IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF BOXES FROM PAPER, CARDBOARD AND SIMILAR MATERIALS
Year: 1882

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Herbert John Haddan, of Kensington, Middlesex for an
Invention of IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF BOXES FROM PAPER,
CARDBOARD AND SIMILAR MATERIALS A communication to him from
abroad by Edward B. Munson, and Harvey S. Munson, both of New York,
United States of America
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Herbert John Haddan at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 29th August 1882.
HERBERT JOHN HADDAN, of Kensington, Middlesex, "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
MANUFACTURE OF BOXES FROM PAPER, CARDBOARD, AND SIMILAR MATERIALS,"
a communication to me from abroad by Edward B. Munson, and Harvey. S. Munson,
both of New York, United States of America,
This invention relates to the manufacture of boxes from paper, cardboard,
pasteboard, and like materials, and especially to the cutting out of blanks therefor
and defining the lines of their ultimate foldings. It is the object of this invention
to provide for the production of these boxes at such a low cost as will permit their
general use by manufacturers and dealers as a substitute for the cheap wrapping
sheets of paper and similar envelopes for inclosing or packaging goods or
merchandise. The improvements consist first in simultaneously cutting the lines
dividing the material into proper form and embossing their lines of ultimate
folding, by pressing the same between a die composed of sharp cutting and blunt
embossing-rules and a coacting counter-dic. Secondly in a die for forming box-
blanks, constructed of box cutting-rules disposed at various angles conforming to
the direction of cuts required, and of similarly-disposed blunt embossing-rules for
producing the necessary folding-lines, which rules are secured in a chase or frame
by holding-blocks. Thirdly in a counter-die for forming box-blanks, consisting of
a metal or other hard base and creasing or embossing channels the edges of which
are raised above the plane of the hard base. Fourthly in a counter-die adapted to
be removed from and adjusted upon the platen of a press, constructed of a sheet of
metal or similar material affording a suitably-hard cutting-base, to the face of which
is secured a covering or packing of paper or equivalent material to receive the
embossing-rules of the coacting die. Fifthly in the combination, with a die con-
sisting essentially of cutting and creasing rules, of a counter-die having a hard
cutting-base and embossing channels above said base, whereby the material is
simultaneously cut upon some lines and upset or creased upon other lines, which
latter are stretched or conformed so as to readily bend in the folding operation.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent and of
an Order of the Lord Chancellor filed by the said Herbert John Haddan in the
Great Seal Patent Office on the 5th March 1883.
HERBERT JOHN HADDAN, of Kensington, Middlesex,
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
MANUFACTURE OF BOXES FROM PAPER, CARDBOARD, AND SIMILAR MATERIALS,"
a communication to me from abroad by Edward. B. Munson, and Harvey. S. Munson,
both of New York, United States of America,
This invention relates to the manufacture of boxes from paper, card-board,
pasteboard, and like materials, and especially to the cutting out of blanks therefor
and defining the lines of their ultimate foldings.
It is the object of this invention to provide for the production of these boxes at
such a low cost as will permit their general use by manufacturers and dealers as a
substitute for the cheap wrapping sheets of paper and similar envelopes for
inclosing or packaging goods or merchandise. In order to bring these boxes within
a range of price which will permit their use for these purposes, they must be
produced rapidly and with a small outlay of labour, which conditions make it
necessary that most of the operations involved in their manufacture shall be
performed by machinery.
In order to accommodate the great variety of goods which it is desirable that
these boxes shall be used to package, it is necessary that the boxes shall be pro-
duced in a great variety of sizes and shapes, and as only one size or shape of box
can be produced by a single apparatus it becomes necessary, in order to produce
boxes of different sizes and shapes, to have a corresponding number of apparatuses,
and hence that the apparatus employed shall be of an inexpensive nature and
construction.
Having therefore in view the rapid and cheap production of these boxes in an
unlimited number of sizes and shapes, the present invention consists in an improve-
ment in the art of manufacturing box-blanks and in certain devices or structure of
apparatus for carrying out the same, all of which will be fully herein explained and
pointed out.
In the drawings, Figure 1 represents a plan view of the die, of which Figure 2 is
a longitudinal section taken on the line x, and Figure 3 a longitudinal section
taken on the line y. Figure 4 represents a plan view of the counter-die, of which
Figure 5 is a transverse section taken on the line v of Figure 4; and Figure 6 is a
longitudinal section taken on the line of Figure 4.
In producing boxes and like packing devices from paper, card-board, and the
like, the material or stock is required to be severed on some lines to provide the
boundary edges and free lapping parts, and to have other lines, or those upon
which the foldings are ultimately made, to be definitely determined, so that the
parts of a flat blank requisite to form a hollow box may be accurately bent or
folded to produce the same.
The apparatus employed should not only be capable of cheap and speedy con-
struction, but produce the above-named effects by the least number of operations,
and its members which define the folding-lines must so act upon the material or
stock as not to sever, partially divide, or otherwise unduly weaken the same or
break the finished surface of the article.
The improvements effected by this invention, and now to be described in detail,
accomplish the simultaneous performance of the operations of making cuts severing
the material into proper form, and of defining the folding-lines, which lines of
ultimate foldings are made by upsetting or embossing the material in such a manner

page_text: as to avoid weakening the stock, while rendering it capable of bending without
unduly straining or breaking in its body or upon its finished surface either in
defining the lines or in folding the parts, and, further, avoids any disfigurement of
the face surface of the finished article. The apparatus is constructed so as to be
capable of ready and cheap production, and so that it may be speedily adapted by
simple manipulation to the production of various sizes and shapes of the article,
and be quickly introduced and adjusted in a press. The said apparatus consists of
a single die composed of such lengths and shapes of cutting-rule 2 as are necessary
to produce the form and direction of cuts desired, or to make the shape of blank
required, with which are associated such lengths and shapes of embossing or blunt-
edged rules 3 as are required to produce the necessary lines of ultimate foldings.
These cutting-rules 2 may be made of a height slightly in excess of that of the
embossing-rules, and this is preferable. These rules, of various shapes and lengths,
are all set up in a form corresponding to that of the blank to be produced, with
proper separating and supporting blocks 4, and the whole are locked in a frame or
chase, 10, by wedges, as 11, in a manner similar to that in which printers' forms
are made up. Such form or die is then fixed in a suitable press-as a printing-
machine and the platen, co-operating with the bed or die-carrier to make the
impression, is furnished with a counter-die, Figure 4, composed of a packing-
sheet, 12, of paper or similar firm material that is fixed upon the face of the platen
in such relation to the embossing-rules of the die as will provide recesses 5 for the
same to register with. This counter-die may be made up directly upon the platen,
but is preferably constructed upon a metal plate or sheet 13, that is capable of
introduction and removal from the platen, while only such narrow pieces of the
packing-sheet 12 as are necessary to form the sides or borders of the recesses 5 need
be provided, in which case the cutting-rules will cut directly upon the platen or
plate 13. It is preferable that the whole surface of the platen shall be covered by
the packing-sheet 12, in which the recesses 5 are formed, either by cutting out a
suitable channel or indenting it by repeated contact with the die, so that while said
recesses perform their functions the cutting-rules will also pass through the
packing 12 and have direct contact with the platen or plate 13 in accomplishing
the cutting operation.
By means of a die and counter-die thus constructed a sheet of heavy paper, card-
board, or like material may be fed into a printing-machine or similar press
containing these dies or apparatus, and be simultaneously cut into the proper form
and embossed or upset from its rear face upon the desired lines, so that it may be
folded up and secured in box forin. In this manipulation the stock along the lines
of folding will be upset or embossed by being stretched and forced into the recesses
by the pressure of the embossing-rules, thus defining lines upon which the blank
may be readily bent to form a box without rupturing or disfiguring the outer or
face surface of the material, which embossed lines are stretched and upset in the
direction which the paper necessarily takes in being folded, and to exactly the
extent required to fold the same at an angle, by reason of the fact that the body of
the blank bears upon the face of the packing 12, which supports the material along
the border edges of the recesses, while the portions of the blank or material that
are embossed are forcibly stretched or pressed into the recesses 5 by the embossing-
rules 3, while the cutting-rules cut the lines of severance by passing through the
body of the blank.
The packing 12 may be readily made of the requisite thickness to suit the extent
of embossing required by using any appropriate thickness of paper or board of
which these box-blanks are usually made.
This construction of apparatus enables the operation of cutting the lines of
severance and defining the lines of foldings to be performed at a single operation,
their structure permits the cheap and ready make-up of dies suited to produce any
length or shape of cut or fold-that is, make any form of box-blank-and the
sharp and blunt rules of the die are capable of repeated use in making up new
forms, to which counter dies may be inexpensively suited by applying a new

page_text: tcking or packing-sheet, and the removable character of the dies from the press
ds the economic preparation of the press or its change from work upon one size
product to that of another of different size, shape, or form.
What is claimed is :-
The improvement in the art of manufacturing box-blanks, the same consisting
in simultaneously cutting the lines dividing the material into proper form and
embossing their lines of ultimate folding, by pressing the same between a die
composed of sharp cutting and blunt embossing-rules and a co-acting counter-die,
all substantially as described.
A die for forming box-blanks, constructed of cutting-rules disposed at various
angles conforming to the direction of cuts required, and of similarly-disposed blunt
embossing-rules for producing the necessary folding-lines, which rules are secured
in a chase or frame by holding-blocks, all substantially as described.
A counter-die for forming box-blanks, consisting of a metal or other hard
base and creasing or embossing channels the edges of which are raised above the
plane of the hard base, substantially as described.
In the manufacture of paper-box blanks, a counter-die adapted to be removed
from and adjusted upon the platen of a press, constructed of a sheet of metal or
similar material affording a suitably-hard cutting-base, to the face of which is
secured a covering or packing of paper or equivalent material to receive the
embossing-rules of the coacting die, substantially as described.
In the manufacture of box-blanks, the combination, with a die consisting
essentially of cutting and creasing rules, of a counter-die having a hard cutting-
base and embossing channels above said base, whereby the material is simul-
taneously cut upon some lines and upset or creased upon other lines, which latter
are stretched or conformed so as to readily bend in the folding operation, all
substantially as described.
In witness whereof I the said Herbert John Haddan have hereunto set my
hand and seal this 1st day of March A.D. 1883.