Patent GB-239286-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in or relating to buttoning machines
IPC: A43D100/08
Filed: 1924-06-06
Abstract: 239,286. British United Shoe Machinery Co., Ltd., (United Shoe Machinery Corporation). June 6, 1924. Buttoning-machines. -The machine is organised to button any one, or all in succession, of the buttons on a boot or shoe, whether right or left, and is applicable also to buttoning gaiters. The buttons on the boot &c. are passed into a runway 31, Fig. 2, formed in a horizontal frame 20 of the machine, the shank of the foremost button, which is the throat button in the case of a right upper and the top in the case of a left upper, being pressed into a notch 58, Fig. 3, at the end of a button-feeding finger 50 carried on a slide 54 operated from the main shaft 114 of the machine. The corresponding button-hole is engaged over a feeding-finger 90, which is separated for this purpose from a fellow member 92 by the finger piece 142. An operating treadle is then depressed to engage a clutch and drive the main shaft 114 to feed the corresponding button and buttonhole from the starting position, shown in Fig. 8, to the end of the runway 31 where the buttoning operation is performed. The buttonhole fly is guided in its forward movement in a vertical plane by a guide plate 34 and at the same time is lifted, through the medium of a roller 152 carried on an arm 94 which drives the feeding finger 90 moving over an adjustable cam-surface 154, until the top of the buttonhole is just above the crown of the button. The forward end of the feeding finger 50 engages behind a depending lip 181 on a flexibly mounted member 180, which normally closes the runway 31, and the buttonhole fly is clamped against a depending lip 42 on the button guide at a point a little to the rear of the buttonhole to hold the fly in place by a gripping finger 204. A fellow member 202 then pushes the forward side of the buttonhole across the mouth of the runway 31 and thus opens the buttonhole while at the same time the member 180 is pushed away carrying with it the button feeding finger 50 and leaving the button free. A clamping finger 240 moves downwards to steady the button while a button pusher member 222 presses the button into the opened buttonhole. The feeding finger 90 is withdrawn from the buttonhole in time to permit of the buttoning operation and then drags over the surface of the buttonhole fly on .the return movement of the arm 94 until it reaches the succeeding buttonhole, into the widest part of which it snaps, being guided by a finger 134. The arm 94 is given such a movement as to cover the widest spacing likely to occur between successive buttonholes, but is so driven that the feeding bars 90, 92 do not move further after the finger 92 has engaged in the buttonhole. The button pusher 222 lifts the clamping finger 240 on its return after the buttoning operation and the clamping and buttonhole opening fingers 204, 202 are withdrawn to allow the member 100 to move forwards and close the runway ready for a succeeding operation. The parts performing the buttoning operation are carried on an upper frame 20, while the mechanism driving these parts is supported on a lower frame to which the upper frame is pivoted so that it may be swung back to give access to the driving gear. Means are provided for turning-over the machine by hand.