IMPROVED MACHINERY FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF PASTEBOARD MATCH BOXES
Year: 1880

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Alexander Melville Clark at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 19th January 1880. A com-
munication from abroad by John T. Connolly, of Marseilles, France.
ALEXANDER MELVILLE CLARK, of 53, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex,
Patent Agent.
"IMPROVED MACHINERY FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF PASTEBOARD
MATCH BOXES." [A communication from abroad by John T. Connolly, of Marseilles,
France.]
This Invention relates to self acting machinery for the manufacture of pasteboard
match boxes, that is to say, for creasing, folding, glueing, and sanding the boxes.
One great advantage of the machine is that being self acting only one attendant
is required for 5 or 6 such machines, producing on an average 4000 boxes per diem,
the duty of the attendant being simply to supply to each machine a pile of paste-
board blanks previously stamped out of the proper size when the previous lot has
been made up into boxes.
In order that the Invention may be more readily understood, I have illustrated
it in the accompanying Drawings, in which Figures 1, 2, 3, and 5 represent front
and side elevations of the machine, and Figure 4 a plan of same; Figures 6, 7,
and 8 represent sections and plan on a larger scale of the apparatus operating
in conjunction with the mandrel for folding the bodies of the boxes.
Figures 9 to 32 are detail views, and Figures 33, 34, and 35 show also on a
larger scale the mechanism for transmitting the movements to the devices for feeding
and pasting the blanks.
The pasteboard blanks after being punched out or otherwise cut to shape, are
regularly superposed in piles of several hundreds, one of which piles is placed in a
small box 19 at the front of the machine. This box contains a piston or follower 33
which receives a slow regular upward motion proportionate to the thickness of a
cardboard blank by means of a screw 32 attached to the piston or follower 33.
When the screw reaches the end of its course, and the whole of the blanks
contained in the box have been discharged by the follower, the nut 36 (made in
two parts) is opened to allow the screw and follower to fall rapidly to their former
positions in readiness to receive another pile of blanks.
When the pile of blanks is raised by the follower sufficiently to bring the surface
of the uppermost one to the level of the top of the box, it is aspirated by a carrier
tube 18, to which vertical and horizontal movements are successively imparted.
The mouth of the tube first comes down upon the blank, which it removes by
suction produced by a bellows 38 connected with the tube by a flexible pipe 57,
the tube then rises, and by a lateral movement brings the blank over a glue

page_text: trough 24 to be glued at those parts which are to form the sides of the box. Here
the blank is released and is deposited upon a frame 15 hinged at one side just
above the glue trough, and a serrated clamp 23 immediately comes down upon it
to hold it firmly in position. The glue is then applied to the underneath surface
of the blank by a forked or two armed dabber 25 which dips in the glue and then 5
rises in order to apply it upon the proper parts of the blank.
"
"
After applying the glue it again descends, the clamp 23 which holds down the
blank on the frame 15 rises, and the said frame is turned over on a pivot along its
longest side and deposits the blank with the glued side uppermost over the "former
or folding apparatus 39. The details of this folding apparatus or "former are 1
clearly shown in Figures 6, 7, and 8. These several movements are repeated in
continuous succession. Immediately the blank is placed over the "former
vertical plunger or mandrel 40 of rectangular form is brought down, and forces
the blank through the "former" or folding apparatus 39, whereby the blank is
creased, bent, and folded or lapped around the mandrel by means of the parts 1
hereinafter described and shown in detail in Figures 6, 7, and 8.
"
a
The mandrel continuing its descent forces down the body of the box thus formed
into a rectangular chamber or matrix (provided with lateral springs), which forms
the sharp angles of the box, and presses the glued surfaces of the pasteboard
together at the sides. The closing of the bottom is effected on the mandrel
reaching the end of its course, when it meets a fixed stop 42 beneath the open
bottom of the matrix. A series of such rectangular chambers or matrixes are
arranged around a circular table 43 (shown in detail in Figure 32) having a step
by step rotary motion to bring each matrix in succession under the "former" and
mandrel. The table 43 has as many ratchet teeth 44 around its periphery as there
are matrixes to enable it to be rotated the proper distance and direction each time,
and it has a second set of teeth 45 beneath the first with which a spring stop 46
engages to hold the table stationary in position whenever a matrix is brought
under the mandrel. A box after being forced down into the matrix by the mandrel
is retained therein by spring catches 47, and is carried round by the table, the
empty matrix which follows being then presented in turn beneath the mandrel.
The boxes in the matrixes with their bottoms projecting from the lower ends
thereof are then successively brought round by the table to a small roller 48
mounted in a glue trough 49 beneath table 43, by which the bottoms of the boxes
are coated with glue. This glue trough is shown separately in detail in Figures
19, 20, and 21. The roller 48 is mounted on a horizontal axis which is not
quite radial to the axis of the table, but more or less tangential thereto, and which
is therefore at a more or less acute angle with the vertical plane of the box at the
moment the latter passes over it, so that instead of the box presenting the whole
length of its bottom side to the roller at once which would cause all the glue to be
deposited at one edge, the box is presented slightly askew to the roller, whereby
the bottom of the box is uniformly coated. The glue trough 49 is heated by a
small lamp below at 50 or by a steam jacket. The roller 48 is mounted in two
forked levers 51 held up by springs 52. A doctor or scraper 53 is fixed upon the
levers so as to remove any foreign substance or lumps contained in the glue. The
roller 48 projects slightly above the trough and is slightly depressed by the
contact of the box, but is immediately raised again by the spring after the box has
passed.
After the bottoms of the boxes have been thus glued they are presented by the
rotary motion of the table 43 to the sanding apparatus shown in detail in Figures
22, 23, and 24. The sanding apparatus consists of a funnel shaped hopper 54
fitted with wire guage screens 55 for screening the sand, and allowing only the
finest particles to pass to the distributor 56 at the bottom of the hopper. This
distributor consists of a small casing 58, in which is a radially grooved disc 59
receiving alternate rotary motion from a ratchet and pawl 60, 61, mounted beneath
said disc, in such manner that each time a box is brought above the sand box, the
latter is raised by a lever 62 operated by a tappet 63, and caused to apply the

page_text: sanding disc 59 against the bottom of the box which receives a uniform coating of
sand owing to the rotary movement of the disc. On leaving the sanding apparatus
the boxes are complete and are carried by the table and brought under a follower 64
having up and down motion, by which the boxes are ejected in succession and fall
into a suitable receptacle. The following are references to parts of the machine not
previously referred to:-
9, tappet on mandrel 40; 10, right angled extension of tappet 9; 11, lever arm
moved by tappet 9 from position 1 to position 2; 12, lever connected to arm 11
upon which tappet 10 acts to lower it from position 3 to position 4; 13, toothed
segment operated by arm 11 and gearing with pinion 14 on frame 15; 16, elbow
lever shifted from position 3 to 4 by the joint pin of the main connecting rod 17
to move the suction pipe 18, box 19, to frame 15; 20, connecting rod attached to
a bevel toothed segment 21 gearing with a bevel toothed pinion 22 mounted on
the hinge of clamp 23 for turning same down upon the blank which has been
deposited by the suction pipe 18, this movement being effected by shifting con-
necting rod 17 from position 5 to 6. The same movement causes the dabber 25
to apply the glue to the blanks through the spur pinion 26 gearing with spur
wheel 27 on the axis of the dabber; 28, spiral spring for returning the clamp 23
to its original vertical position during the movement from 6 to 7; 29, elbow lever
for returning the suction pipe 18 from the trough 24 to box 19, which is its original
position, this being effected by the movement of connecting rod 17 from position
7 to 8; 30, spiral spring for keeping suction pipe raised; 31, grooved_pulleys and
band for rotating the screw 32 giving motion to the follower 33 (see Figure 34 a);
34, tension pulley mounted on a spring 35; 37, bracket along which the suction
pipe 18 slides; 41, spring pressing plates of the " former;" 65, screw adjustment
for pivot of circular table 43; 67, eccentric keyed on crank shaft for working
bellows 38 through the connecting rod 68; 69, machine frame; 70, guide for
follower 64 for ejecting the finished boxes.