GB852115A - Improved article gauging apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

852,115. Sorting by plug gauging. OWENS-ILLINOIS GLASS CO. March 19, 1957 [April 16, 1956], No. 8924/57. Class 106 (2). [Also in Groups XXIV and XXX] Gauging and sorting apparatus comprises a gauging plug 21 reciprocatable in timed sequence between a withdrawn position, wherein it is dissociated from a bottle 16 to be gauged, and a projected position, wherein it is in bottle gauging relationship, and pusher bar 26 which is automatically actuated to reject a bottle when the timed sequence is interrupted by the plug 21 being prevented from attaining the projected position. Conveying, spacing, arresting and ejecting. Bottles 16 carried on a conveyer belt 15 are guided by an adjustable rail 31 into engagement with a feed worm 18 which spaces them for successive presentation to a gauging station 17 where each is momentarily arrested by a projecting plate 38 rotating with the worm 18. The bottles are then carried by the belt past an ejector 26 actuated by a motor 25 which operates only when the gauging operation has sensed a faulty bottle. The motor M and worm 18 are mounted on a base 30 which can be adjusted about a vertical post 39 to accommodate the feed to different-sized bottles and one of nine speeds of rotation can be selected for the worm 18 through change-gear mechanism (see Group XXIV). Gauging. While each bottle is arrested by the plate 38 at the gauging station 17, a plug gauge 21, Fig. 4, on a rod 48 is lowered into its neck and returned to initial position by the piston shaft 52 of a pneumatic motor 49 cyclically controlled from a cam 75 on the shaft 28. Since the plug gauge 21 cannot pass an obstructed bottle neck, lost motion is provided between the rod 48 and shaft 52 by passing the rod 48 freely through the shaft 52 and connecting a rod 56 and a tube 58 in which it slides to the shaft 52 and rod 48 respectively. The tube 58 and rod 48 rest on a collar 70 of the shaft 52 and descend with the piston, unless an obstruction in the bottle neck supports their weight while the piston shaft 52 descends to the bottom of its stroke, being picked up again and lifted to initial position during the upward stroke. The tube 58 carries two soft iron armatures 63, 64 which register with a magnetic pick-up 65 at the top and bottom of a full stroke of the tube 58 to pass a voltage to an electronic control circuit, the armature 64 failing- to register upon a restricted stroke of the tube 58 due to a faulty bottle being gauged. Electronic control of ejector motor. So long as good bottles are gauged, voltage pulses from the pick-up 65 keep a condenser sufficiently charged. to prevent a thyratron from firing. When a faulty bottle prevents the armature 64 from reaching operative position, the condenser will discharge to a low enough voltage to allow the thyratron to conduct and energize a relay, thereby operating the ejector motor 25, which at the end of its stroke opens a switch to deenergize the relay and return the motor to normal position, whilst restoring the control circuit to initial status.