Apparatus for annealing, conveying, transferring, and spraying glassware

Abstract

A glass annealing lehr to which newly formed glassware is passed under and over sprays of abrasion resistant material by transfer mechanism that engages the ware and suspends it to expose the bottom to spray, the transfer mechanism in one form being capable of transferring the ware from one conveyor to another moving in opposite directions out of contact with said conveyors during the transfer movement.

I claim: 
     
       1. In an industrial heating furnace, a tunnel shaped chamber comprising heating and cooling sections, a conveyor for moving the articles to be treated through said tunnel,   a conveyor for delivering said articles to the charging end of said tunnel,   said conveyors being spaced apart .Iadd.and longitudinally aligned.Iaddend.,   and transfer mechanism bridging adjacent ends of said conveyors for engaging the articles on the delivery conveyor and transferring them .Iadd.directly linearly .Iaddend.to the tunnel conveyor,   said transfer mechanism engaging the articles in a manner to expose the bottom of the articles in their travel between adjacent conveyors.   
     
     
       2. In an industrial heating furnace, a tunnel shaped chamber comprising heating and cooling sections, a conveyor for moving the articles to be treated through said tunnel,   a conveyor for delivering said articles to the charging end of said tunnel,   a conveyor for receiving the articles at the discharge end of said tunnel,   said conveyors being spaced apart .Iadd.and longitudinally aligned.Iaddend.,   and transfer mechanism bridging adjacent ends of said conveyors for engaging the articles on the delivery conveyor and transferring them .Iadd.directly linearly .Iaddend.to the tunnel conveyor,   and for engaging the articles on the tunnel conveyor and transferring them .Iadd.directly linearly .Iaddend.to the receiving conveyor,   said transfer mechanism engaging the articles in a manner to expose the bottom of the articles in their travel between adjacent conveyors.   
     
     
       3. An industrial heating furnace set forth in claim 1 in which, the movement of the several conveyors and transfer mechanisms is synchronized to travel at substantially the same speed.   
     
     
       4. An industrial heating furnace set forth in claim 1 in which, a spray for coating the sides of the article is provided in the path of movement of the articles on the delivery conveyor.   
     
     
       5. An industrial heating furnace as set forth in claim 1 further including a spray for coating the sides of the article, said spray being in the path of movement of the article on the receiving conveyor. 
     
     
       6. An industrial heating furnace as set forth in claim 1 further including a spray for coating the bottom of the articles, said spray being in the path of movement of the article through and by the transfer mechanism. 
     
     
       7. In a glass annealing lehr; the combination with an endless conveyor moving through the lehr tunnel having   conveyor means for delivering ware to said endless conveyor at the charging end of the tunnel,   and for receiving said ware from said conveyor at the discharge end of said tunnel,   said conveyor means being spaced apart and synchronized to move at substantially the same speed;   of transfer mechanism bridging the space between the conveyor means comprising,   a gripping mechanism of articulate clamping members for engaging one side of the ware mounted on an endless chain having sprocket wheels at opposite ends of the space between said conveying means,   said clamping members being connected to the chain by spring means to grippingly engage the ware to suspend it out of bottom contact with said conveyor means during the ware transfer movement.   
     
     
       8. The combination of conveyor and transfer mechanism set forth in claim 7 in which, the endless tracks of clamping members are juxtaposed to form an uninterrupted path of travel of the ware in alignment with the conveyor means.   
     
     
       9. The combination of conveyor and transfer mechanism as set forth in claim 7 in which, the lehr has multiple tunnels with conveyor strands passing therethrough,   and the transfer mechanism comprising a chain of gripping members mounted on triangularly spaced sprockets wheels to form,   an angular path around a drum mounted between the ends of adjacent tunnels.   
     
     
       10. The combination set forth in claim 9 in which, the chain of clamping members is provided with followers and, a spaced cam track is provided around the drum to maintain a path of travel of the suspended ware out of contact with the conveyors.