Year: 1886

page_text: I LUDWIG GLASER, Engineer, Linden Strasse, Berlin, Germany, do hereby
declare the nature of this invention and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement:
The difficulty hitherto experienced in the manufacture of cut nails of a length
from 2 to 16 millimeters, is occasioned solely by the fact that no suitable means
or device is available for carrying the blanks cut by means of two knives from a
strip of sheet metal, into the matrices required for pressing or forming the heads,
and it is the object of the present invention to produce a machine in which this
disadvantage will be overcome.
In the accompanying drawings; Fig. 1 represents the machine in side elevation
partly in section, and Fig. 2 is a partial front view of the same.
A. A represents the bed plate and one of a pair of standards, and in the standards
the shaft B carrying the excentrics C and D is journalled. The shaft B is provided
with a small fly wheel and a fast and loose pulley; and in this way it can be driven
by belting direct from the main driving shaft of the establishment; this last
mentioned arrangement is not represented in the Drawing.-By means of the two
excentrics C and D, the two rocking levers C¹ and D¹ receive an up and down
motion, which is so regulated that the cutting edges of two steel knives G and H
which are carried by the two rocking levers, will be on a level in the position
shown. By the further movement, however, of the shaft carrying the excentrics,
the lever D¹ with the knife H fixed therein will be carried down as far as the nail
matrices J and J¹, and below the cutting edge of the lower knife K. The knife H
cuts only that portion of the blank which is to form the head, and it then acts in
connection with a spring, to be hereafter referred to, as a gripper, to hold the blank
until it is gripped by the matrices J J.-The knife G cuts the rest of the blank,
but takes no part in the heading operation.
Imagine, now, a narrow strip of sheet metal placed between the two guides L
and M in a position not quite at right angles to the front side of the knife, but
inclined a little to the right, and between the two upper knives G and H and the
under knife K, and a piece thereof cut off; a small wedge-shaped piece of metal
will be thus obtained.

page_text: This wedge-shaped piece of metal will now be gripped between the knife H and
an underlying steel spring N, and by the continued downward motion of the knife,
will be pushed down into the matrix J, and will be held therein, but only at that
part which serves for the formation of the head.-The steel spring is secured at the
point O in any convenient manner to a bracket piece.
When this wedge shaped piece of metal has thus been brought down, the
movable matrix J1, which works in a slot, will have in the meantime advanced so
far towards the former, that the metal blank, which is still held fast by the knife H
and the spring N, will be jammed fast in the semicircular notches formed in the
front of the matrices J J¹.
The spring N will then be drawn backwards by means of the lever P, which is
rocked by a tappet or projection R upon the shaft B; and the knife H will have
already commenced its upward movement.
So soon as the metal blank is gripped tightly by the two matrices, a stamp, or
plunger, comes forward from Z (in the direction of the arrow), and presses or
strikes up the head from the piece of metal projecting in front of the matrices.-
The stamp or plunger is not shown in the drawing, as any suitable form of
plunger may be used. The means for driving forward the plunger and the matrix J1
may be of any suitable description.
The head-former or stamper Z, and the matrix J¹, now retire again, and the
finished nail is ejected from the matrices by means of a suitable ejector not shewn
in the Drawing, and falls into a box placed below the machine.-In the mean-
while the two knives will have resumed their original position. After each blank
is cut, the strip of metal is, by means of any suitable mechanical arrangement,
turned over, so as to present the bar in the proper position that the knives may
cut a fresh blank, and thus the swinging of the knives is rendered unnecessary.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my Inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what
I claim is:-
1. In a machine for producing cut nails, the two rocking levers C¹ and D¹
carrying the two knifes G and H, and so arranged that the knife H only severs so
much from the strip of metal as is necessary for the stamping or forming of the
head, and then acts as a gripper, whilst the broad knife G severs the portion
necessary for the stem and point of the nail, substantially as described.
2. The steel spring N, which, in combination with the knife H, grips the metal
blank at the end where the head is to be formed, and carries it downwards into
the nail matrix, said spring being, during the heading operation, drawn aside by
means of the lever P and projection R into a position in which it does not interfere
with the heading die or plunger, substantially as described.