Patent GB-153949-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in or relating to apparatus for handling numbers of similar articles such as buttons adapted for use in fastening clothing such as boots or shoes
IPC: A43D100/08
Filed: 1919-08-14
Abstract: 153,949. Wade, H., (Amcrican Button & Fastener Co.). Aug. 14, 1919. Setting buttons, eyelets, lacing-hooks, &c.- Relates to apparatus for handling numbers of similar articles, such as buttons, studs, eyelets, lacing-hooks, &c. adapted for use in fastening clothing, the articles being held on a mount. As shown applied to a machine for threading attaching-staples through the eyes of shoe buttons, the buttons are. successively removed from a mount comprising a long narrow strip of flexible material such as paper, and guided by a raceway, so formed as to minimize friction during their passage, to button-threading mechanism where each button is transferred separately to a position to have a formed staple threaded through its eyes, the combined buttons and staples being then delivered to magazine tubes which may be used for the attachment of buttons directly to shoes or for mounting combined buttons and staples on paper strips. Specification 24173/93 is referred to. Buttons and button-fasteners, feeding. - The buttons 11, Fig. 1, temporarily mounted on a narrow strip of paper 14 are contained in a hopper 4 and the strip is fed forward by having its edges gripped between two short rollers 24 and a roller 18 operated by a crank 20 and provided with a central groove for the eyes of the buttons, Fig. 2. These are stripped from the mount 14 by a thin projecting portion of a raceway 7 extending partly over the roller 18 between the mount and the button-heads. The advancing mount is detached from the buttons by a roller 25 and discarded. The raceway 7, Fig. 22, has a central slot 8 for the eyes and two projecting ribs 10 which make contact with the button heads 11 along substantially single lines to allow the buttons to slide with a minimum of friction. A cover-plate 13 with ribs 13<a> and side plates 13<b> with ribs 13<c> prevent accidental displacement of the buttons. The raceway 7 communicates with a slot 32, Fig. 8, formed as a quadrant of a circle in the front face of a block 6 and merging abruptly into a vertical slot 36, which is continued in a discharge tube 38. The tube 38 carries combined buttons and staples and has ribs 40 on which the button heads ride. The staples 26 contained in a hopper 3 are lifted to and slide down an inclined bar 27, Fig. 8, until stopped by a spring-controlled lever 29 having a narrow bevelled end. The transfer mechanism for feeding one button at a time into position to be threaded with a staple comprises two members 41, 42, Figs. 6, 16 and 20, pivoted to the face of the block 6 by a screwed shoulder stud 61. The members have curved concentric fingers 44, 48 riding directly over the slot 32 and their lower ends together with the end 56 of a spring strip 55 carried by the member 42 form a pocket in which the button head is resiliently gripped the members being forced into gripping position by a spring 51, 52 acting against a stop 54 and a stud 46 on the members 42, 41 respectively. A spring 62, 63 tends to move the members to the bottom of the slot 32 to carry a button under the staple guide 27. The operating- mechanism for the button transfer mechanism and for releasing one staple at a time comprises a reciprocating arm 67 moved downwardly by a foot-treadle or power by a rod 69 against a spring 66. The arm 67 has an extension 71 and an ejecting bar 72 provided with a finger 73 and located in front of the staple guide 27. On its downward movement, the extension 71 engages first with a cam-finger 43 on the member 41 to open and moves the button-carrier into position to receive a button from the raceway 7, and then with the lever 39 to allow the staples to slide against the bar 72. When the arm 67 moves upward a button is carried into threading position and the lever 29 enters between the two end staples allowing the end one to slide into the button eye, a spring-pressed finger 77 opposite the entrance to the slot 32 preventing the staple from tilting. On the next downward movement the finger 73 pushes a combined button and staple into the tube 38. The bar 67 is connected to and operates the lifting-mechanism in the staple hopper. The magazine tube 80 is held in alinement with and as a continuation of the tube 38 by a slotted block 79, Fig. 23, attached to the tube 80 and secured on a support by set screws.