GB634553A - Improvements in or relating to apparatus for drawing glass upwardly from a body of molten glass - Google Patents

Abstract

634,553. Glass manufacture. PILKINGTON BROS., Ltd., PYE, G. T., and JONES, H. G. Feb. 17, 1948, No. 4677. [Class 56] In apparatus for upwardly drawing a sheet of flat glass from a body of molten glass, the upper part of the rising sheet is engaged, above the line of severance, by suction means carried on a frame which is movable towards the glass to apply the suckers thereto and is rockable whereby the severed glass is raised, to avoid the rising sheet, as the frame is retracted to remove the severed glass. The suckers 5 are carried on members 6 pivoted at 30 on a support depending from a carriage 3 movable transversely to the glass 2 on a track 1. The members 6 are connected by a link 10 to a roller-ended pivoted arm 8 which, on the return motion of the carriage, is depressed by a fixed cam 14 so that the glass sheet is moved upwardly away from the rising edge of the main sheet. The carriage 3 is actuated by a chain 16 driven by a motor, a switch 20 in the motor circuit being closed by the rising glass sheet so that the motor starts to move the carriage towards the glass sheet, the vacuum connection 13, 15, 11 to the suckers being opened by the advancing carriage, the suckers being thus applied to the glass in operative condition. The carriage 3 contacts a limit switch 26 which opens the motor circuit, but the reverse motor circuit is then closed by a pressure-operated switch 12, the carriage being thus retracted to raise and withdraw the severed sheet. On its backward movement, the vacuum valve 15 is returned to its closed position, the vacuum in the suckers being bled through a hole 15a, to permit the sheet to be deposited on a dumping table 2a movable along a trackway. Alternatively, the sheet may be removed from the partially bled suckers by hand, and fans may be provided for cooling the glass, whilst it is on the suckers, to facilitate the handling. The reverse motion of the motor is stopped by the carriage opening a limit switch 25. The suckers, preferably three in number, are carried on a bar 31 pivoted in the two spaced rocker arms 6, the pivotal movement being limited by arms 33 carrying weights 34. Each sucker is connected by flexible tubing to a transverse vacuum supply pipe connected to the tube 11. The transverse pipe carries a vacuum gauge.