GB644207A - Improvements in or relating to apparatus for use in glazing earthenware articles - Google Patents

Abstract

<PICT:0644207/III/1> <PICT:0644207/III/2> An apparatus for glazing earthenware or like articles comprises a substantially horizontal conveyer 10, from which depend carriers 11 supporting the articles 12 and which dips from the horizontal at B over a glaze tank 13 so that the articles are passed therethrough, means for rapidly rotating the carriers on their emergence from the tank so that surplus glaze is removed from the articles and an additional means for individually loading and unloading the carriers. The conveyer 10 comprises a driven cable 35, Fig. 3, coupled by a spring-loaded plunger 67 to a member 31 which has wheels 32, 33 co-operating with a guide 34, and has secured thereto a rod 17. This rod supports spring-loaded gripping arms 19, and has a cam follower 26 slidably mounted thereon and connected with the arms by links 21 in such a manner that at positions A and C, Fig. 1, where this follower contacts dams 27 and 29, the arms are opened to receive or release a plate 12. The plates are fed to the carriers by means of an endless conveyer 53, similar to conveyer 10 and driven synchronously therewith, which carries a number of adjustable sized spaced discs 57 (see also Fig. 3), which are normally spring urged into their lower position wherein the plate is below the arms 19, but which at the transfer position, are raised so that the plate is located within the open jaws of the associated carrier, by a stem 58 contacting a fixed cam 69. At the discharge end the plates are dumped on a conveyer (not shown) similar to conveyer 53 which transfers them to a drying oven. The rotation of the carriers is effected by means of a pair of racks 38, 39 located by a bracket 40 on either side of the carrier and arranged to contact successively a gear 37, carried by the rod 17, so that the plate is rotated first in one direction and then in the other. To prevent glaze being thrown from the rotated plate on to the preceding ones, the latter are isolated by a paddle device 41 which is rotated step by step through bevel gearing by a shaft 47, which is rotated by a pulley 45 supporting one end of an endless cable 43, which in turn is driven by co-operation between projections thereon and the carriers returning to point A after depositing their plates at C. The excess glaze is returned to the tank to be circulated with the remainder of the glaze through pipes 49, 50. On their return the carriers are passed through a cleaning tank, by a second dip in the conveyer 10, which tank is formed by a partitioned off section of the glaze tank.