GB527692A - Improvements in glass working machines - Google Patents

Abstract

527,692. Shaping glass tubes. CORNING GLASS WORKS. Feb. 14, 1939, No. 4864. Convention date, March 19, 1938. [Class 56] A machine for making tubular blanks into bottomed containers comprises a number of chucks which seize and draw the blanks, and means for supplying air under pressure through the apertures of the chuck to assist in the formation of the bottoms of the tubes. The machine comprises two flanged sleeves 27, Fig. 2, which are slidable on a fixed sleeve 18 and can be moved to and from one another, by the rotation of a shaft 67, to adjust the mechanism to suit the length of the glass blanks. Gas burners 19 are secured to the middle part of the sleeve 18 between two tube-feeding discs 33. These discs are connected by bolts 34 with spider gears 28 which are rotatable on the sleeves 27 and are driven by a shaft 16. Chucks 36 are journalled on the spiders and are opened and closed, and moved to and from one another, by cams formed on drums 62 keyed to the sleeves 27. Tubes 53 pass through the stems of the chucks and their outer ends telescope into airsupply leads 87 carried by a disc 83 which rotates in contact with a fixed disc 81. This disc is formed with a channel through which air under pressure is admitted to the tubes 53 at appropriate times. Belts 92, driven by a shaft 17, pass over pulleys 42 on the chucks and rotate them when they are in the upper half of their circular path. In operation, glass tubes 40, Fig. 10, are fed on to an inclined shoot 41 and are picked up one at a time by the feeding discs 33. The ends of a tube are seized by chucks which rotate them as they are carried over the burners 19. As the central'portion of the tube softens, its ends are drawn apart by the chucks until the softened glass collapses and is separated by the flame leaving two bottomed tubes gripped by the chucks. Air is then blown through the tubes 53 into the glass tubes and shape the softened ends. Finally, the chucks open and discharge the bottomed tubes. The open ends of the containers so formed can be flanged by a machine, shown in Fig. 4, which comprises a single spider gear with chucks for holding the containers 104. The other spider head carries flaring-tools 103 instead of chucks, and these tools are moved up to, and flange, the ends of the containers which have been softened by the flames of a burner 108.