Patent GB-190822815-A (GB)
Title: Improved Process and Machine for the Manufacture of Thread Buttons.
Inventor: FISCHER HERMANN CHRISTIAN
Filed: 1908-10-27
Granted: 1909-04-22
Abstract: 22,815. Fischer, H. C. Oct. 27. Buttons.-A thread button is formed by covering, overcasting, and, if desired, embroidering a metal ring in one sequence of operations, an ordinary sewing-mechanism with top and underthread feeds being employed to do the stitching. The ring, during the operation, is rotated continuously to distribute the threads over its entire circumference and is also shifted to-and-fro relatively to the needle. In the operation of covering, the threads c, Fig. 20, are led inside the ring and the stitch d is formed. The ring is then shifted a little to the right and another stitch is made ; this stitch owing to the rotation of the ring is not in the radial continuation of stitch d. By further shifting the ring, stitches g, h, i, k, m, h are formed, the stitches h being at the centre of the ring. When the entire circumference is covered with thread, the ring is overcast. The overcasting- thread is led alternately inside and outside the ring, Fig. 23, and enters the interstices between the covering-threads In the diagrammatic view, Fig. 24, of a finished button, the dotted line represents the embroidery, which is effected in a known way without severing the thread. In a machine for carrying out the above process, the ring is held in a slide where it is rotated, to-and-fro motion determined by cams being imparted to the slide. The thread-feeding device 2 is driven through a coupling from a main shaft 1, Fig. 1, an arm 3, Fig. 3, on which drives a ratchet-wheel 4. This wheel 4 imparts motion to a device for setting the cams, to mechanisms for driving ring-feeding and ring-rotating devices and to a device for removing and ejecting the finished button. On a vertical rotating shaft 5 are mounted the cams 6, 7, 8 which actuate the button-holding slide 17 during the operations of covering, overcasting, and embroidering respectively. The cams are connected by a bell-crank lever 10 to a guide 11, Fig. 3, which sets them, the slide 17 being provided with a roller 12 to bear against the operating-cam. Shoulders 13 on the wheel 4 actuate a rod 14 to shift the roller 12 out of contact with the cams while they are being set. The rings to be covered are fed from a receptacle 27, Fig. 2, to a circular feeding-plate 28 rotated by a worm gearing 33 on a shaft 32. The movement of the plate 28 which removes a finished button and places a fresh ring between rollers 15, 16, takes place during the stoppage of the thread feed. This is effected through a toothed segment 29 on the wheel 4 driving the shaft 32 through wheels 30, 31. The two pairs of rollers 15, 16 hold the ring while it is being covered &c., the pair of rollers 16 being mounted on a slide 18 movable on the slide 17 and rotated continuously, to rotate the ring, from a shaft 24 through wheels 23, 22, 21, and a worm gearing 19. When, by the rotation of the plate 28, the finished button is moved out from between the rollers, it may be removed from the plate by band or by a stud 35, Fig. 10, engaging behind the button and ejecting it from its recess in the plate. The stud 35 is moved through the medium of a rod 36 which carries a vertical stud 37. The stud 37 engages behind an inclined surface 38 on the wheel 4 and thereby moves the rod 36. A device for severing the thread may be combined with this ejecting-mechanism. The speed of rotation of the ring between the rollers may be varied, as for the purposes of embroidery, by a spur-wheel connected to the wheel 22 and engaging with a spur-wheel 26 on the shaft 24. If the embroidery is to consist of a single row of stitches only, rotary motion is given to the ring ; if of several concentric rings, the cam 8, Fig. 6, is made conical at its outer circumference. For spiral embroidery the cam 8 is made of spiral shape.