IMPROVEMENTS IN AUTOMATIC SELF- CLAMP GUILLOTINE PAPER-CUTTING MACHINES
Year: 1881

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Henry Pattman Trueman at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 14th July 1881.
HENRY PATTMAN TRUEMAN, Machinist, of the Great Queen Street Works,
Birmingham, in the County of Warwick. "IMPROVEMENTS IN AUTOMATIC SELF-
CLAMP GUILLOTINE PAPER-CUTTING MACHINES."
These improvements consist first of an automatic arrangement by which the
further motion of the knife is stopped when it reaches the end of its return
stroke, and the cutting stroke is not commenced until the attendant again puts the
knife into gear with the driving wheel. This is accomplished by means of a
disc attached to the main-shaft of the machine, which disc has a portion of its
periphery and substance cut away. The automatic clutch-lever is furnished with
a roller which works against the periphery of the aforesaid disc, and by this
means the clutch keeps the knife in gear with the driving wheel. But when the
disc has revolved till that part from which a portion is cut away comes opposite
the end of the automatic clutch-lever, the roller of the said lever falls into the
space made in the disc, and the clutch is no longer in gear.
The second point in these improvements is that there is an ordinary hand
clutch-lever connected with the aforesaid clutch, and it is through this clutch-lever
that the aforesaid automatic clutch-lever works. The two levers are connected*
by a catch which can instantaneously be withdrawn; by these means the machine
can be instantaneously stopped at any portion of its stroke.
"
The third point in these improvements is the adoption of means by which the
fence can be adjusted to work perfectly parallel to the knife. This is done by
means of a shaft under the front table of the machine, on which shaft are fixed
three wheels, one at or near the centre, and the others at or near the ends of the
shaft. To the rim of the centre wheel is fixed one end of a band of steel or other
suitable material; this band passes under the front and back tables, and under the
bed of the machine, round a roller at the back edge of the back table, and its
other end is fixed to the fence. The central wheel, band, and roller are used for
drawing the fence away from the knife. Two similar bands are secured, one to
These bands pass
each of the wheels at the ends of the shafts last mentioned.
in a contrary direction to the central band, and their other ends are secured to
the two ends of the fence, one to each end respectively.

page_text: These three bands are secured to the fence by adjustable screws, by means of
which any slack is taken up, and the fence is kept parallel.
One or all of these bands may be divided as a measure, and the division marks,
passing by a fixed index pointer, will serve to point out the distance of the fence
from the cutting edge of the knife.
The fourth point in these improvements is an automatic clamp, by means of
which when the machine is put into gear with the driving wheel the press-plate
or "platten" is at once forced down on to the paper upon the bed of the machine
before the knife reaches the surface of the pile of paper; this is done in either of
the two ways hereinafter mentioned.
•
(a.) The press-plate or " 'platten" is attached to a counter balanced lever to
which there is jointed an adjustable connecting rod, which has at its end a roller.
This roller works upon the periphery of a disc similar to the one hereinbefore
described, or the said roller may work in a cam groove of suitable form. The
connecting rod is made in two telescopic parts, so that its length can be altered
to suit piles of paper of different thicknesses. Between those portions of the two
parts of the connecting rod which, take the thrust a spring or cushion is placed,
which will take up any excess of pressure should the pile of paper be very inelastic
or noncompressible. The attendant placing the first of the piles of paper to be
cut upon the machine under the press-plate or "platten," adjusts the length of the
connecting rod by means of a sliding screw collar or other suitable means.
When the machine is started the roller on the end of the connecting rod rides
up the inclined surface formed by the space in the disc, and by this means the
press-plate or "platten" is forced down upon the pile of paper, which is thus kept
under pressure until the knife has passed the edge of the paper on its return
stroke. Then the disc or cam having nearly completed a revolution, the space in
it again comes round to the connecting rod roller, which enters the space, and thus
the pressure is taken off the pile of paper.
(b.) In place of a rigid lever and adjustable connecting rod, a connecting rod
which will not require repeated adjustment may be used in conjunction with a
spring lever which will bend when the pressure upon it is greater than desired,
and return to its normal form when the pressure is removed. There will be on the
end of the connecting rod a roller working upon a disc or in a cam groove as
described in section (a).