Patent GB-378631-A (GB)
IPC: C06F1/12
Abstract: 378,631. Feeding box shells in predetermined attitude. DIETMANN, P. W., Villa Annero, J÷nk÷ping, Sweden. July 28, 1931, No. 21583. [Class 117.] Matchbox shells are arranged with their inner laps all directed in the same direction, before insertion of the drawers and subsequent labelling, by passing the shells before a feeler which is introduced into the shells adjacent one of the wide flat sides thereof and which engages or does not engage the lap and accordingly operates or fails to operate a turning device which ensures that the shells are delivered from the device with their laps all directed upwards or all downwards. As shown the shells A, Fig. 3, are carried, on one of their wide flat faces, by a continuously moving conveyer belt 1 between lateral guides 1a, 1b, Fig. 2, and against a stop bar 2 from which they are moved transversely to the belt on to a table 8 by a plate 7 depending from a longitudinally reciprocating bar 9, which is also moved up and down by a roller 18 on a camactuated lever 16<1>. A shell is held on the table 8 by a spring 19 and jaws 20, 20<1>, sliding in guides 21, are actuated by a cam to engage one end of the shell A, Figs. 4 and 5, and, by their convex pressure surfaces a, to bend inwards the sides of the shell and also the lap b. As the lap b is unsymmetrically disposed in relation to the middle plane 4-4 of the shell, its free end, if directed downwards, will be engaged by a feeler plate 30 slidable in slots in the jaws 20, 20<1> and carrying a projection 31 on a rod 32 slidable in the machine frame. The projection 31 is engaged on one side by a cam-actuated lever and on the other by a spring 33 which moves the feeler until stopped by the lap, the shell being then pushed by a plate 42 on the bar 9 into the chamber of a rotatable turning device 43 which carries a toothed wheel 46 engaged by an oscillatable rack 49 and rotated thereby to turn the shell into position with its lap directed upwards, the shell being pushed by the succeeding shell out of the device 43 on to guides 57 which extend below the device to prevent the shell falling therefrom during its rotation ; the feeler is restored to its original position by the cam-actuated lever engaging the projection 31. One end of the rod 32 is adjacent a disc 39 mounted on a shaft 17 driven by a Geneva gear to rotate a quarter of a revolution for each revolution of the cam shaft 13 and the disc carries four slidable pins 40, one of which is always in line with the rod 32. Should the lap of the shell on the table 8 be directed upwards the feeler 30 is moved by the spring 33 into the shell and the rod 32 moves a pin 40 out of the disc 39 into the path of tongue 56 on the rack 46 which is thus prevented from rotating the turning device and the shell passes therethrough without being turned ; the rack 46 is actuated by a spring 52 and an adjustable lever 50 moved by a cam on the shaft 13, and the projected pin 40 is moved back into the disc by a fixed cam 41. The device may be arranged to turn those shells whose laps are directed upwards and a number of feelers &c. may be actuated from the shaft 13 so that several rows of shells may be turned to correct position simultaneously.