GB467282A - Improvements in or relating to machines for making containers from glass tubing - Google Patents

Abstract

467,282. Glass manufacture. DICHTER, J. Jan. 1, 1936, No. 82. Convention date, Jan. 2, 1935. [Class 56] Relates to a machine for making test tubes, tablet glasses, and like containers from glass tubing, the machine having a number of stations through which horizontally disposed tubes, of double the length required 'for one container, are progressively fed one behind the other in a transverse direction, the middle part of each tube being heated until plastic and then drawn out and separated to form two bottomed tubes. According to the present invention, the bottoms of the tubes are shaped by blowing while they are enclosed in, or in contact with, a moulding device. The tubes 27, Fig. 1, stored in a receptacle 26, are fed by an oscillating finger 29 past a movable catch 28 on to a platform 34, whence they are conveyed from station to station through the machine by notched rods 11, of known construction, which are raised and lowered and moved horizontally. At each station, a glass tube rests on, and is rotated by, wheels 2 and is held on the wheels by counter rollers 38 which are arranged obliquely to the axes of the tubes in order to draw the ends of the tubes apart when the middle portions have been softened by gas burners. When a tube thus separated reaches station VII, the bottom is shaped by formers 56, Fig. 6, which are slidable along a cross-shaft 52 and are moved to and from the tube by an oscillating shaft 53 provided with pins 59 that engage in inclined slots 58 in slides attached to the formers 56. At the same time, the side walls of the softened parts of the tubes are embraced by rollers 69<1>, Fig. 8, carried by pivoted arms 71, which are raised from and lowered to the level of the tube, and are moved to and from the tube by an oscillating bell-crank lever 78 and springs 70. When the end of a tube is enclosed between the former 56 and the rollers 691, the plastic glass is blown into contact with them by compressed air supplied through blowheads 102, Fig. 6, the open ends of the tubes being pressed into contact with the blowheads by the action of the rollers 38. Instead of the rollers 69<1>, the tube ends may be shaped by half moulds 91<1>, Fig. 4, attached to arms 71, and the rotation of the tube may be arrested during the blowing operation. The moulds 91<1> may also be rotated in unison with the tubes if the vessels to be formed are not symmetrical about the axes of the tubes. Instead of using the complete moulds, templets having the desired profile may be brought edgewise into contact with the softened glass while the compressed air is being applied.