GB600953A - Ball bearing sorting machine - Google Patents

Abstract

600,953. Correspondence control. JACK & HEINTZ, Inc. Aug. 7, 1945, No. 20214. Convention date, Aug. 7, 1944. [Class 40 (i)] [Also in Group XIX] A ball sorting machine comprises gauging means having a sensitive gauging finger adapted to engage balls presented thereto, magazine feed means for feeding balls, one at a time, to the gauging finger and into a gravity discharge path, a plurality of diverting means associated with the gravity discharge path and actuated by the gauging finger for sorting balls traversing the path, characterized in that the magazine feed means includes a reciprocating plunger adapted to move each ball into contact with the gauging finger and subsequently, in the same stroke, move the ball out of contact with the gauging finger into the gravity discharge path. A tube 5, Fig. 3, is rotated by an electric motor to receive the balls through an opening 32 from a hopper 4. A base-plate 35 of the tube is connected by a pin 34 to a slide 33 which is connected to a further slide 42, whereby as the tube rotates, the lowermost ball drops through an opening 54 in the slide 33 into a chamber 50, a plunger 43 connected by a spring 44 to the slide 42 projects the ball into a chamber 67 where it is gauged between the members 65, 66 after which a stop 52 on the slide 42 engages the end of the plunger 43 to force the ball past the gauging members, so that the ball enters a downwardly inclined groove 9 leading to the several sorting passages. The upper gauging member 65 is mounted on a lever 60 rocked by a primary coil 63 under the control of an oscillator circuit in timed relationship with the feed of the balls, the displacement of the member during gauging affecting two pick-up coils 64, whose output is amplified and fed to a condenser 98, Fig. 8, the displacement being proportional to the charge on the condenser which raises the plate current of a D.C. amplifier 99 to an extent sufficient to energize a varying number of relays 101-110, set to pull in at different current values, whereby a circuit is established over one of the lines 116-125 to one of ten neon lamps 81, Fig. 2, with corresponding solenoids 12-20, so that the ball in passing along the groove 9 is deflected into the appropriate channel. The condenser 98 discharges through a resistance 97, the time taken permitting the ball to reach the appropriate channel before the corresponding relay 101-110 de-energizes. The support 56 for the lever 60 is adjustable by a screw-operated wedge 70. If the balls are not magnetic, the solenoids may operate gate or plungers to divert them. U.S.A. Specification 2,361,788 is referred to.