AN IMPROVED MACHINE FOR CUTTING OR DIVIDING PAPER OR SIMILAR MATERIALS
Year: 1883

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Robert Lake at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 13th March 1883. Communicated to
him from abroad by Otto Lelm of Paris France Manufacturer
WILLIAM ROBERT LAKE, of the firm of Haseltine, Lake, & C° Patent Agents,
Southampton Buildings, London "AN IMPROVED MACHINE FOR CUTTING OR
DIVIDING PAPER OR SIMILAR MATERIALS [A communication to him from abroad
by Otto Lelm of Paris France Manufacturer]
وو
It is of the greatest importance for many purposes to have a machine capable of
dividing into smaller widths or strips, paper or other material which has been
produced or made in large widths and such a machine is especially desirable for
paper manufacturers. I am not aware that a machine has yet been made which
will fulfil all the requirements demanded in this class of machinery, the most
important of which are accuracy and sharpness of the cut
Experiments have demonstrated that in order to obtain a clean cut, paper in
rolls must be subjected to the action of a rotating cutter, and both the paper and
the cutter should move parallel and in the same direction-Moreover in order to
obtain a sharp and accurate cut, the edge of the cutter must not, as has hitherto
been the general practice, exert pressure against the plate or other support for the
paper. On the contrary I provide the surface on which the paper is tightly stretched,
with grooves into which the edges of the cutter blades penetrate and in which they
freely move.
According to my invention I construct a machine embodying these principles of
operation capable of making a perfectly clean cut, the details of which machine
may be varied or modified
In one form or modification the said machine has a frame which, on one side,
supports a cylinder on which the paper is rolled for cutting. This paper unrolls
and passes over fixed and movable cylinders or rolls, then on to a drum with which
it moves onward in a state of tension, to be cut by the cutters or blades hereinafter
described. The strips when cut wind alternately round an upper roll and a
lower roll.
Above the aforesaid drum there is a shaft which carries the circular cutters at
suitable intervals; these cutters can be adjusted at will according to the required

page_text: width of the strips to be cut and the cutter shaft can be raised and lowered as
desired.
The aforesaid drum has round its circumference circular narrow, grooves into
which the circular cutter blades penetrate, for the purpose above specified.
As the paper is tightly stretched on the said drum it is divided with very sharply
and evenly cut edges by the said cutters. The cutter blades and the paper move
in the same direction.
These machines are equally adapted for being driven by hand or by steam
power, according to the work they have to perform but in any case it is advisable
to let the cutter-blades run at a greater speed than the paper.
My invention is designed not only as the subject of a special machine but may
be adapted to a paper making or paper preparing machine, for cutting the paper to
the required widths before it has been wound into rolls.