Patent GB-191182-A (GB)
Abstract: 191,182. Fairweather, W., (Singer Manufacturing Co.). Oct. 12, 1921. Threading short lengths of tape into buttons. - A machine for inserting short lengths of tape into buttons &c. to facilitate the subsequent attachment thereof comprises (1) a hopper having a rotarv shoot to deliver the articles in a position in which their perforations are engaged. by pins, (2) threading hooks which, after movement of the article into threading position, enter the perforations displacing the pins and subsequently draw tape through the perforations, (3) a tape feeding device inoperative when no article is in position or if its apertures are not correctly aligned, (4), a knife for severing lengths of tape, and (5) ejecting means for discharging the threaded articles. Threading hooks 16 are mounted on a bar 12 telescopically mounted under the control of a spring 21 in a reciprocated tubular bar 10 so that on meeting an obstruction the threading implement is not broken. A hopper 31 having an article sleve 33 and stirrer 35 is rotatably mounted together with a. lower shoot-section in a bracket 22 which is readily removable from the machine frame. A fixed section 24 of the shoot is provided with an inspection slot 25. A spring 49 at the lower end of the shoot has sufficient frictional engagement with the descending buttons to rotate them until their perforations are aligned with pins 75 on a slide 73. The hopper and shoot are rotated by a belt 44 and gearing 40, 41, 38, 30. A button is delivered by the shoot upon a fixed slotted plate 65 through the slot in which the pins 75 project to engage the perforations. A slotted feed-plate 64 shaped to the contour of the buttons over-lies the plate 65 and is secured to a slide 50 actuated by a link 52, rock-arm 53, roller 59 and cam 60 from a shaft 61 driven from the main shaft. The slide 73 is pressed upwards against the plate 65 and to the rear by a spring 79. On actuation of the slide 50 the button is pressed forward by the slide 64 to threading position, carrying with it the slide 73. The threading hocks then descend and push back the pins 75 from the apertures until they are clear of the button, when the slide 73 is immediately withdrawn by the spring 79. The tape T is led past a tension 87 on a pivoted plate 83 into a pivoted guide 88 movable in a vertical plane and engaged by the inclined jaws of a fork 93 formed on a bar 92 which is controlled by a spring 95 tending to retract it and depress the guide into feeding position. The bar 92 is engaged by a lever bearing against the slide 73 which under the restraint of its spring keeps the, bar 92 in a forward position and the guide 88 raised unless the slide 73 is moved forward owing to the presence of an article on its pins If no article is present the guide therefore remains elevated out of range of the feed device. The feed device comprises a two-armed lever 101, 112, Fig. 2, mounted on a slide 99 and connected by an adjustable link 102 with a slide block 104 adjustably secured in a radial slot in a crank-disc 103 driven from the shaft 61. The free end of the lever 112 co-operates with a lug 113 on the slide 99 to form a pair of tape-gripping jaws. When the plate 99 is in its retracted position the link 102 first operates the lever 112 to open the jaws, and then on the contact of the lever with a pin 117 the slide 99 is moved forward to tape-engaging position. In the return movement the jaws are first closed on the tape. To prevent feed of the tape if the apertures of the button a.re incorrectly aligned there is provided a spring-controlled lever 118, Fig. 6, an upper arm 121 of which is engaged by a projection 15 on the needle-bar,a lower arm 122 lying in the path of the jaw 112 of the feed device. If the needle-bar does not descend, so that the lever 118 remains elevated the presence of the part 122 in the path of the jaw causes the latter to be opened to release the tape. Fingers 128 on an arm 127 controlled by a spring 131 are arranged so as to press the tape against the shanks of the threading implements when the slide 99 is actuated to a sufficient extent to allow a cam 130 thereon to ride past a cam 129 on the arm 127. The sections of tape are severed by a knife 138 mounted on an arm 133 actuated by a cam 135. The tape is held against a button to prevent displacement during threading by a finger 140 mounted on an arm 141 actuated through a lever 144 by a cam 146. Threaded buttons are ejected into a shoot 151 by a spring controlled lever 149 pivoted on the slide 99 and engaging the button to eject it on the advance of the slide after a threading operation has been completed.