Improvements in Apparatus for Packing Tea, Sugar, or other Pulverulent or Granular Materials, or the like.
Year: 1898

page_text: Improvements in Apparatus for Packing Tea, Sugar, or other
Pulverulent or Granular Materials, or the like.
We, BERNARD HARRY WATSON, of 72, Lincoln Road, E. Peterborough, in the
County of Northampton, Gentleman, and HENRY CLAUDE WALKER, Mechanical
Engineer, now trading under the style and title of "The Grocers' Engineering
Co., Falmouth Road, London, S.E. (successors to Waygood-Tupholme, Ltd.,
of the same address), do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as
follows:-
Our invention relates to improvements in apparatus for packing tea, sugar,
or other pulverulent or granular materials, or the like, and has reference more
especially to apparatus of this class producing folded packets in paper, lead,
tinfoil, or other suitable material, for which Letters Patent were granted to
us and numbered and dated 16299 A.D. 1896.
Instead of producing the compound motion of the sliding doors or plates, as
described in our previous specification, we now prefer to attach the said doors
or plates by a simple hinge to the tops of their respective levers, but being
tilted upwards, by means of a spring so as to strike the paper or other wrapper
at a convenient distance above the level of the mould in moving forward. The
said doors or plates are brought to the horizontal position by reason of their
roots or levers connected therewith, coming in contact with the sides of the
mould, or other convenient stop.
In order to crease the wrapper more sharply and to produce a neater and
better finished packet, we employ a sliding door or plate, so shaped, that when
driven forward over the end of the packet it not only closes down the paper or
other material on the side from which it starts, but also so creases the side most
remote from the side on which it is mounted, or one of the sides at right angles
to its own line of motion according to the fold desired, that the operation of the
succeeding doors or slides, is greatly facilitated and the general appearance and
finish of the packet is much improved.
Instead, however, of the aforesaid sliding door or plate, we may produce the
same effect by the employment of a finger or lever mounted upon or in con-
junction with one of the aforesaid doors or plates, and moved outward by suit-
able mechanism, so as to produce the crease required.
In connection with the funnel lifting fork, we employ hinged doors, flaps or
leaves, which upon passing the lip of the funnel with the downward movement
of the fork, open upward, but then closing again, either by gravity or the action
of a spring, lift and extract the funnel on the upward movement of the said
fork.
In conjunction with the automatic stopping mechanism, as described in our
previous specification, we also employ an automatic starting device consisting
preferably of a weight which is allowed to fall on the removal of the funnal

page_text: from its fork, and striking the tail of a detent lever or catch, allows the clutch
to go into gear under the impulse of a spring or weighted lever.
For the more convenient discharge from the mould of the finished packets,
we mount a spring or false bottom on the face of the thrusting out plunger, in
such a manner that on arriving at the top of the mould, the packet is thrown
on its side and may be thus discharged down a shoot and into a receptacle
suitably placed to receive it.
For the more convenient filling of the packet we employ an intermediate
hopper or shoot between the weighing device and our packing machine, which
hopper or shoot, is automatically tripped on the insertion of the funnel into the
mould, thus discharging its contents into the former. It is again lifted and
placed in the receiving position for a fresh charge by the action of the machine
which almost immediately thereafter makes an electrical or other contact whereby
the said charge is caused to flow from the weighing device to the said inter-
mediate hopper or shoot.
In some forms of our machine by duplicating the system of sliding doors or
plates and by the addition of a pasting device consisting essentially of a system
of plates or blades actuated by suitable mechanism whereby the wrapper is
folded round the stem of the funnel, its edge in the process receiving a charge
of suitable adhesive material, we produce the packet altogether without hand
labour except the feeding of wrappers to the machine, or these can be cut by
the machine itself from a continuous band and mechanically fed into the fold-
ing device immediately herein before described.
Dated this 31st day of August 1898.
BERNARD HARRY WATSON,
HENRY CLAUDE WALKER.
Improvements in Apparatus for Packing Tea, Sugar, or other
Pulverulent or Granular Materials, or the like.
'
We, BERNARD HARRY WATSON, of 72, Lincoln Road, E. Peterborough, in the
County of Northampton, Gentleman, and HENRY CLAUDE WALKER, Mechanical
Engineer, now trading under the style and title of "The Grocers' Engineering
Co., Falmouth Road, London, S.E. (successors to Waygood-Tupholme, Ltd.,
of the same address) do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascer-
tained in and by the following statement:-
Our invention relates to improvements in apparatus for packing tea, sugar,
or other pulverulent or granular materials, or the like, and has reference more
especially to apparatus of this class producing folded packets in paper, lead,
tinfoil, or other suitable material, for which Letters l'atent were granted to
us and numbered and dated 16299 A.D. 1896.
The accompanying drawings show the manner in which we preferably carry
out our invention, the figures showing different views, or parts of views of a
machine specially adapted for making square packets of tea or other like
substance.
Fig. 1 is a side elevation of the machine, showing the different parts of our
invention assembled together.
Fig. 2 is a front elevation of the machine.
Fig. 3 is an enlarged view of the folding mechanism.
Fig. 4 is a side elevation and Fig. 5 a plan of the same.

page_text: Fig. 6 is a more detailed view of the compound cam for operating the folding
mechanism.
Figs. 7 and 8 represent a sectional elevation of the packet ejecting device.
Fig. 9 is a plan. Fig. 10 a side elevation and Fig. 11 an end elevation of
the door M.
In these figs. the same letters of reference indicate the same parts.
In Figs. 1 and 2, A, A, A, represents the cast iron table or framework carried
on the bed plate B. C, is an upright shaft or column upon which slides the
cross head 1 being driven from the crank arm 11 by means of the connecting
rod the said crank receiving its motion from the spur wheel E through the
clutch E. The said spur wheel is driven by a pinion upon the pulley shaft G.
From the cross head D depends the rammer if the upper end of which has a
screw thread chased upon it and is capable of adjustment by means of a hand
wheel Hand lock nut H2. Upon the vertical shaft C there also slides a
hollow sleeve J carrying the funnel lifting fork J¹. The funnel J2 is withdrawn
from the mould or block J by reason of the sleeve J being forced upward by a
second sleeve J which is in turn operated by the cam J through the connecting
rod J. The funnel is lifted from the mould a sufficient height to enable the
folding operation to take place by means of these two sleeves thus operated,
but immediately after the folding operation is completed, the cross head D
continuing its upward motion by means of two side rods J and J8 picks up the
sleeve and carries the extracted funnel J to a sufficient height to allow the
insertion of a second funnel in the mould or block J³. We will now describe
the mechanism by which the machine is automatically set in action and is also
brought to rest upon the completion of each packet. The spur wheel E upon
which is cast half of the clutch E runs loose upon the main shaft K and is
continuously driven from the pinion F upon the pulley shaft G before mentioned.
The second half of the clutch E2 is secured by means of a feather so as to rotate
with the shaft K but is capable of a longitudinal motion by which it is thrown
in or out of gear. It tends normally to engage with the other half of the clutch
by means of a spiral spring E encircling the main shaft; it is drawn out of gear
by means of the inclined cam plate E coming in contact with the bolt or
stop E at any desired point in the revolution.
The machine is started in the following manner:-Resting upon the lip of
the funnel J will be seen a latch or lever E which by means of the pin
retains in position a second latch or trigger Es which in turn supports the
weight E sliding upon the rod E10.
Upon withdrawing the funnel J2 from the fork J¹ the action of these detents
will be such as to allow the weight to fall, striking in its descent upon the
end of the lever E" E. This, by means of a link E3 and lever E causes
the bolt E to be so far withdrawn into its seating as to miss the before mentioned
cam plate E and so allow the clutch to go into gear, thus starting the machine.
The position of the cam plate is so arranged as to draw the clutch out of
gear immediately after the complet.on and ejection of the packet, thus bring-
ing the machine to rest.
The hinged doors, flaps, or leaves, referred to in our specification as forming
part of the funnel extracting device are to be seen at J and J.
We will now more particularly describe the mechanism by which the folding
of the packet is effected. The tea or other substance having been compressed
into the desired bulk and the funnel having been extracted, as described in our
previous specification, the upstanding sides of the wrapper are folded over in
the following manner. This part of the operation will be more easily followed
from Figs. 3, 4, 5, & 6. Surrounding the mould or block J3 are the four doors
or blades L, M, N, O, which are brought into operation either according to the
sequence of the letters or in any other order according to the nature of the fold
desired by means of a compound cam 1', l' operating the four levers shown in
section at L, M, N, O¹, to the upper extremities of which the doors or

page_text: blades L, M, N, O, are respectively attached, their lower ends, being pivotted
to a bracket on the bed plate as shown in Fig. 1. These levers are operated
by means of attached rollers which ride upon the respective. faces of the com-
pound cam P, P.
We will now describe the production of one particular fold and which we
deem best.
The first door to come into operation is the door L whose construction is more
plainly to be seen in Fig. 4. It consists, as will be seen, of a thin metal plate
which, by means of an intervening casting is pivotted upon the end of the
lever L being normally tilted in an upward direction by means of the light
spring L2. When the aforesaid door moves forward carrying with it the first
side of the wrapper it is at the completion of its travel brought to the horizontal
position by means of its root striking against the side of the mould or other
convenient stop. The lever L receives its motion from the spiral spring Q
which also serves to operate the lever 01.
The compound cam P, P is so designed that immediately after the operation
here described the second door or folding blade M is brought into play being
carried forward by the lever M and immediately thereafter released by means
of the bell crank lever m² bolt m³ and catch m the end of bell crank lever m²
striking against the adjustable stop m². The door is brought back to its original
position by means of the spiral spring m. This leaves the top of the packet
in a suitable condition to be operated upon by the door or flap N which 'now
comes into play being immediately followed by the door ( which completes the
fold. The construction of this latter door will be more clearly understood from
Fig. 4.
It will be seen that the door O being pivotted to the lever O by the pin 02
has a depending tail piece 03 which upon the lever moving forward under
the impulse of the spring Q strikes against the fixed stop O so causing a con-
siderable downward pressure to be exerted on the top of the packet at the
completion of the last fold thus greatly improving its appearance and affording
greater security to its contents.
The levers & L are operated by means of the spring Q. The fold
having been thus completed the four levers are simultaneously thrown back
by the further revolution of the cam P P.
We will now more particularly describe the process by which the finished
packet is ejected from the mould and which will be the better understood by
reference to Figs. 1, 2, 7, & S. At the top of the perpendicular shaft C is
attached an arm or bracket S which serves to support the upper end of the
shaft 10 but admits of a vertical movement of the latter. To the lower end of
the shaft is attached an arm S¹. S is a fixed stop or collar also attached to
the same shaft and which causes the latter when the cross head has arrived at
a certain prearranged portion of its travel to be carried upward by means of
a bracket attached to the said cross head. S is a fixed oblique stop with
whose inclined face the arm S¹ comes in contact at or near the completion of
its upward travel so communicating a partial axial revolution to the shaft E
By reference to Fig. 8 it will be seen that the bottom. of the mould is formed
by a false bottom or movable plunger T which by means of the shaft or
spindle T engaging with the arm $1 is carried to the top of the mould upon
the completion of the packet but at the same time the arm S being thrown
aside by the oblique stop S the shaft T is released from the latter and the
plunger again falls to the bottom of the mould. Fig. 7 shows the position of
the several parts at the instant of release.
For the more convenient discharge of the packet we employ the hinged flap
or leaf T and lever T3 and link T with stop T5.
The position of the stop T which contacts in its upward travel the under-
neath side of the bracket T is such that upon the. hollow plunger T arriving
near the end of its travel, the lever T is brought into operation and the door

page_text: or flap T opened as shown in Fig. 7 and the packet thus being thrown on its
side may be received into any suitable receptacle or may preferably be caused
to fall down an inclined shoot or channel and be thereafter collected for succeed-
ing operations. In some forms of our machine by duplicating the system of
sliding doors or plates and by the addition of a pasting device consisting essen-
tially of a system of plates or blades actuated by suitable mechanism whereby
the wrapper is folded round the stem of the funnel its edge in the process
receiving a charge of suitable adhesive material, we produce the packet altogether
without hand labour, except the feeding of the wrappers to the machine, or
these can be cut by the machine itself from a continuous band and mechanically
fed into the folding device immediately before mentioned.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, we declare that
what we claim is;-
1. In machines for packing tea or other like substances, the construction,
arrangement and operation of four folding doors substantially as described.
2. In connection with our improvements in apparatus for packing tea and
other materials the use of a sliding door or plate so shaped as to crease either
the side of the wrapper from which it starts or one of the sides at right angles
thereto, thus facilitating the operation of the succeeding doors or plates. This
is the creasing Blade M shown in Fig. 3, 4, 9, 10 and 11 or one substantially
similar thereto.
3. In machines for packing tea and other materials the construction and com-
bination of parts forming the automatic stopping and starting mechanism, sub-
stantially as described.
4. In machines for packing tea and other materials the construction and com-
bination of parts forming the packet ejecting mechanism substantially as described.
5. In machines for packing tea and other materials the construction and
arrangement of funnel extracting and carrying device, substantially as described.
6. In machines for packing tea and other materials the reduplication of parts
of our machine herein before described whereby both ends of the packet may be
mechanically folded.
7. In machines for packing tea and other materials the combination of parts
described in Claims 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 or any one or more of these together
with any convenient form of ramming or other mechanism, suitable for use
in connection therewith.
Dated this 13th day of May 1899.
BERNARD HARRY WATSON,
HENRY CLAUDE WALKER.