GB893658A - Machine for polishing successively a plurality of articles on a moving track - Google Patents

Abstract

893,658. Polishing. B. O. MORRIS Ltd. Feb. 1, 1961, No. 3748/61. Class 60. A machine for polishing articles 13, Figs. 1 arid 2, supported by a moving track 14 has a head carrying a rotary polishing element 12 which is caused to travel with each successive article through a polishing zone and to return in readiness to repeat the action on the next article. The polishing head is universally mounted on axes 22, 23 on a bracket 16 which is vertically adjustable on a column 11 by an electric motor 20 acting through a lead screw. The polishing element 12 and an electric motor 30 driving it through belt drives 31, 32, 33, 35, 36 are carried in the head on a slide 26 which is adjustable on a support plate 25 of the bracket 16 by a handoperated lead screw; the polishing element is arranged to pivot about the axis of the pulley 33 and maintained in contact with the article being polished by either gravity or a spring-actuated plunger. The column upstands from a trolley 38 which runs on rails 40, 41 disposed parallel to the track 14 and is arranged to be so actuated by a pneumatic cylinder-and-piston device 42, 43 that, as each article reaches the polishing station, the element 12 is moved into operative relation with the article and at the end of this operation is withdrawn to its initial position. The control of the pneumatic device for this purpose is by valves actuated at suitable times by the track 14. An hydraulic dash-pot 44 controls the operational speed of the pneumatic device. Adjustment of the polishing head transversely of the track is provided by mounting the column on the trolley through the intermediary of a transverselyadjustable slide 48. In the modification shown in Figs. 3 and 4 the column 11a is stationary and there are two polishing elements 12 which are arranged simultaneously to operate on a pair of adjacent articles 13 on the track 14. The drive motor 30a for the elements 12 is adjustably carried at the top of the column and is arranged to rotate through a belt drive 73 a shaft 70 carried by a bracket structure 61, 62, 64 from the column. Mounted on this shaft are two axially-slidable housings 80, 81 supported by bearings 85, 87 on axially-movable sleeves 82 which are arranged to be rotated by drive elements 74-79 on the shaft. Each housing comprises an extension 99 in which is rotatably mounted a shaft 96 which is driven through a gear connection 94a, 95a with its respective sleeve and has clamped on its outer end a polishing element 12. The necessary reciprocating movements of the elements 12 are effected by a pneumatic cylinder-and-piston device 42, 43 operating on the respective casings. Spring-loaded plungers 100 act on the extensions 99 to urge the elements 12 into contact with the articles 13. Corrugated sleeves 103, 107, 108 protect the bearings within the casings.