Patent GB-585427-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in or relating to shoe upper conforming machines
IPC: A43D21/12
Filed: 1944-09-19
Abstract: 585,427. Shoe-upper conforming machines. BRITISH UNITED SHOE MACHINERY CO., Ltd. (United Shoe Machinery Corporation). Sept. 19, 1944, No. 17834. [Class 17 (i)] The machine has a plurality of wiping members arranged, when in engagement with the upper to be lasted, in a series side by side lengthwise of the last and relatively movable to one another to upwipe and overwipe the upper to conform it to the contour of the last. The invention is described as applied to a machine for lasting the toe ends of welt shoes constructed and operating generally as described in Specification 520,194 and wherein a last carrying an upper is supported by a member 2, which corresponds to the plate 2 of the earlier machine and which supports the lip of the insole during the lasting operation, and a toe rest 6. A pair of wiper holders 8 are supported under a cover plate 12 on a wiper carrier 10 which is supported on a pair of parallel links 18 and a lever 20 and is retracted and advanced by cam-operated arms 32 and a cam 26. Forward rectilinear movement of a slide 34 in the carrier 10 moves the holders 8 inwards laterally of the last in the yieldable manner described in the earlier Specification for the upwiping and inwiping operations. The holders 8 are each provided with a rectilinearly adjustable slide 58 which carries a group of relatively narrow wiper fingers 56 relatively movable to one another, in such manner that the number of fingers in operation may be selected according to the style or size of shoe being lasted, the idle fingers being confined lengthwise between walls 74, 76. Lugs 80 on the fingers engage recesses formed in the slide 58 to limit their forward movement. Those fingers which are in use are controlled by spring-pressed plungers 82 which are mounted in a block 78 and which engage their outer ends. Movement of plungers toward the last is limited by engagement of enlarged portions thereon with shoulders in the block 78. The fingers extend heightwise of the last far enough to be controlled by one of the plungers which are arranged in staggered formation in three rows in such spacing as not to permit the fingers 56 to enter the spaces between the inwardly projecting end of the plungers 82. A flexible band 88, composed of three superposed strips of spring steel secured together and to a block 90 fixed on the carrier 10 by pins 94, extends along the ends of the groups of fingers 56 and is supported thereby and by the block 90 with its lower edge flush with the lower faces 96 of projecting portions of the fingers and with the lower face of a projecting part of block 90. The ends of the band 88 are anchored by springs 102 to pins 104 on the holders 8. Clips 106 permit the outer portions of the strips of the band 88 to slip relatively to one another. Blocks 108 located in slots 114 in the fingers 56 support' the band 88 in the upwiping operation. A V-shaped member 126 acts yieldingly on clamping levers 118 through springs 124 attached thereto to apply clamping pressure to the groups of fingers 56 by a block 116 and cause the springs 84 to become less responsive to the resistance of the upper in the upwiping operation by reason of the frictional engagement of the fingers with one another and with the clamping means. A retarder, which clamps the upper mainly on the tops of the fingers 56 and block 90 during upwipe and at the beginning of inwipe, is provided in lieu of the grippers of the earlier machine. The toe lasting operation is completed by the application of a binder wire to the margin of the lasted upper.