IMPROVEMENTS IN PRESSING AND IRONING MACHINES
Year: 1881

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Julius Frederick Moore Pollock at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 3rd March 1881.
JULIUS FREDERICK MOORE POLLOCK, of Longclose Works, Newtown, Leeds, in
the County of York. "IMPROVEMENTS IN PRESSING AND IRONING MACHINES."
My Invention has for object improvements in pressing and ironing machines.
In such machines, according to my Invention, when the iron is carried at the end
of an overhanging radial arm power is applied to replace the ordinary treadle
motion. The radial arm is carried by a vertical shaft, which is continually pressed
downward by a spring. The lower end of this shaft passes through a vertical slide,
the raising of which raises the shaft and holds the spring in compression, but does
not interfere with the rotation of the shaft. This vertical slide is provided with a
projecting piece, by which it is raised when the machine is in gear, and when
raised the said projecting piece is caught by a pawl, which retains the vertical
slide (and also the vertical shaft) in the upward position. When the pawl is
released it will fall with its own weight and the pressure of the spring on to the
articles to be pressed. Power is applied to the machine by a horizontal shaft
driven by a belt or otherwise, and placed near the lower end of the vertical slide;
the end nearest to the vertical slide is provided with a crank and crank pin, which
crank can be made to slide on the shaft by a forked lever actuated by a treadle; a
spring causes the treadle to rise when the foot is taken off it. Supposing the foot
to be off and the treadle up, the crank will then be projected close to the vertical
slide, and being so placed as to come in contact with the under side of the projecting
piece on the same it causes the said slide to rise till the crank pin can pass, at
which height the pawl comes into operation, and prevents the slide from falling so
long as the treadle is kept down. As soon as the treadle is released the crank
retires from its proximity to the vertical slide, and comes in contact with a stud on
the pawl, thus throwing the pawl out of gear, and allowing the vertical slide with
the shaft and iron to descend. A handle may be used instead of a treadle. By
means of a hand wheel and screw the spring can be more or less compressed, and
the pressure increased or diminished. In presses in which the iron or heated part
is a roller, and the work is on a table, I apply power by two pulleys direct on the
rack-pinion shaft, one driven by a crossed and the other by an open belt, and
Price 201

page_text: consequently running in opposite directions. These pulleys run loose on the shaft,
and are placed far enough apart to admit a clutch between them, which is keyed
to the shaft but can slide upon it; this clutch takes into teeth on the faces of the
bosses of the two pulleys, so that when it is approached to one the shaft will run
one way round, and when approached to the other the reverse way round. This
clutch is actuated by a handle conveniently placed, and when left in a central
position is in gear with neither pulley, so that the machine can be at once run
either way or stopped. Instead of effecting the adjustment of pressure by raising
and lowering the roller (thus not only interfering with the gearing of the wheels
but running a risk of uneven pressure) I provide a vertical screw near each end of
the table, and make these to rise and fall simultaneously by hand wheels, worms,
and worm wheels. From screw to screw I stretch a beam of hard wood or other
suitable material; this ensures a uniform rising of the part of the table on which
the pressure comes, and does not interfere with the gearing that drives the heated
roller.
To make the machine stop or reverse itself I arrange a V groove from end to end
of one side of the table, carrying adjustable stops, which come against tumblers by
which the clutch lever is actuated, in a manner somewhat similar to that employed
on a planing machine.
In another arrangement of machine I use a travelling belt or band made of steel
or other suitable pliable material, which passes over two rollers, and under one
placed centrally above the other two. All these rollers may be heated, but it will
suffice in ordinary practice to heat the upper one. The rollers are all geared
together so as to run at a uniform circumferential speed, and are actuated by
pulleys and clutches, as described with reference to the preceding arrangement.
A selfacting motion may be applied to obtain a reciprocating action when required,
as, for instance, when the article to be pressed is so shaped that it will not pass
straight through. There is a vertical adjustinent given to the upper or to the two
lower rollers, acting through an elastic medium, so that the material passing
between can force them apart.