Patent GB-1178728-A (GB)
Title: A Sliding Clasp Fastener Chain Forming Device
IPC: B24B19/00
Filed: 1967-06-09
Abstract: 1,178,728. Making sliding clasp fasteners; rolling. DYNACAST Ltd. 9 June, 1967 [14 June, 1966], No. 26840/67. Headings B3A and B3M. Apparatus for making slides for sliding clasp fasteners comprises a slide making device 3, a chamfering and sizing device 4, a brushing and polishing device 5 and a slide take-up spool 6. The wire and tape are fed intermittently to the device 3 from supply spools and the wire is acted upon by a ram to form the teeth and apply them to the tape The slide making device 3 comprises a body 118 with three parallel shafts 120, 122, 124. The central shaft 124 is driven from an electric motor through a belt and has three eccentrics 130, 132, 136. The eccentric 130 acts upon the ram to reciprocate it in timed relation with the wire and tape feed which are driven by pawl- and-ratchet mechanism from the other eccentrics. The wire feed-shaft 120 has a circumferential slot 212 adjacent the ratchet through which a toothed blade 242 is fed. The teeth on the blade co-incide with the ratchet teeth so that as the pawl 134 reciprocates the wire is fed intermittently. After a predetermined length of wire has been fed to form a 6-, 8-, 10-inch slide on the tape a raised toothed portion 276 on the blade prevents the pawl engaging the ratchet. The tape is fed by ratchet-and-pawl mechanism 138, 224 and the feed is continuous to provide untoothed portions of the tape where the tape can be cut to form separate slides. The tool and die set are mounted on the top of the body 118 and the ram 280 which holds the punching tool is reciprocated by the eccentric 130, Figs. 9 and 10 (not shown). The die is mounted in the fixed die holder 278. The tape is fed into the device via a passage 310 to receive a slide element. Cam surfaces 314, 316, 318 are provided on the ram which abut the outer surfaces of a pair of jaws 321 which move inwards to clamp the element to the tape. The chips formed by the punching are removed by suction. The sizing and chamfering device 4 is disposed between the device 3 and the brushing device 5 and serves to provide uniform size of slide element and to chamfer the edges of the elements. The device comprises a pair of rollers 356, 358 whose circumference has axially extending grooves 388, 390 which co-operate to trap the elements to size and chamfer them. The spacing between the rollers is adjustable by a spacing key (382), Fig. 11 (not shown), which can be changed for a larger or smaller key. The roller 356 is driven from a sprocket 84 and geared to the roller 358. The roller housing (350) has a narrow wall portion (348) in its end cap which allows the separation of the rollers to be altered by flexing the wall portion. An aligner is provided to position the grooves with the element and comprises a pawl 398 spring-biased into one of the grooves on the upper roller and positioned to be caught by the first element of the slide and to pull the wheel 356 around with it. The aligner returns to its initial position under spring bias when a gap occurs in the elements on the tape. The brushing device includes a series of wire brushes arranged at an acute angle relative to the feed path 416 of the slide and geared so that adjacent brushes rotate in opposite directions. The slide is fed through the device by rubber rollers 436, 437, 450, 452. The housing 426 for the brushes is oscillated by a bell-crank (428), Fig. 13 (not shown), to ensure that the slide receives even brushing and the brushes wear evenly. The shaft 486 of each brush is mounted in a housing 488, Fig. 15 (not shown), which is connected to the wall 480 of the housing by a spring blade (490) which is bent to provide brushing pressure on the slide. The shaft 486 is connected to the driven shaft 486 by a rubber coupling 492. Guides are arranged under the brushes along the path 416 to turn the slide so that each side is polished, Figs. 14a, 14b, 14c (not shown). The winding spool 6 is arranged to oscillate axially to evenly wind the slide as it leaves the brushing device. The drive for feeding the slide through the treating and making devices is derived from a single electric motor through gearing, chain, sprockets &c. and guide arms are arranged between each device over which the slide is fed. The arms pivot as the tension in the slide between a pair of devices alters to adjust the feed speed in the other devices to compensate for the tension change. Micro-switches are also provided to be actuated by the arms for large changes in tension. Specifications 1,178,729 and 1,178,730 have identical description but the claims relate to the brushing and chamfering of the elements respectively.