| 摘要 |
492,522. Prepayment mechanism for meters. BRITISH SANGAMO CO., Ltd., BUTHERUS, F. R., and WESTON, G. E. Feb. 18, 1937, Nos. 4945 and 14437. [Class 27] [Also in Groups XXIV and XIX] Price-changing mechanism.-Idler pinions 21, 14 are spaced round the periphery of cages 22-23, 15-16 so that gear-changing may be effected solely by rotation of a cage, which is coaxial with one stack of gears, 11 or 13, which stack is thereby connected by said pinions with another stack 20 or 10. The changes occur in small steps, the drives from the two sets of gears being combined by a differential 24, Fig. 2 ; one set gives steps which are multiples of those of the other set, and the drives may be added or subtracted by inserting a reversing device between'the driving wheel 9 and the stack 10. The invention is specially intended for use in price-changing devices in electricity prepayment meters. To change the price, a screw-driver is inserted in the slotted head 32 or 33 according to whether the change is in pence or in fractions of a penny. Assuming the former, the spindle 36 is pushed in against a spring 41 to move, by means of a spring 43, a bell-crank 42 to engage between the teeth of a planet carrier 26. This prevents the unwinding of any stressed spring in the prepayment device. In the case of the fractional device, the movement of the spindle 46 moves the spring 40 flush with the arm 39 and then the arm to move the spindle 36 and thus the bellcrank. When the screw-driver in the head 32 is rotated it turns the wheel 34 and thus the cage 15-16 which is held in the position desired by a spring detent 50. Spring wires fitted in one case to a distance piece of the cage, and in the other to the plate 2 lock the corresponding sun wheel of the differential to prevent one sun carrying the other, when set at zero, round with it. With a reversing mechanism added to the gears, it is only necessary for the device 10, 13 to have ratios corresponding to 2d., 4d., and Gd. Suitable gearing is shown in Fig. 4. A lever 106 pivoted at 97 carries sets of pinions, 99, 100 and 101-3, and an extension 98 in the path of pins 93-5 on a member 92 fixed to a sleeve 91 carried by the cage 22, 23. When a pin engages the extension 98, the arm is moved about its pivot so that the drive passes from one set of pinions to the other and is thereby reversed. A mask 107 covers one of two scales on an indicator 108. |
