Patent GB-117292-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in or relating to Buttoning Machines.
IPC: A43D100/08
Filed: 1917-07-07
Abstract: 117,292. British United Shoe Machinery Co., (United Shoe Machinery Co.). July 7, 1917. Buttoning.-A machine for buttoning shoe uppers, prior to the assembling and lasting operations, is provided with buttonhole-fly engaging means which move in wiping engagement with the material at opposite sides of a buttonhole to effect a progressive movement of the material into buttoned position. The machine is described as equipped with five sets of buttoning-devices, each set including button and buttonhole-fly positioning-means and a buttoning-member. The buttonpositioning means comprise forked members 12, of which the centre one is fixed to the machine frame 10 while the remainder are secured to arms 13 pivotally mounted on an upright stud 14; the forks receive the shanks of the buttons a, which are secured to the button piece by staples. Each member 12 is slotted to receive a buttonhole-fly positioning-member in the form of a bell-crank 16, which is pivoted at 17 to the member 12, one arm being extended upwards to a point 16<x> adapted to engage in a buttonhole, while the other arm engages an elongated slot 18<x> in an operating lever 18 common to all the members; the lever 18 is operated by a cam on a main shaft 11. The members 16 serve simply to position the buttonhole-fly, which, as soon as the machine is started, is engaged by a clamp bar 22 and clamped against the members 12, after which the points 16<x> are withdrawn from engagement with the 'buttonholes; the bar 22 is supported by arms 22<x> secured to a rock shaft 23, which is actuated through a yielding connexion from a cam 25 on the shaft 11. The buttoning-members are carried by bell-cranks 27, the centre one of which is pivotally supported by a fixed overhanging arm secured to the frame 10, while the others are each pivoted at 28 to an extension of the corresponding arm 13. The bell-cranks are operated together by a single U-shaped lever 29 pivoted on a rod 30 and operated from a cam on the shaft 11, the lever being provided with an elongated slot 29<x> in which the ends of the bell-cranks 27 are free to slide. Each buttoning-member as a whole is in the nature of a cam, and comprises a toe piece 35, Figs. 1, 4, 6, and 10, which is formed with diverging flanges 36 flanged laterally at 36<x> and is provided outside the flanges 36 with cam shoulders 37, and a heel piece comprising flanges 39 forming, in effect, extensions of the lateral flanges 36<x>. When the bell-crank 27 is swung downwards, the toe piece 35 engages the material at the end of the buttonhole, Fig. 10, and the diverging flanges 36 then enter the buttonhole and separate its edges beyond the button head. The material of the buttonhole fly is then forced downwards below the edges, of the button head by the cam shoulders 37, disengaging it from the toe piece 35. This permits the flanges 36<x> 39 to pass between the head of the button and the buttonpiece and to lift the button, the head of which is received in a recess 38, whereupon the buttonhole automatically closes in consequence of the tendency of the stock to resume its normal condicion. To adapt the buttoning-member to a particular height of button head, the toe piece 35 is made adjustable, being formed with segmental flanges 41, Fig. 1, engaging grooves in the bellcrank 27, the segment being concentric with the meeting point 40 of the toe and heel pieces of the buttoning-member; the adjustment is effected by a nut 43 threaded on a shank 44 carried bv the bell-crank 27 and engaging lips in an extension 45 of the toe piece. After the buttoning operation, the work is automatically discharged from the machine by a U-shaped ejector comprising a cross bar 48 connected to arms 47 mounted on a rockshaft 49, which is operated from a cam 50 on the shaft 11. Specifications 24890/12, 6108/14, and 7441/15 are referred to.