GB840854A - Improvements in or relating to transfer apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

840,854. Making electric lamps; transferring between turret machines. GENERAL ELECTRIC CO. Ltd. June 20, 1958 [March 22, 1957], No. 9501/57. Class 39(2). [Also in Group XXX] Transfer apparatus for removing objects in sequence from the supports of a continuously moving conveyer of a first machine in which they are orientated in a first direction and depositing them on supports of a continuously moving conveyer of a second machine in which they are to be orientated in a different direction, the orientations being with respect to the direction of movement of the objects on the respective conveyers, comprises a movable support member carrying transfer mechanism for engaging the objects and carrying them from a pick-up station to a release station, the support member being so geared to the conveyers that at the pick-up and release positions the transfer members coincide with co-operating supports on the conveyers, means being provided to rotate the object relative to the support through a predetermined angle during travel. Apparatus is described for the transfer of components in making incandescent lamps, e.g. transfer of a foot-tube assembly made on one machine to a machine for affixing thereto the filament and may include means for spreading the filament supports. The foot-tube assemblies 12, Fig. 3, are picked up from jaws 52 on a machine 1 in which they are orientated with the lead-in wires radial to the machine by jaws 19, 21 spaced uniformly around a rotating table 7. The jaws 19, 21 are mounted on bosses on shafts 15 and are biased to closing position by a spring. During travel to the point where the assemblies are deposited in jaws 53 on the second machine 2, the jaws, 19, 21 are swung through an angle sufficient to turn the foot-tubes through 90 degrees by means of gear teeth on the bosses engaging gear teeth 27 on one arm 28 of a bell-crank lever pivoted to an annular supporting plate, the other arm 31 of the lever carrying a roller 32 engaging in a box cam carried by a support column surrounding the driving shaft. To open and close the jaws, spigots 37, 38 are provided on the bosses one or other of which engages an arm 39 on a bell crank lever, the other arm 41 of which has a roller 42 engaging cam plates on the support column. The transfer apparatus may include means associated with each pair of jaws for spreading the lead-in wires of the foot-tube assembly during transit by means of two horizontal fingers 45, Fig. 4, inserted between the wires after the foot-tube has been turned through 90 degrees and then pivoted outwards away from each other. The fingers 45 are each carried on one arm of a bell crank lever 46 the other arm of which engages a spigot 36 in a block 49 moved outwards by a rod 55 under the control of a roller 61 moving in a box cam on the support column, the cam also serving to move the whole assembly from a retracted to an extended position to insert the fingers 45 between the wires and to retract the assembly before the jaws reach the receiving jaws 53 of the machine 2.