Patent GB-190823488-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in Machine for Sewing Buttons to the Upper of a Boot or Shoe.
Inventor: MATHISON JOSEPH
Filed: 1908-11-03
Granted: 1909-02-25
Abstract: 23,488. Mathison, J. Nov. 3. Button - attaching machines.-In machine for attaching shank-eyed buttons to boots, the needle passes a loop through the button eye, then feeds the button and upper forwards the full distance between two buttons, and subsequently descends and reascends at the side of the eye to form a secondary loop, through which the head of the button is pushed. Improved means are described for guiding the button from the raceway to the button-holder and also means for adjusting the position of needle and raceway both for buttons of different sizes and for different lengths of feed. The buttons 41, Figs. 1 and 31, are fed from a hopper 42 down a raceway 43 mounted on a support 52 through the outlet 179. The hopper has a base opening 180 covered by a plate 181 attached to the brush agitator 182 on the hub 183 mounted on the shaft 187. A rocking motion is imparted to this shaft, through an arm 189, from a cam on the main shaft. The guard 192 prevents buttons from being ejected from the opening 178. This hopper is thus removable from its support 52, and when desired may be taken off and emptied through the opening 181 and refilled with buttons of different size. The lowermost button in the raceway is stopped by a spring-pressed detent mounted on the support 52, which is fastened to a rock-shaft 53 actuated from the main shaft to give a rocking motion to the raceway and hopper. Formed integral with or attached to a presser-foot 89, Figs. 1, 2, and 19, is a guide-way 107 having a groove 108 extending from the bottom of the race-way 43, and the button rests in this groove as it is fed away by the needle. A vertical flange 109 supports the eye from the raceway to the buttonholder 110. The button-holder consists of two arms 111 pivoted to the presser-foot and connected by a cross-bar, which is extended to form a tongue 114 ; beneath this tongue the head of the button pushes to a slot 115, which opens out of one side of a flange 116 upon the holder, which is pressed down by a spring 117. A button-ejector mounted upon the shaft 135 of the secondary looper is actuated from a cam on the main shaft and works in a slot 143. A depending arm 147 thereof has a projection bevelled at its forward end and slides upon the presser-foot 89 between the arms 111 of the holder. The ejector is pressed forward at the required time to eject the button from the slot 115 through the secondary loop, at the same time tipping the button to the vertical position, Two loopers are employed in the manipulation of the thread, the primary looper 119 being adjustably fastened to a rock-shaft 122, which is rocked by a pin-and-slot connexion to a camslide which straddles the main shaft and carries a cam-roll engaging a cam - blank on the main shaft. A further endwise motion is given to the shaft from an edge-cam against which an arm on the shaft is held by a spring. The secondary looper 120 is similarly mounted on a rock-shaft 135, similarly rocked from a cam on the main shaft but having no endlong movement. In operation, the needle passes up through the work and through the eye of the lowest button, the work being at this time clamped between the presser-foot and work-rest. The needle-bar is then rocked to remove the button from the raceway and to feed the button the full distance along the grooved guide-way, the work-support releasing the work to allow the feed to take place. At the end of the movement, the button rests in the groove in the button-holder with its eye horizontal. The upper is next clamped. and the needle descends, throwing out a loop which is entered by the primary looper, which then moves forward and to the left of the line of feed. On the succeeding ascent of the needle, it passes through the primary loop held by its looper which, as the needle rests half-way up, moves further to the left of the line of feed and away from the operator, releasing the loop and leaving the thread around the needle, which completes its ascent and draws the primary loop tight. The needle then descends and throws out a secondary loop, which is entered by the secondary looper and spread to allow the button to be pushed through the loop by the button pusher, which simultaneously tips the button into a vertical position. The needle then descends, and the thread is clamped, the looper remaining in its position while the take-up acts. The looper then casts the loop, and the take-up acts a second time to draw the knot tight. The movement of the primary looper is a five-motion rotary movement. Needle - holders; needle - driving; needle-bars, vibrating in line of feed.-The eye-pointed needle 56 is mounted on a needle-bar 57, sliding in bearings on a rocker-arm 59 and: connected by a link 60 to an arm 61 fast to a shaft 62, which is rocked by a cam on the main shaft. The needle vibration is imparted by the arm 59 rocked through a shaft 68 and arm 69, Fig. 8, which is rocked by a sliding connexion to the lever 70, a roll on which enters the cam-slot 73. The arm 69 is normally held against an adjusting-screw 80 on a lever 81, by a spring 78. The lever 81 is fast on the racewayrocking shaft 53, and has an arm 82 provided with a slot 83 in which the screw 84 works, the screw being also connected to an arm 85 loosely mounted on shaft 53, and actuated by a cam-groove 87. The screw 80 adjusts the needle into alinement with the button eye and the screw 84 adjusts the feed, the cam-slot 73 being wide enough at one point to allow of such adjustment. Work-supports.-The work is pressed against the presser-foot by a work-support 90 consisting of a hollow rectangular portion 91 fastened to a slide 92, the lower end of which is cylindrical and passes through a collar on the end of an arm 94 fastened to a rock-shaft 95, which is rocked from a cam slide straddling the main shaft. A spring 96 provided between the collar and a shoulder on the slide 92 presses the work-support upwards against the work when the cam raises the slide 92. The face of the work-support has two ribs 104 to allow room for the button-fly. Governing needle thread.-A take-up lever 150, Fig. 13, is operated from a cam groove 156 in a cam blank 103 on the main shaft, through a roll 155, a straddling slide 153 and a rock-shaft 151. The thread-clamp consists of a slide 158 having a jaw 159 extending adjacent to the frame 35 and the bracket 160. The thread passes through an eye 162, between the jaw and the frame and bracket, through eyes 163, 164, and a slot 165 in the take-up lever, and thence through an eye 166 in a spring 167 fast to the lever 150. The slide 158 is moved to clamp and unclamp the thread by a lever 168, connected thereto by a spring 170 and given a rocking motion from a cam on the main shaft.