JPH0323648Y2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed description of the invention] [Purpose of the invention] (Field of industrial application) This invention relates to an apparatus for manufacturing an annular fluorescent lamp.

(Prior Art) Generally, in an annular fluorescent lamp, there is a bulb heating process in which a straight tube-shaped fluorescent lamp bulb is heated and softened, and then this softened bulb is wrapped around a circular forming drum and bent into an annular shape. There are two valve bending processes, and these two processes are usually performed consecutively on the same manufacturing equipment.

This manufacturing device suspends straight tube-shaped valves at intervals in the circumferential direction around the outer periphery of a horizontal rotary table, and transports the valves by intermittently driving the rotary table in the circumferential direction. During transportation, the bulb is heated and softened, and then bent into an annular shape. Between the heating position and the bending position of the bulb during the transportation, a support member is provided to support the lower end of the heated and softened bulb and prevent it from shaking. The valve is transported from the heating position to the bending position while supporting the lower end of the valve.

(Problem to be solved by the invention) However, in the manufacturing equipment with the above configuration, the valve is heated during transportation, so the heating mechanism for this valve necessarily heats the valve from both sides of the transportation path. will be carried out.

Thereby, when the valve is heated during transportation, it is gradually heated so that cracks do not occur in the valve. The gradual heating method is carried out, for example, by arranging heating mechanisms with different heating temperatures in order from the lowest heating temperature to the highest heating temperature in the direction of conveyance of the bulb. As a result, the valve moves the arranged heating mechanism group from the one with the lowest heating temperature,
It will be heated gradually.

However, when observing the heating state of the bulb in detail, the heating temperature is different between the front and rear of the bulb, and is higher at the front and lower at the rear.

For this reason, the front surface of the bulb becomes softer than the rear surface, and the proportion of elongation in the direction of gravity increases somewhat. Therefore, the valve will be warped rearward in the direction of movement. For this reason, the lower end of the bulb after being heated and softened may not be received and supported by the supporting member, and even if it is supported by the supporting member, the bulb may remain warped until it reaches the bent position. Since the valve was transported, it was not possible to bend the valve into a good annular shape, which resulted in a reduction in manufacturing yield.

This invention was made based on the above circumstances, and its purpose is to be able to reliably support the lower end of the valve with the support member, to move the valve to the bending position, and to facilitate manufacturing. An object of the present invention is to provide an annular fluorescent lamp manufacturing apparatus that can improve yield.

[Structure of the idea]

(Means for Solving the Problem) That is, this invention suspends straight tube-shaped fluorescent lamp bulbs at intervals in the circumferential direction on the outer peripheral surface of a rotary table arranged on a horizontal plane, and In a manufacturing device that transports the valve by intermittently driving a table in the circumferential direction, gradually heats and softens the valve while transporting the valve, and bends the valve into an annular shape behind this, the heating position and bending of the valve are a receiving part that is provided on the way to and from the lower end of the bulb and supports the gradually heated lower end outer periphery of the bulb; and a cam surface that is synchronized with the rotation of the rotary table between the heating position and the annular bending position and has a cam surface that is approximately the same shape as the conveyance trajectory of the upper end of the valve due to the rotation of the rotary table. The present invention is characterized by comprising a moving mechanism that moves the supporting member along the plate cam that the moving mechanism has, and a stroke adjusting mechanism that adjusts the distance that the supporting member is moved by the moving mechanism.

(Function) This invention provides a support member that can move up and down to guide and support the lower end outer periphery of the heated and softened valve with a receiving part, and also synchronizes this support member with a rotary table and allows the upper end of the valve to travel along the conveyance path. A moving mechanism is provided to move the support member along a plate cam having a cam surface having approximately the same shape as the cam surface, and the distance the support member is moved by this moving mechanism can be adjusted by a stroke adjustment mechanism.

(Embodiment of the invention) An embodiment of the invention will be described below based on the drawings.

In the figure, reference numeral 1 denotes a base, and a rotary table 2 is horizontally attached to the upper end of the base 1. The rotary table 2 is intermittently rotated in a horizontal plane at a predetermined index by a drive mechanism such as a motor (not shown). A large number of heads 3 are attached to the outer periphery of the rotary table 2 at equal intervals in the circumferential direction, and these heads 3 are equipped with chucks 4. Each chuck 4... has a straight tube-shaped fluorescent lamp bulb 5 whose upper end is removably held therein.
... are suspended by a chuck 4 and transported as the rotary table 2 rotates. The valve 5 has been previously sealed with a mount, evacuated, gas cleaned, flushed with a filament, filled with mercury and gas, and sealed with an exhaust pipe.

A heating furnace 6 is disposed in the middle of the conveyance path of the valve 5, which is conveyed as the rotary table 2 rotates. This heating furnace 6 has a pair of furnace bodies 7a, 7b equipped with a heat source such as a heater, facing each other on both sides of the conveyance path, and when the heating furnace 6 is closed, there is a space between these furnace bodies 7a, 7b. A gap is secured to allow the valve 5 to be transported. The other furnace body 7b is reciprocated in the direction a in the figure by a drive mechanism (not shown), thereby opening and closing the heating furnace 6.

Furthermore, an annular bending mechanism (not shown) that bends the heated and softened bulb 5 into an annular shape is arranged ahead of the heating furnace 6 in the conveying direction of the bulb 5 .
By wrapping it around this curved drum, the valve 5 is curved into an annular shape as shown by the imaginary line.

A support member 8 is disposed between the heating furnace 6 and the bending device, that is, between the heating position and the bending position of the valve 5. This supporting member 8 has a receiving part 9 attached to the upper part, and the lower end outer peripheral part 5a of the bulb 5 is heated and softened in this receiving part 9.
It is designed to guide and support people. That is, as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, the receiving portion 9 has cutout portions 9a, 9a formed in a direction perpendicular to the conveyance path of the valve 5, and a peripheral edge 9b thereof is formed in a tapered shape. There is. Further, the support member 8 has a hollow cylindrical shape, and an inner tube 10 is provided inside the support member 8.
and a middle pipe 11 are provided to form a triple pipe structure. Low-pressure air is supplied to the inner tube 10 from the port 12 to cool the receiving portion 9 from inside,
Further, cooling water is supplied from the port 13 and is drained from the port 14 through the middle pipe 11, thereby cooling the entire support member 8.

The support member 8 is supported by a holding stay 15 shown in FIG. It's summery. Further, the support member 8 is connected to a moving mechanism 18. This moving mechanism 18 connects the support member 8 to a movable body 19 via the holding stay 15, and this movable body 19 is guided by guide rods 21, 21 of a movable base 20 and moves along the conveyance path of the valve 5. It is possible to move back and forth in the direction. Further, the holding stay 15 is slidably connected to the movable body 19 via a slide shaft (not shown) in a direction perpendicular to the conveying path, and is connected to a plate cam via springs 22, 22 and rollers 23. 2
It is in elastic contact with the cam surface 24a of No. 4. The cam surface 24a of the plate cam 24 is formed in a shape similar to the conveyance locus of the upper end of the valve 5, which is rotated as the rotary table 2 rotates.

On the other hand, the movable body 19 moves the connecting rod 32, the link 27, and the connecting rod by reciprocating the cam lever 26 in the direction b in FIG. 28, and this reciprocating movement is set at a timing synchronized with the intermittent rotation of the rotary table 2. Therefore, when the cam lever 26 is rotated back and forth, the movable body 19
is linearly moved along the guide rods 21, 21, and at the same time, the support member 8 is moved along the cam surface 24a of the plate cam 24 via the holding stay 15. The valve 5 is moved in the same arcuate trajectory as the conveyance trajectory of the upper end of the valve 5 based on the rotation of the table 2.

Further, in the case of this embodiment, an air nozzle 29 is attached to the movable body 19, and this air nozzle 29 can blow high-pressure air from the outside to the receiving portion 9 of the support member 8 to cool the receiving portion 9. It's becoming like that.

The moving mechanism 18 is equipped with a stroke adjustment mechanism 30 for the support member 8. In this embodiment, this stroke adjustment mechanism 30 is provided on the cam lever 26, and for example, an adjustment lever 31 attached to the tip of the cam lever 26 adjusts the rotation radius from the rotation center of the cam lever 26 to the connection position of the connecting rod 32. By adjusting , the moving distance of the movable body 19 , that is, the support member 8 along the conveyance path can be adjusted.

Next, the operation of the above configuration will be explained.

With the intermittent rotation of the rotary table 2, the valve 5 is transported in a suspended state and enters the heating furnace 6. At this time, the heating furnace 6 is in an open state, and is closed when the valve 5 enters. On the other hand, the support member 8 is located directly below the valve 5, and is cooled by air from the air nozzle 29 and the air and cooling water inside it. Then, before the valve 5 is heated and softened, the support member 8 is raised to a fixed position by the air cylinder 17, and the supply of air from the air nozzle 29 and the inner tube 10 is stopped to stand by.

When the bulb 5 is heated and softened in this way, the bulb 5 expands by the dimension e as shown in FIG. It is guided by the peripheral edge 9b of 9 and supported by its outer peripheral part. At this time,
Air is ejected from the inner tube 10 and the air nozzle 29 to cool the outer peripheral portion of the lower end of the valve 5. Then, at the same time as the heating furnace 6 is opened, the grooved cam 25 is rotated in synchronization with the rotation of the rotary table 2, so that the support member 8 is synchronized with the rotation table 2 based on the rotation of the grooved cam 25. The valve 5 is bent into an annular shape by the bending mechanism, and the supporting member 8 is returned to its original position after being processed and the above operation is repeated to change the phase of the valve 5. These steps are performed sequentially. However, according to such an embodiment,
When the bulb 5 is heated in the heating furnace ₆ as shown in FIG. By guiding with 9b, the lower end of the valve 5 can be reliably supported by this receiving portion 9.

Also, taking into account the warpage ₁ of the valve 5, the rotation radius of the cam lever 26 is adjusted by the adjustment lever 31 to reduce the amount of movement _L2 of the support member 8 to _L2.
If the adjustment is made so that = L ₁ + ₁ , the conveyance positions of the upper end and the lower end of the valve 5 at the bending position can be made to match, and the above-mentioned warp ₁ can be corrected during the conveyance process. I can do it.

That is, as shown in FIG. 5, the movement angle θ of the cam lever 26 does not change as the grooved cam 25 rotates, but by adjusting the position of the adjustment lever 31, the cam lever 26 and the connecting rod 32 can be adjusted.
If the connecting point P with the connecting rod 32 changes to the P' point, the stroke will increase by s1 because the movement start point of the connecting rod 32 moves forward, and conversely, if the connecting point P changes to the P'' point, the connecting rod 32 will move forward. Rod 32 has a movement stroke.
It becomes smaller by s2 minutes.

Therefore, the warp ₁ can be corrected by adjusting the connection point P between the cam lever 26 and the connecting rod 32 in accordance with the direction and magnitude of the warp ₁ . As can be seen from Fig. 5, since the stroke end point of the connecting rod 32 is at a fixed position, the movement end points of the upper and lower ends of the suspended valve 5 coincide with each other on the same vertical line. Warpage can be corrected during the movement process from the bending position to the bending position.

Further, the warping of the valve 5 as described above shows a certain tendency over a certain period of time depending on the surrounding environment. For example, if a certain amount of warping occurs in one direction at the start of work in the morning, this tendency will depend on the climate. In other words, similar warping tends to continue to occur for several hours due to factors such as ambient temperature conditions, so if you adjust it at the beginning of work, you can maintain the adjusted state for a certain period of time to achieve good straightening. If the amount or direction of the warp changes, adjust the adjustment lever 3 accordingly.
The connecting point P between the cam lever 26 and the connecting rod 32 can be adjusted by adjusting the position of the connecting rod 32.
Therefore, from these points, the valve 5 can be bent well, and the manufacturing yield can be improved. Furthermore, according to this embodiment, not only the support member 8 is cooled from the inside, but also the receiving portion 9 thereof is cooled from the outside by the air nozzle 29, so that the cooling effect of the support member 8 can be enhanced. I can do it. As a result, not only the thermal deformation of the support member 8 itself but also the thermal deformation of the lower end of the bulb 5 can be prevented, thereby further improving the manufacturing yield.

[Effect of idea]

As explained above, this invention suspends straight tube-shaped fluorescent lamp bulbs at intervals in the circumferential direction on the outer peripheral surface of a rotary table arranged on a horizontal surface, and also suspends the rotary table intermittently in the circumferential direction. In a manufacturing device that drives and transports the valve, gradually heats and softens the valve during transport, and bends the valve into an annular shape behind this, transporting the valve between a heating position and a bending position. a support member that is movable up and down and includes a receiving part that is provided in the middle to support the lower end outer circumference of the bulb that is gradually heated, and that allows the upper and lower ends of the bulb to match the conveyance positions in the bent position; The support member is moved between the heating position and the annular bending position in synchronization with the rotation of the rotary table, and is moved along a plate cam having a cam surface having a substantially same shape as the conveyance locus of the upper end of the valve due to the rotation of the rotary table. The apparatus includes a moving mechanism for moving the moving mechanism, and a stroke adjustment mechanism for adjusting the moving distance of the supporting member by the moving mechanism. Therefore, even if the bulb warps when it is heated and softened, the lower end of the bulb can be guided and reliably supported by the receiving part of the support member, and the warp can be removed by the support member. This can be corrected by adjusting the amount of movement.

As a result, the valve can be bent well and the manufacturing yield can be improved, resulting in excellent effects.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

The drawings show one embodiment of this invention, with Fig. 1 being a perspective view of the whole, Fig. 2 being a sectional view of the support member, Fig. 3 being a plan view of the receiving part, and Figs. 4 and 5 showing the operation. It is a figure for explaining. 2...Rotary table, 5...Valve, 6...Heating path, 8...Support member, 9...Receiving part, 18...
Moving mechanism, 24... plate cam, 24a... cam surface,
30...Stroke adjustment mechanism.

Claims (1)

[Scope of utility model registration request] Straight tube-shaped fluorescent lamp bulbs are suspended at intervals in the circumferential direction on the outer peripheral surface of a rotary table arranged on a horizontal plane, and the rotary table is intermittently driven in the circumferential direction to convey the bulbs. , in a manufacturing device that gradually heats and softens the bulb while it is being conveyed and bends it into an annular shape behind it, the gradual heating device is installed between the heating position and the bending position of the bulb while it is being conveyed. a support member that is movable up and down, the supporting member having a receiving part that supports the outer circumference of the lower end of the bulb, and that is movable up and down to match the conveying positions of the upper end and the lower end of the bulb in the bent position; a moving mechanism that moves between the annular bending position and the plate cam in synchronization with the rotation of the rotary table and having a cam surface having a cam surface that is substantially the same as the conveyance locus of the upper end of the valve due to the rotation of the rotary table; 1. An apparatus for manufacturing an annular fluorescent lamp, comprising a stroke adjustment mechanism that adjusts the moving distance of a support member by the mechanism.