Patent GB-302711-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in package stamper
IPC: B65C1/04
Filed: 1927-09-19
Abstract: 302,711. Marks, E. C. R., (American Machine &Foundry Co.). Sept. 19, 1927. Labelling and stamp-applying.-In a machine for attaching revenue stamps or labels to packages, a rotating turret successively brings the packages beneath a stamp transfer wheel upon which a stamp is deposited by a suction take-off for every package advanced into stamping position, the package, in advancing, actuating a lever to close a valve of a suction pump to make the stamp take-off operative. The stamp is held by clamps on the transfer wheel while being carried to the package, and is coated with paste by a rotating paste wheel. The stamp is pressed on the package by a cam-actuated arm formed with fingers bearing on the top and one side of the package, one end of the stamp remaining loose. The package is then carried by the turret to a delivery runway where a sealing arm presses down the remaining end of the stamp so that the stamp is attached to three surfaces of the package. Packages, with the unsealed ends pointing forwards, rest on a plunger 11 which is linked to parallel arms fulcrumed on a frame bracket, and actuated by a crank, driven from the main shaft, to reciprocate the plunger 11. When the plunger 11 moves from under the packages, the packages drop to a table 26 over which the lowest package is then pushed by the plunger into an arcuate channel 27. Fingers 51 on turret arms 36 then carry the packages to the top of the channel 27, each package in its passage lifting a lever 70 to actuate a valve lever 77 on the pump housing 74 and close an air vent 79 of a suction pump, thus forcing the pump to take air through a pipe 80 connecting the pump with the stamp take-off. The stamps are stacked in a magazine 84 which is formed with a plate 85 partially closing the bottom. An air port, connected to the pipe 80, is carried by an arm 88 on the magazine 84. A cam 105 oscillates the magazine 84, giving up and down motion to curved suction pipes 94 attached to an air port. the pipes 94 being thus alternately contacted with the bottom stamp in the maga.zine 84 to carry it to the transfer wheel 57 when a package is in the channel 27. The wheel 57 is grooved to fit the ends of the pipes 94, and is formed with diagonally opposed pairs of clamps 108, connecting rods 111, ensuring that when one pair of clamps is open, the other part is closed. A stamp, transferred from the pipes 94, is held by the clamps 108 and travels through half a revolution of the wheel 57 over a paste wheel to a position above the package at the top of the channel 27. A cam-operated finger 122 then depresses a spur on the wheel 57 to open the clamps 108 and release the stamp. A stamp arm 58, driven through linkage from a cam on the main shaft 25, then descends on the stamp and seals the top and forward end to the package, the package passing in the turret to a delivery runway 59 where a pivoted arm 60 seals the remaining end of the stamp. A cam 55 then swings back the fingers 51 of the turret arm to clear the package just delivered. The machine is controlled by a hand lever connected to a clutch shift lever 175. Means are also provided for inspecting the finished package in the runway 59. Spring-controlled latches in the runway 59 close behind the entering' package to prevent it falling back into the turret.