Patent GB-416955-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in machines for affixing two-part seals to string
IPC: B25B7/20
Filed: 1933-10-06
Abstract: 416,955. Feeding articles from hoppers. STOFFEL, H., and STOFFEL, F. L., (trading as STOFFEL & SOHN), Horn, Thurgau, Switzerland. Oct. 6, 1933, No. 27506. [Class 117.] In an automatic machine having two co-operating dies for affixing the capsule and disc of a seal to a string placed in the machine the capsules and discs are fed one at a time by separate feed-members to the dies. The capsule 15, Fig. 1, has two diametrically arranged slots in which the string 17 is laid, and is fed to the die 26, Fig. 17, by an arm 98 mounted on a shaft 67, Figs. 2 and 5, and adapted to swing through an arc. The capsules 15 are fed either under air pressure or under gravity on to a horizontal support 75, Fig. 17, with their closed sides uppermost, and their slots engaging a rail 76 (not shown), and are adapted to be fed by a spring-pressed lever 80, which engages holes in the tops of the capsules, on to a positioning-rail or projection on swinging transfer arm 98. The lever 80 is mounted on a spring- retained support which is reciprocated by a cam 87 on a cam shaft 21. A tongue 90, Fig. 5, is actuated from the cam shaft 21 to press each capsule laterally against a guide wall on the support 75 to prevent more than one capsule being fed at a time. A spring-retained lever 99 mounted on the lever 98 has mounted thereon a wire spring adapted to retain the capsule on the arm 98 during the feed movement towards the die 26. A pinion secured on the arm, 98 is engaged by a rack 108 guided in a U-shaped bracket 66 which carries the vertical shaft 67 on which the arm is mounted, and the rack is engaged by a toothed segment 107, Fig. 2, which is actuated from a positive cam 103, Fig. 5. A lever 110 engages beneath the pinion on the arm 98 to move the latter axially upwards to force the capsule carried by the arm 98, into the holder 27 of the die 26. The arm 98 impinges on a pin 47 carried by the bracket 66 when it arrives directly below the holder 27. The capsules 15 may be supplied to the support 75 by detachably securing shoots or magazines 130 to a flange 134 on a fixed shoot on the machine, the shoots having projections or guide rails which engage the slots in the capsules and form continuations of the guide rail 76 on the support 75. A stop pin 135 projects into the shoot 130 whereby the capsules cannot fall out during transport or fixing of the shoots. Instead of replacing the shoot 130 when empty by a similar full one, the capsules may be fed automatically and continuously to a shoot 170 (not shown) connected to the flange 134 by a device comprising a continuously rotating disc 144, Fig. 20, over which are stationarily mounted two concentric cylinders 141, 142, the inner one 141 containing the capsules which can escape, under the centrifugal action of the disc 144, into the annular space between the two cylinders provided they are not on their sides. The disc 144 carries the capsules along the annular space where they are either deflected and guided into a space surrounding the edge of the disc, or rejected and allowed to fall into a container, according to the position in which they arrive at the deflecting position. The automatically selected capsules are guided on a support and fed by frictional contact with the edge of the disc 144 between a guide wall 158 and the edge of the disc. They are guided over a thin rotating disc, rotated from the disc 144, which agitates them into a position where their slots are diametrically opposite a guide rail 169, in which position spring-arms on a disc 165 situated above the thin agitating-disc and rotated by the disc 144 push them along the guide rail. The guide rail 169 is twisted and extends in a spiral around the disc 144, and finally enters the top of the shoot 170. The disc 144 is rotated by worm and worm-wheel gearing from the pulley 148, which is driven from a pulley 30 on a motor 19. The above feeding and sorting device is mounted on a pillar 137, Fig. 2. An air blower discharges at the top of the shoot 170 to facilitate feeding the capsules. The means for feeding the capsules from the support 75 to the arm 98, the retaining means for only allowing one capsule to be fed at a time, the arm 98, and the holder 27 on the die 26 may be modified. The guide rail 76 on the support 75 may be toothed like a rack, each tooth being long enough to accommodate a capsule, and the arm 98 may have a retaining ledge over which the reciprocating feed lever 80 pushes the capsule, and a bowed spring plate pivotally mounted on the lever retains the capsule thereon until pushed away by the holder of the die 26 when the arm is vertically below the latter. The capsules are guided in a vertical direction both on the support and during the feed to the arm 98. The holder 27 may be provided with a lateral slot to allow the feed arm 98 to place the capsule therein by a simple swinging and lateral movement, and springs situated in the holder retain the capsule during the withdrawal of the lever.