Patent GB-514392-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in or relating to apparatus for handling shoe stiffeners
IPC: A43D95/12
Filed: 1938-05-04
Abstract: 514,392. Feeding shoe-stiffeners. UNITED SHOE MACHINERY CORPORATION. May 4, 1938, No. 13244. Convention date,. May 5, 1937. [Class 117] [Also in Group VII] A machine for softening a stiffener and assembling it with its upper comprises a movable carrier arranged to take a stiffener from a stack in the magazine, transport it through softening means, and deposit it in position on the upper. A number of stacks of stiffeners of different sizes are supported on plates 51 and guided by rods 53, 55, the magazine being revoluble about a rod 47 to position a chosen stack in the position shown. This stack is supported by a block 63 at the top of a rod 65, being urged upwardly by a cord 67 and weight 73. The rod 65 and block 63 are lowered through a slot, in the bottom plate 39 of the magazine by pulling on a cord 85 when it is required to change the stack in use. A spring plunger 59 positively holds the magazine in adjusted position. The rod 65 passes through a bore in a lever 77 urged upwardly, to bind on the rod, by a spring 81. A treadle 31 urged upwardly by a spring 109 supports a rod 29 carrying at its upper end four arms 15 at rightangles each carrying a pair of suction tubes 263. In turn, each arm descends on the stack, removes a stiffener, carries it through a heated oven 23 where thermo-plastic impregnant is softened, and deposits it on a shoe toe. The shoe support 25 has a toe piece 27, pivoted thereto at 165 and urged clockwise by the toe of the shoe. A link 159 connects the toe piece with a bell-crank lever 155 which actuates a pawl permitting the shaft 29 to rotate oneeighth of a turn each time the lever is rocked, a friction disc 97, constantly driven, rotating the shaft 29 whenever the pawl is rocked. The suction device comprises a motor-driven pump connected by a flexible pipe 221 with an annulus 223 on the rod 29 in communication with a central bore 239 in each arm. A plug 243 is by-passed by ports 253, 255 connected by a slot 251 in a valve member 249 when its leading end is dipped. Rise and fall of the shaft 29 is utilized to open the valve of the arm adjacent the stack and close the valve of the arm adjacent the shoe, to cause these arms to pick up and release, respectively, a stiffener. On the descent of the rod 29 adjacent ends of adjacent valves are tipped by contact with studs 267, 269 on a lever pivoted about the stud 269 and connected to a knob 277 so that the stud 267 may be moved out of operative position when it is desired to close all the valves. In operation, the fore part of a shoe is placed on the support 25 and pushed home. The arms 15 are thus caused to swing one-eighth of a turn, positioning one arm above the stack and one above the shoe, the upper of which has been turned back, the other two being in the oven and the last three all carrying stiffeners. The treadle is then depressed, bringing the arms 263 of the arm 15 above the stack down on to the uppermost stiffener, the stack yielding after contact is made. Simultaneously, the valves of the arms above the stack and shoe are reversed to produce suction in the former and cut it off from the latter. The presser, also, descends and wraps the stiffener round the toe portion of the shoe. The treadle is then released, the carrier arm above the stack rising with a new stiffener and the presser receding from the shoe. The shoe is then removed, allowing the toe piece 27 to return and rotate the arms one-eighth of a turn. The parts have then returned to starting position.