Patent GB-191211801-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in or relating to Machines for and Methods of Preparing Boot and Shoe Uppers or Vamps for Pulling-over, Lasting or like Operations.
Inventor: BOULT ALFRED JULIUS
IPC: A43D8/04
Filed: 1912-05-17
Granted: 1913-05-19
Abstract: 11,801. Boult, A. J., [United Shoe Machinery Co.]. May 17. Uppers, machines for.-The toe part of a boot or shoe upper is stretched in a single plane and, while held under tension, is locally stretched and shaped. The upper-holding device comprises a toe clamp and pairs of grippers to engage the vamp at each side. The toe clamp consists of a fixed curved jaw 25, Fig. 3, resting on the frame, and a jaw 26, which is yieldingly carried in a rising and falling head 30, Fig. 2, operated by a cam 10 on a cam shaft 8, which is stopped at each half revolution. Each side gripper comprises a lower jaw 40 extending upwards from a slide bar 42, the position of which is adjustable in the frame by a stop-screw 43, and an upper jaw 45 pivoted in upstanding ears on the bar 42, and provided with a tail extending between the arms of a fork in the end of an operating-bar 46. A pin carrying a roller to engage the tail of the jaw spans the fork. The two operating-bars 46 of each pair of side grippers are connected together and to a slide-block 48, Fig. 1, by an equalizing-lever 50. Each block 48 is adapted to be moved by a lever 52 pivoted on a shaft 80 and carrying at its upper end a roll engaging a wedge-shaped cam 55 carried by the reciprocating head 30. The angle of the wedge is adjustable by a right and left handed screw. The depression of the head first causes the upper to be seized by the toe-clamp and the sidegrippers, and then forces the side grippers outwards to stretch the upper in a single plane. The cam 10 preferably operates the head 30 through a yielding connexion, and the blocks 48 may also be yieldingly operated. A tank 65 of leather tempering-liquid, which may be heated, is supported in the frame, and is provided with a pair of cam-racks 70, along which pinions 72 on an axle carrying a rotary brush 68, may be reciprocated, thus moistening the stretched upper and its lining. The ends of the axle are engaged by hooks 75 on extensible arms 76 mounted on a rock shaft 80. A second arm 82 extends from the shaft 80 and is adapted to be engaged so as to rock the arms 76, by a projection on a spring-pressed bar 84 extending upwards from a stud mounted on an extension of the head 30. The arm 82 is freed from the projection before the end of the downward movement of the head, and the arms 76 are moved back to their original position by a spring 92, Figs. 1 and 2, acting upon a third arm extending from the rock-shaft. The speed of the return movement is controlled by a dashpot. During this return movement, the upper is held stretched over a form 96 shaped like the forepart of a last. This form is carried by the head 30 and is so positioned that, after the upper has been seized and stretched, the form is depressed upon the vamp to stretch locally and to shape the vamp at the high toe and at the base of the instep. The form is adjustably mounted in the head 30, and may be heated by an electric or other device. The cam shaft 8 is driven through a two-to-one gearing from a power shaft with a clutch which is disconnected by a wedge-shaped controller 12 engaging a pin on the clutch. The controller is pivoted at 14 and is provided with a shoulder 17 to engage a shoulder 18 on a treadle rod 16. Depression of this rod lifts the controller against a spring 15 and starts the machine. The controller is immediately freed and returned to operative position by a projection 20 engaging the treadle rod and pushing it off the shoulder 17.