period. Further, the air supply lines themselves to the motors are subject to inconsistent ope-. ration through leaks or possibly being plugged up with dirt.
While the foregoing description sets forth in some detail the essence of the invention, it should be remembered thatwith the advent of more and more sophisticated electronic control equipment, the timing operations and the velocity profile of the .various mechanical motions on the machine can.be predetermined by the pre-programming of the controller, so that as each of the mechanisms are operated, they can be conkrolled so as to function in a repetitive cycle that is set in the computer. This is true with the output of the tachometer and resolver beiny compared with present information in the controller so that it can change 1~927 the motor current to cause the motor to drive the mechanism atthe properr selected velocity profile through its entire cycle.
It should also be apparent that A.C. motors with sufficient torque in small compact sizes are becoming available and with these types of motors, it is only necessary to have.a single end position indicator or sensor for a mechanical ope-rating unit so as to know if it has gotten out of synchronism with the systemj in order to run them at speciic velocities through preset cycles without havin~ any direct feed-back loops.

t -26~

Claims (10)

1. The embodiments of the invention in which an exclusive property or privilege is claimed are defined as follows:
   
   l. Apparatus for transferring glass articles from a plurality of sections of a multiple section glass forming machine comprising:
   a conveyor, common to all of the sections of the form-ing machine, for carrying formed articles away from the sections;
   a sweepout head at each section positioned adjacent the conveyor;
   a vertical shaft connected to each said head;
   a reversible, electric motor having a rotor and stator, said rotor surrounding and being coupled to said shaft;
   a tachometer having its rotor fixed to said shaft and positioned below said motor;
   a resolver coupled to said shaft; and a programmable controller electrically interconnect-ing each said motor, tachomer and resolver for controlling the rotation of each said shaft to move each head through an angle of less than 180° of rotation and return.
2. 2. The apparatus of claim l in which each sweepout head is supported in a casting with its drive motor, and each tachometer is supported as a module below the casting and each resolver is also supported in a separable module below the tachometer and motor.
3. 3. An apparatus for forming mold charges of glass into glass containers comprising a pair of pivoted parison mold halves, a pair of rotatable shafts connected by links to said mold halves, a rotatable drive gear connected to said shafts for rotating said shafts in opposite directions through an angle of less than 180°, a first reversible electric motor connected to said drive gear for rotating said drive gear to open and close the molds, a funnel means for guiding mold charges into said parison mold, a vertically reciprocable support shaft for said funnel means, a second reversible electric motor coupled to said shaft for said funnel for reciprocating said funnel support shaft and a programmable control means connected to said first and second reversible electric motors for timing the operation of each motor and for controlling the rate of operation of the motor to perform the opening and closing of the molds and reciprocation of the funnel support shaft in the preselected sequence.
4. 4. An apparatus for forming glass containers wherein an open and closable parison mold is coupled to a pair of op-positely rotatable shafts by drive linkage means, a first reversible electric motor coupled to said drive linkage means to open and close said mold halves, a neck ring transfer mech-anism including an arm mounted on a horizontal shaft for pivotal movement through approximately 180° between the pari-son mold and a blow mold location, a pinion mounted on said shaft, a vertically reciprocable rack in engagement with said pinion, a second reversible electric motor, linkage means coupling the output shaft of said second motor to said rack for vertically reciprocating said rack upon actuation of said motor in two directions, a computer, a programmable controller connected to each machine section, means connecting said com-puter to said programmable controller and logic means in said controller and connected to said first and second motors for driving said motor at preselected intervals and velocity pro-files through the full range of their movement to thereby open the molds and transfer parisons from the parison mold.
5. 5. An apparatus for forming mold charges of glass into glass containers wherein an openable and closable parison mold receives charges through a guide funnel, a baffle is placed over the parison mold, the parison is formed against the baffle, and the parison after formation, is inverted and transferred to a blow mold, the improvement comprising an open and closable pair of blow mold halves, a pair of oppositely rotatable shafts, means linking each shaft to one of said blow mold halves, a reversible electric motor, linkage means con-necting said motor to said pair of rotatable shafts, a pair of takeout tongs for grasping the necks of formed bottles while at the blow mold position, means supporting a horizontally ex-tending arm; said arm being pivoted about a horizontal axis and to the end of which is mounted the takeout tongs, said arm being oscillatable from a position over a dead plate to a position over the blow mold to thereby transfer formed ware from the blow mold to the dead plate, a reversible electric motor coupled to the horizontal arm of the takeout mechanism for rotating the shaft to effect movement of the arm toward and away from the blow mold, a programmable controller con-nected to each electric motor, computer means connected to said programmable controller, and logic means in said controller connected to said individual electric motors for controlling the operation of said motor at predetermined in-tervals and for predetermined times of operation.
6. 6. In a glass forming machine of the individual section type where each section is capable of converting a gob of molten glass into a glass container, the combination of a mechanically movable guide funnel for guiding the gobs into a split parison mold, a funnel arm connected to said funnel, a first funnel arm supporting shaft extending vertically ad-jacent the parison mold, a reversible electric motor mech-anically connected to said guide funnel, means coupling said electric motor to said funnel supporting shaft for vertically reciprocating said funnel supporting shaft, a baffle arm for supporting a baffle to be placed over the parison mold after the funnel has been removed, a second vertical shaft adjacent to the parison mold on the opposite side from said funnel sup-porting shaft, said second shaft supporting the baffle arm, a rack member at the lower end of said baffle supporting shaft, a reversible electric motor, a pinion connected to said motor and driven thereby in mesh with said rack for vertically reciprocating said shaft, a computer, a programmable con-troller means connecting said computer to said programmable controller and logic means in said controller for operating said individual electric motors at preselected intervals and velocity profiles through the full range of their movements whereby the funnel is brought into and seated on the parison mold first to guide the gobs and then is moved away from the parison mold to permit the baffle being seated.
7. 7. In a glass forming machine of the individual section type where each section is capable of converting a gob of molten glass into a completed glass container wherein each section includes a parison mold and a blow mold with means for transferring parisons formed at the parison mold to the blow mold the improvement comprising, in combination, a pair of pivoted blow mold halves, a pair of rotatable shafts connected by links to said mold halves, a rotatable drive gear connected to said shafts for rotating said shafts in opposite directions through an angle of less than 180°, a first reversible electric motor connected to said drive gear for rotating said drive gear to open and close the molds, a blow head, a vertically recipro-cable support shaft means for mounting said blow head on a horizontally extending arm, a second reversible electric motor means coupling said horizontally extending shaft for said blow head arm, a reversible electric motor driving the couple to said shaft for said blow head arm to said reciprocating shaft, a programmable controller means connecting said controller to each motor for timing the operation of each motor and for con-trolling the rate of operation of the motor so as to close the blow molds about a parison delivered thereto and then seat the blow head over the blow mold to effect expansion of the pari-son within the blow mold, retract the blow head and open the blow mold all in a predetermined sequence.
8. 8. In an apparatus for forming glass containers wherein bottles are blown to their final shape in blow molds located in a plurality of individual section machines, a take-out mechanism at each section for carrying the formed containers from the blow molds to a dead plate, the improvement in com-bination of a vertical support adjacent said blow mold, an arm extending outwardly from said support, means rotatably support-ing said arm in said support for rotation about a horizontal axis, a bottle neck grasping takeout tong carried on the ex-tending end of said arm and being supported thereby, a first reversible electric motor connected to said rotatable arm for moving said arm through an angle of approximately 180° and re-turn for carrying finished containers from the blow mold to a dead plate, a sweepout head mounted adjacent said dead plate, said sweepout head including fingers for engaging a container positioned on said dead plate and sliding said container from said dead plate through an arc of approximately 90° onto a machine conveyor, a second reversible electric motor connected to the sweepout head for oscillating said sweepout head through approximately 90° and return, a computer, a programmable con-troller connected to said computer and to said reversible motors for controlling the motion of the motors in a preselected sequence and for predetermined angles of rotation and velocity.
9. 9. An apparatus for forming mold charges of glass into glass containers wherein an openable and closeable pari-son mold receives charges through a guide funnel, a baffle is placed over the parison mold, the parison is formed against the baffle, the parison, after formation, is inverted and trans-ferred to a blow mold, and after being blown into a container is transferred from the blow mold to a cooling dead plate, the improvement comprising a neck ring transfer mechanism inclu-ding an arm mounted on a horizontal shaft for pivotal movement through approximately 180° between the parison mold and a blow mold location, a pinion mounted on said shaft, a vertically reciprocable rack in engagement with said pinion, a first reversible electric motor, linkage means coupling the output shaft of said first motor to said rack for vertically recipro-cating said rack upon actuation of said motor in two directions, a pair of takeout tongs for grasping the necks of formed bottle while at the blow mold position, means supporting a horizontally extending arm; said arm being pivoted about a horizontal axis and to the end of which is mounted the takeout tongs, said arm being oscillatable from a position over a dead plate to a position over the blow mold to thereby transfer formed ware from the blow mold to the dead plate, a second reversible electric motor coupled to the horizontal arm of the takeout mechanism for rotating the shaft to effect movement of the arm toward and away from the blow mold, a programmable controller connected to each electric motor, computer means connected to said programmable controller, and logic means in said controller connected to said individual electric motors for controlling the operation of said motors at predetermined intervals and for predetermined times of operation to thereby transfer parisons to the blow mold and take blown containers from the blow mold to a dead plate.
10. 10. An apparatus for forming mold charges of glass into glass containers wherein a parison is formed in a pari-son mold, the parison, after formation, is inverted and trans-ferred to a blow mold, then being blown into a container is transferred to a cooling dead plate and from the dead plate to a conveyor, the improvement comprising a neck ring transfer mechanism including an arm mounted on a horizontal shaft for pivotal movement through approximately 180° between a parison mold and a blow mold location, a pinion mounted on said shaft, a vertically reciprocable rack in engagement with said pinion, a first reversible electric motor, linkage means coupling the output shaft of said first motor to said rack for vertically reciprocating said rack upon actuation of said motor in two directions, a vertical support adjacent said blow mold, an arm extending outwardly from said support, means rotatably sup-porting said arm in said support for rotation about a hori-zontal axis, a bottle neck grasping takeout tong carried on the extending end of said arm and being supported thereby, a second reversible electric motor connected to said rotatable arm for moving said arm through an angle of approximately 180°
    and return for carrying finished containers from the blow mold to a dead plate, a sweepout head mounted adjacent said dead plate, said sweepout head including fingers for engaging a con-tainer positioned on said dead plate and sliding said container from said dead plate through an arc of approximately 90° onto a machine conveyor, a third reversible electric motor con-nected to the sweepout head for oscillating said sweepout head through approximately 90° and return, a computer, a program-mable controller connected to said computer and to said reversible electric motors for controlling the motion of the motors in a preselected sequence and for predetermined angles of rotation and velocity.