GB223822A - Improvements in and relating to machines for assorting rods & tubes - Google Patents

Abstract

223,822. British Thomson-Houston Co., Ltd., (General Electric Co.). April 16, 1924. Separating by passing over or through graduated apertures; feeding articles from hoppers and shoots.-A sorting device for rods and tubes consists of a series of gauges formed by pairs of discs 34 eccentrically mounted to provide adjustment, a pair of discs being provided for, each end of a rod. The rods that fail to pass through a gauge are lifted by sector-shaped members 37 on to shoots 36 which convey them to the next gauge in the series. The members 37 are mounted on shafts 38 actuated simultaneously by rods and crank connections with shafts 41 which are connected by cranks 42 to a rod 43. One of the shafts 41 is driven from a countershaft 20 by a connecting-rod 45 and cranks. Means are provided for preventing the passage between one pair of discs of the narrow end of a tapering rod while the other end is held up, and consists of a pair of lingers 48, 54 associated with each gauge and rigidly secured to shafts 49 pivotally mounted in brackets 50, the weight of the fingers being counterbalanced by weights 53 threaded on a screw bolt 52. The normal position of the fingers is determined by adjustment of the brackets 50 and a stop 55 consisting of an eccentrically mounted disc. The weight of a rod which passes completely through a gauge swings the fingers into the position shown in dotted lines, the rod being delivered on to springs 47 which break its fall into a suitable receptacle. If one end of a rod fails to pass the gauge, the fingers retain it in position to be lifted by the members 37 and passed to the next gauge. The rods are fed one at a time from a shoot 11 which is pivotally connected at its front end to a fixed bracket 12 and is adjusable in inclination by a two-part rod 14 and turnbuckle 15. The feeding device consists of a vertically moving slide 17 driven by a rod 18 and crank 19 on the counter-shaft 20 and adapted on its upward movement to lift. one rod from the shoot, and an ejector 29 which is actuated by a pivoted arm 31 mounted on the slide and adapted to engage a fixed abutment 33 when the, slide reaches its highest position, the end of the ejector being bevelled to discharge the rod on to a shoot 28. Inclined buffers 27 hold back the pile of rods in the shoot during the upward movement of the slide, and an agitating finger is actuated by a rod 18<1> and crank 19 on the shaft 20.