GB151771A - Improvements in and relating to methods of and apparatus for operating upon glass bulbs and other necked glass vessels - Google Patents

Abstract

151,771. British Thomson - Houston Co., (General Electric Co.). July 25, 1919. Forming electric-lamp bulbs and the like.-Relates to a machine for finishing thin-walled blown glass articles, such as electric lamp bulbs and consists of means for stripping the bulb from the blowpipe, means for loading the 'bulbs into holders, means for removing the moil from the bulb, and means for smoothing the neck of the bulk so that the bulb is ready to be made up into a lamp. The machine consists of a table on which is mounted a turntable 7, Fig. 7, which is rotated step by step, and is provided with six bulb holders 8 each in the form of a tubular pinion mounted on ball bearings and continuously rotated by a gear-wheel 9. The device for stripping the bulb from the blowpipe consists of a metal block 17, Fig. 4, having a notch just large enough to receive the blowpipe 16. The pipe with the attached bulb is placed in the notch, as shown, and pulled through, thus stripping the bulb and moil which is left lying on a tray 20. The tray is tilted by a cam 21 so that the bulb rolls into a feed-shoot 22, Fig. 7, which is turned about its pivot 23 to deposit the bulb in a holder 8. Movement of the turntable 7 carries the bulb to a station where burners 29, Fig. 10, heat a narrow zone of the neck some distance above the end until the neck is soft enough to allow the moil to be pulled off. The pulling-off device consists of a pair of fingers held together by a spring 32 and separated at intervals by a cam 36. The fingers are lifted about their pivot 33, allowed to close on the neck of the bulb, and are then left free by their weight, assisted by an auxiliary weight 38, to pull off the moil as soon as the neck has been softened by the flames. A soft brush-like flame from a burner 30 plays on the' top of the bulb to keep it hot. The bulb is moved to the next station where the edge of the neck, still hot, is flared and smoothed by a carbon reamer 39, Fig. 12, which is moved up into the neck of the bulb and then swung out laterally. A roller 46 may be used to support the edge of the neck during the flaring operation, and an auxiliary burner 47 may be used to heat the edge of the neck. At the next station, the bulb is removed by a transfer device consisting of an arm 48, Fig. 15, having at its end grippers 49 one of which is fixed to the arm while the others are secured to a rod journaled on the arm. The arm reciprocates vertically and also oscillate about a shaft 51. The bulb is lifted from its holder by an ejector 55 and is clutched by the grippers as the arm 48 descends. The arm then lifts and swing to one side, and as it descends again, a projection on the rod 50 strikes a stop 54, thus separating the grippers and releasing the bulb.