Patent GB-647404-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in or relating to the manufacture of cloth-covered buttons
IPC: A44B1/12
Filed: 1947-11-25
Abstract: 647,404. Buttons. DEROST, C. F. H. Nov. 25, 1947, No. 31178. Convention date, Oct. 15, 1946, [Class 43] Apparatus for manufacturing buttons of the type wherein a cloth-covered shell is crimped over a base member having means, e.g. projecting fabric, or apertured boss, or a ring, for sewing it to a garment, includes a plurality of dies provided with springs, said dies being intermittently moved simultaneously so that each die is successively aligned with a punch mounted on a sliding head, at a rest period of the dies. The machine includes a circular, intermittently revolving plate R which supports at equal distances apart round its periphery three identical dies M separated by three equally spaced loaders C. A sliding head 1 carries a punch P and a pusher p, each being aligned with either a die or a loader at every rest period of the plate R. The dies M and loaders C each comprise central parts 2, 8, which are fixed to the plate R and which have slidable on them sleeves 5, 12, spring-urged upwards movement of these latter being limited by stops 7, 11 respectively. A piece 10, screwed into the top of the part 8 of each loader C, has its upper end shaped to fit inside a button shell; the upper end of each sleeve 12 of the loaders comprises a plate 14 having a central recess 15. The punch P includes a stem 16 fixed to the sliding head and having its lower face 19 shaped to fit the external face of a button shell, spring-urged downward movement of a sleeve 21 comprises a plate 22 adapted to limited by a stop 20. The lower end of the sleeve 21 comprises apl ate 22 adapted to push on the plate 14 of the loader and also to fit over the upper end of the sleeve 5 of a die M. The pusher p includes a spring- urged plunger 27. In use the bases of the buttons and the cloth-covered shells are positioned either by feeding devices or manually on the dies M and loaders C respectively, a loader C being initially aligned with the punch P and a die M with the pusher p as in Fig. 2. During the first stroke of the sliding head 1 the plate 22 of the punch P pushes down the plate 14 of 'the loader C, depressing the spring 13 of the latter which is weaker than that of the punch, and a button shell is pushed up against the face 19 of the stem 16 of the punch P, at the same time the pusher p presses down the button base into contact with the upper end of the tubular part 2 of the die M. Angular movement to the lefthand, viewing Fig. 2, of the plate R now brings the loaded die and punch into alignment, the next loader C being positioned under the pusher p. During the next stroke of the sliding head 1 the pusher p has no action on its loader C, but the plate 22 of the punch P engages over the upper end of the sleeve 5 of the loaded die M, and is then pushed up against the action of its spring 23, which is weaker than that of the die, until the depending cloth around the button shell lies in the aperture at the top of the sleeve 5 of the die and the shell abuts the bevelled edge of said aperture; at this stage although the spring 23 of the punch is not fully compressed the spring 6 of the die yields and the button base is pushed into, and encloses the edge of the cloth in the shell, as in Fig. 7. As the sliding head continues to move down the spring 23 of the punch yields completely, whereupon the aforesaid bevelled edge of the die bends the edge of the shell round the base of the button. The completed buttons may be ejected automatically, e.g. by a horizontal arm which knocks them into an inclined outlet channel. Several punches and pushers may be carried by the sliding head 1, so that several buttons can be completed simultaneously.