Patent GB-400095-A (GB)
Title: Needle-eye polishing machine
IPC: B24B5/48
Filed: 1933-04-08
Abstract: 400,095. Polishing needles. FAIRWEATHER, W. C., 65, Chancery Lane, London.-(Singer Manufacturing Co. ; Elizabeth, New Jersey, U.S.A.) April 8, 1933, No. 10540. [Class 60.] In a machine for polishing the eyes of needles, the needles are held in a clamp and are reciprocated along and transversely of threads provided with abrading material, the threads being fed automatically at intervals to bring fresh portions into operation, and the machine being stopped automatically after a predetermined, but variable, number of reciprocations of the needles. The machine comprises end frames 1, 2 connected by rails 3, 4 and bars 5, 6, and journalled in brackets on the frames is a main shaft 7 carrying fast and loose pulleys 8, 9 engaged by a belt, which is moved by prongs 11 on a shipper bar 10 slidably supported by the frame 1. The bar is moved by a lever 12 connected to a shaft 13 on which is another lever 14 having a nose 15 adapted to enter a notch 16 of a cam 17 under the action of a spring 19. The cam 17 is mounted on a shaft 18 driven through worm gearing 23, 32 and change speed gearing 29, 30 by a shaft 33 driven through gearing by the shaft 7, and the change speed gearing is so arranged that the main shaft 7 makes a predetermined number of revolutions whilst the cam 17 makes a single revolution ; at the end of a revolution of the cam, the nose 15 enters the notch 16 and the levers 14, 12 move the shipper bar 10 to carry the belt on to the loose pulley 9 to stop the machine. The shaft 33 has at its ends cranks 36, 37 connected by links 38, 39 to upright rock-levers 40, 41 carrying at their upper ends a needle clamp 64 and holding the needles and pivotally mounted on a shaft 42 rotatable in the spaced arms of a rocking frame 43, 44, which is fulcrummed on a rotary shaft 45, the arms 44 being connected by a counterweighted cross-bar 46. The bar 46 is connected by a link 47 to a block 48 slidably guided by a bracket 50 and carrying a roller 52 which engages a cam plate 53 on a disc 54 on the shaft 18, and causes the frame 43, 44 to be held down during a part of the revolution of the disc 54 and then raised, whereby the ends of the eyes of the needles are more effectively polished. The shaft on which the levers 40, 41 are mounted is driven through chain gearing 56 and worm gearing 58, 59 from the shaft 33 and carries a crank disc 67 which, through a rack bar 66, oscillates the needle clamp 64 transversely of the polishing threads 65 whilst the clamp reciprocates with the levers 40, 41 along the threads. The polishing threads are carried on bobbins 68 on pins carried by a board 70 and the threads pass from the bobbins through slots in the toothed upper edge of a thread separating plate 73, then through slots in the lower edges of plates 76 carried by a gate 77 pivoted at 78, and then again through slots in the upper edge of a plate 79, the threads being clamped against the plates 76 by springs 81 mounted on a tiltable rail 82 moved by downward movement of the plates 76 to carry the springs into clamping position. A modified clamping device comprises clamping springs carried by plates slightly movable under the influence of springs on the gate 77, the clamping springs, on lowering of the gate clamping the threads against an anvil between the thread separating plates. The gate 77 is held in its lowered or thread clamping position during a predetermined number of strokes of the needle clamp, and is then raised for feeding a fresh length of thread from the bobbins by links 94 connected to the gate and to cranks on a shaft 97, which also carries a lever 98 pulled by a spring 99 to hold the gate lowered, and an arm 96 pivoted to one end of an actuator bar 102. The other end of the bar is connected to a lever 103, 104, which through ratchet and pawl gearing 106, 110 rotates a winding roller 109, on which the threads drawn from the bobbins are wound ; the threads pass over tensioning rollers mounted on slide bars 119, acted on by spring-pressed levers 114, 115 before reaching the roller. A modified form of thread winding, and tensioning device includes ratchet and pawl mechanism for rotating the roller and tensioning rollers on spring-actuated levers, means being provided for returning any of the levers as may be out of operative position to such position. The actuator bar 102 is-moved at a predetermined time in the operation of the machine, to effect the winding of the threads, by means of a lever 154, 155 oscillated by a block on the link 38, the movement of the lever 154 being communicated to the bar through a follower pin 153 pivotally mounted on the bar. The pin 153 is normally in a raised position so as not to be engaged by the lever 154, and is moved down, when the threads are to be fed, by a connecting-rod 164 moved, through a spring 168, by a bell-crank lever 172, 173, carrying a cam follower 179, which engages a cam 181, 182 on the shaft 18. The cam has a notch 180, of variable extent, and when the follower moves into the notch under the influence of a spring 178, the bar 102 is actuated. Specification 329,296, [Class 60, Grinding or abrading &c.], is referred to.