GB1217513A - Improvements in or relating to the manufacture of pottery ware - Google Patents

Abstract

1,217,513. Forming clay slugs by extrusion. SERVICE (ENGS.) Ltd. 18 March, 1968 [17 March, 1967], No. 12602/67. Heading B5A. Slugs of clay Care cut. from the extrudate of a screw extruder 12 by means of a knife 112, each slug is conveyed with its axis substantially horizontal to the neighbourhood of a mould 81 by means of a cradle 48, cradle 48 is swing into a vertical position above mould 18 to bring the slug into contact with a further cradle 66 and the slug is pushed out of the cradles into firm contact with the base of mould 18 by means of a vertically reciprocable piston 86, see also Fig. 2 (not shown). Cradle 48 is mounted on a block 29 slidable along horizontal bars 24 under the action of a piston and cylinder device 30 and is swung to a vertical position as block 29 is moved in a downstream direction by cooperation between an arm 42 fixed to the cradle and a cam 62. Piston 86, provided with a loose rubber cover 88, is actuated when cradle 66 is contacted by the slug and in turn contacts microswitch 74, provided that a further microswitch (not shown) has been actuated by a mould 18 moving to the clay-receiving position. On retraction of block 29 upstream, arm 44 (at this stage vertically disposed) contacts a cam 52 to swing cradle 48 once more into a horizontal position. The cutting mechanism and actuation thereof is essentially as described in specification 1,140,848, but in the present case the mechanism is also linked to the actuation of a microswitch 84 which indicates the presence or otherwise of cradle 48 in a clayreceiving position. Mould 18 is one of a number fixed to a turntable 16 and the whole apparatus may form part of a cup-making plant.