GB902919A - Bowling ball return and handling mechanism - Google Patents

Abstract

902,919. Skittle alleys. AMERICAN MACHINE & FOUNDRY CO. July 25, 1960 [Aug. 5, 1959], No. 25860/60. Class 132 (2). In an arrangement of two adjacent skittle alley pits P1, P2 with a common ball-return means R between the opposed kick-backs 14, a door 10 for the passage of the ball from the pit to the means R is provided in each kickback, the doors being opened by the presence of a ball and being so connected by toggle means that the opening of one locks the other in closed position. The balls are carried in the pit by conveyer 64 and rest in a depression 62 opposite a door but are still rotated by the supporting conveyer. In this position the ball bears on a friction-surfaced bumper 46 pivoted to the door about a horizontal axis perpendicular to the plane of the door and swings the bumper about its axis 58 so that a latch 66 thereon is withdrawn from behind a pawl 68 mounted on kick-back brackets 72. The ball then swings the door open about its pivot 18 and this moves a link 28 of the opened door so as to urge lever 30 and the link 28 of the other door to dotted position (Fig. 2) past deadcentre to lock the other door closed. When the ball is through, spring 44 closes the door and breaks the toggle formed by lever 30 and links 28. If a pin should be in the door aperture at the same time as the ball, they jam and the ball is held clear of bumper 46 so that the latch 66 drops back but only to an intermediate position engaged behind a secondary shoulder on pawl 68 so that the door is held part open. When conveyer 64 has cleared the pin the ball engages again the bumper and the door can open fully. U.S.A. Specification 2,765,172 is referred to.