Improvements in apparatus for making pottery-ware particularly dinner-ware

摘要

621,255. Making pottery. MILLER POTTERY ENGINEERING CO. Feb. 11, 1947, No. 4003. Convention date, Feb. 6, 1946. [Class 87(i)] [Also in Group XIII] In a completely automatic step-by-step pottery-making machine, clay is fed into empty moulds 4 at A, pressed at B, shaped by a jigger C, dried by an infra-red dryer 2 and removed in a finished state at H, the empty moulds being returned by a conveyer 7. An empty mould is moved from the conveyer 7 to a position below the delivery pipe 9 of a pug-mill 8 to receive a charge of clay by a horizontally reciprocating fork. A second fork moves the mould to a transfer point L where it is received by the first of three ring checks which carry it successively to the press B, jigger C and a conveyer 51. It is pushed at D on to a conveyer 5 by a reciprocating plate 87. When sufficient moulds are assembled on the conveyer 5 to fill the width of the dryer conveyer 3 they are pushed by a plate 98 on to free rollers 75 and pass to the dryer conveyer. At F, they pass to rollers 122, of which the first two are driven, and are held by a stop 134 until a conveyer 6 is empty when the stop is lowered and they are drawn forward by a plate carried by a member 141. The conveyer 6 carries them to a transfer point G where a plate 162 pushes them on to a conveyer 7. The finished ware is removed from the moulds at H by a suction chuck and placed on a conveyer 218. If the ware is not removed owing to a fault &c. it is blown from the mould at J by a photo-electrically controlled air jet 224. The various conveyers are operated through a geneva drive, while the pusher members for shifting the moulds on to or off the conveyers are operated by pneumatic means controlled by cams and electric switches.