IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF CERTAIN KINDS OF METALLIC BUTTONS
Year: 1880

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Walter John Lloyd at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 9th December 1880.
WALTER JOHN LLOYD, of the Firm of Lloyd Brothers, of Harborne, in the
County of Stafford, Manufacturers. "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR THE
MANUFACTURE OF CERTAIN KINDS OF METALLIC BUTTONS."
My Invention consists of the construction and combination of parts herein after
described of machinery for the manufacture of such metallic buttons as are
composed of a single disc or piece of metal cupped at its middle, the cupped part
being pierced with holes by which the button is sewn to the garment or other
article. These kinds of buttons are commonly called trouser buttons.
Machinery constructed according to my Invention consists essentially of a
reciprocating sliding feeder, by which the long strip of sheet metal from which the
buttons are to be made is fed by an intermittent motion in succession to a pair of
hole piercing tools, to a pair of hole countersinking tools, and to a pair of cutting
out tools for cutting the partly made button from the strip; also of a slide by the
motion of which the pierced and cut out disc is thickened and rounded on its edge
and conveyed to a pair of cupping and impressing dies for cupping and finishing
the button, and the finished button removed from the machine.
The reciprocating feeder consists of a slide working on the bed of the machine
and provided with a gripping lever having an inclined end pressed upon by a
spring. When the feeder makes its advance stroke the gripping lever bears upon
and carries forward the strip of sheet metal; and when the feeder makes its back
stroke the grip of the lever on the strip is relaxed, and the said lever slides over
the said strip. A spring bears upon the strip and holds it firmly in its place, while
the feeder makes its back stroke.
The strip of metal is first fed by the feeder to a pair of piercing tools, by the
descent of the upper tool of which the strip is pierced with a group of holes to
form the holes in the finished button; the pierced part of the strip is next fed to
a pair of countersinking tools, by which the holes pierced in the strip are counter-
sunk so as to thin and round the edges of the said holes. The strip is next fed to
a pair of tools by the operation, of which a disc is cut out of the strip at that part
containing the pierced and countersunk holes, the group of holes being in the

page_text: middle of the disc. The blank or partly made button, as it is cut out of the strip,
is carried down between a reciprocating slide (having motion in a direction at
right angles to that of the strip being fed to the tools described) and a fixed
cheek on the bed of the machine. This slide carries a spring finger which presses
upon the pierced disc. As the slide makes its advance stroke, the edge of the disc
is gripped between grooves in it and the fixed cheek, a rolling motion being
imparted to the disc, and the said disc is carried over the fixed die of a pair of
cupping and impressing dies and pressed by the action of the spring finger on the
slide into the said fixed die. By the lateral pressure which is put upon the pierced
disc as it travels by the rolling motion described from the cutting out tools to the
cupping die, its edge is compressed by the grooves in which it travels, so as to
thicken and round it. The disc thus thickened and rounded at its edge and placed
in the lower cupping and impressing die, is by the descent of the upper cupping
and impressing die cupped at the middle part, containing the group of holes, a rim
formed at its edge and impressed with a name, inscription, or ornament, as may be
required. As the upper cupping or impressing tool rises, the finished button is
stripped from it by a spring arm, and the said button is removed from the machine
by means of a projection on the slide; the advance motion of the slide, which carries
the disc to the cupping die, removing the finished button from the machine.
The upper tools of the hole piercing and countersinking tools, and the upper
tool of the cutting out tools are carried in the same bolt or plunger, so that the
said upper tools simultaneously descend and thereby perform the piercing counter-
sinking and cutting out operations described upon different parts of the strip fed
to them, the upper die of the cupping and finishing pair of dies at the same time
operating upon the cut out disc last cut from the strip, a button being made at
each rotation of the driving shaft of the machine. All the motions of the machine
are taken from the driving shaft. The reciprocating motion of the feeding slide
is effected by a cranked lever worked from the bolt or plunger of the piercing,
countersinking, and cutting out tools acting upon a connecting rod. The said bolt
or plunger, and that carrying the cupping and impressing die, are worked by
eccentrics on the driving shaft operating upon eccentric rods; and the reciprocating
motion of the slide is effected by a grooved cam on the driving shaft acting upon
a lever jointed at its lower end to the said slide.