GB643405A - Improvements in or relating to machines for use in the manufacture of tubular incandescent lamps or discharge tubes - Google Patents

Abstract

643,405. Making electric incandescent lamps. PHILIPS ELECTRICAL, Ltd. Feb. 19, 1948, No. 4867. Convention date, Feb. 21, 1947. [Class 39(ii)] Apparatus for passing an electric current through the laterally projecting leadin wires of a tubular electric incandescent lamp or discharge tube 16 prior to the attachment of an end cap or caps, comprises a pair of fixed contacts 4 associated with each pair of leading-in wires 21, 22, the fixed contacts being mounted on rods 2 and formed with comb-like teeth arranged to interengage with similar teeth on rotary members mounted coaxial with the lamp so that in their rotation they capture the laterally extending wires which are then pinched between the teeth and complete the electric circuit. The upper end of the lamp is mounted in a bearing in a rotary table 7 provided with a handle 5 which is operated manually to rotate the table 7 about its axis to clamp the end of the lamp in the bearing, and the table is provided with wire-capturing members 18 formed with teeth 20 to co-operate with teeth 19 to grip the wires 22. At the other end of the lamp a spindle 8 mounted in a cylindrical socket 9 in an annular plate 1 supports a rotary table 6 provided with vertical members 12 which terminate in teeth 13 arranged to grip the lead-in wires 21 against teeth 14 on the fixed contacts 4. Rotary movement is imparted to the table 6 by providing its spindle 8 with a radial pin 11 which engages within a helical slot 10 in the wall of the socket 9, the slot being formed with an upper offset 10<SP>1</SP> which provides an upper detent for the pin, and a lower offset 24 which retains the pin in a position such that the co-operating teeth grip the wires 21 after the pin has been freed from detent 10<SP>1</SP> and has descended, under gravity, with the table 6.