Patent GB-431920-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in and relating to mattress-tufting machines
IPC: B68G7/08
Filed: 1935-01-29
Abstract: 431,920. Upholstery - buttoning machines. UNITED MATTRESS MACHINERY CO., 228, Water Street, Quincy, Massachusetts, U.S.A. Jan. 29, 1935, No. 2930. Convention date, Feb. 14, 1934. [Class 112] A mattress-tufting machine has means for passing a length of cord through the mattress and then to pass one end of the cord through and tie it to the eye of a tufting element such as a button on one side of the mattreess, and other means to pass the other end of the cord through and tie it to the eye of a tufting element on the other side of the mattress. The mattress rests on a bed 15, Fig. 1, movable on rails 16 and is compressed during the button tying operations by a foot 8. The foot 8 is carried by a toothed bar 27 engaged by a pinion on a shaft 31 which has a second pinion engaged by a rack 33 connected by a link 34, lever 35 and link 37 to a follower 40 working in a cam groove in a wheel 20. A needle 7 on a carrier 17 is actuated by a lever 22 moved by a cam groove 19 in the wheel 20 to carry the cord to a button-tying device 14. After the button has been secured the needle 7 is lowered, the cord is cut, and the end is tied to a second button by a device 12 beneath the mattress. The foot 8 is then raised and the elasticity of the mattress tightens the cord. Buttons are fed to the two tying devices by two conveyers 142, 173 from a hopper 146. The two button tying devices are actuated by parallel shafts 64, 68 connected by a chain 65 and the lower shaft has a worm wheel 78 driven by the gears shown. Button-tying devices. A button is transferred from the conveyer by a fork 153 with spring fingers 154, Fig. 12, to a button holding device 44 slidable and rotatable in a casing 43. The button is held by a plunger 50 against flanges 47 and the eye 42 of the button rests in a groove 49 formed in a hooked end 48 of the member 44. The member 44 is given a quarter turn and moved forward to bring the eye 42 into the path of a hook 52 which picks up the cord from the needle 7, Fig. 14, and drawing it through the eye, grips it against the housing of the hook. The member 44 is then retracted and given two and a quarter turns to form a loop around the hooked end 48 after which it moves to bring a groove 61 in the end 48, into the path of a second hook 53, Fig. 19, which catches and draws the end of the cord through the loop. The needle 7 is then withdrawn, the member 44 turned through 180‹ and the button is pulled through a spring trap in the base of the member 43 onto the mattress by the pull of the needle. The lower tying device 12 is similarly constructed, but as the hook 52 is advanced a cutter severs the cord from the needle. The reciprocating movements of the members 44 and plungers 50 are effected by levers moved by cam grooves cut in drums on the shafts 64, 68 and the movement of the hooks 52, 53 is effected by levers and cam grooves cut in discs on the shafts. The rotary movements of the members 44, which have elongated gear teeth cut in them, are effected by toothed sectors pivoted to the frame and moved by cam grooves in discs on the shafts. Button-transferring mechanism. The buttons 5, Fig. 2, are held on the chain conveyer by teeth 145 which separate as the chain goes around a sprocket 149. The released button is held by a spring 151 until it is engaged by the fork 153 and fingers 154 on a device 152 pivoted on the end of a lever 156. This lever is oscillated between the positions shown in full and dotted lines in Fig. 6 by a cam groove 159 and the device 152 is turned through 180‹ at each swing by cam grooves in plates 164, 165 engaging a pin 161 on the device. A hooked pawl 182 engages a ratchet wheel 183 on the shaft of the sprocket 149 to feed a fresh button forward at each oscillation of the lever 156. A similar device feeds buttons to the lower tying device.