GB666427A - Improvements in or relating to glassware washing machines - Google Patents

Abstract

666,427. Cleaning drinking glasses. LOFSTRAND, A. R. April 26, 1949, No. 11120/49. Class 138 (i). [Also in Group XXX] A glassware washing machine includes a tub having a pair of compartments and a horizontally shiftable carriage carrying an elevator structure adapted to be lowered into either of the compartments, wherein the tub is provided with a movable closure lid arranged so that as the carriage is shifted to be in a position for lowering the elevator structure into one of the compartments the closure lid is moved to cover the other compartment. The machine comprises an elevator 51, Fig. 3, slidable vertically in relation to an aperture 40, Fig. 9, in a carriage 26 which has rollers 35 to facilitate it sliding horizontally over the top of a wash tub 15. The tub 15 is formed into a washing compartment 21 and a rinsing compartment 22 by a partition 20. A closure plate 42 is slidably mounted in the tub and can close one or the other of the compartments 21, 22. A gear 47 mounted on a shaft 46 journalled in the walls 16, 17 of the tub 15 meshes with a rack 45, Fig. 10, fixed to the plate 42. Another gear 48 also mounted on the shaft 46 meshes with a rack 49 fixed to the carriage 26. When the carriage 26 is positioned over one compartment the plate 42 closes the other compartment and vice versa, movement of the carriage in one direction causing movement of the plate, through the gearing, in the opposite direction. A draining or drying structure comprising a perforate top wall 24 is disposed at the end of the compartment 22 and at the upper end of a duct 25 through which hot air is conducted. The elevator 51 which supports tumblers 57, is slidably mounted by means of a block 59 and a carriage 60 on a tubular post 64 fixed to the carriage 26, rollers 62 on the carriage 60 engaging in longitudinal grooves 63 on the post. A flexible cable 78 fixed at one end to the block 59 at 75 passes over a spiral grooved pulley 79, Fig. 6, and is fixed at its other end to a member 84 slidable within the post 64 against the urge of a balancing spring 85. A forwardly extending arm 89 of. the elevator 51 slidably supports a brush carrier 86. The carrier 86 has pivoted thereto at 108, a latching bar 110 provided with ratchet teeth 113, a latching member 116, a cam surface 114 and a finger engaging member 119. Also pivotally connected to the carrier is a hand lever structure 90-92. In the inoperative position the latching member 116 is engaged by a plate 117 fixed to a bracket 70 supported from the top of the post 64. To operate the machine the carriage 26 is first slid into position over the desired compartment e.g. 21 for washing, the plate 42 then closing the compartment 22. The latch member 116 is then disengaged by operating the finger member 119 and the bar 110 is rocked to the right as shown in Fig. 3. By depressing the handle 91 the brush carrier 86 is moved downwardly relative to the elevator until the brushes contact the bottoms of the tumblers 57. Further movement of the handle downwardly causes the elevator 51 to slide on the post 64, this movement being counterbalanced by the spring 85. When the upper end of the bar 110 is below the bracket 70 it will be rocked to the left in Fig. 3, by means of a spring 120 so that a keeper 123 formed on the end of the arm 89 will engage with the ratchet teeth 113 and keep the brushes in the depressed position. The elevator with the tumblers may now be reciprocated within the selected compartment viz. 21. After the washing operation the elevator is lifted from out of the compartment 21 and the carriage is slid over the rinsing compartment. The brush carrier 86 is released from engagement with the tumblers when the upward movement of the elevator is such that the cam surface 114 engages the rounded portion 115 of the bracket 70, which causes the bar 110 to rock to the right of Fig. 3 and disengage the keeper 123 from the ratchet teeth 113. At the limit of the upward movement of the brush carrier 86 the spring 120 causes the bar 110 to move to the left again and snap the latching member 116 into engagement with the plate 117. A modified form of pulley 79a, Fig. 15, comprises a spiral grooved pulley member 141 secured to an annular grooved pulley 149. The cable 78a connected to the slide member within the post 64 passes to the right over the pulley 149, is reverted over a plate 151 fixed to the member 141, passes through an opening 147 in the member 141 and is finally reverted to the right again at 143 to pass over the pulley member 141, to the elevator. Specifications 666,428 and 666,429, [Group XXIV], are referred to.