Patent GB-644661-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in or relating to apparatus for applying wire ties to fire lighters andother bundles
IPC: B65B27/10
Filed: 1948-10-08
Abstract: 644,661. Twisting wires together; shearing- adjuncts. ROLLINGS, R. E., and BELL, F. A. Oct. 8, 1948, No. 9901. [Class 83 (iv)] [Also in Group XVII] Apparatus for applying wire ties to fire lighters of the kind comprising a mass of shavings enclosed between strips of wood, and to similar bundles, comprises means for supporting a bundle, a pair of arms each provided at one end with a clamp to hold one end of a length of wire extending between the arms, means for moving the arms relative to the bundle so as to wrap the wire round the bundle and bring its ends together, and rotatable means which receive the said ends after they have been brought together and are rotated to twist the said ends about one another to hold the wire in position on the bundle. A bundle of sticks and shavings is assembled at A, Fig. 3,i n a split box 66, one of which is mounted on each of four arms of a frame 67 which is rotated 90 degrees on the depression of a pedal 82 linked by rod 83 to a ratchet device 84, 85 to bring the bundle in turn from the assembling station A to a tying station B and then to an ejecting station C. On the release of the pedal 82 a weight 93 which was lifted by depression of the pedal returns to its lower position rotating, through a free-wheel 91, a shaft 92 which rotates a shaft 57 on which are mounted two cam discs having cam slots 58, 60, 62, 64, Fig. 1, one on each face engaged respectively by followers on pivoted levers 59, 61, 63, 65. The first movement effected by the cam discs is a short to-and-fro movement by the lever 59 of a slider 33 carrying a clamp, Figs. 1, 6, to draw up a short length of wire and leave it projecting beyond the slider. The slider then moves again to bring the projecting end of the wire into the path of a clamp 21 on an arm 12; which arm together with an arm 13 move forward until the clamp engages the wire, the slider 33 then returning to its initial position before a clamp 21 on the arm 13 reaches the wire. The latter clamp 21 engages the wire beyond the slider, and a cutter 98 is then moved forward by a projection 99 on one of the cam discs to cut the wire between the clamp 21 on the arm 13 and the slider 33. The arms 12, 13, which are pivotally carried intermediate their ends on a carriage 16, Fig. 1, slidable by the lever 63 towards the bundle to be tied and have at their other ends cam followers 19 which engage stationary cam tracks 22, 23, then continue to move forward, rocking together so that the clamps come into alignment, the central part of the wire engaging the bundle, and then move inwardly to wrap the wire round the bundle. The cam followers 19 finally enter slots in pivoted arms 24, 25 which are moved apart by a toggle 28, 29 operated by the lever 61 so as to bring jaws 20 on the arms together to meet on the far side of the bundle. The ends of the wire then lie in notches 42, Fig. 5, in plates 41 on the jaws and in grooves in a head 37, the clamps 21 being tripped as the jaws meet to release the wire ends. When the jaws 20 have come together the lever 65 moves to cause rotation of the head 37 so as to twist the ends of the wire together. The jaws 20 then separate and the continued rotation of the cam discs returns all the parts operated thereby, except the head 37, to their initial positions, the head 37 being returned during the initial stages of the next cycle of operations. The grooved head 37 is mounted on a spindle 38 carrying a sprocket 43 turned by a sprocket 45 on a shaft 46, inside a fixed shaft 68, which carries a sprocket 47 rotated by a chain 48 moved by a lever 63. Slightly different mechanism is described in the Provisional Specification in which the jaw members have half square jaws.