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Making Glasses and Light Bulbs Automatic Domestic Glassware Production

The document describes two machines used to mass produce glass items: 1) The Westlake machine is used to produce up to 75,000 drinking glasses per day by copying the actions of hand blowers. It gathers glass, forms it into shapes using molds, and transfers the finished glasses for further processing. 2) The ribbon machine is used to produce over 1,000 light bulbs per minute. Molten glass is formed into a continuous ribbon and blown into shapes inside rotating molds before being trimmed, cooled, and packaged for distribution. Both machines automate glass blowing processes to enable high volume production of various glassware.

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96 views2 pages

Making Glasses and Light Bulbs Automatic Domestic Glassware Production

The document describes two machines used to mass produce glass items: 1) The Westlake machine is used to produce up to 75,000 drinking glasses per day by copying the actions of hand blowers. It gathers glass, forms it into shapes using molds, and transfers the finished glasses for further processing. 2) The ribbon machine is used to produce over 1,000 light bulbs per minute. Molten glass is formed into a continuous ribbon and blown into shapes inside rotating molds before being trimmed, cooled, and packaged for distribution. Both machines automate glass blowing processes to enable high volume production of various glassware.

Uploaded by

jsrplc7952
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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MAKING GLASSES AND LIGHT BULBS

Automatic Domestic Glassware Production


The Westlake machine was developed for blowing bulbs for domestic lamps and radio valves at production
rates of up to 75,000 a day (gross). It has since been adapted for making drinking glasses, including stemmed
ware, at up to 55,000 a day (gross).

The machine copies the action of a handblower in gathering glass from the furnace, forming a parison and
blowing the article in a cast iron mould. Twelve pairs of spindles or blowpipes, together with their blowing air
valves and past moulds, travel around a central column. The gathering equipment is carried on top of the
column and sets of cams are fitted around the column to control the sequence of operations.

Glass is gathered by vacuum into a pair of blank moulds and the pairs of blanks are transferred in turn to each
pair of spindles. The spindles are rotated and swung down, and air is introduced to form each blank into a
parison, controlling the profile and distribution of the glass before blowing the required shape in the wetted
mould.

The mould opens and the spindle jaws release the article that is then transferred to the stemming machine.
Here the neck formed in the mould is reheated and stretched to the required length. The article then passes to
the burn-off machine where oxygen-gas flames remove the "moil" or waste glass, which was originally formed
at the gathering position, and the finished piece is conveyed to the lehr for annealing.

Electric Light Bulb Envelope Production


The ribbon machine was developed for the high-speed manufacture of bulbs for domestic lamps, auto lamps,
vacuum flasks, etc. Its main feature is that glass travels through it in a straight line rather than on a rotary path
as with the Westlake machines. Production rates in excess of 1000 a minute can be achieved.
From the furnace forehearth molten glass flows down between two rotating water-cooled rollers and on to the
Ribbon machine. On leaving the rollers the ribbon of glass is carried through the machine on a series of orifice
plates, forming a continuous belt pierced with holes.

As the ribbon moves forward, a continuous chain of blowheads does the glassblower’s job for him. It blows the
glass through the hole and the "blister" forms into a bulb inside a rotating mould, which meets and closes
around it from below. Still moving forward on the ribbon, the shaped bulb is released form its mould, cooled by
air jets and then tapped off the ribbon to fall onto the scoops of a rotary turntable which tips it on to a conveyor
belt. This carries it through an annealing lehr and air cooling to inspection and packing. The unused part of the
ribbon passes direct to a cullet system for re-melting. More than 1,000 bulbs per minute can be produced on
such a machine.

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