GB724607A - Bulb loading apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

724,607. Making electric lamps. SYLVANIA ELECTRIC PRODUCTS, Inc. May 22, 1953 [May 24, 1952], No. 14539/53. Class 39 (2). Apparatus for feeding the bulbs or envelopes of electric lamps and similar devices automatically to the holding heads of a sealing machine comprises a bulb transfer head which is arranged to bring a bulb to a position above and in register with a holding head of the sealing machine and is reciprocable vertically towards and away from the said holding head, whereby a cam follower device mounted on the transfer head is engaged by a cam mounted adjacent to its path of reciprocation, causing the transfer head to pivot upon a block on which it is mounted and guide the neck and cullet of a bulb laterally past the holding head to permit the said head to receive and engage the bulb itself. The invention is particularly applicable to bulbs in which the cullet at the free end of the bulb is of greater diameter than the bulb itself. In the example bulbs 90 are loaded on to a rotary turret 22 which is indexed in a clockwise direction in synchronism with an adjacent sealing machine 10 rotating anti-clockwise, the turret 22 being also arranged to be reciprocated in a horizontal plane, upon guide bars 28, from the position indicated in broken lines to that, shown in full lines. When in the latter position a bulb 90 held in work-holder 23 of turret 22 is between, and in register with, a bulb holder 18 of the sealing machine and the bulb transfer head 74, Fig. 2. The bulb transfer head 74 is next moved downward into contact with the top of the bulb 90 and then moved upward with the bulb held therein by suction, this movement being effected by a barrel cam 64 acting upon a rocking lever 54 linked to a vertical rod 42 which is slidable within guide brackets 46 and supports a lateral arm 40 carrying a hollow rod 44 with the transfer head 74 on its lower end. Immediately after the transfer head 74 has lifted the bulb from the turret 22 that turret is retracted and at the same time is indexed through one step to bring another bulb into the transferring position. The shaft 42, with the bulb held in the transfer head 74, is also moved downwardly so that a cam follower roller 78, Fig. 4, mounted on the transfer head moves down within an irregular channel 88 formed in stationary cam 38 which is mounted on fixed bracket 34, so that the suction head is swung about a pivot pin 76 on its mounting block and displaces the bulb 90 sufficiently to bring the cullet 91 out of register with the bulbholding fingers 20 of the work-holder 18 of the sealing-head. The bulb continues to move down in a canted position until the cullet 91 has passed the bulb-holding fingers 20, whereupon the changing contour of the channel 88 returns the transfer head 74 to the vertical position, and at the completion of the downward stroke the bulb is seated on the fingers 20. The vacuum line is interrupted momentarily to release the bulb from the transfer head and the latter returns to its starting position.