Patent GB-417803-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in or relating to wire tying machines
IPC: B65B13/02
Filed: 1933-05-06
Abstract: 417,803. Wiring bales &c. GERRARD CO., Inc., 2915, West 47th Street, Chicago, U.S.A. May 6, 1933, No. 13261. Convention date, June 2, 1932. [Class 45.] A bale-wiring machine is carried beneath a horizontal support 11, Fig. 1, secured along one edge of a packing table and flush with the table top and is provided with means which, at the conclusion of the making of the tie, automatically reload the machine with a wire in readiness for the formation of the next tie. The twisting pinion is immediately beneath a forwardly projecting lip 14 over which the bale &c. is drawn for wiring. The gripper 12 at the left-hand end into which the wire is automatically loaded comprises a rotatable head 52, Fig. 13, having an opening 53. The head is spring- biassed to a position, at right-angles to that shown, wherein the opening extends in the direction of the wire so that the latter may be threaded into the opening. The head is held in the operative position shown against its spring by means of a rotating cam which, towards the end of the cycle of operations and when the surplus wire has been cut, permits the return of the head into the loading position, a portion of the cam being designed to oscillate the head rapidly during such return to cause the surplus wire to be discharged therefrom. After the wire has been automatically threaded, the cam returns the head to the position shown so that a rightangled bend is formed in the wire to retain the latter in position during the next cycle of operations and the machine stops. The operator passes the wire round the bale and into the other gripper 15, Fig. 1, which comprises a wedge 70, Fig. 5, and flange 69 ; insertion of the wire between the wedge and flange automatically releases a catch 76 from engagement with the wedge permitting a spring 73 to move the wedge forwardly into camming engagement with the wire. This gripper is carried by a cross-head 74 slidably mounted on bars 37, 371 and provided with a cranked strap 79 through which a rod 80 loosely passes. A spring 81 is confined between the strap and a shoulder on the rod. The rod is pivoted to a lever 84 which carries a roller engaged by a cam 87, Fig. 3, on a shaft 43. When the operator depresses a control-bar 16, Fig. 1, a clutch 27, Fig. 3, is automatically thrown in to transmit the drive from a shaft 18 to the cam-shaft 43 through worm gearing 41, 42 thereby moving the gripper 15 to the right to tension the wire. Continued rotation of the cam shaft 43 withdraws a locking bolt 128 from one of the gearwheels 65 driving the slotted twisting pinion 61, by the engagement of a pin 125 on a cam 120 on the shaft 43 with a lever 126 having an upstanding portion 127, and also, by the engagement of the cam 120 with a lever 121, throws in another clutch 68 to transmit the drive from the shaft 26 to the train driving the slotted twisting pinion, the cam 120 also declutching the train when the tie has been effected, and the pin automatically relocking the twisting mechanism. A slight overtwist is put upon the wires. The shaft 43 also drives another cam shaft 46, Fig. 5, which carries a series of cams for actuating, or permitting springs to actuate, (i) fingers for pressing the wires well back into the slots in the side guide plates 59, Fig. 3, and in the twisting pinion 61 at the start of the cycle of operations ; (ii) a plate 93, Fig. 13, having a longitudinal groove 13 in which the wire between the twisting pinion and the gripper 15 rests, so that the plate passes under another plate 94 to smooth out any bends or irregularities in the wire and is subsequently moved forwardly again; (iii) the cutters ; (iv) fingers to eject the completed tie from the slots in the twisting mechanism ; and (v) the head 52. After the tie has been completed the gripper 15, still gripping the wire leading to the supply reel, is returned by a spring 88, Fig. 1, to the left and the wire enters the opening 53 in the head 52 which is then turned to operative position by one of the cams on the shaft 46. As the gripper 15 reaches its extreme left hand position a stationary lug 78, Fig. 13, engages the wedge 70 to force it back against its spring to release the wire, the catch 76 automatically locking the wedge against return movement. Continued rotation of the cam-shaft 43, Fig. 1, permits a rod 49, the upper end of which engages the periphery of the head 47 of the cam-shaft, to drop into a recess 48 in the head. The rod is carried in a block 34 in which another rod 32 is slidably mounted, the lower end of the rod 32 engaging a notch 33 in the head 30 of the shaft 29 operating the clutch 27. When the handle 16 is depressed to start the machine, one end 40 of a lever 38 pivoted at 39 engages the head of the rod 32 to raise the latter from the notch 33 and permit the spring 31, Fig. 3, to throw the clutch 27 in. Rotation of the cam-shaft 43 counterclockwise forces the rod 49 and the block 34 forward against a spring 35 to maintain the clutch in until the upper end of rod 49 is able to enter the notch 48 whereupon the spring 35 rotates the block 34 and shaft 29 counterclockwise to throw out the clutch 27 and leave the machine loaded in readiness for the next tie. Adjustment of the tension to be applied to the wire may be effected by moving the rod 49 backwards or forwards in the block 34 by means of a head 51 so that the gripper 15, when the wire has been released therefrom, may be moved some distance towards the right before the machine stops-this being determined by the relative positions of the upper end of the rod 49 and recess 48-and so vary the effective stroke of the gripper when the new wire is secured therein and the machine restarted.