Patent GB-231590-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in apparatus for applying hinges of flexible material to boxes and the like
IPC: B31B17/00
Filed: 1924-01-04
Abstract: 231,590. British-American Tobacco Co., Ltd., (Stokes, E. M.). Jan. 4, 1924. Affixing by adhesives.-In a machine for applying flexible hinge strips to boxes and their lids, the boxes with separate lids fitted thereon are delivered from a magazine one at a time and converted to positions where the strips, drawn one at a time from a magazine and coated with adhesive, are applied to the boxes and lids; the strips are applied externally or internally or both externally and internally, means being provided in the, two latter cases to open and support the lids as the boxes arrive at the internal-hinge applying position. As shown, the boxes and lids are contained in an inclined magazine 14 from which they are removed and conveyed to the various operating stations by lugs 33 on an intermittently-driven conveyer chain 32. The lowermost box and lid in the magazine is retained therein by a spring-controlled pivoted gate 23 which is pushed aside by the box as it is engaged and removed by a lug of the conveyer chain, spring-controlled pivoted fingers 25 normally engaging between the lowermost box and the superincumbent pile to support the latter as the former is removed; the fingers are turned aside after the box has been removed by a following lug 33 engaging and passing between rollers 28 on the fingers, the pile then descending in the magazine and the fingers being returned to their normal position as the lug passes out of contact with the rollers 28. The conveyer chain is driven by a four-point Geneva gear comprising a sprocket wheel 49 driven through a slip-clutch gear and secured to a lever 46 carrying rollers 45 at its opposite ends alternately engaging the slots of a stop plate 44 fixed to a gear wheel 41 meshing with a pinion 40 on the sprocket 38 carrying and driving the conveyer chain. The lever 46 also carries an adjustable cam constantly engaging a roller on one end of a lever 53 fulcrumed on the axle 42 of the wheel 41, the opposite end of the lever being formed as a locking- paw for engagement with one of a pair of notches 56 in the periphery of an adjustable plate 55 fixed to the pinion 40; as, soon as the movement of the gear ceases, the locking-pawl is drawn by a spring into engagement with the plate 55 and locks the chain against displacement while the boxes are being operated upon at the various stations. The box and lid taken from the magazine are conveyed by the chain between upper and lower sets of rollers 34, 35 and come to rest at the first station beneath a magazine 69 containing a pile of hinge-strips which rest on the inclined side of the magazine under spring fingers 72, and upon knife-edged detents 74 from which they are successively removed by a rectangular suction head 87 carried by a tube 88 slidably mounted in a bracket 91 carried by a shaft 92 journaled on the machine frame 19 and rocked by connections from a cam on the main driving-shaft; a roller 101 at the end of the tube 88 engages a groove in a pivoted cam arm 104 which is also rocked by connections, including a yield able connecting-rod from the same cam. The suction head, which is normally held in front of the magazine is first moved slightly towards the pile of hinge-strips and then, with a vacuum established in the head, is moved slightly away from the pile to separate the lowermost strip therefrom: the head is then swung downwards past a roller 77 by which adhesive is applied to the strip and at the end of its swing the suction head comes opposite the box and lid and is moved outwards to press the coated strip against the box and lid, the vacuum being then cut off and the head being moved away from the box before being swung back to its initial position. The suction head is connected to a vacuum pump by a hose 125 through the tube 88 and a valve casing 113 carried thereby, the stem of the valve carrying a pinion 118 engaging a toothed sector 119 journaled on the casing: as the suction head approaches the ends of its movements, the sector comes into contact with one or other of two adjustable stops carried by the frame 19 and is moved to open or close the valve and establish or cut off the vacuum in the suction head. A trip lever 132 which is drawn down by a spring 133 is connected through a rock-shaft 130 with a flexible diaphragm 128 forming one side of a vacuum chamber 127 connected to the valve casing 113 so that if the suction head fails to take a strip from the magazine 69 a vacuum will not be established in the chamber 127 and a spring 133 draws the trip lever into the path of the cam arm 104 and lessens its swinging movement, thus preventing the head from coming into contact with the roller 77; when a strip is taken up by the head, the vacuum in the chamber 127 causes the diaphragm 128 to become depressed and draw the trip lever out of the path of the cam arm 104. The box is then conveyed to the next station and during its movement the hinge is acted upon by rotating brushes 135, 136, 137 which smooth and press it into place; the brushes are geared together and the leading brush 135 is carried in a frame 145 fulcrumed on the axis of the next brush 136 and connected to a rod 146 actuated from a cam so that as the box reaches the brush 135 the latter is swung away until the leading edge of the hinge has arrived between the brushes 135, 136 when the brush 135 swings back and engages the hinge which is then smoothed into place. The box then stops opposite an electric heating device 152, the operating surface of which comes into contact with the hinge and dries the adhesive. If an exterior hinge-strip is to be applied, the box is conveyed to the next station where the lid is lifted and' thrown open by a latch 153 pivotally carried in a U-shaped arm 157 fulcrumed on a shaft 158 and oscillated from a cam 166 through levers 161, 162, the box being held during this operation against a bar 167 by a clamp 168 on a shaft 169 journaled in the frame 19 and actuated by a spring when a cam arm 171 mounted on the shaft 169 is allowed to move inwards by a roller 172 on the arm 157. The internal hinge-strip is applied at the next station by mechanism similar to that used in applying the external strip, and at the following station the internal' hinge is pressed into place by a plate 174 carried by a, shaft which is rocked by connections from a shaft 180 geared to the shaft 158 of the lidopening mechanism. The box then moves to the lid-closing station, the lid lying on and passing along inclined tracks 184, 185 until opposite a T-head 188 carried by an arm 187, which is actuated to move over and close the lid, the boxes being subsequently ejected from the machine. The portions of the machine for applying the external and internal hinge-strips may be used independently.