Double jawed shaping tool for glass vials

Abstract

The invention provides a precision tooling machine for final finishing of a preliminary formed shoulder on the open end of a heated glass vial blank. The shoulder of the vial is heated and the vial is rotated and horizontally advanced between a pair of co-operating tooling jaws which are respectively mounted on support arms which are in turn rigidly secured to a vertically slidably support plate. The entire weight of the tooling jaws, the support arms and the support plate is effectively counter-balanced so that tooling jaw units may move without restraint to accommodate themselves to the vertical position of the particular vial passing between the tooling jaws. At the same time, one of the jaw units is freely laterally shiftable a slight amount relative to the other jaw unit so as to prevent the possibility of differential heating of the tooling jaws or their respective support arms causing a misalignment of one tooling jaw relative to the other tooling jaw. The disclosed apparatus is conveniently adjustable to handle a wide range of vial sizes and shaping tools.