Patent GB-637725-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in or relating to tag forming and printing mechanism
IPC: B41K3/68
Filed: 1946-11-19
Abstract: 637,725. Typewriters &c. ; number-printing; inking-apparatus. NATIONAL MARKING MACHINE CO. Nov. 19, 1946, No. 34308. Convention date, Nov. 28, 1945. [Classes 100 (ii) and 100 (iv)] A machine for forming printed tabs from a length of tape fed over a platen 24, Fig. 3, comprises a printing-head having type-wheels 39 ... 39c, Fig. 6, for printing a consecutive number assigned to a parcel of articles to be tabbed, and a type-wheel 40 for printing a number denoting the number of articles in the parcel, the printing-head being moved to and from printing position. The consecutive-number wheels are changed by hand after a set of tabs has been printed, and the parcel-number wheel is automatically adjusted to a no-print position at the same time ; the tape is fed forward intermittently and a tab cut off at each operation of the machine. A further type-wheel 38 may be provided to print a number or character indicating a receiving branch. In the machine shown, the printing- head is carried by arms 35, Fig. 3, rocked about a shaft 36 by turning a handle fixed to a shaft 33 carrying arms 46 pivoted to rods 49 slotted at 50 to receive pins 45 connecting toggle levers 42, 44, the former being pivoted to stationary brackets 30 at 41 and the latter to the arms 35 at 43. The consecutive number wheels are advanced by a key lever 69 fixed to a bracket 57 adapted to rock about a shaft 37 on which the wheels are mounted, a staggered pawl on the bracket engaging toothed wheels 56a ... 56c, Fig. 6, fixed to the wheels and a deep notch being provided in each toothed wheel to effect transfer from the units to tens &c. The parcel-number wheel 40 is fixed to a sleeve 75 turned by means of a knob 78, a tooth on the sleeve being held in engagement with teeth on the end of the shaft 37 by a spring 71 to hold the wheel 40 in adjusted position, the knob being pulled out, if required, to release the tooth. On operation of the key-lever 69 to change the consecutive number, a cam 86 on the bracket 57 pushes a pin 87 radially so as to disengage the teeth, whereupon a coil spring 88 swings the wheel 40 round to a no-print position. Inking the type-wheels. An ink-pad 97, Fig. 13, wick 98 and reservoir 96 are all mounted in brackets 94 pivotal about the shaft 37, the reservoir being slidably mounted in the brackets by a pin-and-slot arrangement and movable into inking contact with the types during the initial movement of the operating lever when the last-motion device 45, 50 is effective, by cams 48, Fig. 3, on the arms 46 engaging slidable rods 108 adapted to engage slidable bars 104 connected to bell-cranks 101 connected to the reservoir. The cams 48 subsequently release the rods 108, and on downward movement of the arms 35, links 115 pivoted to the brackets 94 cause the latter to swing clockwise to move the inking-pad &c. out of the path of the types. Feeding and cutting the tape. Tape from a roll T, Fig. 3, passes between corrugated feed rollers 117, 118, Fig. 13, the latter being rotated intermittently by a pawl 126 carried by an arm 121 connected by a link 123 to one of the arms 35. The tape passes under a guide 132 an edge 134 of which co-operates with a guillotine blade 140 rocked downwardly to a position below the platen 24 during the downward movement of the printing-head, locked in this position by a hook 149 which is released when a pin 160 on the pawl-arm 121 rocks a lever 156 engaging the hook, whereupon a spring jerks the blade 140 upwardly to cut a tab off the end of the tape.