Patent GB-521706-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in or relating to shoe bottom pressing machines
IPC: A43D25/06
Filed: 1938-11-22
Abstract: 521,706. Sole-pressing machines. BRITISH UNITED SHOE MACHINERY CO., Ltd. (United Shoe Machinery Corporation). Nov. 22, 1938, No. 33876. [Class 17 (i)] Relates to multiple sole-laying presses of the type secured to an endless chain, and consists in the provision of a single set of sole and shoe gauges which position the work on each pad in turn prior to its leaving the operator's position. A compressed air nozzle is locked to each press to inflate the same after the work-positioning, the air nozzle and gauge mechanism being mounted on a carriage slidable in the direction of movement of the presses, the nozzle being locked to the press it is inflating while this commences its travel, and automatically unlocked on the working pressure being reached. The gauge mechanism, also, is automatically retracted at the same time, and the carriage is returned to starting position. An endless chain 26 carries a number of sole-laying presses each having a bag 20,provided with an inflating nozzle 70. The presses travel on rails 16. A single inflating nozzle 56 is slidable towards and from the presses in a carriage 58 slidable along a rail 60, antifriction rollers 62, 64, 68 on all sides of the rail being provided. A treadle-operated lever 138 advances the nozzle 56 into contact with the nozzle 70 when work has been positioned. To the carriage 58 is pivoted at 192 the gauging mechanism, this being urged upwardly by a weight 200 connected to an arm 202, and locked in operative position by a spring plunger 254 engaging the end of a flange concentric with the pivot 192. The nozzle 56 is maintained in operative position by a plunger 172 engaging a rack 166. The gauging mechanism comprises sole and shoe engaging members 312, 314 at the tip line, a pair of members at the outside and a single gauge 316 on the inside at the ball line, each pair being carried by a freely pivoted lever. The gauges on each side are carried by a pair of lateral slides 286, 288 each provided with rack teeth gearing with pinions slidably keyed to shafts 262, 264 rotated by pinions actuated by a handle 384 held in adjusted position by a pawl which can be released by a lever 404. In this mechanism is a link 370 which can be locked by a screw 372 or allowed lost motion. If the screw is tightened the slides 286, 288 move equal distances towards or from each other, positioning the sole and shoe at the centre of the pad. If the screw is slack the work is " found " by the first of the gauges to touch it, and the gauges on the other side move up to contact with the work. In a modification, for work with projecting soles, separate sole and shoe gauges are provided, carried by juxtaposed slides 454, 458 normally aligned by blocks 484, 488 separated by a spring and housed in grooves facing each other in the slides. Pins 494, 496 in the slides engage slots in a disc 502 rotatable in a cover plate, so that yielding of one slide causes advance of the other. Rack and pinion mechanism 447, 448 is substituted for the pivoted levers of the first construction. Adjacent to the nozzle 70 each press carries an outlet valve 88 having a pin co-operating with a fixed cam 94, by which the press is deflated as it approaches the loading position. Opposite this valve are a pair of pistons 102, 104 urged inwardly by springs, one of which is stronger than the other. These pistons co-operate with arms on a shaft 420 to first release the gauge members from the shoe, this being done by the piston with the weaker spring, and then withdraw the plunger 254, allowing the gauge members to be raised from the pad, a cable 178 secured to a weight then returning the carriage 58 to starting position. The gauges are lowered on to the pad by a treadle which elevates a slide 222 carrying at its upper end a pin co-operating with a bore in a block 238 held in position at the end of a slot in an arm 242 by a spring plunger 244, which ensures that when the carriage 58 is returned to starting position, the bore shall engage over the pin. In operation, as a press approaches the loading position its bag is deflated by the fixed cam 94. The operator removes the finished shoe and places in approximate position on the pad a prepared sole and shoe. He then depresses the treadle lowering the gauging devices, and swings the handle 384, causing the gauges to advance and position the work. He then depresses the treadle advancing the nozzle 56 which commences to inflate the pad, all these mechanisms being locked in their operative positions. He then engages a clutch arranged to bring the next press to the operator's position. The nozzle 56 and gauges travel with the press just loaded until the pressure in the bag raises the piston 104 with the weaker spring, which releases the pawl locking the handle 384, a spring then retracting the gauges from the shoe. The plunger 254 is then withdrawn, when the gauges are swung upwards by the weight 200. On the working pressure being established in the pad the piston 102 rises, retracting the plunger 172 which allows the nozzle 56 to be returned by springs to rearward position. The carriage 58 is then returned to starting position by the weight on the cable 178 for a repetition of the cycle.