Unknown Mechanical Device, identification help please

[magnusg]

I have received images of a mechanical device from South America.

It contains a plate with circular bowls rotating counter clockwise when winding up a spring using a key. 4 or 3 firmly fastened metal blades wipe of the surface while the plate rotates and a wooden blade is lowered underneath the surface (we believe) when the plate is rotating.
The text noted on the device does not give a clue, but the word 'vencion' or 'de vencion' is not common Spanish, but can mean aid or adding device in Portuguese.

The solution may be hidden in the markings on the side. The entire text is not visible but some. It states:
"NTE DE VENCION NO 15579. MARCA REGISTRADA. JUAN L DOMINGUEZ. DIONEA"

"vencion" may be a legal term, and Dionea could be the name of a village or city.


Anyone have an idea? Please help me...

 

[berkshire]

Just a wild guess, is there a Pachinko parlour nearby?
B.E.

 

[magnusg]

I don’t know, I will try to ask (it's my uncle in Florida who asked me and he is not a friend of this future technology called internet so I must try to use old fashion tech such as wire telephone).

However, we have our own idea that it might be some sort of mechanical device that is used in the industry for sorting parts of some sort. I will definitely discuss the idea of a Pachinko parlor.

Any other wild guesses are welcome...

 

[PetieSmo]

Definitely a wild guess, but when I first opened the picture and thought about the wiper blades, I thought of candy molds (e.g., gum drops).

Let us know if/when you find out.

 

[kelowna]

NTE DE VENCION NO 15579. MARCA REGISTRADA. JUAN L DOMINGUEZ. DIONEA

That could be 'Patente de invencion NO' which translates into 'Patent number'. 'Marca registrada' is registered trademark. Juan L. Dominguez is somebody's name, obviously, and no idea what Dionea stands for, although in Spanish people has two family names, so it could be the second family name, although I cannot think on any Spanish family name containing those words.

 

[kelowna]

On second thought. If that is a patent number, it should be relatively simple to look at the patent register and see what the 'thingy' was used for. Obvioulsy what country's patent register is another question.

Are you sure it is a medical device?

 

[MiketheEngineer]

Looks like a crude player - as in player piano. Maybe you wind it up and it just makes the same noise over and over??

 

[btrueblood]

Mechanical, not medical.

My own thoughts ran towards a device to seperate seeds from some type of seed pod or flower. Dunno what kind, though.

 

[berkshire]

I thought at first it was a device for counting Pachinko balls.
However seeds or peas are a definite possibility.
B.E.

 

[MintJulep]

I'm confused by your description, as from the picture it appears that the blades come up through the platen and rotate with it.

For the moment, my guess is that it is used to make some sort of cracker, cookie or bread.

Slap some dough on the platen and press it down roughly by hand. Lower the wooden block to level things off as the platen rotates.

This will produce four wedge-shaped pieces for subsequent baking or frying.

 

[Ron]

I'm leaning toward the candy mold or gaming device. Considering the "packaging" it is more likely the candy mold. Interesting, nonetheless.

 

[btrueblood]

I don't think it would do a good job of molding anything, Ron. But then, I'm a mechie, and you are just a structures type operating outside your area of expertise...

Peeps, scroll down on the OP's pdf, 3rd picture. There is a spiral or tangential slot, with a steel(?) backing strip, under the hinged bit, apparently intended to eject something that won't drop into the holes as the disk rotates. The brass blades appear to be near the surface of the disk, then rise as they rotate into the raised wooden area, and drop again as they rotate thru the open area in front.

Something gets put into the open area, and bits of (heavier?) stuff drop into the little depressions or holes, lighter(?) stuff is swept by the blades to be ejected via the slot...

To be a bread, candy, whatever "mold", there oughta be a beveled entry surface on the hinged brass cover.

Then again, given that nobody has recollected seeing this, it could very well be a very poorly designed candy mold.

 

[GregLocock]

Looks like an apothecary's device for making pills, but in that case why it needs to be clockwork is beyond me.



Cheers

Greg Locock


New here? Try reading these, they might help FAQ731-376

http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm?

 

[EngineerTex]

My theory:

There is something that feeds into the square-ish brass portion with the bell mouth on the side. This is the part that you are looking directly into in the last photograph. Whatever it is that feeds into that, it is a feed or hopper or tube of some sort and it drops some type of hard pieces into the area which is covered by the pie-wedge shaped portion of the bronze cover. When the parts are fed in, they are likely hard and probably bounce around a lot, which calls for the bronze pie-wedge shape cover in that area. To justify my thinking that the parts being sorted are hard (or somewhat hardened), you see a bright shiny silverish metallic wear strip attached to the raised portion of the wood housing. This is most clearly seen in the third photo, fastened in place with two brads or screws. This strip is used to prevent excessive wear on the wood portion of the housing.

If you look inside, you will probably find that the blades ride up a wedge which allows them to rise and fall so that just as the blade gets to the raised portion of the wood case, corresponding to where the silver metallic wear strip starts (about the 4 o'clock position in the first photo) the blade is high enough so that the next blade forward (counterclockwise) starts to lower to miss the "wiper" portion of the bronze cover.

The parts which are dropped into the device are kept contained in the receiving area and not allowed to pass unless they are in one of the dimples.

So the question remains -- what is being fed into the unit? I'm fairly certain that the operation I laid out is correct, but I still don't know what it was used for.

I do not think it was for seed or peas or beans or anything of the like. The machine seems too small for even the tiniest agricultural operation. It doesn't seem like it would process an extraordinary number of parts or pieces.

Whatever it is, it does not look like there is a lot of wear on the wood in the area after the bronze scraping part of the receiving area, which leads me to believe that the pieces were not simply grabbed/wiped by hand off of the dimpled tray into a bag or box or something of the sort.

It may have been used to help with counting parts, but there are 38 dimples in each wedge, which seems like a strange number to pick for counting a number of anything.

I could possibly get on board with it being some type of candy processing machine, I suppose, but I'm pretty hesitant.

Is it a cooling tray for still-hot ball bearings or other recently-processed machine parts?

How fast does it turn when it's going?

The fact that it's spring-powered and not electrically-powered suggests that if it is an industrial device, it was in use before the widespread use of electricity?

Can we go with something in the textile industry? Button sorting?

What country in South America did it come from?

Engineering is not the science behind building. It is the science behind not building.

 

[ivymike]

My guess:
it's a device to help you package up 36 little balls of something-or-other at a time. Some sort of feeder tube probably goes into the brass thingy, and the balls come out and find their way into the dimples. They're carried slowly around to be picked & boxed.

 

[hydtools]

Interesting. Search on Dionea turns up Venus flytrap as Italian translation.

A bug catcher? Put bait in the depressions and the wood bar scrapes them off into the bin underneath.

Ted

 

[MintJulep]

I didn't see the third and forth pictures before.

I'm changing my guess.

It's a counter for balls or other spherical things.

 

[Ron]

BTB...got the dig. No problem. Not an engineering issue, just an interesting conundrum. As is obvious by the guessing, not particularly within any discipline's expertise.

Happy Guessing.

 

[ivymike]

ol' school one of these:

http://busch-machinery.com/Benchtop-Tablet-Counter.htm

 

[btrueblood]

Ron, 'twas meant as good-humored cheekiness. Good guesses, but without any more info., that's all any of us can offer.