GB1572704A - Control devices for timers programmers and the like - Google Patents

Description

(54) IMPROVEMENTS IN AND RELATING TO CONTROL DEVICES FOR TIMERS, PROGRAMMERS AND THE LIKE (71) We, SYNTRONIC A.G. a company organised and existing under the laws of Liechtenstein, of Mauren, Liechtenstein, do hereby declare the invention, for which we pray that a patent may be granted to us.

and the method by which it is to be performed, to be particularly described in and by the following statement: The present invention relates to an improved timing device for the single or multiple stepwise advance control of a rotatable body, the step movement of which is used to obtain impulses suitable to control other devices as for instance a timer or programmer for domestic electric appliances.

As it is known, said timers include a rotatable body (or main cam pack) which suitable controlled, quickly rotates through a fixed angle. Said rotations, by the switch ing of suitable contacts effected by cams rigid with the rotatable body, determine the different stages of the washing program of either a clothes washing machine or a dish washing machine.

At present when in such a timer, for washing machines, dish-washing machines and the like. partial cycles are to be obtained, the total cycle developed through 3600 will be subdivided into a certain number of parts. The numner of the subdivisions of the cycle depends on the characteristics of operativeness and on the observance of the planning rules. Practically these two purposes show various problems of incompatibility as the cycle exigencies are not well adapted to certain characteristics of the known timers, such as the pulses having a constant duration. Pratically, for instance, the division of a cycle into a certain number of equal and different parts. knowing that the duration of the impulses is equal and constant, will alwavs condition both the number of the subdisisions, and their effect, as who plans the domestic electric appliance will not be able to obtain the wanted results in view of the limited characteristics of the timer as determined by the durations of a single imulse of a multiple thereof.

Certain mechanical timers for electric domestic appliances have been planned and are commonly used in industry, suitable to supply impulses having two (and not more than two) different durations. Said timers, however, even if they represent a progress, are not entirely satisfactory, since when the operating cycles are programmed, it is objectively needed to have at disposal timers apt to supply impulses having three or more different durations, This requirement, however, is not easily satisfied, due to the difficulty of embodyment a stepwise control device for the advance of the rotatable body of the timer, which control device defines, finally, the durations of the impulsions derived from the timer itself, and is adapted to cause the rotatable body to advance at time intervals having variable durations.

It is also known that the domestic or industrial machines used for washing such as washing machines, dish-washing machines, drying machines and the like, must carry out, besides the main cycle, for instance the washing cycle, also other different auxiliary cycles, for instance soaking, biological washing, drying. etc.

Up to now, said auxiliary cycles have been generally obtained by means of auxiliary timers having characteristics different from the main timer. It is evident that the use of said auxiliary timers will involve an enormous increase of the manufacturing costs of said machines.

An aim of the present invention is to produce a timer capable of supplying not only impulses separated by dwell times having a certain number of different durations forming integer multiples of a standard duration or base-time, but also pulses the time intervals between which correspond to fractions of said base time, and this due to a device for controlling the stepwise advance of the rotatable body of the timer having a new and improved planning. whereby the rotatable body of the timer will be rotated by steps, at time intervals having variable duration, the order of which may be changed at will from one or more minutes.

down to fifteen. thirty or fourty-five seconds.

Accordingly the main aim of this invention is that of providing a control device for a rotatable body suitable to stepwise rotate said rotatable body at time intervals having a variable duration wherein the extent of said variable intervals can be very different.

A consequent aim of this invention is that of providing a timer for domestic electric appliances including the device according to the invention itself, which is consequently capable of supplying impulses at time intervals which are very different from one another and which can be repeated a number of times throughout the entire rotation of 360" of said rotatable body.

Thus, practically, it will be possible to obtain impulses of few seconds for ten, twenty, etc. seconds sequentially, and to pass, then, to pulses at intervals of some minutes.

According to the present invention there is provided a control device for controlling the stepwise advance of a main shaft carrying a rotatable cam carrier body, by an electric motor and a pair of gears, said device having an annular element idly mounted on the main shaft and provided with a ring gear engaged by a pinion operated by a shaft of the electric motor, the ring gear having on one face a profiled groove forming a continuous closed loop of varying radius from the main shaft, which engages a projection of a radially slidable slide element slidably mounted in an aperture of a lever adapted to oscillate about the main shaft and having two counterposed arms. one of which is provided with a cam follower roller co-operating with a multilobe cam rigidly mounted on the motor shaft, while the other arm co-operates with the toothed periphery of a programmer disc arrangement connected to said cam carrier body and having a plurality of recesses into which a further projection of the said slide element can engage to cause programmed advancements of the cam carrier body.

Said program disc arrangement can consist of a single disc with a saw toothed periphery having on its surface said radial recesses provided in a plurality of circular paths having different radius, while in a second embodiment. in order to obtain advance dwells of the cam carrying body, having different durations (for instance for biological washing and the like) a second disc, the periphery of which is saw toothed, is mounted over said first disc and is idly rotatably mounted. In said second disc there are, besides said radial recesses, a number of through slits, the number and the dimensions of which depend upon the wanted number of dwells and upon the program of their duration, and also an arc shaped groove into which engages a pin provided on the upper surface of the lower disc.

The device according to this invention will be described in more detail later on; it is here stated only that the entire number of the different durations of the time intervals between an advance movement, and the next movement through a certain angle as performed by the rotatable body, is determined by the number of the annular members carrying the apertures formed on said disc rigid with the rotable body itself, said number being in turn equal to the number of the portions having different radii of the closed ring groove formed in the lower surface of the annular element, and by the number of the lobes of said multilobe cam.

This invention is now described further, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein: Figure I is an exploded perspective view, with sectioned, broken or removed parts, for sake of clearness, of the first embodiment of the device according to this invention; Figure 2 is a diagrammatical plan view contributing to show the arrangement of the movement members of the device of Figure 1, and the mode of their concomitant operation; Figure 3 is an axial section view along the line III-III of Figure 2; Figure 4 is a fragmentary sectional partial view, in an enlarged scale, and developed on a plane, of a detail of the operating mechanism of the device of Figure 1; Figure 5 is an exploded perspective view, with sectioned. broken removed parts, for sake of clearness. of the second embodiment.

Figure 6 is a diagrammatic plan view contributing to show the arrangement of the movement members of the device of Figure 5 and the mode of their concomitant operation; Figure 7 is an axial sectional view taken along the line III-III of Figure 6, and Figure 8 is a fragmentary sectional partial view in an enlarged scale and developed on a plane of a detail of the operating mechanism of the device of Figure 5.

In the perspective view of Figure 1, there is shown the rotatable body forming the main cam pack of a timer consisting of a drum 10 so mounted as to be able to rotate bodily with the shaft 11.

A long axial sleeve 12 is rigid to the body 10 and said sleeve extends downward and is inserted on the shaft 11 which is provided at its lower end with the keys 13 for a disc 14 mounted on said shaft so that the notches 15 formed on the end of the aperture 16 will engage the keys 13 rendering the disc 14 rigid with the body 10. The single disc 14 of this embodiment forms the said programmer disc arrangement.

On the sleeve 12 are also located: an annular element generally denoted by 20, and a two-arm operating lever 21 having a spacer sleeve 22, so that said elements are arranged between the bottom of the rotatable body 1(1 and the disc 14, and are capable of rotating with respect to said members and with respect to one another.

The thus described unit is supported by two parallel stationary plates, an upper plate 18A ad a lower plate 18, and the sleeve 12 enters into an aperture formed in the lower plate 18 and is locked under it by an elastic clip 19 which is received in a groove 25 formed at the end of the sleeve 12.

The annular element 20 is provided with an outer ring gear 26 and on its lower surface with a ring groove generally denoted by 28 consisting of five portions having the shape of arcs of five circles having different radii, denoted bv the references 28a, 28b, 28c, 28d and 28e connected by oblique portions generally denoted by 29a, 29b, 29c, 29d and 29e. It is to be noted that, as better shown in Figure 4. in the bottom of the groove 28, the equispaced teeth 24 are formed.

The operating lever 21 has: a first arm 30 elbow-bent, at the end of which is carried the cam follower roller 31, and a second arm 32, the shape of which is essentially a trapezoid with a rectangular aperture 33, a downward bent hooking tooth 34 and an abutment part 35.

The aperture 33 receives, so as to be slidable therein by a slide element 36, a double hollow operating tooth 37 consisting of an upper part 38 and lower part 39 axially slidable in part 36, against the action of a spring 40 (Figure 4).

In the Figure 4 the upper part 38 has an inclined plane 41 while the lower part 39 has an inclined plane 42.

The disc 14 (Figures 1 and 2) is provided with five sets of rectangular recesses denoted by 45a, 45b. 45c, 45d and 45e, each set being arranged on an annular portion having a different radius, and each radius being equal to one of the five different radii of the groove portions 28a. 28b, 28c, 28d and '8e of the groove 28. It is to be noted that the apertures in a given set are spaced in a non uniform mode along the respective ring gear, and that since the difference between the radii of the five circular rings is less than the radial dimension of each recess, the recesses of contiguous sets are partially radially "overlying". Further, the periphery of the disc 14 is provided with saw teeth, as shown at 43.

The lower stationary plate 18, rotatably supports a sprocket 50 to which is a star-like cam 51 having three lobes 51a, 51b and 51c, is rigidly connected, the sprocket being operated by the shaft 46 of the timer motor 49 through a coupling consisting of a pin 47 inserted into a hole formed in the end of the shaft 46, and perpendicular thereto, the two projecting parts of said pin being received into two recesses 48 having triangular shapes and opposite apexes, formed in the central part of the sprocket 50.

When mounted, the sprocket 50 is engaged with the ring gear 26 of the annular element 20 (Figure 3) and the star-like cam 51 is in correspondence with the cam follower roller 31 of the lever 21.

Further on the lower stationary plate 18, in a position diametrically opposite to the position of the sprocket 50 with respect to the drum 10, there is a pivot pin 52 whereon is pivoted a U shaped lever 53 with a stop pawl, having one arm 54 which in correspondence with the saw toothed ring gear-43, rigid with the disc 14, is provided with a stop tooth 55.

The other arm 57 of the lever 53, at the base of which said lever is pivoted, is provided with an internal surface 58 which is in correspondence with the abutment part 35 of the arm 32 of the lever 21.

The lever 53 has also a hooking tooth 59 (Figure 2) to which is anchored the end 60 of a pull acting helical spring 61, the other end 62 of which is anchored to the hooking tooth 34 of the lever 21.

By such an arrangement of the parts, the counterclockwise rotation of the motor 49 will rotate the sprocket 50 and the cam 51 rigid therewith, so that a clockwise rotation will be imparted to the annular element 20 the ring gear 26 of which is engaged with the sprocket 50. The rotation of the cam 51, also, will determine a counterclockwise angular movement of the lever 21 due to the cam follower roller 31 which moves among the outer profile 56 ( a b c) of each lobe 51a, 51b and 51c, with the consequent stretching of the spring 61 which will be correspondingly loaded. The spring therefore will suddenly move the lever 21 clockwise when the rotation of the cam 51 will carry in correspondence with the roller 31 the recess existing between each lobe 51 and the next one.

Moreover, simultaneously with these movements it occurs that due to the rotation of the element 20, the tooth 37 moves along the aperture 33, thus radially with respect to the disc 14, as it must follow the path of the groove 28 into which its upper part 38 is inserted. Therefore. the tooth 37. for each entire revolution of the annular element 20 will move radially to and fro for an extent equal to the difference existing between the radius of curvature of the circular portion 28a of the groove 28. the minor. and the radius of the portion 'sue. the greatest.

It is evident that in this to and fro stroke.

the lower part '.t) of this tooth will sweep the annular ring of the disc 14 between the recesses 45o of the innermost set, and the recesses 45e of the outermost set and that, being submitted to the action of the internal spring 40 (Figure A) it will tend to enter into said recesses the dimensions of which are suitably correspondent.

There derives that, if the angular movement of the lever 21 as previouslv described occurs when the lower tooth 39 is received within anyone of the recesses 45 (a, b, c, d and e) of the disc 14, such movement will be imparted to said disc. and therefore the drum 10.

It will be necessary to enhance that immediately after having imparted the movement of the lever 21 to the disc 14, the lower tooth 39 is caused to issue from the recesses 45 ( a, b, c. d and e) into which it was inserted at the moment of the snap by the counterclockwise movemnt of the lever 21 determined bv the action of the cam 51 on the arm 30 thereof. through the roller 31.

this being rendered possible by the inclined plane 42 of the lower tooth 39 (Figure 4) which moves along the rear edge 44 of the aperture 45.

Once come out from the recesses 45 ( a, b, c. d, and e) the operating tooth 37 controlled bv the particular shape of the groove 28 into which its upper portion 38 is inserted, will be able to start again its radial stroke along the aperture 33 until finding a recess 45. of a whatever set of recesses, into which enter in order to impart again the quick snap of the lever 21 to the disc 14.

It is clear that by such device for advancine the main cam pack. the designer of a timer according to the present invention. by adapting to his particular exigences either the profile of the positive action groove 28 or the arrangement, the number and the radial displacement of angularly contiguous apertures 45. will be able to obtain from the timer impulses having time intervals which are extremely variable, as aforesaid.

It is evident that for the operation of the device according to this invention it is necessary that alwavs a recess 45 pertaining to a whatever set of apertures will be at disposal in each circular sector. the angle of which is equal to the angle through which the tooth 37 moves after each operation of the disc 14, while the dwell times depend, after each operation, upon the radial position of the aperture located in the angularly next sector.

At this point it is to be noted that the impulse thus imparted by the spring 61 to the rotatable drum 10 has an extended value and this. together with the inertia proper of the drum itself would cause a whirling movement contrasting with the need that the drum will move. for each impulse, a quick angular movement having a predetermined extent. In order to avoid this drawback in the timers normallv a stop pawl is provided, urged by a strong spring against a ring gear rigid with the rotated body.

Obviously, there are certain limitations to the size of the spring used for this purpose, so that it may happed that the inertia proper of the rotatable body will cause the pawl to be overpassed by more than one tooth before it will be able to stop the movement, so that the rotatable body will move through an angular movement greater than the desired angular movement, which is equal to the angular extent of one of the teeth of the stop ring gear. with all drawbacks thereby deriving.

In the above described embodiment a further force is provided, at the proper moment, for assisting the elastic pull exerted by the spring 61, this further force pushing the tooth 55 to steadily enter between the teeth of the gear ring 43. so that none of the teeth will be able to overpass the tooth 55.

The force has been obtained by a "percussion" exerted at the proper moment of the lever 53. In fact. Figures 1 and 2 show that the edge 35 of the arm 32 of the lever 21 contacts the edge 58 of the arm 57 of the lever 53.

By such an arrangement. when the lever 21 snaps clockwise under the action of the spring 61, because the roller 31 after having moved upwards along one of the lobes 51 (a, b, c) and loaded the spring will find the next recess. it imparts also a strong clockwise blow by the edge 35 against the edge 58, whereby the lever 53 can in no way, at that moment, clockwise rotate under the push exerted on its tooth 55 of the saw teeth of the ring gear 43. while on the contrary, the force exerted by the spring 61 could not be capable of containing said push.

In order to attain this purpose it will be necessary to determine exactly the positions, the angular position and the dimensions of the arm 32 and of the arm 57.

Also to be noted is the stop action carried out by the tooth 55 with respect to the disc 14 rigid with the body 10 against any movement imparted by friction thereto.

This embodiment also. provides a system for imparting a quick angular movement also to the annular element 20 so as to accelerate suddenly the continuous rotation imparted thereto by the sprocket 50.

This possibility has been provided for obtaining in the timer according to this invention, also the quick switching of the secondary cam pack, in order to reduce the radio interference usually caused by the operation of the timers.

Let us suppose for instance that the annular element 30 will consist of the pack of secondary cams. or cams for the continuous reversal. of a paddlemotor, for example, of a timer for washing machines.

It. then, will have to undergo a sudden acceleration for each switching carried out by the secondary cam pack which must occur in concomitance with a switching of the main cam pack, namely in concomitance with the quick angular movement of the drum 10. For this purpose. have been provided: the upper tooth 38 of the double tooth 37, and the stepped teeth 24 formed on the bottom of the different portions 28a, 28b. 28c, 28d and 28e of the groove 28.

With reference to Figure 4, it will be noted that by placing at suitable places the teeth 24 in the groove 28, it will be possible that the quick movement imparted by the lever 21 to the disc 14 will be able to be transmitted simultaneously. through the tooth 38 and the steps 24, to the annular element 20.

However. since to the annular element 20 will be also imparted the continuous rotation of the motor 49, it has been necessary to render temporarily free the rotation of the sprocket 51. engaged with the ring gear 26 of the annular element 20, from the rotation of the shaft 46 of the motor 49.

To this purpose have been provided: the pin 47 rigid with the shaft 46, and the triangular recesses, opposite at their apexes, formed in the central body of the sprocket 50. In fact bv such an arrangement it will be evident that for each quick angular clockwise movement, in Figure 2, imparted to the annular element 20, the sprocket 50 will be submitted to a corresponding sudden acceleration with respect to shaft 46, rendered possible bv the plav existing between the arms of the pin 47 and the walls 48A of the triangular recesses 48 of the central body of the sprocket 50.

The perspective view of Figure 5 shows that on the axial sleeve 12, rigid with the body 10. on which is fixed the main disc 14', is mounted under said main disc and almost in contact therewith. a second auxiliary disc denoted bv 100.

The disc 100 has a toothed periphery with saw teeth 101 and is freely rotatable on the sleeve 12 as it is not fastened thereto. The disc 100 is held stationary, with respect to counter-clockwise rotations. by the tooth 55' of the lever 53' which engages both the ring gear 43 of the disc 14', and the ring gear 101 of the disc 100.

Like the disc 14', the disc 100 is provided with the recess 102a, 102b located along determined circular rings of the disc itself, but their arrangement is substantialy different as it will be described later on. The disc 100, furthermore, is provided with a tooth 103 projecting from its upper surface, which is received into a slot 104 having the shape of an arc of a circle and formed on the peripheral part of the disc 14', externally of the outermost set of the recesses 45'e. The disc 14' and 100 form the programmer disc arrangement of this second embodiment.

As to the recesses 45'a, 45'b, 45'c, 45'd, in the disc 14' it is to be noted that as better shown in Figure 8, they consist of regular rectangular recesses having a closed bottom 105. In fact in the disc 14' through apertures 145a and 145b, are also provided, but these said apertures have a particular function, as it will be illustrated hereinafter, and to this purpose their angular and/or radial dimensions are greater.

In this embodiment it is to be noted that the tooth 39' carried by the lever 21 will operate identically to the tooth 39 of the lever 21 for advancing the disc 14', entering into the recesses 45' and bearing against the bottom 105 thereof, under the action of the spring 40 (Figure 8).

Be it assumed that at certain moment of the development of the main cycle of the machine, determined by the position of the recesses 45' (a, b, c, d, e) of the disc 14', a long secondary cycle is to be started, such as for instance that of washing with biological detergent.

Then as a subsequent aperture with respect to the recess 45'a which determined the last advance, the through aperture 145a will appear (Figure 8).

As is evident in the diagrammatic section developed in a plane of Figure 8, when the tooth 39' is in correspondence with the through aperture 145'a, the tooth 39', urged downwardly by the spring 40, passes through said aperture and is capable of entering into the recesses 102 (a, b) of the disc 100.

As the angular extent of the aperture 145a is double with respect to that of the recesses 45' after a further advance of the disc 14' determined by the engagement of the tooth 39' against the edge 106 of the aperture 145'a, the snap stroke of the tooth 39 operated by the lever 21, which occurs inside said aperture, will be unable to determine other forward movements of the disc 14' which therefore will stop.

However by construction, the recesses 102 (a, b) formed in the disc 100 are located at angular intervals equal to those of the recesses 45', along a circular ring of the disc 100 corresponding to the radial position of the through apertures 145a of the disc 14' and thus the snap movement of the tooth 39 as illustrated in the first embodiment will have the result of a stepwise advance of the disc 1()0.

The disc 100 will move forwards and the disc 14' will remain stationary until the tooth 103 of the first disc will have moved through the entire arc-shaped slot 104 and will bear against the fore edge thereof 104A.

A this point the further advance of the disc 100 will cause an equal drawing of the disc 14'. whereby the tooth 39' will be compelled to come out from the aperture 145a (Figure 8).

Then the tooth 39' will be again in correspondence with the recesses 45' (a, b, c, d, e) which are not through recesses, so that its snap movement will be able to move only the disc 14' while the disc 100 will remain stationary until the pin 103 will bear, due to the continuous advance of the disc 14' agaist the rear edge 104B of the arc shaped slot 104 (Figure 5). Then the disc 100 will rotate together with the disc 14'.

The two discs will continue to rotate together until the tooth 39' will again in correspondence with a through aperture such as the through aperture 145b.

At this point the disc 14' will stop again and only the disc 100 will start advancing.

repeating the already described cvcle.

Of course. the duration of the dwell of the main disc 14'. i.e. the duration of the secondary cycle. will depend upon the angular extent of the slot 104.

It is to be noted that due to the radial dimensions of the aperture 145a it will be possible to determine a forward movement of the disc 100 bv apertures 102 which are radially displaced. besides being angularly spaced. so that it will be possible to obtain a greater variability in the advance of the disc 100 making use of the possibilitv of radial displacement of the tooth 39 as afforded by the presence of the positive action groove 28 as shown in the first described embodiment.

The main advantage from the latter device arises from the possibility of having available a variable number of recesses 102 located along more radii at parity of angular extent of the arc shaped slot 104 and the capacity of the main timer of performing impulses or advances having variable dwell duration. which can be transmitted also to the disc l()(). i.e. to the auxiliary timer.

The present invention has been described with reference to the two embodiments at present preferred. described for illustrative and non limitative purposes. and it will be understood that therein variations and mod ifications could be entered by a person skilled in the art without departing from the scope of the appended claims.

WHAT WE CLAIM IS: 1. A control device for controlling the stepwise advance of a main shaft carrying a rotatable cam carrier body, by an electric motor and a pair of gears, said device having an annular element idly mounted on the main shaft and provided with a ring gear engaged by a pinion operated by a shaft of the electric motor, the ring gear having on one face a profiled groove forming a continuous closed loop of varying radius from the main shaft, which engages a projection of a radially

Claims (9)

1. **WARNING** start of CLMS field may overlap end of DESC **.

   100 corresponding to the radial position of the through apertures 145a of the disc 14' and thus the snap movement of the tooth 39 as illustrated in the first embodiment will have the result of a stepwise advance of the disc 1()0.

   The disc 100 will move forwards and the disc 14' will remain stationary until the tooth 103 of the first disc will have moved through the entire arc-shaped slot 104 and will bear against the fore edge thereof 104A.

   A this point the further advance of the disc 100 will cause an equal drawing of the disc 14'. whereby the tooth 39' will be compelled to come out from the aperture 145a (Figure 8).

   Then the tooth 39' will be again in correspondence with the recesses 45' (a, b, c, d, e) which are not through recesses, so that its snap movement will be able to move only the disc 14' while the disc 100 will remain stationary until the pin 103 will bear, due to the continuous advance of the disc 14' agaist the rear edge 104B of the arc shaped slot 104 (Figure 5). Then the disc 100 will rotate together with the disc 14'.

   The two discs will continue to rotate together until the tooth 39' will again in correspondence with a through aperture such as the through aperture 145b.

   At this point the disc 14' will stop again and only the disc 100 will start advancing.

   repeating the already described cvcle.

   Of course. the duration of the dwell of the main disc 14'. i.e. the duration of the secondary cycle. will depend upon the angular extent of the slot 104.

   It is to be noted that due to the radial dimensions of the aperture 145a it will be possible to determine a forward movement of the disc 100 bv apertures 102 which are radially displaced. besides being angularly spaced. so that it will be possible to obtain a greater variability in the advance of the disc

   100 making use of the possibilitv of radial displacement of the tooth 39 as afforded by the presence of the positive action groove 28 as shown in the first described embodiment.

   The main advantage from the latter device arises from the possibility of having available a variable number of recesses 102 located along more radii at parity of angular extent of the arc shaped slot 104 and the capacity of the main timer of performing impulses or advances having variable dwell duration. which can be transmitted also to the disc l()(). i.e. to the auxiliary timer.

   The present invention has been described with reference to the two embodiments at present preferred. described for illustrative and non limitative purposes. and it will be understood that therein variations and mod ifications could be entered by a person skilled in the art without departing from the scope of the appended claims.

   WHAT WE CLAIM IS: 1. A control device for controlling the stepwise advance of a main shaft carrying a rotatable cam carrier body, by an electric motor and a pair of gears, said device having an annular element idly mounted on the main shaft and provided with a ring gear engaged by a pinion operated by a shaft of the electric motor, the ring gear having on one face a profiled groove forming a continuous closed loop of varying radius from the main shaft, which engages a projection of a radially slidable slide element slidably mounted in an aperture of a lever adapted to oscillate about the main shaft and having two counterposed arms, one of which is provided with a cam follower roller cooperating with a multilobe cam rigidly mounted on the motor shaft, while the other arm co-operates with the toothed periphery of a programmer disc arrangement connected to said cam carrier body and having a plurality of recesses into which a further projection of the said slide element can engage to cause programmed advancements of the cam carrier body.
2. 2. A device as claimed in claim 1. in which the programmer disc arrangement comprises a single disc having a saw toothed periphery and being rigidlv mounted on the main shaft, the surface of said disc being provided with said recesses located on a plurality of circular concentric paths having different radii.
3. 3. A device as claimed in claim 1, in which the programmer disc arrangement element comprises two superposed discs each having a saw toothed periphery, said discs being provided with said recesses, the upper toothed disc being rigidly mounted on the main shaft and having one or more through apertures through which can pass the said further projection of said slide element in order to engage the recesses of the lower disc freely rotatable on said shaft, a pin being mounted on said lower disc which pin engages in and can abut each end of an arc shaped groove in the upper disc.
4. 4. A device as claimed in claim 1, in which said profiled groove is formed by a plurality of circular segments having different radii and an equal number of oblique portions connecting said circular segments so as to form a positive action cam the radii of said segments corresponding to those of said recess sets.
5. 5. A device as claimed in claim 4, in which said positive action cam is provided with equispaced stop teeth.
6. 6. A device as claimed in claim 1, in which at least one of the projections of said slide element is movable. a spring being interposed between said projections.
7. 7. A device as claimed in ay one of

   claims 1 to 6, in which the pinion is mounted on its driving shaft by means of a pin rigid with said shaft, the two ends of said pin being engaged into two recesses formed in the central body of the pinion so as to form a loose coupling between the pinion and the driving shaft to allow thus a rough angular acceleration of said pinion with respect to said shaft in correspondence with a quick angular movement imparted to the annular element due to a quick snap of the follower roller of the lever on the descending surface of the lobes and consequent strike of the tooth on one of the teeth of said annular element.
8. 8. A device as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 7 in which one arm of the lever is provided with a downward bent hooking tooth in order to engage the toothed periphery of the programmer disc arrangement and an abutment part co-operating with a stop member of an arm of a U-lever suitable to oscillate about a pin, the other arm of the U-lever being provided with a hole into which is fastened the end of a helical spring the other end of which is fastened to the hooking tooth of the lever and with a stop tooth which owing to the action of the abutment part on the lever prevents the lever at the moment of said quick snap to advance the programmer disc arrangement for more than one tooth.
9. 9. A control device constructed substantially as herein particularly described with reference to and as illustrated in Figures 1 to 4 or Figures 5 to 8 of the accompanying drawings.