Patent GB-275738-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in hide feeding machines
IPC: C14B17/06
Filed: 1926-05-17
Abstract: 275,738. Rayner, G. F., (Wright, W. C., and Harding, D. E.). May 17, 1926. Dropping-roller feeds; sheet-forwarders. - Apparatus for feeding hides to a leather-making machine comprises a table 10, for supporting the pile of hides 11 and the feeding-mechanism, a pair of continuously-rotating spring-pressed rollers 37, 40 for feeding the hides to the machines, and a continuously-rotating roller 48 which engages the pile 11 so as to direct each hide to the rollers 37, 40, the roller 48 being lifted from the pile during the period that the hide is gripped by the rollers 37, 40. A frame 13 attached to the table 10 supports a motordriven shaft 14 carrying the rollers 40, and the rollers 37 are carried by pivoted levers 34 pressed upwardly by springs 35 so as to project through openings 39 in the. table and engage the rollers 40. Members 44 freely mounted on the shaft 14 carry the roller 48, and have an upwardly-extending arm 141 which passes through eyes 140 in an extension 139 of the main frame 13, the members 44 being connected to the frame 13 by a spring 96 which supports the weight of the pivoted parts, nuts 42 on the arm 141 preventing the roller 48 dropping too far. A lever 92 pivoted to the frame-extension 139 has at one end a roller 93 in contact with a cam 56 on the shaft 14 and at the other has a pivoted eye 94 sliding on the arm 141 with a compression spring 95 extending between it and the upper one of the eyes 140. As the eye 94 is lifted through the action of the cam 56 it binds on the arm 141 due to the pressure of the spring 95 and so lifts the roller 48 off the pile 11. Means are provided for declutching the cam 56 from the shaft 14 at the point where the roller 48 is lifted, if the hide has already reached the rollers 87, 40, and for preventing re-engagement until the hide has passed beyond the rollers 37, 40. A roller 72 carried by a pivoted arm 68 rests normally in a recess 61 in the table under the action of a spring 73, and, through a link 79, keeps the upper end of a lever 76 away from the frame 13 against the action of a spring 77. A pivoted trip-lever 80, provided with a wedge finger 83, is lowered once, in each revolution of the shaft 14 and against the action of a spring 84 by the engagement of the cam 56 with a bell-crank lever 86. In its lowered position the finger 83 is in position to engage during its rotation a wedge 59, Fig. 7, slidably mounted on a sleeve 55 carrying the cam 56 and having attached thereto a pin 58 engaging holes in a disc 53 fixed to the shaft, so as to retract the pin 58 and thus stop the rotation of the cam. Normally, however, before the engagement of the wedges 59, 83 the lever 80 is again raised and the rotation of the cam continues. When a hide reaches the rollers 37, 40, it tilts the arm 68, and allows the upper end of the lever 76 to be pulled by the spring 77 against a stop 85, so that a stop 81 on the lever 76 can engage with the end of the lowered trip lever 80 and prevents it rising, the wedge 83 then engaging the wedge 59 on the further rotation of the shaft 14 so as to disconnect the cam 56 as the position where the roller 48 is raised. When the hide has passed completely through the rollers 37, 40, the spring 73 acts to restore the various parts to their normal position. The roller 48 is rotated from the shaft 14 by belts passing over pulleys. Sheet-smothers. - The hides are stretched laterally while passing from the roller 48 to the rollers 37, 40 by two brushes 32 mounted on a shaft 27 below the table and shaped as right and left-handed spirals.