A Mechanical Feeding Device for Printing, Folding, Ironing, and other Machines.
Year: 1892

page_text: Date of Application, 25th Mar., 1892-Accepted, 30th Apr., 1892
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
A Mechanical Feeding Device for Printing, Folding, Ironing, and
other Machines.
I, ALLEN CONKLING, of 395 Fifth Avenue, Chicago, State of Illinois, one of
the United States of America, Gentleman, do hereby declare the nature of this
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly
described and ascertained in and by the following statement :-
This invention has relation to a mechanical feeding device which may be used for
feeding material, usually in sheet form and without regard to lateral or longitudinal
dimensions or the number or plies. In fact the invention may be applied to all of
that character of machinery which operates upon material in sheet form of which
class of machinery may be mentioned printing machines, folding machines, ironing
machines and in fact any machinery which treats or operates upon material that is
preferably or necessarily fed in successive pieces. There may be many instances in
which such material is not, strictly speaking, in sheet form so that the invention or
any use of the same is not limited in this particularly-specified form of material.
The construction, mode of operation, results and advantages of my invention will be
set forth in the following description of the accompanying drawing which illustrates
what appears to me to be a practical application of one of the many forms of
mechanism which may be employed in a practical application of my invention to
The novel features of
the principal elements of the class of machines referred to.
my invention will be particularly pointed out in the claims.
Referring to the drawing
Fig. 1 illustrates, in side elevation, my improved feeding device with a portion of
the framework of a machine to which the device is applied and with the initiatory
rolls of the machine shown diagrammatically and in end elevation.
Fig. 2 is a patial plan of Fig. 1.
Fig. 3 is a section taken on the line 3 3 of Fig. 1.
Fig. 4 is a perspective of a sliding or adjustable bearing.
Fig. 5 is a horizontal, vertical section of a modification.
Like letters refer to like parts in all the figures.
Let A B, Fig. 1, represent the initiatory rolls of a machine, it may be of any
kind in which the material to be operated upon passes between said rolls. In paper-
working machinery these rolls can properly be denominated the primary feed rolls.
In a mangle, the roll A, may be the clothed cylinder and the roll B, the heated roll
co-operating therewith, either singly or in connection with other heated rolls or the
positions of these particular elements might be relatively reversed and again in a
printing press the roll A may be the impression cylinder and the roll B the printing
cylinder or vice versa.
My invention involves the use of the well known feeding apron, band or belt, that
is to say, the apron C may be either a single piece of material, of practically the
entire width of the operative portion of the machine to which it is applied or it may
be of a single piece and of less or greater width than stated or it may be of two or
more pieces of material so long as it is endless or mounted for operation as apron
feeds have heretofore operated. This last construction includes those forms of
apron feeds which employ a tightening roll or rolls which may or may not serve
the purpose of guiding or directing certain portions of the apron into and along
desired paths and such portions may be either the upper and advancing or lower
and retreating portions.
There are many forms of devices which may be employed for properly connecting
and supporting my invention operatively with any machine to which it may be

page_text: applied. I have shown in Fig. 1 one form of such connection. There are attached
to each of the standards A', of the machine, brackets A2, which may be integral
with the frame, as shown, in which a sliding box A3, is adapted to move and to be
adjusted as to its position by a screw or bolt A. The box A³, may be retained in the
bracket by means of a bar or plate A', dotted lines Fig. 1, bolted to the face of
the bracket or the box may be retained in the bracket by means hereinafter described.
D is one form of a framework for my improved feeding device. Between two of
these frames D, there is bolted or otherwise secured, the bed E, a cross-bar E'
against which an operator can conveniently stand and a tie-rod E2, the bed, bar
and tie rod serving to give rigidity to the structure. At the inner end of the bed,
there is an extension F, which, in Fig. 5 is simply a plate of metal preferably
secured to the bed and curved to conform more or less to the upper one of two
any
rollers of a machine to which the invention is applied. In Fig. 1, the extension F
comprises brackets secured in a proper manner to the inner end of the bed, said
brackets being either curved or straight and carrying a roller F, around which the
apron C, passes. Other rollers as F2 may be placed at desired positions to contact
with the apron and guide or reduce the friction of the same against fixed parts of
the attachment.
A belt-driving roller G is arranged across the bed and takes its bearings in an
adjustable or sliding box H, against which a screw or bolt H', bears so that by the
use at each side of the framework D, of such adjustable bearings, the tension of the
apron feed may be maintained so that by communicating a rotary motion to roll G,
which may be either constant or intermittent, the apron will advance towards the
primary rolls A B on one side of the bed and retreat from said rolls
other.
upon
the
Let I represent the real or assumed power shaft of the machine to which the
attachment is applied and I', dotted lines indicates a pulley on said shaft or it may
be a sprocket wheel. A similar pulley or sprocket wheel 12 is fixed upon one end
of the shaft of the roller G, and a band, belt or sprocket chain 13, dotted lines
Fig. 1, will carry motion from the shaft I, to the roller G. Any other convenient
motive connection may be employed. In some class of machines, working upon
certain material it may be advisable to employ a surface roller J, Fig. 5, in order
to maintain the material in a straight, flat, smooth condition upon the apron as it
moves carrying said material to the machine. In such case the roll J, may be
journaled in links J', pivoted to the bed or framework outside of the roll, as at J2,
or any other suitable connection of the roll may be employed so long as such con-
nection keeps the roll J, parallel with the periphery of the roll G, to insure a straight
feeding and permits the roll J, to hear movably upon the apron or the material
thereon. This movability of the roll J, is a motion in addition to its rotary motion
and in a direction to and from the apron. It has been found in the case of mangles,
very advantageous to employ such a roller as it insures straight front edge feeding
of the material and keeps the material flat upon the apron, an attendant can without
danger present the leading edge of material under the roll J when this could not
safely be done if it were positively driven or if it were the preliminary feed roll of
a machine.
I have heretofore mentioned that the extension F when of plate form is slightly
curved, as shown in Fig. 5, but that the brackets shown in Fig. 1, were either
curved or straight. It will be noted that in both cases the upper portion of the
apron is in contact with and conforms to the curvature of the roll B. This will
occur whether the brackets F, be straight or curved because they may be located
beyond the bearing portions of the roll B, and the apron C.
At K, dotted lines Fig. 1, I have illustrated an adjusting screw or bolt of which
there may be one in each side frame D, arranged to bear against the frame A¹
The trunnions D', when employed project from the side frames B, into the blocks A³
so that the framework of the attachment is pivotally supported and by means of the
screw K, the contact of the apron C, with the roll B, may be changed in its exten
and this may be further changed by elevating and depressing the attachment. by

page_text: means of the screws A. It will also be seen that not only can an upward adjust-
ment be accomplished but that an inward movement of the attachment may be
caused by the adjusting devices described, the former by the screws A', and the
latter by the screws K. These last screws may be omitted and the flange D³, of
the side frame on each side of the attachment may run in grooves A', dotted lines
Fig. 1, formed on the inner faces of the brackets A2, the curvature of the frame-
work or its flanges being such that an upward movement of the attachment by the
screws A, will move its inner end inwardly as it rises. This same construction
may serve to connect the frames D and A¹. This curvature of the apron in its
contact with the roller gives several important advantages. It insures absolute,
practically speaking, equality and sameness of surface speed with that of the roller,
smooth disposition of the goods against the roller, square presentation of the goods
to and into the bight of the rollers, assists in driving the apron and produces a
uniform movement throughout its entire upper portion which carries the goods and
it continues the positive control of the material being fed up to the transfer of that
control to the primary rolls of the machine itself. By the means of adjustment
provided the tension of the apron may be controlled independently of the amount
of its surface contact with the roll and so too the said surface contact can be limited
or extended with relation to the periphery of the primary roll independently of the
tension of the apron.
In this manner the mechanical feed may be thoroughly
tempered to any peculiarities existing in the material to be operated upon.
Operators of machinery intended for treating textile fabrics, paper, cloth, leather,
sheet metal or plastics and familiar with the peculiar characteristics of each of these
materials can readily adjust this mechanical feed to the necessities of the case.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what I
claim is :-
1. In a mechanical feeding device, an apron mounted on supports, one of which
is higher than the other whereby when applied to a roll the apron may conform
thereto, substantially as specified.
2. The combination with an endless apron and with a support therefor, of a
pivotally-supported framework, substantially as specified.
3. The combination with an endless apron of means for supporting the apron
with one end higher than the other and means for adjusting the tension of the apron,
substantially as specified.
4. The combination with an apron, a roller arranged thereon and links for main-
taining the parallelism of the roller and permitting movement thereof from and
towards the apron, substantially as specified.
5. The combination with an endless apron, of a bed having apron supporting and
moving devices and of means for changing the vertical and lateral or longitudinal
positions of the bed with relation to the primary rolls of a machine, substantially as
specified.
aule of March 1802
H. B. BARLOW,
17, St. Ann's Square, Manchester, Agent for Applicant.