Patent GB-167010-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in wire tying machines
IPC: B65B13/28
Filed: 1920-05-04
Abstract: 167,010. Gerrard, A. J., and Wright, P. May 4, 1920. Twisting wires together; shearing; shearblades.-In a machine for tying wire round bales, boxes, or packages, both ends of the wire are secured by grippers which are moved apart to tension the wire previous to the ends being twisted together. The grippers, which are mounted on slides 10, 21 traversed on guide-rods 12, 30 by the right and left-handed screwed portions 6, 7 of a shaft 5 rotated either by a double pawl lever 33 and wheel 31, Fig. 4, or by a handwheel 8, consist of levers 17, 26 provided with serrated edges 19, 28 engaging the anvil portions 80, 83 and opened and closed by cam-levers 13, 22. After the machine is placed on the box, one end of the wire is clamped in the gripper 17 and the wire then passed through inclined slots 46 formed by members 42, 43 projecting from a split framing 3, 4, slots 47 in strips 44, 45 secured thereto, and also through a slot 41 in the twisting pinion 40, and thence under the anvil 83, round the box &c. and through a slot 57 in a member 56, Fig. 8, secured to the slide 10, then again through the slots 47, 46, 41 and the other end is secured in the gripper 26. The slots 47, 41 are of such width as to prevent rotation of the wires therein, whereas the slots 46 are wide enough to permit such a rotation. The end of the slot 57 is closed by a hooked lever 50 engaged by a pin 54 on the jaw 17. The wires are then tensioned by traverse of the slides 10, 21 by operation of the lever 33 and the wires twisted by rotation of the pinion 40. This is effected by a ratchet lever 39 in engagement with a ratchetwheel 37 on a shaft 36 which carries a pinion 35 in mesh with a wheel 34 on the shaft 5, which is geared to the twisting pinion. In order that a definite angular movement may be given to the wheel 34, which may be varied according to the number of twists desired, the wheel has a hole 90 into which a spring plunger 91, Fig. 6, snaps when the desired number of twists have been effected. The plunger is mounted in a barrel 93 connected to a barrel 94 rigid with a sleeve 95 on the screw 6, the barrel being normally pressed against the top of a curved slot 102, Figs. 3 and 6, in the casing 3 by a spring-mounted shock-absorbing plunger 104. The lever 39 in operation is moved round with the shaft, and after the plunger 91 has snapped into the hole 90, these parts move together until the plunger barrel reaches the bottom of the slot 102 or until stopped by compression of the shock-absorber spring. Pressure on the lever 39 is then released, and the spring plunger 104 presses the plunger-barrel 93 to the top of the slot 102 again and so turns back the wheel 34 into position so that the slots 47, 46, 41 are in alignment so as to enable the machine to be removed from the wire. The upper limit of the barrel 93 may be varied by a pivoted cam 106. Prior to removal, the projecting ends of the wire are cut off by separate pivoted cutters 65, 70 slotted at 66, 71, Figs. 3 and 4, to engage pins 62, 63 on the end of a shaft 60 operated by a hand-lever 61. The edge 72 of the cutter 65 terminates with a shoulder 73 so that it only severs the inner wire as shown at 74, Fig. 13, whereas a recess 78 is arranged adjacent to the edge 76 of the cutter 70 so that only the outer wire 75 is severed. The plunger 91 is removed from the hole 90 prior to re-setting, either by pulling it back or by turning it, a screw 99 being provided engaging a cam edge on the barrel 94. The edge portions 111 of the slot in twisting pinion, Fig. 9, are of a size corresponding to the slots 46, whereas the centre portion 41 is outwardly tapered and is of a size to prevent rotation of the wires therein, this portion being formed in the part 112 either integral with or inserted into the slot in the pinion.