Caulking apparatus for button elements

Abstract: An apparatus of a compact structure for caulking upper and lower elements of a fastener wherein an upper fastener element feeding mechanism can be exactly associated with a caulking mechanism in the caulking portion and wherein a caulking force can be easily and surely adjusted. An apparatus for respectively feeding upper and lower button elements by means of individual pushers ( 3, 4 ) into a lower pocket of a punch ( 1 ) and a pocket on the upper face of a die and caulking the upper and lower button elements integrally by the downward movement of the punch ( 1 ) comprises, a driving cylinder ( 8 ) which is directly driven with a predetermined delay by vertical movement of the punch ( 1 ), a cam member ( 14 ) which is vertically moved in synchronism with reciprocation of the driving cylinder ( 8 ), a swing lever ( 18 ) which is swung in association with pivotal movement of the cam member ( 14 ), and a pusher ( 3 ) for feeding the upper button element, of which one end is pivoted to the swing lever ( 8 ) and the tip of the other end is reciprocated between the lower pocket of the punch ( 1 ) and a stand-by position. Favourably, the apparatus includes the driving cylinder ( 8 ) including a compression air pressure regulating means and the lower button element feeding pusher ( 4 ) being provided with a driving cylinder ( 2 ).

Description: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention This invention relates generally to an apparatus for caulking a snap hook and a hook washer which are attached to for sample trousers and skirts, or for caulking upper and lower button elements which are attached to garments and bags, and more particularly to an apparatus for caulking upper and lower elements of a fastener wherein an upper element feeding mechanism can be exactly associated with a caulking mechanism in the caulking portion and wherein a caulking force can be easily and surely adjusted. 2. Description of the Prior Art This kind of caulking apparatus is disclosed for example in JP-A-2206401, (=US-A-5,048,741). In the typical embodiment of this apparatus, a cam disk is attached through a single-revolution clutch to a continuously rotating fly wheel, and a punch and first and second pushers are all driven in sequence through a plurality of swingable levers and linkage mechanism by rotation of the cam disk as a common driving source. The first and second pushers are driven to feed the caulking elements into the punch and the die. Consequently, the punch is reciprocable vertically with respect to a frame of the button setting machine, since a crank lever pivoted to an eccentric pin projecting from an end face of the cam is pivoted through a cylinder member to one end of a T-shaped lever and the opposite end of the T-shaped lever is operatively connected through a linkage to the upper end of the punch. Resiliently contacting with the cam face of the cam disk via a roller, the swingable cam lever is connected through a connecting rod with an upper pusher lever, and the first pusher is moved back and forth by the upper pusher lever, so that the rotation of the cam disk is converted through the pivotal movement of the upper pusher lever into the reciprocation of the first pusher. Further, since a vertical arm extending downwardly from a substantially central portion of the T-shaped lever is connected through an expansion pipe joint to the lower pusher lever, the rotation of the cam disk is converted through the crank lever, the cylinder, the T-shaped lever, the expansion pipe joint, and the lower pusher lever into the reciprocation of the second pusher. Then, the cylinder member and the expansion pipe joint are respectively provided with damping mechanism to absorb the extra movement of individual members temporarily. With the composition stated aboveherein, the caulking apparatus disclosed in the JP-A-2206401 is intended to drive plural members by a single driving source in sequence so as to provide a simple and compact apparatus, however since all driving are transmitted through the plural swingable levers and linkage mechanism, the caulking pressure must be regulated by the individual cylinder member which serves as the damping mechanism. Moreover, a skilled worker is required to adjust the length of the individual swingable lever and linkage, and this apparatus is difficult to correspond with caulking button elements requiring a variety of caulking pressures. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is therefore a first object of this invention to provide a novel mechanism which can be easily operated without complicated regulation of caulking pressure by skilled worker and can simultaneously correspond with a variety of caulking button elements. A second object of this invention is to provide a simplified driving system of a caulking apparatus, and a third object of this invention is to maintain a stable operation of a caulking apparatus in spite of a simplified structure. Other objects and advantages of this invention will be apparent from the following description. The apparatus for respectively feeding upper and lower elements into a lower pocket of a punch and a pocket on the upper face of a die by means of individual pusher and caulking the upper and lower elements integrally by a downward movement of the punch is characterized by a driving cylinder which is directly driven under a predetermined delay by the vertical movement of said punch, a cam member which is vertically moved in synchronism with the reciprocation of said driving cylinder, a swing lever which is swingable in association with the vertical movement of said cam member, and a pusher for feeding said upper button element of which one end is pivoted to said swing lever and the tip of the other end is reciprocated between the lower pocket of the punch and a stand-by position. This invention is favourably characterized in that the driving cylinder includes a compression air pressure regulating means, a damping mechanism is provided between the cam member and the swing lever, and the lower button element feeding pusher is also provided with a driving cylinder exclusively for use of feeding said button element. In operation, a punch driving air cylinder is actuated, only a cam member is moved downwardly while a piston rod is moved downwardly with a predetermined space. Then, the punch is not moved downwardly and is at a stand-by position. A cam lever resiliently contacted to the cam face is swung in the pusher retracting direction in response to the displacement of the cam member, and at the same time, the swing lever is swung by a linkage member to retract the pusher. When the displacement of the piston rod of the air cylinder exceeds the space D, the punch is moved downwardly, so that the upper fastener element (not shown) held by the tip end of the punch is caulked through a garment fabric (not shown) such as a trouser to the lower fastener element set on the die (not shown) which is disposed in the lower part of the garment fabric putting table to assemble the upper and lower fastener elements integrally. When the caulking operation is finished up, the air circuit of the air cylinder is changed-over by a command signal from a control unit to move the punch upwardly. Then, the cam member is simultaneously moved upwardly and the cam lever resiliently contacted on and swung by the cam face is returned to the original position. While the swing lever is swung through a linkage member to the original position by the resilience in association with the returning movement of the cam lever, the pusher is moved forwardly. The following upper fastener element which is fed from the chute and is standing by at the outlet is transported into the pocket provided on the lower part of the punch by the forward movement of the pusher. While the punch is actuated, the lower fastener element feeding cylinder is also actuated at the same timing to move one lower element feeding pusher back and forth so as to feed the following lower fastener element into the pocket set on the die. Thereafter, the upper and lower fastener elements are continuously caulked by repeating the above operation. Other advantages and features of this invention will become manifest to those versed in the art upon making reference to the detailed description and the accompanying sheets of drawings in which a preferred structural embodiment is incorporating the principles of this invention are shown by way of illustrative example. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a front view showing an internal structure of a caulking apparatus for snap hook and eye element, which is a typical embodiment of this invention; FIG. 2 is an internal structure view looked from the upper part of this caulking apparatus; and FIG. 3 is a side view looked from the right side of this caulking apparatus. DETAILED DESCRIPTION This invention will be clearly illustrated according to the embodiment with reference to the accompanying drawings. As shown in FIG. 1 to FIG. 3, this apparatus includes a punch 1, a garment fabric putting table 2, a snap hook feeding pusher 3, a hook washer feeding pusher 4, a snap hook supplying chute 5, and a hook washer supplying chute 6. The punch 1 is composed of a hollow member wherein the upper end is opened and an elongated blind hole 1a formed in the hollow member is extended in the axis direction. A driving rod 9 is extended from the piston rod end of the air cylinder 8 which is secured on the upper part of the frame 7. The driving rod 9 is inserted into the blind hole 1a, and a collar 10 having an external screw is screwed in the blind hole 1a at the opened end. A retainer 11 is engaged with the tip end of the driving rod 9. A compression coil spring 12 is set between the collar 10 and the retainer 11. The air cylinder 8 includes a compression air pressure regulating mechanism for regulating a supplying air pressure by a signal from the control unit (not shown). The driving rod 9 is provided on the proximal end with a flange 13 which is connected to the cam member 14 by means of a connecting rod 15. A square cylinder portion 7a arranged below the air cylinder 8 has a square space for accommodating the punch 1. A slit 7b is vertically formed in the inside of the square cylindrical portion 7a and is freely engaged with a part of the connecting rod 15. Consequently, the cam member 14 is vertically moved in synchronism with the reciprocation of the air cylinder 8. FIG. 1 shows that the piston rod of the air cylinder 8 is returned to the maximum retracted position. Then, a predetermined distance D is provided between the upper face of the collar 10 and the lower face of the flange 13. The upper end of a cam lever 16 is pivoted to the frame 7 and the lower end of the cam lever 16 is provided with a roller 16a which is contacted to the cam face 14a of the cam member 14. The lower end of the cam lever 16 is connected through the link member 17 to the middle position of the swing lever 18 for driving a snap hook feeding pusher 3. The link member 17 comprises a cylinder 17a and an inserting rod 17b. A tension spring 19 is attached between the end of the inserting rod 17b and the swing lever 18 and serves as a damping mechanism for resiliently urging the inserting rod 17b of link member 17 in the direction of drawing the inserting rod 17b into the link member 17. Tension springs 20 are also attached between the swing lever 18 and the frame 7 to contact always the roller 16a of the cam lever 16 resiliently through the link member 17 onto the cam face 14a of the cam member 14. Further, a tension spring 21 is also set between the swing lever 18 and the pusher 3 to urge always the tip end of the pusher 3 upwardly. The die shown in FIG. 3 is set under the garment fabric putting table 2 arranged below the punch 1. The hook washer feeding pusher 4 is moved back and forth toward the pocket (not shown) of the die. This movement is produced by the cylinder 22 used only for driving the pusher 4, that is, a pin 23 attached to the rear end (left side in the drawing) of the pusher 4 is fixed to a ram 25 which is slid on the fixing bed 24 and moved backwardly in the horizontal direction by the actuation of the cylinder 22. Since a tension spring 26 is set between the fixing bed 24 and the cylinder 22, when the cylinder 22 is actuated, the ram 25 is moved backwardly against the resilient force of the tension spring 26 and the pusher 4 is simultaneously moved backwardly. When the cylinder 22 is stopped, the ram is moved forwardly by the resilient force of the tension spring 26 and the pusher 4 is simultaneously moved forwardly to feed the following hook washer into the pocket of the die. An adjusting bolt 27 is attached through a bracket to the upper face of the ram 25 and a microswitch 28 is attached to the frame portion arranged opposite to the tip end of the adjusting bolt 27. When the microswitch 28 is contacted to the adjusting bolt 27 and the control unit confirms that the following hook washer was normally fed, a locking mechanism of an operating part (not shown) of the caulking work is unlocked to be operable. With the snap hook and hook washer caulking apparatus of this invention stated aboveherein, when the air cylinder 8 for driving the punch shown in FIG. 1 is actuated, the driving rod 9 is moved downwardly against the resilient force of the compression coil spring 12 within the punch 1 and the cam member 14 is simultaneously moved downwardly. By the downward movement of the cam member 14, the can lever 16 is swung to the position shown by the phantom line in response to the movement of the cam face 14a and the swing lever 18 is simultaneously swung through the link member 17 to the position shown by the phantom line to commence the downward movement of the pusher 3. When the movement of air cylinder 8 exceeds the length of space D between the flange 13 and the upper face of the collar 10, the driving rod 9 is contacted with the bottom of the blind hole 1a of the punch 1, and hence the punch 1 is moved downwardly to caulk the snap hook (not shown) held by the tip end of the punch 1 through the garment fabric (not shown) such as trousers to the hook washer set on the die so as to assemble the snap hook and the hook washer integrally. When this caulking work is finished up, the air pressure circuit of the air cylinder 8 is changed-over by the command signal from a detector (not shown) to move the punch 1 upwardly. Simultaneously, the can member 14 is moved upwardly while the cam lever 16 is contacted to the cam face 14a by the tension spring 20 and returned to the position shown by the solid line in FIG. 1. The swing lever 18 is returned through the link member 17 to the position of the solid line in association with the returning movement of the cam lever 16, and at the same time, the pusher 3 is moved forwardly. The following snap hook which is fed from the chute 5 and is standing by at the outlet of the chute 5 is transported into the pocket (not shown) arranged below the punch 1 by the forward movement of the pusher 3. While the punch is actuated to operate as described above, the hook washer feeding air cylinder 22 is actuated at the same timing and the hook washer feeding pusher 4 is moved backwardly to feed the following hook washer into the pocket (not shown) set on the die. The above operation is repeated to carry out the caulking work of the snap hook and the hook washer continuously. As stated clearly aboveherein, since the punch 1 is actuated directly by the air cylinder 8, the caulking pressure of the snap hook depends directly upon the air pressure of the air cylinder 8. Accordingly, when the caulking work is changed to the one done by different caulking pressures for a variety of snap hooks, the proper caulking pressure can be obtained only by adjusting the air pressure of the air cylinder 8 without adjusting the other mechanical parts. Since the pushers 3 and 4 are individually driven by the air cylinder as the drive source, the drive timing can be surely controlled by the signal from the control unit (not shown) to feed the fastener elements exactly into the punch and the die perfectly in order. Since the commencement of operating the punch 1 is set to delay as long as the time for the air cylinder 8 to move from its actuating position throughout the space D by means of a mechanical associating mechanism as stated above, the pusher 3 is surely moved backwardly prior to the actuation of the punch. Therefore, the damage due to the impact between the punch and pusher does not occur. According to this invention as stated in detail aboveherein, since the punch is driven directly by the air cylinder, the caulking pressure of the punch can be precisely regulated by adjusting the air pressure. This single fastener element caulking apparatus can easily correspond with different caulking pressures and hence can be used widely for various fastener elements. Further, according to this invention, since the transportation of the upper element of the fastener is associated through the mechanical interlocking mechanism in synchronism with the actuation of the air cylinder and the operation commencement of the punch is set to delay a little time from the actuation commencement of the hydraulic cylinder, the pusher starts the returning movement already when the punch operates, and hence the impact between the pusher and the punch can be surely avoided to prevent the damages and troubles therebetween.

Claims: An apparatus for respectively feeding upper and lower button elements by means of individual pusher ( 3, 4 ) into a lower pocket of a punch ( 1 ) and a pocket on the upper face of a die and caulking said upper and lower button elements integrally by downward movement of said punch characterized by a driving cylinder ( 8 ) which is directly driven with a predetermined delay by vertical movement of said punch ( 1 ), a cam member ( 14 ) which is vertically moved in synchronism with reciprocation of said driving cylinder ( 8 ), a swing lever ( 18 ) which is swingable in association with the vertical movement of said cam member ( 14 ), and a pusher ( 3 ) for feeding said upper button element, of which one end is pivoted to said swing lever ( 18 ) and the tip of the other end is reciprocated between the lower pocket of said punch ( 1 ) and a stand-by position. An apparatus for caulking button elements according to claim 1, characterized in that said driving cylinder ( 8 ) includes a compression air pressure regulating means. An apparatus for caulking button elements according to claim 1, characterized in that said lower button element feeding pusher ( 4 ) is provided with a driving cylinder ( 2 ) exclusively for use of feeding said button element. An apparatus for caulking button elements according to any of the preceding claims, characterized in that a damping mechanism ( 19 ) is provided between the cam member ( 16 ) and the swing lever ( 18 ).

Inventors: SODENO TOSHIAKI, TOYOTA SUMIO, SODENO, TOSHIAKI, TOYOTA, SUMIO
Applicants: YKK CORP, YKK CORPORATION
Application year: 1992
Main classification: A41H37
IPC codes: A44B17, A41H37