GB619965A - Improvements in machines for working glass tubes under heat - Google Patents

Abstract

619,965. Working glass tubes. SHAW, G. S. May 29, 1946, No. 16286. [Class 56] Relates to the waisting or complete severing of glass tubes by conveying them past heating means and drawing them out by flexible belt means which contacts them at an inclination to their direction of traverse and is driven longitudinally to rotate them and to apply a transverse thrust to them. According to the invention the conveyor causes the tubes to follow a curved path so that the flexible belt or belts extending thereover will contact every tube, even if their diameters vary. As shown, the tubes are picked up from a chute 2 by semi-cylindrical grooves 3, 4 in drums 5, 6 rotated by a suitable drive to their shaft 7 ; flexible belts 13, 14 driven faster than the drum peripheries hold and rotate the tubes, their runs concentric with the drums diverging whereby, as the tubes are heated by a gas burner 10, their ends are drawn apart ; the extended tubes, or pairs of containers, are conveyed away for inspection and annealing by a chute 16 and conveyor 17. The tube ends, heated by auxiliary burners, may be flared by mandrels 23, Fig. 3, carried by a plate 22 on the shaft 7 and advanced by springs 24, under control of a tapering slot 25 in a stationary plate 21, or may be grooved by contact with a rib 27. Between the drums, tools to shape the container bottoms may be fixed. According to the Provisional Specification, such tools may be movable with the drums and controlled by stationary cams, and the tube holding and rotating means and extending means there described comprise respectively a stationary belt, and a belt rotating about its own axis.