GB381409A - Improvements in or relating to machines for closing cans and the like - Google Patents

Abstract

381,409. Seaming lids to cans. ARMSTRONG, J. J. V., 12, Church Street, Liverpool.-(Continental Can Co. ; 100, East 42nd Street, New York, U.S.A.) Dec. 24, 1931, No. 35649. [Class 83 (iv).] A can-closing machine has a clutch mechanism in the can cover feeding device, which is controlled by the can bodies fed to the machine, in which the clutch includes a driven shaft, a shaft axially aligned therewith for driving the cover feed, a connector intermediate the shafts shiftable axially thereof and maintaining driving connection with one shaft and having an abutment connection with the other shaft for connecting said shafts, and means for shifting the connector to disengage the abutment connection. The cans 2 are delivered to conveyer belts 6 having at one side a bar 26 pressed inwardly by a counter weighted lever 28 and on the other side a spacing screw 25 having an increasing pitch and increasing thread thickness but a constant groove width, which holds the cans securely. The belts 6 travel faster than the screw, and the belt 12, to which the cans are next delivered, travels faster than the belts 6. The cans are thus spaced. They are then engaged by an accelerating turret 41 and a cover 50 is fed from a hopper on to a can, which is next engaged by the clincher turret 43, the covers being clinched on the cans by rolling contact with a segment 45 and the cans ejected by a turret 47. The covers are removed from the hopper by rotating spiral knives, being then picked up by the arms 56 of a turret 57. These spiral knives are connected by a ring gear surrounding the hopper and other gear to a shaft 62, which is connected to a driven shaft 65 by means of the clutch mechanism shown in Fig. 7, which comprises a disc 110 having axial trunnions 111, 112 revolubly fitted within bores 113, 114 in bushing 100 keyed on the shaft 62 and a disc 106 fastened to the shaft 65. An eccentrically located pin 115 extending through the disc 110 has a head 118 against which normally abuts a stud 107 on the rotatably driven disc, thus transmitting motion from the shaft 65 to the shaft 62. When a can is absent from the regular delivery along the belt 12 an arm 92, Fig. 1, normally held as shown by the contact of a rigidly-connected arm 90 with the cans, is pulled to the right by a spring 99 and transmits its motion by a rod 93 and arm 94 to a shaft 95, thus rotating an arm 125 fixed to the bottom of the shaft 95 ; the arm 125 rides along a cam groove 126 on the disc 110, lifts the head 118 out of engagement with the stud 107, and, engaging the pin 115, positively stops rotation of the shaft 62 and hence of the cover feed mechanism. When the supply of cans is resumed the arm 90 is pushed outwardly and the above movements are reversed, the cover feeding operation being resumed.