Improvements in Apparatus for Feeding Wire in Nail Making and other like Machinery.
Year: 1892

page_text: COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Apparatus for Feeding Wire in Nail Making and
other like Machinery.
I, JAMES YATE JOHNSON of 47 Lincoln's Inn Fields in the County of
Middlesex Gentleman do hereby declare the nature of this invention (which has
been communicated to me from abroad by Alphonse Ollivier Guttin of 171 Faubourg
Poissonniere Paris in the Republic of France Engineer) and in what manner the
same is to be performed to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement :-
This invention relates to apparatus or mechanism for feeding or propelling the
wire in nail making and other like machinery and is more especially designed for
use in connection with machinery employed in the manufacture of nails of the class
known as horse-shoe nails.
In forging nails of this description the wire requires to receive two blows with
which two separate feed motions of the wire must correspond but the mechanism
operating to form the nails forms no part of the present invention and may be of
any known or suitable construction.
The invention is altogether independent of this mechanism and relates to an
apparatus which imparts to the wire two feed movements which may be of unequal
length and enables these two unequal feed movements to be repeated as often as
required. The apparatus may be employed in any machinery in which it is
necessary to intermittently propel or feed forward a wire with forward movements
alternately of unequal amplitude means being also provided for regulating the
amplitude of the said movements.
And in order that this invention may be fully understood I shall now proceed
more particularly to describe the same and for that purpose shall refer to the
several figures on the annexed sheets of drawings the same letters of reference
indicating corresponding parts in all the figures.
Figure 1 of the accompanying drawings represents in elevation an example of
an apparatus constructed according to this invention and
Figure 2 represents the apparatus in plan.
Motion is imparted to this apparatus by a driving shaft at A Figure 2 on which
is keyed a cam B baving two offsets or projections and a bevel gear wheel C. A
bell crank lever D constantly acted upon by a spring V tending to press its upper
arm against the cam B is displaced from its normal position of equilibrium by the
passage of the offsets on the cam being moved twice in each complete revolution of
the shaft A.
The lever D transmits motion to a connecting rod E and thereby causes a lever F
to oscillate upon its centre or rock shaft. This movement of the lever F causes the
upper extremity of the said lever to act upon and rock a short arm or lever S
pivotally attached to a carriage G and causes a jaw O on the said lever S to nip
the wire (indicated at N) between it and a corresponding jaw on the carriage G.
The continued movement of the lever F causes the carriage G and wire N to move
forward until the front end H of the carriage comes in contact with the stationary
guide or stop K. The distance between the end H and the stop K regulates the
amplitude of this movement of the wire. The carriage is afterwards moved back
by the action of springs P Q and the stress of the spring V causes the lever F
rod E and lever D to return to their original position after the passage of the
first offset on the cam B, the lever D being maintained in contact with the cylindrical
part of the said cam.
At this period a shaft W rotated by the gearing C. causes a lever M to oscillate
on its centre or fulcrum. This movement is produced by a grooved cam L fixed

page_text: on the shaft W and causes the support of the carriage G to move to the left hand
in the drawing the said support being formed by a horizontal shoe or slide I pro-
vided with two vertical arms or uprights J. The jaw O being open when this
movement takes place the wire is not moved forward but the distance between the
end H of the carriage G and the fixed stop K is diminished by an amount equal
to the forward movement of the support I. J. supporting the carriage G. Conse-
quently when the second offset on the cam comes into action as hereinbefore
explained and feeds forward the wire N the amplitude of this second forward
movement is less than that of the preceding movement. Continuous rotary motion
being imparted to the shaft A the wire is consequently fed forward intermittently
with alternately long and short movements which can be regulated by adjusting
screws provided on the connecting rod E at U and T and by means of a set screw R
regulating the movement of the support I J.
In working this apparatus the wire N being drawn from a reel or bobbin is passed
between the jaws on the lever S and carriage G and rotary motion is imparted to
the shaft A. One of the offsets on the cam B comes in contact with the lever D
and the connecting rod E causes the lever F to oscillate upon its fulcrum thereby
firstly closing the jaw O upon the wire and secondly moving forward the carriage G
and wire N until the carriage comes in contact with the stop K. The offset on the
cam then leaves the lever Ď and the parts are returned to their original position
(indicated in Figure 1) by the action of the springs V. P. and Q. The cam
groove L then acts upon the lever M which vibrates and moves forward the
support I. J. of the carriage G so as to diminish the distance between the latter
and the stop K. The second offset on the cam B then acts upon the lever D in a
similar manner to the first offset and a second forward movement of the wire takes
place. The amplitude of this second movement is less than that of the first owing
to the distance between the carriage G and stop K being reduced. This cam
groove L then returns the lever M to the position indicated in the drawing the
shaft A having described one complete revolution and the same series of movements
is repeated at each revolution of the said shaft.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that I
claim is :-
1. An apparatus for feeding wire in nail-making and other like machinery in
which two unequal forward or feed movements are imparted to the wire at each
revolution of the driving shaft both of the said movements being produced by the
same combination of cams and levers and jaws and the difference in the amplitudes
of the movements being obtained by an initial displacement of the feeding jaws
substantially as hereinbefore described.
2. The combinations and arrangements of parts constituting the improvements
in apparatus for feeding wire in nail making and other like machinery substantially
as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings.
Dated this 9th day of November 1892.
J. H. JOHNSON & Co.,
Agents.